LOGINBROOK'S POVThe blood drained from my face. For one terrifying moment, my heart stopped beating altogether.Did she hear me?My mind raced through the last few minutes, trying to remember how much I had said. Every horrible possibility flashed through my head at once, each one ending the same way.I turned toward the doorway, my pulse pounding so loudly in my ears that it drowned out every other sound.Brooks looked from me to Theo before a look of pleasant surprise spread across her face. Her lips curved into a warm smile."Theo."She took a few more steps into the room, stopping a short distance from him as she looked him over."I didn't know you were back. How have you been?"Theo's lips twitched into a smile of his own. It was much smaller, but it was genuine all the same."I've been alright."Brooks tilted her head slightly, her eyes lingering on him for a second longer as though deciding whether she believed him. A faint smile tugged at her lips."You don't exactly look 'alright
LEVI'S POVFor a brief second, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."Theo?"He stepped fully into the room before quietly closing the door behind him, and I found myself staring at him in silence.Of all the people I had expected to see that day, he wasn't one of them. Not after everything that had happened.The last time we had spoken, I had given him an indefinite leave from his duties. It hadn't been an easy decision, but it was one I had never questioned.I didn't want him anywhere near the palace while he was carrying the crushing weight of Sera's death.There were wounds that couldn't be healed by burying yourself in work, and I knew him well enough to understand that returning to his responsibilities before facing his grief would only make things worse.I had hoped the time away would give him the space he needed to mourn properly, even if I doubted he ever truly would.As I looked at him more carefully, I realized he had changed.His clothes hung more loosely on him th
LEVI'S POVLaying back against the headboard in our bedroom, my phone rested comfortably in one hand while the television played quietly across the room. I wasn't really paying attention to either. My thumb moved absentmindedly across the screen, but my mind was somewhere else entirely.No matter how hard I tried to push everything aside, I kept finding myself thinking about the White Wolves and about Sir William's words. It was unsettling to realize that even after my father's death, I was still uncovering parts of him that I had never truly known.I sighed quietly and continued scrolling through my phone until the voice of the newscaster suddenly caught my attention."On the headlines tonight. There has been a mysterious death of an elderly man at the Palace. Eyewitnesses claimed the man approached the Queen moments before collapsing and dying."My attention shifted almost immediately, and I looked up just as an image of the palace gates appeared on the screen, followed by an image
LEVI'S POVI didn't waste another second.The pendant remained where I had left it on my desk. If my father had hidden a book about the White Wolves among his belongings, then there was no reason to believe that was the only thing he had kept from the rest of the world.I rose from my chair and headed straight back to his old study and gathered every remaining document, report, letter and loose sheet of paper that mentioned the White Wolves, stacking them neatly in my arms before returning to my own study.The pile was considerably larger than I had expected, and as I placed it on my desk, I let out a slow breath before taking my seat once more.One by one, I began going through them.Most of them seemed to tell the same story, only with different wording. Every report labeled the White Wolves as a growing threat to the kingdom. They were described as powerful, unpredictable, and increasingly difficult to control.I continued reading, and it was the same thing.The White Wolves had be
LEVI'S POVWithout thinking, I reached for the pendant and snatched it from Brooks' hand before taking hold of her wrist and pulling her another step farther away from the old man's decayed body.I wasn't willing to take even the smallest chance with her safety. She looked at me in surprise, but I barely noticed as my attention immediately shifted to the guards surrounding us."What happened?"The guards exchanged uneasy glances before one of them stepped forward."Alpha, the old man arrived at the palace demanding to see the Queen. We tried to stop him, but when the Queen came outside, he broke free from us, rushed to her, knelt before her, called her his Queen, handed her the pendant... and then he died."I stared at him in disbelief, struggling for a moment to process what I had just heard. Then anger surged through me so quickly that I didn't even try to hide it."You let him get to her?"My voice came out sharper, causing several of the guards to lower their heads even further."
LEVI'S POVI had spent weeks trying to convince myself that everything was nothing more than an impossible series of coincidences.Every time my thoughts wandered toward Brooks, the White Wolves, or the strange things Rowan had said and done over the past few months, I found another excuse to silence them.I told myself I was overthinking, and that my mind was simply looking for another mystery to solve because it wasn't used to peace.But no matter how many times I tried to reason with myself, the same thoughts always found their way back.Individually, perhaps they could have been dismissed. Together, they were becoming far too much to ignore. I couldn't explain why Brooks had become connected to the stories surrounding the White Wolves, and I couldn't explain why Rowan had repeatedly said things that no six-year-old should have been able to know and even understand.The more I thought about it, the less any of it felt like coincidence.I let out a slow breath and rubbed a tired h
BROOK’S POVAll I felt was anger.Hot, sharp, consuming anger that burned through everything else the moment those words left his mouth. The audacity of him standing there, in front of me, acting like I still belonged to him after everything he did, it made my blood boil.“That is none of your busi
BROOKS POV The palace was very grand.That was the first thing that hit me the moment we stepped in, and it didn’t ease even after hours of being there. Everything was big, polished, and perfect. The floors gleamed like they had never seen dirt, the walls stretched higher than anything, and every
LEVI'S POV The drive back to the palace was quiet.I kept both hands firmly on the wheel. I had insisted on driving myself and dismissed the driver without a second thought. I didn’t want anyone else in the car. I didn’t want any distractions. I wanted them with me. Just them.Brooks and my son.“
BROOKS I was still trapped in that split second between shock and disbelief. My arms were locked tight around my son, too tight, like loosening my hold for even a second would make everything fall apart.My chest felt hollow, each breath shallow and uneven, like my lungs couldn’t quite remember ho







