LOGINThe thought of staying in the Carter stronghold was a death sentence for my unborn cubs. As long as I breathed the same mountain air as Ethan, their heartbeats were at risk.The shrill ring of my phone shattered the mourning silence of the room. I glanced at the screen: it was the Vice President of Parker Athletics."Collins! I’m finally upright—I was absolutely wrecked after that meeting last night," Brandon’s voice boomed through the receiver. "Did Mr. Z reach out to you today?"I went rigid. "No. Who were you drinking with, Brandon?""Mr. Z himself! Real name’s Jun Hertz. I can’t find a trace of him on the dark web or the official registries, but he’s young and carries himself like he’s backed by a massive treasury. He said he’s been scouting for high-potential tech to disrupt the Kingdom. I laid out our entire kinetic skate-brace project. I’m just waiting to see if he bites.""Is he a pack-mate of Ethan’s?" I asked, my voice dropping to a cautious whisper."I’m not sure. But he me
Chloe Bennett watched the wreckage of the conversation with a predatory gleam in her eyes, eager to pour gasoline on the Alpha’s smoldering rage.“Before he was traded to Silvercrest, Collins was courting your nephew, Mason,” she purred, leaning over the mahogany desk. “Everyone has a history, Ethan, but the little omega crawled into Mason’s bed after he was bonded to you. He’s made a mockery of your mark. I bet they planned the whole thing while you were in that coma, just waiting for your heart to stop.”Ethan’s knuckles turned white, his face carving into a mask of pure, glacial fury. His amber eyes, normally sharp as a hawk’s, were fixated on the medical file like it was a death warrant.“I suspect they’re hunting your inheritance,” Chloe continued, her voice a sharp stiletto. “When the healers issued the terminal notice, we all thought the Carter line was ending with you. If he carried Mason’s pup, the entire Silvercrest estate would fall right into their treacherous hands. It wa
I felt like a phantom hand was crushing my windpipe. The air in the private den turned to liquid lead, and the world began to tilt on its axis.How was this possible? How could Ethan Carter be "Mr. Z"?Mr. Z was the lifeline. He was the one who had wired eight hundred thousand credits and claimed he wanted to save the Parker legacy. Why would the man who had threatened to break me be the same one trying to fund my father’s tech?But if he wasn't the one behind the screen, what was he doing in this specific, high-security booth?My mind was a chaotic storm of static as I stared at him. The sleek, carbon-fiber wheelchair, the forest-green shirt, the skin that looked like it had been carved from the glaciers of the Kingdom—it was him. There was no mistaking the Alpha of Silvercrest.I let out a shaky, freezing breath and backed away instinctively, my shoulder hitting the heavy oak door. It wouldn't budge.“Leaving before the puck even drops, Collins?”Seeing the sheer terror in my eyes m
"Sit."Ethan didn't even look up from the coffee table. His voice was a low, jagged rasp that carried the weight of an Alpha’s command."Fine," I muttered, dropping onto the leather sofa opposite him.A laptop sat between us, the screen angled directly toward me. My heart did a slow, sickening roll as I realized what I was looking at: grainy, high-definition surveillance footage. It was the master bedroom. The footage showed the massive, fur-draped bed where I had spent the last three months sleeping beside a ghost.My blood turned to molten lead. I lunged to my feet, pointing a shaking finger at the screen. "You... you predator! You put a camera in the bedroom? In my private space?"I was vibrating with a mix of fury and pure, unadulterated shame. For ninety days, I had shared that room with a man in a vegetative state. I hadn't seen him as a man then—just a broken body I was tasked to protect. People do things in private they’d never do in the light of the pack. The thought that eve
“Who filled your head with stories of a secret flame? Where did you dig up that intel? Do you even have a name?”Savannah was losing her composure. Despite her relentless claim that Ethan had no room for anyone but his legacy and her own loyalty, the seed of doubt was festering.I shook my head, my voice dropping into a weary drawl. “It was just a theory, Savannah... I don’t live in his head like you think you do.”I shifted my weight, trying to play it off. I’d realized too late that I’d stepped into deep snow, and I didn’t want to be buried. I just wanted to survive this season, protect the twin heartbeats in my womb, and fade into the mist.“You rattled me for a second! I thought you’d actually caught him with someone.” Savannah’s shoulders dropped as she exhaled. “Ethan isn’t the hero of a romance story. He despises omegas, and he has no patience for pups.”“Any idea why he’s so cold toward the idea of an heir?” I asked, keeping my tone casual, like we were just discussing the wea
The bottle in my hand felt like a live grenade. The label was unmistakable: High-Potency Calcium Support. In the werewolf world, these were the gold standard for strengthening the bone density of growing pups, but they were also used by the elderly or injured skaters recovering from a brutal season on the ice."Do you usually interrogate people about every supplement they take to keep their frame from snapping?" I countered. My cheeks were burning, but I kept my voice as steady as a goaltender in a shootout.I didn't wait for his answer. I brushed past his massive shoulder, retreated to my room, and shoved the bottle into the back of a drawer.I leaned against the door, my heart hammering. This was becoming a death trap. If I didn't find a way to sever the bond soon, my scent would shift, my middle would thicken, and every secret I was carrying for these cubs would be laid bare. My medical reports were tucked under the mattress—if Ethan ever decided to exert his Alpha right to "inspec







