LOGINThen I whispered, “She woke because of truth.”Nicholas’s POVTruth.The word cut deeper than any blade.Watching Esther’s wolf awaken, seeing that glow ripple through her, was like watching dawn break inside my own ribs. Norman howled in joy, circling like a storm.Mate. Whole again.I wanted to re
Esther’s POVThe moon hung low over the palace courtyard, pale and thin as if it too had been hollowed out by truth.I hadn’t slept in days. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Carl’s face in that hospital bed, the IV line glowing red with Nicholas’s blood, a thread connecting them that could never b
I couldn’t stay. Not then. Not with the room spinning around the truth.I turned on my heel and left.Outside, the evening had turned cold. The palace gardens stretched wide and silent, shadows long across the stone. I made it halfway to the fountain before the first surge of fury hit, hot and wild
Nicholas’s POVIt was supposed to be an ordinary morning.A quiet one, even the kind where the palace felt less like a fortress and more like a home. The smell of breakfast bread drifting through the halls, the faint laughter of children somewhere near the east courtyard.Then came the scream.High.
I turned the page without a word.Inside, the fragile hope I’d been nurturing began to splinter.Nicholas found me near noon.He stormed in, half out of his formal jacket, eyes dark and wild. “Who leaked this?”“You’re asking me?” I said.“I’m asking everyone.” His voice was a snarl. “They’re saying
Esther’s POVThe palace had never been this bright.Golden banners fluttered across the courtyard, musicians tuned lutes and violins, and trays of sugared fruit glimmered beneath the sunlight. All of it, the music, the laughter, the illusion, was for Sofia.My daughter. My little girl who had someho
I imagined her at the desk, hunched over medical charts for Carl, the crease between her brows deepening. All of it for a boy she claimed wasn’t mine.“I’m keeping them alive,” I whispered. “They don’t even see it.”You’re keeping yourself from losing them, Norman countered.The next morning, Dan en
Nicholas’s POVThe contract lay across my desk like a battle map. Kevin’s signature stared at me from the bottom margin, a neat flourish meant to look effortless. It almost fooled me.“Stall it,” I said.Dan blinked from the other side of the desk. “Sir?”“The Blue Lake development project,” I clari
Nicholas hadn’t moved from the top step. The breeze tugged at his coat, his expression carved from stone. I felt his gaze on me like a brand as I forced myself to stand straight and climb the steps back into the palace, every inch of me aware that he was following.Nicholas’s POVShe stood between u
Esther’s POVThe sound reached me before the smell: raised voices, echoing off stone like thunder trapped in a canyon. Then pine, rain, and iron, Kevin’s scent, rolled toward the Blood Moon Pack gates like a storm front. My pulse lurched.By the time I pushed through the courtyard arch, guards were







