LOGINKael POV I sat there with the phone still in my hand and felt a smile pull at my mouth. Three days. She was coming back. Helena was coming home. She had left because Liena was here, and because the pack still looked at the rejected mate with soft eyes. Now she was returning because I had taken away every reason she had to stay away. I stood up. My body felt strong and clear. I walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. The stairs were ahead of me, and I was already planning the next three days. There would be fresh flowers in all the main rooms. Her favorite foods would be in the kitchen. I would tell the staff to keep Liena's name out of every talk. When Helena first arrived, Ethan would stay with my mother or with a guard we trusted. There would be no surprises and no scenes. I reached the top of the stairs and stopped. My mother was walking toward me. Elena's face looked tight. Her hands were folded in front of her, the way they always were when she was thinking hard. She sto
Kael POV I stood outside the hospital room for a long time after I left Liena. The door was shut. The nurses walked past me as if I were part of the wall. Nobody looked at my face. I did not feel guilty. I did not feel heavy. I felt light, like I had put down something I had carried for months. Everything Helena wanted was done. The baby was gone. The womb was gone. Both of Liena's legs were broken and set in heavy casts. She could not walk away. She could not stand up straight. She could not fight. The doctors had followed every order. The cuts were clean. The work was careful. They did nothing extra that I had not asked for. Helena had said she wanted Liena unable to stand beside me. She did not want her walking through the pack house as if she belonged there. I gave her exactly that. I told myself it was simple. She asked, and I did it. I walked out to my car and sat inside for a moment. My hands were steady on the wheel. I drove away from the hospital with the windows down, e
Liena POV The darkness did not last long enough. I came back to myself in pieces. First the cold of the table under my back, the bright lights burning through my eyelids. Soft straps still held my wrists. Something heavier pressed across my thighs too. My wolf clawed at the inside of my ribs, frantic and silent, because the drugs still sat heavy in my blood. I tried to speak. The sound that left me was thin and broken. A nurse leaned into my blurred vision. “She’s waking again.” Another voice, male, calm and clinical, answered from somewhere above my head. “Increase the dose. We can’t have her conscious for this.” I felt the cold rush in the line at my arm. The room tilted. I fought it. My wolf fought it. For a few seconds the edges of the lights sharpened and I saw the tray of instruments to my right, gleaming metal, clamps, something that looked like a saw. Panic slammed through me so hard my body jerked against the straps. “No…” The word scraped out of me. “Kael… where is
Liena POV I sat in Ethan’s room at the desk by the window, helping him with his school work. The math sheet was spread out between us. He was working on the last few problems, his small hand gripping the pencil tight. His wolf scent was light and clean, mixed with the smell of paper and the open window letting in the afternoon air. “You got that one right,” I told him. “Now try the next. Take your time.” Ethan nodded and bent over the page again. I watched him for a second, then pointed to a number he had written. “Check that one more time. You carried the two, remember?” He erased it carefully and rewrote the answer. “Like this, Mom?” “Yes. Good job.” The door opened without a knock. Kael walked in. His steps were quiet on the floor. His face stayed calm, the same even look he always wore these days. No smile. No frown. Just steady. “Liena,” he said. His voice was flat and even. “I want to talk to you.” I turned in the chair. Ethan looked up for a second, then went back to hi
Helena POV The manipulation continued the way it always did when I needed something from him. The mate bond tugged weak and familiar under my skin, but I kept it buried. My wolf stayed quiet. I made my voice soft and tired on purpose. “I know you don’t mean that word, Kael,” I told him. “You love Liena. Not me. Your parents already chose her. The pack is choosing her. You’re only saying what you think will bring me home.” His answer came flat, empty of any heat. “I love you. Not her. My parents may favor her, but that does not change what I feel. The bond is with you.” I let the silence stretch so he would keep talking. He did, still in that same even tone. “Their feelings for her do not touch mine. Nothing changes that I choose you.” “You say that now. But every time something goes wrong she is the one they protect. I am the one they look at like trash. Tell me the truth. You love her more than your own wife.” “I do not,” he said. No rise. No softness. Just the words. “I love y
Helena POV The phone kept ringing. I stared at Kael’s name on the screen and let it go to voicemail. The room around me stayed quiet. My mother and father had gone to the kitchen to make tea. Soft voices drifted from down the hall. I set the phone face-down on the dining table and finished the last bite of pie. The sweetness sat heavy on my tongue. The phone rang again. Same name. Same steady pulse of light. I ignored it a second time. Then a third. By the fourth call my mother peeked around the doorway. “Everything all right?” she asked. “Just work,” I said. “I’ll take it upstairs.” I picked up the phone and my bag and walked to the guest room they always kept ready for me. The bed was made with clean sheets that smelled like the laundry soap my mother had used since I was a child. I closed the door, sat on the edge of the mattress, and watched the screen light up once more. This time I answered. “Helena.” Kael’s voice came through flat at first, then cracked with something n
Liena’s POV When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I saw was a white ceiling and walls above me. For several seconds, I simply stared at it without moving. Everything felt strange. My body felt heavy, and my head hurt like someone had hit me with a stone. A faint smell of medicine filled th
Leina’s POVKael leaned closer to Helena, his expression calm and gentle.“I’m sorry you had to see her earlier,” he said softly while touching her hand across the table. “She showed up unexpectedly. I didn’t plan for that.”His voice was warm. The exact same soft voice he used on me for years.“Bu
Leina’s POVAs if nothing had happened, Kael’s expression quickly softened.“My Luna…” he called gently while walking toward me. Like I hadn’t just caught him holding another woman.“Sweetheart…” he said again, smiling warmly. The same smile that used to melt my heart every single time. “Happy anni
Leina’s POVThe car stopped smoothly in front of Blackthorn Pack Enterprises building, Kael’s company.I look up at the massive glass building shining under the afternoon sun. My heart, beating so fast in anticipation. I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay calm before stepping out of the c







