LOGINSOFIAI had been in the house for two days and I had already made a list in my head. The way my sister Reina does it.She organizes things and builds a picture from all the little pieces. She taught me how to do that without realizing it, just by being herself and growing up with me. She always says to pay attention and remember the details. People show you who they are all the time you just have to watch them.So. The listThings I figured out in two days:One. The pack did not fully accept Reina yet but they were getting there. You could see it in the way they looked at her. It was not cold like Lena told me it used to be. Like they had already made up their minds about her and were quietly changing their opinions.Two. Lena was the best person in this house and maybe one of the best people I ever met. I wanted to be her friend forever starting right now.Three. Zaden Cole looked at my sister Reina about every forty-five seconds when they were in the same room. He thought nobody not
SOFIAOkay so.The gates were really big. Bigger than I expectedI mean Reina had told me about the house. She said it was big and well taken care of and had a lot of security. Now I get what she meant. It was huge, scary and intimidating beyond reason. There were guards literally everywhere that were built like buildings.The bus had dropped me at the end of the road. I had to walk for five minutes with my bag on my shoulder and my heart was doing something uncomfortable in my chest.I kept telling myself the whole way that I was fine. This was fine. Reina was fine. I was going to see her. It would all be fine.Then I saw the gates.And the wall.Two huge men in black jackets came out. They asked my name. They already knew my name. They just wanted to check if I matched it."Sofia Castillo" I said. I stood up straight and tried to sound like Reina. I didn't want them to see me being scared.One of them checked his phone. He nodded. "You're expected. Someone will come for you."I stoo
ZADENI had the file on Sofia Castillo since the second week.Not because I was told to. Because I had checked Reinas intake information the night after the wedding.I was alone in my office at two in the morning, going through the debt settlement papers like I did with everything.That's when I found her sister.She was seventeen and in her year of high school.She lived with her father in the house Reina had left.The sister had no income except what Reina sent from the bakery.I read that file for longer than I needed to.Then I closed it and went to bed.The next morning I had Damian open a background monitoring file on Sofia CastilloI said it's protocol for immediate family of people close, to our pack "He wrote it down without saying anything.I knew he did not believe me and to be honest I did not believe myself either.The scholarship was pretty straightforward.The university program Sofia had applied to had funding from a business foundation my company works with.Sofia Ca
REINASofia’s call came in at eight in the morning.Not a text first. Just ringing. Which meant she had already made a decision and was calling to tell me about it rather than ask.I answered with my eyes still half closed."No," I said."I haven't said anything yet.""You're calling instead of texting which means you've already done something I'm going to object to.""Uhhh I bought the bus ticket."I sat up. "Sofia!""Before you say anything…""Sofia…""I haven't seen you in two months," she said. Her voice was still "I've been calling and texting and you tell me you're fine every single time and I believe you because I know your voice and you sound fine but I also know your voice and you sound different. And I need to see you with my own eyes, Reina. I miss my sister."I pressed my fingers to my forehead."The ticket is for Friday," she said. "That gives you three days to tell me not to come. But I'm telling you right now that you telling me not to come is not the same thing as me n
REINAI was in the training room by five twenty- three, before Damian.I heard his footsteps in the corridor at five twenty-eight and he came in to find me already stretching, which I did with great deliberateness so he would know I had been there first.He looked at me. Looked at the clock on the wall. Said nothing.But something at the corner of his mouth moved."Right," he said, dropping his bag. "We start from the beginning. Show me your stance."I showed him my stance.He looked at it the way a builder looks at a wall someone else put up, assessing, finding the problems and already planning the work. Then he walked around me slowly. Tapped my left foot. My right elbow. The angle of my shoulders."Your left side is open," he said. "Every time. Anyone who knows what they're doing goes there first.""I know. I'm working on it.""Work faster." He stepped back. "Again."We went for a whole ninety minutes.It was not pleasant.Damian trained the way he did everything else, efficiently
REINAI sat on the edge of my bed for about ten minutes just looking at the floor.Not upset exactly or angry either. Just sitting with the feeling of finding out that the walls you thought you were navigating had more rooms than you knew about and nobody thought to give you the map.A week.He had known for a week that something was targeting me specifically and he had said absolutely nothing.I understood why. I did. He was gathering information, building a picture, not wanting to hand me half a truth. I understood the logic completely.It still sat wrong.I stood up.Went to the window.The courtyard below was different now, more guards, different positions, the lockdown visible in the way people moved, more alert. Zaden had done that in fourteen minutes. I had watched it happen from the east corridor window while I waited and it was…something. Watching an entire operation shift and lock into place that fast.He was extraordinary at this. At the Alpha part. At moving people and sec
ZADENI didn't plan to ask.That's the part I keep coming back to. I didn't sit down and decide that today I will ask my Beta about my wife because apparently I have nothing more pressing to do with my time. It just came out. At the end of a meeting that had nothing to do with her, after everyone e
REINAI was doing fine.That's the thing I want to be clear about. I was doing completely, entirely fine. I had made my decision, firm, reasonable, based on facts and I was implementing it with no drama and no visible cracks and nobody needed to worry about me or ask me anything or sit next to me o
ZADENSomething had changed.And it was driving me insane.I noticed it the second I stepped into the dining room the next morning. The sun was barely up, casting pale golden light across the long mahogany table. Reina was already there, sitting at the far end like always, a steaming cup of coffee
REINAI was losing control.That terrifying realization hit me the moment I woke up the next morning. My first thought wasn’t about the garden, or my sister Sofia, or even surviving another day in this house. It was about him.Zaden.The way he had sat beside me in the garden last night. The low so







