LOGINGabriel POV I paced behind the glass wall of my office, dark suit unbuttoned, tie loosened. The afternoon sunlight slanted through the trees, dust dancing across the quiet war room. I’d just come from another meeting with northern ambassadors, silver-tongued wolves who believed power was polite but not sentimental. The minute I mentioned my “wife”—Samantha—half the room tensed. I'd seen their eyes flick to her name on the seating chart, and then back to my face, calculating. I hates that I care. I’d left her out of the meeting—in practice, but not in heart. I couldn’t stand her presence in that cold room, but every moment’s absence felt like something had vanished in myself. Not just a projection, but a piece of skin gone. I couldn’t explain it. Caspian had been blunt: She fainted during the meeting earlier on. She is falling apart. She’s quiet, she’s pale, and Lord knows she hasn’t eaten since the Broderick brunch. I didn’t want to believe it. It was weakness. Yet— Late this
Samantha's POV The scent of brewed coffee and worn leather greeted me each morning at Blood Moon Pack’s manor, now my new reality. It felt too polished, too sharp—like a home where power lived and vulnerability was hunted down. I slipped into my new schedule like a thread through a tight needle. Gabriel's world ran with precision—early meetings, financial reports, strategy sessions. He’d insisted I shadow him. “For protection,” he’d said, though his gaze lingered too long on my face each time I asked why I really needed to be there. Most days began with him handing me a tailored blazer—mine, yet always something he’d picked himself. "This one makes you look like someone who doesn’t flinch," he murmured once, adjusting the lapel with fingers that brushed against my collarbone too softly to be accidental. We had a meeting later with emissaries from the Northern financiers and he’d already laid out my outfit for the evening. Gabriel had developed a habit of dressing me like a knigh
SAMANTHA’S POV I stood before the full-length mirror, the delicate silk of my blouse whispering against my skin as I adjusted the pearl buttons Gabriel had insisted I wear. My fingers trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the pressure—pressure to fit the image, pressure to stand beside an Alpha like Gabriel Vermont and not look like the shattered girl I still saw in my reflection. He was behind me now. I could feel his presence even before he spoke. “The navy blue compliments your skin,” he said, his voice low, almost intimate. I met his eyes in the mirror—those storm-gray eyes that gave nothing away but seemed to strip everything from me in return. He stepped closer. His hand, warm and confident, reached around to straighten the collar of my blazer. He brushed a thumb down the lapel and lingered a second longer than necessary. “You’ll do perfectly today.” Every time we stepped out for a deal or meeting, Gabriel prepared me himself—never with harsh orders or impatience, b
Gabriel stood at the floor-to-ceiling window of his home office, looking towards the Blood Moon warriors train in the courtyard below. The clang of steel and the crack of fists echoed faintly through the thick glass, but none of it reached him. His gaze wasn’t on the sparring soldiers. It was on the girl walking the perimeter of the packhouse garden—delicate, small in her navy blouse and black slacks, hair tied back, a folder tucked beneath her arm. Samantha. He clenched his jaw. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. “She needs more protection,” he muttered. Behind him, Caspian leaned against the polished wall, arms folded. “You’ve doubled her guards. Moved her to the suite next to yours. Made her your assistant so you could monitor her every move.” Gabriel’s voice was low. “It’s not enough.” Caspian pushed off the wall, stepping closer. “You’re not afraid someone else will hurt her.” He paused. “You’re afraid it’ll be you.” Gabriel didn’t answer. Because it was true. Sin
THIRD PERSON'S POV The lodge doors opened at dawn, and Gabriel’s footsteps echoed against the stone hallway like a war drum. He moved with clipped precision, trailed by two warriors and a tall male beta with a tablet in hand. He wasn’t the same man who had touched Samantha’s cheek gently just two nights ago. This Gabriel was colder. Sharper. Alpha of Blood Moon. CEO of Vermillion Corp. Protector of his people. And now, somehow, responsible for a girl who didn’t know where she belonged. He passed the library, where Samantha sat quietly on a cushioned window seat, the morning light tracing her profile. She didn’t see him. She was lost in the pages of a book—Pack History: Bloodlines and Betrayals. Gabriel stopped for only a second. “Caspian,” he said to his beta, voice unreadable. “I want her in the office.” Caspian blinked. “Sir?” “She stays too isolated. It’s not safe. And she needs... structure.” The warrior beside him arched a brow. “As your assistant?” Gabriel didn’t b
SAMANTHA’S POV The wind howled past the windows as the car tore through the forest road, thick pine trees whipping by like silent sentinels watching me leave everything behind. I didn’t look back. Not at the Crescent Moon Pack. Not at the life that had chewed me up and spat me out. Not even at Elias, whose cold expression had followed me to the car but whose eyes had—just for a second—held something like regret. It didn’t matter anymore. Because I’d left. With him.Gabriel Vermont . He hadn’t spoken since we started driving. His hands rested calmly on the wheel, but the air around him crackled with quiet power. Every breath he took, every glance he made through the windshield, screamed Alpha. Not just by title. In the bone-deep way he commanded a room… or a person. I sat curled in the passenger seat, wrapped in the oversized jacket he’d tossed over my shoulders before we left the Hall. It smelled of pine and musk and something faintly metallic—like storm clouds before they bro







