ANMELDENDelilah's POVThe Alpha Council came on a Tuesday.I was grinding feverfew at my herb station when Margaret walked in from outside with her face set in stone and her hands gripping the doorframe like she needed it to hold her up."Council wolves just came through the main gate," she said. "Four of them. Full formal delegation with Alpha Thorne leading."My hands stopped on the pestle. "Thorne is here personally?""He's not the only one. Beta Crest is with him. And two council elders I don't recognize from any of the local packs." She lowered her voice. "They're meeting with Corbin right now and Ryker was called in five minutes ago."Stella appeared behind Margaret with wide eyes and a face that had gone pale. "They brought a formal summons. I saw the seal on the paper when they walked past."I set the pestle down and wiped my hands on a cloth. "A summons for who?"Margaret looked at me and I already knew the answer before she said it."You."The summons reached me within the hour. A y
Delilah's POV The weeks after Jaxon left were the quietest the compound had been since I came back.The gossip didn't stop but it changed shape. People still stared when I walked through the kitchens and the whispers still followed me between the healing center and my cabin.But the word "deviant" showed up less and the word "healer" showed up more, and somewhere around the fifth week Goss came back to the healing center with a new gash and sat on my table without making a single comment about my personal life.Dante didn't miss a morning.Six weeks straight he was on that training field at dawn and I was there beside him and we fought hard enough that the rest of the world shut up for an hour. He hit back now, matching me strike for strike, and I'd started landing combinations Helena would have been proud of.After sessions we'd stand on the field catching our breath and sometimes we'd talk about the weather or a supply shipment or whether Margaret's new bone saw was better than the
Delilah's POVI asked to see him the next morning.Corbin arranged it in the small meeting room off the Alpha's house with Ryker standing outside the door as a witness that the conversation happened on Nightshade terms, not Riverbend's.Jaxon was already inside when I walked in. He stood up the second the door opened and his ice-blue eyes locked onto me with a hunger that made my skin crawl because I'd seen that look before on a different face in a different life and it had meant nothing then either.He looked worse up close. The scar on his jaw was raised and pink like it hadn't healed properly. His cheekbones cut sharper than they should have and the shadows under his eyes were deep enough to hold water. His hands were shaking at his sides and he kept clenching and unclenching them like he couldn't control the tremors.His wolf was dying. I could feel it through the old bond, a faint ragged pulse where there used to be a steady hum. Whatever connection had survived the rejection was
Delilah's POV Three days after Mateo's rejection, a runner came through the eastern gate at full speed during the morning shift.I was elbow-deep in a wound irrigation when Stella burst through the healing center door with her face white and her hands shaking."Delilah. You need to come outside.""I'm with a patient.""Now."Her voice made me look up. Margaret was already moving toward my station to take over and the look on her face told me she'd heard whatever Stella had heard.I peeled off my gloves, washed my hands, and walked to the door.The compound had that electric hum again, the same buzz it carried when Dante had rejected Celeste. Wolves clustered along the main path, all of them facing the front gate.I followed their eyes and my feet stopped moving before my brain caught up.Jaxon Sterling was walking through the gates of Nightshade territory with two Riverbend warriors behind him and a rolled paper in his hand.I hadn't seen him since the night he'd stood on a stage in
Delilah's POV The news reached me before breakfast.I was braiding my hair in front of the small mirror Helena had left when Storm lifted her head and a low hum spread through the bond from Mateo's side. It wasn't grief or guilt or the ragged mess I'd felt from him the night he'd knelt on my porch. This was calm and steady and sure, like a decision that had already been made."He did it," Storm said quietly.I didn't ask what. I already knew.Stella confirmed it when I walked into the healing center. She was practically bouncing behind the supply curtain and the words tumbled out before I'd set down my bag."Mateo rejected Thalia. This morning. On the main grounds in front of everyone. Full formal rite, old words, Corbin officiating. She screamed at him, Delilah. Like screamed. The whole compound heard it."Margaret was at the basin washing her hands slower than any pair of hands needed to be washed, her mouth set in a line that meant she was biting her tongue."Details," I said, pul
Delilah's POV Week two and Dante started fighting back.Not all at once. He didn't come swinging like I did every morning with everything I had. But on day eight his blocks got sharper and on day nine he started returning combinations instead of just absorbing them. Quick bursts, controlled, pulling every strike before it landed so I felt the air move past my face without the impact.Now I had to defend as well as attack, and the Silvermoon sense had to work twice as hard to track his movements while keeping my own guard tight. He was fast. Faster than I'd expected from a wolf his size, and his technique was clean in a way that told me somebody had trained him properly long before I showed up."Who taught you to fight?" I asked on day ten, breathing hard after a round that had pushed me further than any session so far."My mother."I blinked. "Your mother.""She was a warrior before she mated my father. Ranked third in her pack's fighting corps." He picked up his water and drank. "Sh
Delilah's POV I'd carefully gathered the pieces of the photo and the broken frame and placed them gently in a box before hiding it in the back of my closet, then sat down at my desk and opened my laptop and started searching for healer training programs as far away from here as I could possibly ge
Delilah's POVI pushed off the wall and walked away from the break room before anyone could catch me eavesdropping, my vision blurring with tears I refused to let fall while my chest felt so tight I could barely breathe.The morning dragged on with more of the same cold shoulders and whispered conv
Delilah's POV My entire being grew cold and the kitchen seemed to go very quiet even though nothing had actually changed."Oh," I said and my smile felt frozen on my face. "I must have been confused then.""Besides," Mom said with a little laugh as she turned back to her pancakes, "even if I had b
Delilah's POV I was stunned at the sight before me.The bathroom had been transformed into something out of a luxury spa. Steam rose from the bathtub in soft curls and the water's surface was covered in rose petals, deep crimson and soft pink scattered across the steaming water like floating jewel







