Mag-log inMEGAN'S POVThe place Xarion takes us to is beautiful.It's a large open complex just outside the city, part garden, part play area, part restaurant, with open-air seating under warm lighting and enough space that it doesn't feel crowded even with families scattered across it. It's the kind of place that manages to feel both special and relaxed at the same time.The twins take about four seconds to fall in love with it.We eat at a table near the garden, and the food is genuinely good, and the conversation is easy in a way that surprises me, the four of us talking and laughing like this is something we've been doing for years instead of something we're figuring out in real time.The twins are ridiculous and wonderful, debating very seriously about which of them is better at climbing, an argument that involves several appeals to both me and Xarion as independent judges, and I find myself laughing more in this meal than I have in weeks.After lunch, Xarion takes them to the playground
MEGAN'S POVXarion has been smiling since we got in the car.Not a subtle smile. Not a restrained, Alpha-appropriate expression I'd expect from Xarion. A full, open, slightly ridiculous grin that keeps showing up every few minutes like he can't quite help himself, which, judging by the evidence, he can't.I'm sitting in the passenger seat watching him drive, and somehow I'm smiling too, which I'm choosing to blame on the general atmosphere rather than anything specific.Something has lifted.That's the only way I can describe it. Some weight that's been sitting on my chest since I came back to Arkon, maybe longer than that, maybe since the day I left four years ago with a suitcase and a secret and a note from Doctor Philips folded in my pocket, has quietly, finally, set itself down somewhere it's not crushing me anymore.I'm still slightly terrified, if I'm being honest.The part of me that spent four years being careful, self-sufficient, and emotionally armored is standing in the co
MEGAN'S POVI cannot believe I just did that.That's all I can think about as I stand here in Xarion's bedroom, my lips still warm from kissing him twice, my wolf practically doing backflips inside me, and Xarion looking at me with an expression that I can only describe as cautiously hopeful, like he's afraid to let himself believe this means anything in case he's wrong.I kissed him.Twice.The woman who spent months maintaining an ironclad position about distance and safety and keeping her life free of unnecessary complications kissed the same man she told to stay away, in his bedroom, while he was in a towel, on a weekend morning.My therapist would have thoughts, if I actually had one.My wolf, on the other hand, has absolutely no thoughts because she's too busy being smug.'I told you, Megan, you want him,' she purrs, which is irritating because she did, repeatedly, and I kept not listening.Xarion hasn't looked away from me, and the hope in his eyes is making my chest feel a lit
XARION'S POVI don't move.Not because I'm incapable of moving, I'm capable, I'm just not entirely convinced that this is a real situation I'm currently in, and moving feels like the kind of thing that might disturb it.Megan is standing in my bedroom.The door is closed behind her.I am wearing a towel.These are the facts as I currently understand them."What are you doing in here?" I ask, and my voice comes out more cautiously than I intend, like I'm negotiating with something that might startle easily.Her eyes move again, just briefly, just for a second, dropping from my face to my chest and then lower before coming back up again, and she lifts her chin very slightly, looking every bit like she's decided we can both pretend that didn't happen."I wanted to talk to you privately," she begins, her voice calm. "Before the twins noticed I was gone.""Okay," I reply, still not moving."I'm sorry if this felt abrupt," she continues, "just showing up this morning. But I've been thinking
XARION'S POVThe first thing I'm aware of is the light.Specifically, the fact that there's too much of it, coming through the curtains at an angle that feels personally aggressive, like the sun has decided this morning to make a point.The second thing I'm aware of is a headache.It's camped behind my eyes like it pays rent, pulsing with every heartbeat just to remind me it's there.I lie still for a moment, staring at the ceiling, and I take a slow inventory of the situation.I'm in my bed. I'm still in the clothes Andrew must've put me in last night, a T-shirt and sweatpants that I do not remember changing into, which means at some point I was either cooperative or completely unconscious, and based on everything else I know about last night, I'm going with the latter.And then, with the special cruelty of a mind that refuses to let you ease into consciousness gently, the memories arrive.The common room. The bottle. The increasingly unfiltered commentary I delivered to no one in pa
MEGAN'S POVThe cab ride back to the hotel was heavier than I needed it to be.Rain against the windows, the driver mercifully uninterested in conversation, the city moving past in streaks of wet light, and me sitting in the back with damp hair and a head full of things I don't know how to organize.Xarion's face when he saw me at the door is at the top of the list.His hand on my shoulders, loose and vulnerable all at once.‘It killed me watching you let him hold you.’And then the floor coming up to meet him, and me kneeling there with his head against my arm like some scene I never expected to be part of.Andrew got him sorted. Pack members arrived, capable and efficient, and between them they had Xarion upright and moving within minutes. Andrew told me quietly that he'd handle it, that this wasn't the first time he'd put Xarion to bed after a bad night, and for some reason, that statement made me feel things I wasn't equipped to process standing in a damp jacket in someone else's







