ログインDante's POV "You need to leave," I said."I'm not leaving until someone tells me where Delilah is.""You lost the right to say her name when you rejected her on a stage in front of her entire pack."His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared and for a second he looked like he was going to hit me back. "My father forced that rejection. He threatened to kill her if I didn't comply. He's dead now and I'm Alpha and I came here to find her and make it right.""She's not here.""I know she's not here. I know she disappeared after your little Summit stunt." He stepped closer and his wolves tensed behind him."I know what you did to her. Word travels, Blackwell. Half the packs between here and Riverbend are talking about the Beta's sons who fucked their stepsister and then paraded their political brides in front of her."My fist connected with his jaw before I'd made the conscious decision to swing.Jaxon took it clean and came back with a hook that caught me above the ear and sent white light
Dante's POVHis voice dropped low and dangerous. "You made her trust you and then you let her watch you stand on a stage next to other women and you didn't even have the decency to warn her.""We were trying to protect—""PROTECT HER?" Ryker's laugh was ugly and raw. "She's been missing for over a month. Nobody knows if she's alive or dead. Her mother hasn't slept since the Summit. That's what your protection did."He turned away from us and paced toward the window and braced his fists against the sill. His breathing was too controlled, the way it got when he was keeping himself from doing real damage."You want to talk about protection?" he said. "Let me tell you about protection."I wiped the blood from my lip and waited for whatever was coming next, and the way his voice had dropped told me it was going to be worse than the punch."Two weeks before the Summit, Alpha Corbin pulled me aside after a council session. Whispers had reached the other packs. People were talking about my so
Dante's POV Six weeks.Forty-two days since Delilah Calloway walked out of that room at Ironridge and disappeared into the dark, and I was sitting in my office at two in the morning because the alternative was lying next to a woman I couldn't touch.Celeste was asleep down the hall. She'd stopped asking me to come to bed three nights ago, which was an improvement over the first two weeks when she'd stand in the doorway of my office in silk nightgowns and wait for me to look up from my desk. I never did.The mating ceremony had been exactly what I deserved. Three weeks after the Summit, under a full moon that should have meant something, I'd let Celeste Thorne mark my neck while my wolf howled in protest so loud I could barely hear the officiant.Her teeth broke skin and the bond tried to form and my body rejected it like poison. I'd gripped her arms to keep from pulling away and smiled for the crowd and hated every second of it.She'd tried to kiss me that night. Pulled me toward the
Delilah's POV"Thornroot. For blood clotting." The answer came just as fast, rising from somewhere deep in my gut rather than my head, from a place I didn't know I had.Helena didn't smile but her eyes changed. The steadiness in them softened and she set the thornroot down and pulled five more bundles from her bag and lined them up and I named every single one without hesitating."That's Silvermoon," she said quietly. "That's the healer in you. It's been dormant but it's not gone."The herbs were the only thing that didn't make me want to quit. The rest was misery. I hurt all the time and my sleep was broken and every night I lay on the cot staring at the ceiling thinking about the people I'd left behind.Not just Dante and Mateo. My mother, who had no idea where I was or whether I was alive. Stella and Cara at the healing center, who had been the closest thing to friends I'd had at Nightshade.Even Ryker, who had tried in his own stiff way to make me feel welcome and who was still th
Delilah's POVThe first week nearly killed me.Helena had me running before dawn every morning, human form, through trails so steep my calves burned by the second mile. I'd never been a runner. At Nightshade I could barely make it through the pack's standard fitness drills without falling behind.Here the trails climbed straight up the mountain through loose rock and roots that grabbed at my ankles in the dark.I fell constantly. The first day I tripped on a root and slid ten feet down a dirt slope and lay there panting and staring at the sky and wondering what the hell I'd agreed to.Helena stood at the top of the slope and watched. She didn't offer her hand and she didn't tell me to get up. She just stood there until I got up on my own and then she turned around and kept running.By day three my legs were so stiff I had to roll out of the cot sideways and ease myself onto the floor. By day five my body had stopped screaming and settled into a low, constant ache that followed me from
Delilah's POV"You'll never be strong enough to matter." I said it flat and quiet. "My old pack's training master said it when I was twelve. I was the smallest in my age group and he said it in front of everyone during combat drills.""That was a lie," Helena said."That was a lie," I repeated, and it felt hollow and mechanical and pointless."Next one.""No wolf is going to want a mate with a runt wolf like yours." A girl from my old pack whose name I couldn't even remember. She'd said it at a bonfire and everyone had laughed."That was a lie.""That was a lie.""Keep going."They came faster after that, pulled out of me one at a time, each one bringing a face and a voice and a weight in my chest I didn't know I'd been carrying. The mean girls at school who ranked wolves by size. The training partners who refused to spar with me because I wasn't worth the effort. The elder at Riverbend who told my mother that a wolf my size would be lucky to find a mate at all."That was a lie. That
Delilah’s POVI didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I had to get away from the packhouse, away from Mateo’s poison still burning in my ears, away from the kitchen staff who’d watched me break and done nothing.The forest path stretched ahead of me and I followed it blindly with tears streami
Delilah’s POVHis words hung in the air between us like a death sentence. The night’s still young.I stepped around him without responding and forced my legs to keep moving even though they felt like jelly. My heart hammered against my ribs and my hands shook as I gripped the tray, but I couldn’t l
Delilah’s POVI dragged myself out of bed and got dressed, choosing long sleeves to hide the bandages on my hands. My reflection looked hollow and exhausted, dark circles under my eyes that makeup couldn’t quite hide.The walk downstairs felt like walking to my execution.Everyone was already seated
Delilah’s POVSitting with wolves my age meant sitting with people who’d heard Mateo’s accusations at the healing center. People who thought I was diseased and contaminated and not worth knowing.“Actually,” I said quickly, “I was thinking I could help serve instead.”Mom’s smile faltered. “Serve?







