ログイン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 exhale slowly, choosing my words with care."It's a long story, Mave," I begin gently. "A very long, complicated, adult story that I will tell you properly when you're a bit older. But what I can tell you right now is this." I look at both of them in turn. "The people responsible have been arrested. Every single one of them. They're not going to be able to come near us again. And what happened to me is not going to happen again. I'm going to make absolutely sure of it."Maverick chews on this. "How do you know?""Because I'm your mother," I reply simply. "And I know things."The corner of his mouth twitches, just barely."But who were they, Mommy?" Makayla presses, leaning forward. "Were they the same bad people who burned our house?""Some of them, yes," I confirm carefully. "But they've all been caught now. The police have them.""Were you scared?" she asks, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper.I look at her small, earnest face, and I decide she deserves the tr
MEGAN'S POVThe tension in the air right now is so palpable I could choke on it.Xarion and Vance are locked in a stare-off, both standing tall, shoulders squared, jaws firm.Neither one of them is backing down, and I can feel the dominance rolling off them in waves.Davidson's phone rings, breakin
XARION'S POVI'm sitting at my desk in my pack office, staring at a stack of reports I should be reviewing, but my mind's somewhere else entirely.Yesterday's conversation with Megan keeps replaying in my head over and over again.The twins are fine. She's fine. That's all that matters.But still,
MEGAN'S POVI step out of the police station with Vance right beside me, my mind spinning with too many thoughts at once as the cool evening air brushes against my skin.The fluorescent lights inside had been harsh, and the interrogation room reeked of stale coffee and tension. But I refused to le
XARION'S POV"She didn't put a spell on me, Dad," I snap, my voice rising now. "And I'm not irrational. I know exactly what I'm doing.”"Do you?" My father fires back. "Because from where I'm standing, you're throwing away everything we've built. For what? A woman you divorced four years ago?""She







