LOGINKaireen's POVMy hand was still stinging from the slap and my cheek was burning with shame because I had done it , I had actually done it — slapped my alpha, my brother, the man who held every single fragile piece of my life together in his hands, and the worst part was not the shock on his face or the red mark spreading slowly across his jaw.The worst part was that he had not moved away from me.He was still standing there. Still looking at me with those gold eyes that saw too much and always had, and the corridor felt like it was closing in around us, the fluorescent lights too bright, the air too still, and somewhere deep in my chest my wolf was whimpering because she could feel his pain like it was her own and I hated her for it.I hated all of it."Why are you making this so difficult for me?" I had said it and now the words were out there, hanging between us, and I could not pull them back.He touched his jaw slowly. Pressed his fingers against the mark I had left there and loo
Ronan's POV I opened the door and saw his hands on her. His body was pressed against hers with her wrists pinned above her head against the wall and her face was turned away from him with tears on her cheeks that she clearly had not realized were there yet, and something inside me did not think at all. It simply moved.My fist connected with his jaw before the door had even fully swung open.The crack of it was satisfying in a way I was not going to examine too closely.Evander hit the shelf behind him and a row of bandage rolls toppled onto the floor around him and Kaireen's voice came out sharp and startled, "Ronan —""Get away from her," I said, and my voice came out much quieter than the rage in my chest deserved. I stepped fully into the room and the doorframe felt small at my back, the supply room even smaller around me, and I looked at him where he had caught himself against the shelf with one hand pressed to his cheekbone. "I told you to get out of this clinic days ago. I w
Kaireen's POVHis body had me fully pressed against the wall and the crutch he had thrown aside was still clattering against the tile floor when the sound finally died and the silence rushed in to replace it — thick and suffocating and charged with something I did not have a name for yet."You want to say that again?" His voice was low and rough. His pale blue eyes were darker now, the pale washed out by something sharp and furious and entirely alpha. "Go ahead. Say it again to my face."I kept my breathing even. "I already said everything I needed to say," I told him. "Let go of me.""You don't get to do that." He pressed closer instead of backing away and his jaw was tight enough I could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin. "You don't get to stand there and tell me you will never marry me like it's nothing." His grip on my waist tightened. "You don't get to be that cruel.""Evander—""What is it that you actually want?" His voice cracked slightly on the last word and the crack w
Kaireen's Pov"I'll handle it," he said again, and this time he was looking at Ronan and not at me.The two of them looked at each other. Just for a second. The kind of look men exchanged when the actual conversation was happening somewhere underneath the words."It's fine," I said, stepping between whatever that moment was before it could become anything larger. I looked at Ronan and made my voice even. "Go. I'm alright."He did not answer right away. His eyes stayed on my face for a beat that stretched just slightly past comfortable, reading something I was not intending to show, and I looked away first because looking back felt dangerous."Go," I said again, softer. "Please."He left.I didn't watch him walk away. I turned and headed back down the corridor toward the small supply room at the far end of the hallway, keeping my spine straight and my chin level and my eyes fixed ahead because the stares from the remaining staff were like pins across the back of my neck and the last th
Kaireen's POVThe act was so transparent it was almost insulting.Selene stood in the middle of the corridor with tears rolling down her perfect face, clutching her cheek like she had been mortally wounded, and everything about her performance screamed fake — from the way her voice kept hitching at exactly the right moments to the way she had positioned herself directly in Ronan's line of sight the second he appeared at the end of the hallway.She had done it deliberately.All of it.The tray. The heel grinding into my hand. The gasping and the tears. It had been a performance from start to finish and the worst part was that she had done it brilliantly, had calculated every second of it, and now she was standing there wrapped in the role of the wounded Luna with mascara running perfectly down her cheeks and her silk blouse slightly disheveled and her husband staring at her with an unreadable expression."Ronan," she whimpered, her voice small and trembling. "She hit me. I was only try
Selene's Pov "What do you mean?" he asked carefully. "Exactly what you think I mean," I said, and I kept my voice low even though we were alone. "I think he's fucking her, Evander. I think they're mates or involved or something, and that's why he won't touch me, won't mark me, won't even look at me the way a husband should look at his wife." Evander's eyes flashed with anger and he sat up straighter in bed. "Don't repeat that nonsense," he growled. "Kaireen wouldn't—she's engaged to me. She agreed to the alliance between our packs. She wouldn't betray that by sleeping with her own brother, she's a sweet soul.." "You don't have to believe me," I scoffed. "But I'm going to bring you proof soon. I have someone watching them, reporting back to me about everything they do. And when I have concrete evidence, when I can prove what's happening, you're going to help me expose them. Just keep watch on her, Evander. Watch whatever she does, wh







