LOGINElara
I heard him coming down the hallway before he arrived. My ears had already calibrated to his particular stride, and my nose had his scent long before his knock came at the door — soft at first, then harder when I didn’t immediately respond. The mark on my shoulder thrummed at his nearness like it was reaching toward him.
I set my phone down with deliberate slowness, feeling something st
LouisaFootsteps thundered toward the mill, and ten of my father’s guards came running in. Someone hit the lights, and the scene was suddenly fully illuminated under flickering fluorescents — just in time for Kaelen’s head to slide backward off his neck, opening his throat like a book. The weight of it threw his whole body off balance, and he toppled over backwards onto the cement floor.“Are you okay, Miss Louisa?” one of the soldiers asked.“I’m fine.” I looked around at their faces, recognizing them. “Why are you here?”“Your father sent us to keep an eye on Kaelen.” He cast a look of undisguised disgust at the body bleeding out across the floor. “Alpha Forge said we were to protect you and Elara, come what may.”“Well, you are a little late for that!” I growled — but somewhere underneath the frustration, something small and warm stirred
Chapter 77: The Scrimtana’s JusticeKaelenI wasn’t counting on my mate stabbing me in the goddamn chest.It hurt like a motherfker, and the burning alone nearly dropped me, but somehow the bch had managed to slide the blade between my ribs without finding my heart. Pretty sure she punctured my lung. But she had stupidly forgotten that we were a marked pair, and she was already on her knees, gasping and crying.I’d been willing to make her my queen. After this, I’d keep her on her knees for the rest of her life — however long that turned out to be. Louisa was pulling her into her arms, and it was almost too easy to level the pistol at both of them. I paused for a moment, genuinely considering whether I could place the shot precisely enough t
Mandi“You know this is a setup, right? He only came and said all that to make you follow him.” I was jogging to keep up with Elara as she strode down the hallway, her steps long and deliberate. I didn’t know where she was headed until she turned down the corridor toward the gym.Elara didn’t stop until she reached the heavy door. She turned with her hand on the handle and looked back at me. “Yeah, I know.”“But you’re going anyway?”“Well, yeah.” She flashed me that c.ocky grin before she pushed the door open and hit the lights.She was so beautiful in her confidence. It also terrified me. Kaelen might be her fated mate, but I had known him for most of my life. I knew exactly what a sick f**k he was, and how cruel he could be when he felt like it. My blood ran hot and cold at the same time — desire and dread, right next to each other. I loved Elara. The thought of her g
KaelenElara thought she had me by the short hairs. She had absolutely no idea what I was capable of.I shrugged my jacket over my new fatigues and went to her room. Even before I reached the white door I could hear voices on the other side. Mandi was in there. I couldn’t help but smile.It just kept getting better.I knocked firmly. A moment later Elara yanked the door open, her lovely face flushed with annoyance. One look at her and I felt desire coil deep in my gut.“What do you want now?” she snapped.I looked past her into the pink and white bedroom. Mandi was on the bed, leaning against the headboard. If it hadn’t been for her scent, I might have doubted it was the same person I had known almost my entire life. She had cut her hair short, and she was wearing black leather shorts and a tight halter top. Surprisingly sexy. The Mandi I remembered would never have dressed that way. More than the clothes, though
ElaraI was coming down the hall running a towel through my hair, still sweaty from the gym, not yet to my room for a proper shower, when I caught Kaelen’s voice from inside my father’s office.“This is extremely urgent, Alpha Forge. I have a man on the inside — a council member — who told me that Julian is planning to strike tonight!”I shifted position to see through the gap. My father was behind his desk, face set in its default mask of careful neutrality. “Why would Julian attack Silvercrest? We have a long history of peaceful and mutually beneficial relations.”Kaelen stood from his chair. His eyes cut to the door, and I knew he had already registered my presence. “I should think it was obvious. Julian wants to claim Silvercrest for himself. Now that he has Louisa, he may feel entitled to your pack. He can’t risk that I’ll rise again.”“If Julian has marked Lo
LouisaThe day of Julian’s Alpha ceremony will be embedded in my memory for the rest of my life. It was as though not only his title was restored, but something deeper — his soul, maybe, or simply the version of himself he had been before grief had hollowed him out. He looked so handsome up on that podium. So certain of himself. And yet he was still the same quietly humble man I had fallen in love with.The months of recovery had done their work. The bony hollows had filled back in with muscle, and he didn’t even break a sweat carrying me up the stairs and laying me in the center of his bed. He crawled over me, knees bracketing my hips, and I ran my hands up his thighs and over his hips with a sense of satisfaction I didn’t bother to hide.“Alpha Julian,” I purred, reaching for the hook of his suit tro
KaelenLouisa had been unusually subdued since our visit to Silvercrest, and I was grateful for the reprieve from her constant disdainful looks and disapproving silences. I had my own preoccupations. I was nearly certain I had scented my fated mate at the Silvercrest pack house — Louisa’s younger s
LouisaHow could this have happened?I imagined every woman who had ever stared down an unplanned pregnancy had asked herself exactly that. It was a silly question — we all knew perfectly well how it happened. But in my case I was genuinely puzzled. It was common pack knowledge that despite more th
MandiSomething was wrong with the Luna. I could feel it — and I suspected the whole pack could too. Ever since she came back from Silvercrest she was different. She still moved through her days with her head up, still smiled at the right moments, but it was like someone had turned down a dimmer on
LouisaVisiting Silvercrest had unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.I had always known the plan — Kaelen would absorb my father’s pack when he eventually retired, and the two would merge under Night Rising leadership. But my father was still strong, still sharp, and the thought of Kaelen swee







