LOGINRyanThe body was Callum's. I stood over him in the hallway and made myself look. You don't get to look away when you're the Alpha. That's not a privilege you keep.Callum was twenty-three and he beeat every wolf his age in sparring last month and wouldn't shut up about it for two weeks after. His laugh used to bounce off the walls of this house like it owned the place.Now he was on the floor with his throat torn out. Same as Mira.I heard Simon behind me. Nobody was talking and that was the problem, because Simon always talked, always had something to say, and he coming here so quiet meant that this completely surprised him.He came around the corner and stopped when he saw Callum and for just a second, just one, something crossed his face that he didn't have time to hide. Pain. Real pain, the kind that lives behind the eyes and doesn't ask permission to show up.Then it was gone and he was my Beta again."Second one tonight," he said, coming to stand beside me. Not a question."Sec
ZaraThe room was too quiet after he left.I hated that. I hated how fast the quiet found me, how it pressed in around the edges of the bed like it had been waiting all night for its turn. Martha moved around me, checking the IV line, pressing two fingers to my wrist like she didn't trust the monitor to tell her the truth, and I let her, because fighting her felt like more effort than I had in me."You're doing better than you should be," she said, not looking up. "Whatever he did, it worked fast.""He didn't do anything." The words came out raw, my throat still tender from things I didn't want to examine too closely. "I gave it to him."Martha's hands stilled for half a second. Just half a second, but I caught it, the way you catch a held breath in someone who's spent decades learning not to react to anything."That's not what I meant," she said carefully, and went back to the line.I closed my eyes. The ceiling had started to blur an hour ago, soft at the edges like the whole room w
RyanThe words didn't make sense at first. They just hung there in the air between us, four syllables that refused to assemble into something my mind could hold.Mira. She's dead.I felt Zara's fingers twitch against mine, the smallest pressure, like she was trying to ground me before I'd even moved and maybe she knew, before I did, that something in me was about to come apart."Say that again," I said, and my voice didn't sound like mine. It came out low, flat, the voice I used when I needed people to obey before they understood why."Mira." My man — Theo, his name was Theo, I made myself remember that, made myself hold onto the small human details because the alternative was letting the wolf take the wheel completely even as he swallowed hard."She was found an hour ago, within the room. Alpha, it wasn't an accident. Her throat was...""Don't." The word cracked out of me before I could stop it. Not yet. I couldn't hear the rest of it yet, not with Zara's hand still weak in mine, not
ZaraEverything was fuzzy, like I was looking at the world through water. I heard Ryan's voice, far away and close at the same time, shouting something. My name, maybe. I wanted to answer him but my mouth wouldn't work the way I wanted it to.The last thing I remembered clearly was his fangs in my arm and the strange, pulling sensation that came after, like something was being drawn out of me slowly, drop by drop. It hadn't hurt, not really. Not after the first sting. It had almost felt peaceful, watching him relax against me, feeling his shoulders drop the tension they'd been carrying since I walked into that room.I wanted to tell him it was worth it."Stay with me, Zara, please." His voice cracked on my name.I felt myself being carried, his arms tight around me like he was scared I would slip through them if he loosened his grip even a little. I tried to open my eyes properly, to tell him I was fine, that he didn't need to look so broken, but my body wasn't listening to me anymore
RyanThe way I looked at her felt like an outerwordly experience in a way that told me that all of this was not a normal thing. In that moment, she was as beautiful as the morning sun, radiating in such a way that told me that I couldn't do anything to her. She was pure, purer than the whitest dove while I was stained, my soul darker than the depths of the sea."Ryan, i'm here... you can talk to me," she urged.I could see genuine care in her eyes, something I never saw in Mira. This woman loved me, she cared for me and I had made her pass through the worst experience anyone could ever pass through."Don't come any closer... don't you see, I am a disease... i will infect you and I don't want to do that. Please stay away from him." I begged.It pained me to say that but my wolf was at the surface, threatening to break out and when it does, Zara might not survive. I watched as she unbottoned her shirt, exposing her arm even as my mouth watered. I knew what she was offering but still, th
ZaraI walked towards where Ryan might be and with each step i took, it was increasingly hard to stay still. There was so much going on in my mind and I hated to think that i partly caused it. Even though I knew that he was facing demons of his own, still it still made me wonder if i caused this."Where are you going?" Simon asked from behind me.I ignored him even as I took several steps forward, wondering when he would be okay enough to talk to me about what was going on with him."You shouldn't go in there Zara, take it from me." Simon said again.This time, I was done listening to him. Ryan needed me, that much I could tell and even if he couldn't say it in words, I knew he did.Finally, i got to the main doors, overlooking the entrance and I realized it was sealed shut in such a way that the only going in was from inside."Ryan!" I shouted, banging on the door.He was inside, I could feel it within me but still, I knew he wasn't in the right frame of mind. I don't know why i felt
RyanThe first thing I noticed as soon as my eyes opened was how bright the room was. It just felt like they had dropped the sun here, illuminating every corner of the room, casting a ray so bright it was almost blinding. My eyes scanned the area, wondering where I was because this wasn’t my room b
ZaraSimon led me further out of the building, away from the chaos that had come on during the battle with the Lone Wolf and into an already waiting car. At that moment, it just felt like I was totally disconnected from everything happening around me, like I was in another body entirely, a spectato
RyanThe more I thought about this whole thing, the more livid I became each passing second. What right did Mira have to barge in here with my men and dole out orders like she was the Alpha and she had powers? “Get away from her!” I barked.By now, my eyes had turned into an inhumane shade of gree
ZaraEverything inside me went still in a way that felt unnatural, like my body had finally decided it could not keep up with everything happening around me anymore while my mind tried to catch up with words that did not make sense no matter how many times I repeated them in my head, because mating







