로그인Then 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
The child’s laughter cut through the air like sunlight through fog—bright, piercing, utterly disarming. I hadn’t heard anything like it in years.It came from Sofia. My Sofia.The name echoed through me like a wound reopening and refusing to heal.From my place beneath the old oak at the edge of the
Whatever you say, he purred.The Blue Lake Pack smelled of pine and river water. I parked two streets away, pulling on a dark jacket instead of my usual Alpha coat. The last thing the kids needed was a spectacle.Laughter drifted from the cottage backyard, high-pitched and unguarded.For a moment I
Esther’s POVSofia’s handwriting was a battlefield of backwards letters and overexcited loops. The little envelope landed on our kitchen table like a spark from another world.“Look!” she chirped, cheeks flushed from the late-summer heat. “I wrote it all by myself. No help from Carl!”She shoved the
The guards in the courtyard gave us a wide berth. I stalked past them to my private quarters, slammed the door, and locked it. Bottles lined the cabinet like a row of glass soldiers. I grabbed the nearest one, twisted off the cap, and drank until the burn hit my stomach.Whiskey blurred the edges bu







