INICIAR SESIÓNKnox's POVMarcus was quiet for a long time.Not the processing quiet — the other kind. The kind that came from a person who had held something for so long that releasing it required more than just deciding to release it. The kind that had weight in it from the holding itself.Knox waited.He had learned from his father that some silences required waiting and some required pressing and the skill was in knowing which was which. This one required waiting. He could see that in the quality of it — Marcus was not deciding whether to speak. He was finding the beginning of something that had a complicated beginning."My father," Marcus said finally.Knox held his gaze."His name was Daniel," Marcus said. "He was alpha before me for twenty-three years. He was a good alpha — not a perfect one, not the kind of leader who never made mistakes. But good in the ways that mattered." He held his hands flat on the desk. "He made me swear something before he died.""What?" Knox said."That I would main
Knox's POVMarcus did not answer the question.Knox watched him not answer it.Not deflect — not the managed redirect of a leader who had decided the information was not appropriate for the room. Something different. A pause that was a fraction longer than Marcus's pauses usually were, followed by a movement into different territory that was smooth enough to be intentional but had the specific quality of someone who had decided to go around something rather than through it."What concerns us immediately," Marcus said, "is the security of our territory boundaries. I am asking each of you to run the perimeter checks twice weekly rather than once. Any unusual activity — human presence in pack spaces, unfamiliar vehicles on the boundary roads, anything that does not belong — reports to James within twenty-four hours."He talked about the communication protocol.He talked about the specific boundary sections that required additional attention.He talked about the pack members in the wider
Knox's POVThe reports had been coming in for five days.Not all at once — in the specific incremental way that bad news arrived when it was trying not to be noticed. One report, then two days of quiet, then two more, then three in a single day. Marcus had been receiving them in the study with the door closed and James had been in and out and Knox had been watching his father's face at dinner and reading the thing that was sitting underneath the controlled surface of it.Dead wolves.Not natural deaths. Not accidents. The specific kind of death that left marks that the pack members who found them recognized immediately and reported immediately and that Marcus read and filed and was now sitting on enough of to require a gathering.He called it on a Tuesday.No announcement to the wider house — just Knox and James and two pack members who had driven in from the territory boundary, arriving at the house in the late afternoon and going immediately to the study.Knox was in the cave by nin
Ember's POVMy father put his cup down."Where did that come from?" he said."I need to know about her," I said. "About Vanessa. Who she was, where she came from, what she was like." I held his gaze. "I am twenty-two years old and I do not know my mother's name from my own father. I found it from someone else."He stared at me."Someone else told you her name," he said."Yes," I said."Who?" he said."That is not the conversation I am trying to have," I said. "The conversation I am trying to have is about my mother and why you have never spoken about her and what you are protecting me from by not speaking about her."My father looked at the table."This is not the right time," he said. "I have just come home. I am tired. There are things to deal with in this house that require my attention first and—""Dad," I said."Ember—""You just got home," I said. "I know that. I waited twenty minutes before I came down because I wanted to give you time." I held his gaze. "But I have been waitin
Ember's POVKnox called three times the next day.I did not answer the first two.The third time I picked up because not answering a third call was the kind of thing that produced a visit and I did not want a visit right now."Ember," he said."I am busy," I said."Are you okay?" he said."Yes," I said."You did not answer my calls," he said."I was in the middle of something," I said.A pause."What did Selena say yesterday?" he said. "After James left."I looked at the window of my room."We talked," I said."About what," he said."About the prophecy," I said. "About the Lycan world. About what needs to happen.""Ember," he said. "She is putting things in your head that—""Knox," I said. "I need some space."He went quiet."From me," he said."From the managing," I said. "From the version of things you think I should have." I held the phone. "Selena is my sister. She has information that is mine by right. And every time I engage with that information you have a response that is abou
Ember's POVThe fight started in the car.Not immediately — Knox drove for three minutes in the specific silence of someone who had too much to say and was choosing the order of it. Then he said it."You need to go home," he said.I looked at him."To your father's house," he said. "When your father comes back. You cannot stay here indefinitely and let Selena and James fill your head with things that—""Fill my head," I said."That is what is happening," he said. "You came here because you needed somewhere to be. That is done. Your situation at home is going to resolve when your father returns and you need to be there when it does.""You want me to leave," I said."I want you to go back to your life," he said. "Your actual life. Not a version of it that is being constructed by James and a person who stepped through a portal twenty-four hours ago and is already asking to take you to another world.""Selena is my sister," I said."Selena is someone who arrived with an agenda," he said.
Knox's POVThe moment the door clicked shut behind her, I lost the fight. I had been holding it back since the second I turned from the window and saw her eyes open in the dark, through all of her questions and all of her anger and all of the things she said that I knew I deserved. I had stood ther
Ember's POV I woke up in the middle of the night and for about three seconds, I didn't know where I was. Then it all came back. The party. Ethan. The key. Knox's apartment and the trophies on every shelf and the way he had looked at me when I told him I had never done this before — not with pity
Knox's POV I almost didn't go to the party. Parties were not really my thing, not in the way people thought they were. Everyone assumed that because I was the team captain and because girls always wanted to talk to me and because I had a reputation that followed me everywhere I went, I must love
Ember's POVTonight was supposed to be the best night of my life.I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and carefully lined my lips, taking my time the way I never usually did. I was the kind of girl who rushed through getting ready because there was always something more important waiting — a le







