LOGINBella’s POV “Staging for what, though.” I paced the length of the dining room, the document’s stolen page spread flat on the table between us, every one of us staring at legal phrasing that refused to give up its full meaning no matter how many times we read it over. My eyes had started blurring somewhere around the fourth read-through, exhaustion and dread making the dense text swim together on the page. Draven said, "This is a kind of agreement." He ran his finger along a line of text his jaw tight as he focused. "This part about ratification before assembled witnesses that is council language. They do not use it for things. It is for changes, like laws, leadership and land." Jennifer said softly from where she was checking the document against her notes ". Family status." She had been writing these notes since they broke into the archive. "There is a history of using assembled witness ratification to change a family status. To make something official that used to be a rumor and
Bella’s POV“Sit. Please. You’re making me nervous just standing there.”The woman sat on the edge of our couch. She didn’t sit down at first not until I said it again. Then she moved like the couch might tell someone she was scared of. She didn’t look much older than me. Her council staff uniform was still buttoned right even though everything else was wrong. Her hands were folded in her lap tight like she was holding herself with all her strength. Something about the way she held herself made me think of myself back when I first got to Draven’s compound. I used to flinch at shadows that had followed me from Moonstone.The compound around us was quiet in a way whenever someone new came in. Everyone else found a reason to be close but not too close. Thor was cleaning something at the counter even though it didn’t need cleaning. Gordon was pretending to organize supplies he had already organized twice that morning.“You worked for the missing elder " I said. I tried to keep my voice ge
Draven’s POV“The empty chair.”I turned the phrase over again, standing at the map table Thor had spread out across the dining room, a rough sketch of the council chamber pinned down at the corners with whatever we’d had on hand. Bella’s aunt hadn’t given us much to work with, a handful of careful sentences meant to guide without fully exposing whatever she still risked by writing them at all. Every word of that letter felt like it had cost her something to send, and I intended to make sure it hadn’t been wasted.She could mean anything by it Thor said. A literal empty seat during the summons. A metaphor for who's actually in charge. We’re guessing either way.We’re not guessing. I looked at the layout the seven traditional council seats arranged in their arc and under it the detail that had bothered me since I first read the letter. Seven seats. Seven elders. That’s the number this council has had for longer than I have been alive. If one of them is missing during the summons that i
Bella’s POV“Forty-eight hours isn’t enough time to prepare for whatever they’re planning.”I said it loud mostly to hear how it sounded standing in the main room of the compound with the morning light still too bright for how little sleep any of us had gotten Draven pacing a slow line in front of the cold hearth. Everyone in that room had some mark from the night before bandages, bruises, the particular hollow look of people running on adrenaline long after the adrenaline should have stopped. My own body ached in places I hadn’t known could muscles, from a shift I still barely understood skin still raw where the iron restraints had pressed for hours.“It’s not meant to be enough time.” He stopped, dragging a hand down his face, exhaustion carved into every line of him despite the wound Gordon had spent half the night re-stitching. “That’s the point of an emergency summons. They want everyone arriving rattled, unprepared, still bleeding from whatever happened at the tournament. Easier
Bella’s POVThe passage dropped us out into cold night air, and I nearly collapsed the moment my feet hit open ground, every hour of tonight finally catching up to my body all at once.Draven caught me before I fully went down.His arms closed around me hard, careful of every visible injury, his whole body shaking in a way I’d never once seen from him before, not even the night he told me about the woman he’d lost.“You’re here.” His voice cracked on the words, all his usual control simply gone. “You’re actually here.”“I’m here.” I pressed my face into his shoulder, breathing him in, letting myself finally stop being the person who had to stay strong for one full minute. “I’m all right. She let me go.”“Who.”“My aunt.” The word still felt strange in my mouth, new and unfamiliar and true all at once. “My mother’s sister. She’s still in there, buying us time with a lie that might get her killed for it.”Draven pulled back enough to look at my face. He understood what was going on even
Bella’s POVThe footsteps stopped just outside the door.My aunt straightened fast, all the fragile openness from a moment ago folding back behind a mask of practiced calm, and for one terrible second I thought she’d already made her choice, that whatever door had cracked open between us had simply closed again for good. My own heart hammered against my ribs, the iron at my wrists feeling heavier now than it had all night, a physical reminder of exactly how little control I still had over what happened next.The door swung open, and instead of enforcers, instead of whoever her employers had sent to collect their prize, Ronan stood in the frame, breathless, blood still crusted along one temple from the fight at the tournament grounds.My aunt’s hand moved fast, reaching for something at her belt, and Ronan’s hands came up immediately, empty, non-threatening.“Wait.” His voice carried none of the arrogance I remembered from before, only urgency. “I’m not here to fight you. I’m here beca
Draven’s POVI dragged my jacket on, the stitches pulling with every move. I felt a few tear open but I ignored it, striding towards the door.Thor was waiting outside with the look he got when he had already decided something was a bad idea and had also already accepted that it was going to happen
Bella's POVRonan almost fell to the floor as he coughed up blood, his body folding in on itself as if he were weakly—no, even weaker than I was ever supposed to be.“How dare you, Bella?” He snapped, his voice hoarse yet filled with disbelief. As if the idea of me rejecting him first was something
Bella's POVThe rain was incessant as it destroyed all the dishes and cakes I had made for our night dining with Ronan.He hadn't come for the hotel reservation I made for the both of us, wanting to celebrate our anniversary.And I wasn't ready to give up celebrating it because of the bad incidents
Bella's POVToday was my fourth anniversary with my mate Ronan, the alpha prince of Moonstone pack, but instead of happiness, I had mixed feelings.I held the test strip in my hands as I hid myself in the crowd, watching the bikers on track racing."You're infetile, luna Bella" the doctor's voice e







