LOGINScarlett found Damian standing at the tall windows overlooking the front drive, his silhouette rigid against the gray light of early morning."He's still out there," she said, moving to stand beside him."He's been standing at that gate for the better part of an hour." Damian did not turn from the window. "My men tell me he refuses to leave."Scarlett followed his gaze toward the distant iron fence, barely able to make out the shape of a lone figure through the mist. Something in her chest tightened at the sight, an old ache surfacing despite everything that had happened since the ceremony."You told Eleanor to send him away.""I did.""Why?"Damian finally turned to face her, his expression carefully composed in a way that told her he had already anticipated this conversation. "Because the last time that man stood in front of you, he destroyed you in front of everyone who mattered to you. I wasn't inclined to give him a second opportunity without your consent.""That should have been
The iron gates of Blackwood territory rose out of the mist like something built to keep the world out rather than let anyone in.Logan stood alone at the edge of the estate, his second in command and a handful of warriors waiting several paces behind him, watching as a row of armed guards assembled on the other side of the fence line. None of them wore pack colors. None of them carried themselves like ordinary security either."Alpha Blackwood." The lead guard's voice carried no warmth, no deference, nothing but flat professional caution. "This land does not welcome uninvited wolves.""I'm not here to fight." Logan kept his hands visible, his tone deliberately even despite the exhaustion dragging at every word. "I need to speak with Damian D'Angelo.""Mr. D'Angelo does not receive unscheduled visitors.""Then tell him Logan Blackwood is asking about Scarlett De Luca." Logan's voice cracked slightly on her name, the first time he had said it aloud since learning she might be dead. "Tel
Logan had not slept since the ceremony, and he doubted he would sleep again until he knew Scarlett was safe.He stood at the edge of the pack's war room, staring at a map spread across the long wooden table, its surface marked with pins showing every known route out of the territory. None of it had brought them any closer to finding her. Three hours of searching, three hours of silence from every scout he had sent into the mountains, and the storm outside showed no signs of relenting."Alpha." Marcus stepped into the doorway, his weathered face drawn tight with exhaustion. "You should rest. The scouts will report the moment they find anything.""I can't rest." Logan did not look up from the map. "Not while she's out there because of what I did.""You did what the Council required of you.""I did what I thought I had no choice but to do." Logan's hands curled into fists against the table's edge. "There's a difference, and I've had three hours to sit with it."Marcus said nothing, thoug
The voice faded as quickly as it had come, leaving Scarlett gasping in its wake, her wrist still burning beneath her sleeve."Scarlett." Damian's hands closed around her shoulders, steadying her before her knees could buckle. "Look at me. What happened?""My wrist," she managed, her voice unsteady. "It burns. Something spoke to me."His expression shifted from alarm to something closer to dread. "Show me."She pushed back her sleeve with trembling fingers. The crescent shaped birthmark she had carried since childhood no longer looked like a birthmark at all. Fine silver lines had spread outward from it, tracing intricate patterns across her skin, faintly luminous even in the dim light of the hall.Several guards nearby went still, their eyes fixed on her wrist with an expression Scarlett could only describe as reverence. One of them, an older man she did not recognize, lowered his head slightly, the way she had seen the wolves do in the forest hours earlier."Why is he looking at me l
The shape by the garden wall did not move.Scarlett's breath caught as she rose slowly from Eleanor's side, her eyes fixed on the crouched figure watching them from the shadows. For a moment she braced for another attacker, another threat crawling out of the dark to finish what tonight had started.Then the shape shifted into the drone's floodlight, and Scarlett recognized the tactical vest, the calm, tired posture of a man doing his job. One of Sebastian's own."Perimeter's clear," the guard called softly, lowering his weapon. "We swept the wall line the second the extraction team moved. No other signatures."Sebastian exhaled, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. "Copy that. Good work."Scarlett let herself breathe again, though her pulse refused to fully settle. Beside her, Eleanor was still cradling her son against her chest, rocking him gently as he clung to her, silent and shaking, the blindfold finally gone from his eyes."Thank you," Eleanor whispered, not looking up. "T
Silence answered Sebastian a second time, and then a third, each unanswered call sharpening the dread already tightening Scarlett's chest."We're not standing here," she said. "Not while he's out there.""You're not going into that garden." Sebastian's voice left no room for argument, though his eyes never stopped scanning the tree line. "Damian would have my head, assuming the enemy didn't take it first.""Then send someone who isn't you.""Everyone who isn't me is already fighting upstairs." He pressed the radio again, jaw tight. "Command, this is Sebastian. I need eyes on the east tree line, now."Static answered, then a single burst of a voice, distorted and faint. "Copy, Sebastian. Drone's inbound. Give us thirty seconds."Thirty seconds felt like an impossible length of time to Scarlett, standing at the edge of a garden that had swallowed a child whole. She thought of the boy's small, blindfolded face, of Eleanor's shaking hands, of every choice that had led an innocent ten-year







