ANMELDENMEGAN'S POVMaverick and Makayla are standing there, and the second they see me, their faces light up, and they walk in without waiting for an invitation."Mommy!" Makayla announces, already climbing onto the couch. "How are you feeling?""We wanted to check on you," Maverick adds, settling beside his sister, his eyes scanning my face with that unsettling attentiveness he always has.Guilt tightens in my chest. They're four years old and they're checking in on me like seasoned caretakers."I'm feeling well, sweethearts," I reply, walking over and sitting on the corner of the coffee table across from them. "Thank you for asking."But Maverick's frown deepens, and he leans forward slightly. "Are you sure?""You look like something happened," Makayla adds, cocking her head, studying me the way she studies everything, like a tiny, suspicious detective."I'm okay," I insist, keeping my voice light. "Maybe it's just the healing. My body's still putting itself back together. That can make a
MEGAN'S POVI close my hotel room door behind me and lean back against it, closing my eyes.For a second I just stand there, letting the silence of the room settle over me, and I feel everything I just did outside the hotel entrance crash into me all at once, delayed, like the aftershock of something that already happened too fast to process the first time.I genuinely wasn't expecting to see Xarion today. Not there. Not with flowers, of all things, standing outside like he'd rehearsed how he'd hand them to me and still couldn't quite land it.Turning them down nearly broke something in me right there on the pavement. I had to dig my nails into my own palm just to keep my voice even, just to keep my face arranged into an expression that looked like resolve instead of the mess I actually was underneath it.That was hard.That was, without question, one of the hardest things I've had to do, harder than I expected it to be even though I knew it was coming.A tear breaks free before I can
XARION'S POVMegan's expression becomes noticeably colder the moment she hears the question. "That's none of your concern, Xarion."Fair enough.Brutally fair, actually, and I don't push it, mostly because I already know I won't like whatever answer she'd give me.I clear my throat and steer the conversation somewhere safer instead."Your driver," I say. "John. He's been caught."Megan's posture changes slightly, her attention locking in."He admitted his family was threatened," I continue. "That's why he assisted in your kidnapping. He didn't have a choice. They told him cooperate or watch his wife and kids pay for it."Megan's lips press together, but the hardness in her eyes softens fractionally. "I'm glad he's been caught at least. Regardless of his reasons.""Yeah." I nod once. "We shouldn't dwell on it though." I murmur, and then, because I can't think of a better transition and the flowers are starting to feel heavier by the second, I just hold them out to her. "Here."She loo
XARION'S POVI've been leaning against my car for almost ten minutes, holding a bouquet of flowers in front of this hotel like an idiot, trying to talk myself into walking inside.This is ridiculous.I'm a thirty-year-old Alpha. I've negotiated treaties with hostile territories and faced down rogue packs without breaking a sweat, and right now I'm leaning against my car in a parking lot, staring at a bunch of white peonies, wondering if they're too much, too little, or simply the wrong flower entirely. I'm also genuinely unsure whether walking through the hotel doors is a good idea or the worst one I've had all week.I should've asked Andrew. Andrew would've had an opinion, even an annoying one.But I didn't ask him, because Andrew would've made a comment about my hands shaking slightly, and my hands are not shaking, they're just resettling their hold on the stems.I keep running the scenario in my head.Megan opens the door and sees the flowers. She either softens, just a bit, enoug
MEGAN'S POV"You're going to whether I say yes or not," I reply, breaking off a piece of croissant. "So go ahead."Vance watches me for a second, choosing his words. It's not entirely unusual when it comes to me. I've seen him hesitate before when the conversation is one he doesn't want to have."I think you need to stay away from Xarion," he states evenly.I stop chewing."Hear me out, Megan," he continues, holding up a hand. "I'm not saying this to be territorial or petty. I'm saying it because I've been looking at the pattern of everything that's happened to you since you came back to Arkon, and the common thread in all of it is him."I set the croissant down and give him my full attention."Harlow Hale," Vance continues, his voice level. "The man who had you kidnapped, who put you in that warehouse, who had men put their hands on you." He pauses. "He was Xarion's investor. Someone inside Xarion's professional circle."I don't respond yet."And Danielle." His face hardens slightly
MEGAN'S POVTwo days out of the hospital, and I still can't quite believe I'm standing in a hotel suite instead of a hospital room.Small mercies.I'm sitting on the couch with my legs folded under me, a cup of tea going cold on the table in front of me because I keep forgetting to drink it, staring at the middle distance and thinking about absolutely nothing and everything simultaneously.That's been the pattern since I got back. My mind refuses to settle on one thing for longer than a few minutes before it skips to the next, like it's still running on fumes, still cycling through everything that happened and trying to file it all somewhere manageable.It's not working particularly well.Outside the window, Arkon is doing what cities do, moving and breathing and carrying on with complete indifference to the fact that my life has been turned inside out and shaken like a snow globe over the past several weeks. The afternoon light is soft and golden, that glow that makes everything loo
MEGAN'S POVI bite my lip, my chest tightening with a mix of gratitude and frustration.I appreciate what Vance's doing. Really, I do.But I don't want to come off as being dependent on him.I've worked too hard to build my independence, to prove I don't need anyone to take care of me.And lying he
XARION'S POVI've been on the phone for the past two hours.Two. Damn. Hours.Call after call after call, each one more frustrating than the last, and I still don't have the answers I need.I'm sitting at my desk in my pack office, one hand gripping my phone, the other rubbing my temple as I listen
MEGAN'S POVI take a breath, realizing this is the moment I've been dreading.The moment I have to fully explain our world to them."Alright," I begin slowly and reposition myself so I can look at both of them properly. "You know how Mommy's a werewolf, right?"They nod eagerly."Well, that means I
MEGAN'S POVThe hotel room is nice enough.It's spacious and clean, one of those upscale suites with a separate bedroom for the twins, a kitchenette I haven't touched, and massive windows showing off the city skyline.But after three days of being cooped up here, the walls feel like they're closing







