LOGINWREN’S POVThe ceremony itself happened at sunset exactly as tradition demanded. Black Diamond’s grounds transformed with soft lighting and simple elegant decoration that spoke of Victor’s careful attention despite his usual severe demeanor.Ronan waited at the front, dressed in deep charcoal that complemented my emerald perfectly. Violet fussy and squirming in his arms despite his best efforts to soothe her.I nearly laughed walking down the aisle watching this powerful, dangerous alpha bounce our daughter gently while she scrunched her face up in obvious displeasure at being confined to formal wear for the occasion. I think she is an introvert just like her momma. “She’s not happy about the outfit” I murmured, once I’d reached him, Victor standing witness just beside us with an expression of fierce pride.“She has excellent taste already” Ronan said, adjusting his hold as Violet finally settled slightly against his chest. “Formal wear is objectively terrible.”The ceremony itself
WREN’S POVVictor insisted on hosting it himself which surprised absolutely everyone except me.“You’re my niece” he’d said simply, when I hesitated over whether Black Diamond territory was even appropriate for something like this. “You’ll be claimed properly, in front of witnesses who actually matter, in a place that’s protected you when no one else did. I won’t have it any other way.”That settled it. Two packs, technically neutral toward each other for years are now standing together on Black Diamond soil for a ceremony that meant more than the desperate public claiming Ronan made months ago in a hall full of wolves who haven’t understood what they were witnessing.This time, everyone understood exactly what they were witnessing. The former Weirdo of the pack is standing as the Luna of the pack. Two decades younger than the alpha with a baby they named after his ex-wife who happens to be her mother. Oh God. We have the weirdest story in the history of werewolf. I’m sure we are go
WREN’S POVIfound him in the training yard the next morning, going through slow forms alone in the early light. His focus was so complete he didn’t notice me watching from the treeline for several long minutes.I studied him. The careful discipline in every movement, the exhaustion still visible beneath his composure. Seven months and several more weeks of patient waiting written into the tired set of his shoulders even now. I stepped into the clearing.He caught my scent immediately, turning toward me with the same careful hope he always carried now. He is no longer daring to assume anything beyond whatever I chose to offer.“Wren.” He straightened, wiping sweat from his brow. “Everything okay? Is Violet–”“She’s fine. Sleeping.” I crossed the distance between us slowly, my heart calm in a way it hasn’t been in months. “I need to tell you something.”“Okay.” His expression was off as if he was waiting for me to withdraw my decision. “I’m choosing this” I said, watching his face care
WREN’S POVI asked him to stay after the visit ended. He looked startled by the request, glancing toward the door like he expected me to change my mind before he’d even fully processed it. You want me to stay?” He tilted his head, his skin has tanned some more. “I want to try something.” I gestured toward the chair across from mine, my heart already pounding with the weight of what I was about to attempt. “Sit. Please.”He sat, careful and perplexed watching me with an expression that mixed hope with genuine confusion.“Victor’s told you about what I can do now. The ability and what it means.” I started toying with my fingers. “He mentioned something. I didn’t fully understand the specifics.”“I sense the gap” I said quietly, “between what someone says and what their wolf actually feels underneath it. Truth and performance and whether they align or not.” I held his gaze gathering the courage for what I was about to ask. “I want to use it on you. Fully this time. Not by accident, th
WREN’S POVI sat in the nursery that night after he’d left, Violet finally asleep and found myself doing something I hadn’t let myself do in weeks. Actually counting the moments. Not the claiming or the kneeling or the speech in the sitting room that I’d held at careful arm’s length for so long. The small ones. The ones I’d been filing away without admitting I was keeping score at all. The formula, for one.I’d mentioned once in passing, exhausted and barely paying attention to my own words. That the clinic’s usual brand had been out of stock for a week and Violet hated the substitute. Three days later a case of the correct brand appeared outside my door with no note attached. I haven’t asked how he’d found out. Camille had let it slip weeks later that he’d called four different suppliers across two territories until he found one still carrying it. He’d never mentioned it himself. Never used it as evidence in his own favor. I’d only known because I paid attention.Then there was the
WREN’S POVI started allowing supervised visits twice a week, careful hour long windows where Ronan could sit with Violet under my direct watch. I never left alone with her or given more than exactly what I’d decided he’d earned so far. He never pushed for more.That alone had done more to soften my guard than anything else these past weeks. He simply arrived on schedule, sat wherever I indicated and gave Violet his complete, undivided attention for the full hour without once glancing toward me with any expectation beyond what I’d already offered.Today he sat on the nursery floor, his large frame folded awkwardly to accommodate the low height of the space. A soft rattle in his hand that he shook gently while Violet watched with the intense, unfocused concentration of a two-month-old encountering something fascinating for the first time.“You’re getting better at that,” I said from my chair near the window, watching him.“At rattles?” A small, surprised smile crossed his face. “High p
Ronan’s POV I stood outside the cabin, leaning against the wall and staring out at the restless ocean. The wind carried the salty tang of the waves, and the crashing sounds filled the silence that hung around me. But nothing, none of it could drown out the chaos in my mind. Inside that cabi
WREN. The sun was high when I decided to leave the cabin. The air was warm and sticky and for once I wanted nothing more than to feel the sea against my skin. I told Ronan I was going for a swim nothing more than that. He didn’t argue and he just gave me one of those long looks that always makes m
MASON’S POV Mason sat at the head of the long mahogany table with his fingers drumming soundlessly against the polished surface. The air in the room was thick with cigar smoke and the weight of unsaid words. His council members consisting of the six of the most cunning and ruthless strategists
WREN’S POV Sleep refused to come. I had spent hours staring at the ceiling, tangled in sheets that still smelled like Ronan my body thrumming with the memory of his hands, his mouth, the way he had taken me in that elevator like he owned me. Like he had every right to claim me. But my thoughts







