ログインChapter 477XENOISShawn opened the door before I could."Hey," he said, too casually. "Just bringing him cookies. From Silvia. Medicine for the soul."I looked past him. Ollie was sitting on his bed, stiff as a board, a half-eaten cookie in his hand. The way he looked at me, you'd think I had come to arrest him."He's grounded, Shawn.""I know. I'm not unground-ing him. I'm just feeding him.""That's not your call."Shawn's smile slipped. "It's a cookie, Xen.""It's not about the cookie." I kept my voice down, but I could feel my wolf pushing up under my skin again, restless, angry for no reason I understood. "It's about me trying to set a rule, and everyone in this house walking around it. Thorne lets him in the dungeon. You sneak him snacks. Mom tells him I'm not gentle enough. How is he supposed to learn anything if nobody backs me up?"Shawn looked at me for a long moment. Something closed up in his face. I'd seen it before, the first months he lived with my parents. That careful
Chapter 476LYNShe lasted three hours before I found her.To be fair, I wasn't looking very hard for the first two. The coalition meeting started, and Alpha Grant complained about the coffee, and Alpha Reyes told the same joke about the border goats he tells every single time. Zade sat at the head of the table looking calm and patient, which is how I know he wanted to throw something. And Dominic Kingston sat at the far end and didn't hear a word anyone said.I watched him. He kept looking at the window. The window that faced the clinic.When the meeting broke for food, Zade caught my arm."Go," he said quietly. "I've got the boys.""I wasn't going to—""Lyn. You've been bouncing your leg under the table for an hour. Go."So I went.The clinic was empty except for Lynn, sitting on the counter with an ice pack on the back of her neck, staring at the wall like it had personally offended her. Martha had gone home. The little bell from above the door was lying on the floor, bent."Go awa
Chapter 475LYNNNo.That was my first thought. Not *mate*. Not *finally*. Not any of the stupid things you read in romance books where the girl looks into the man's eyes and the whole world stops.Just no.The world did stop, for a second. I'll admit that. His scent hit me like a wave, warm and woodsmoke and something that made my wolf roll over onto her back like a puppy. And he was standing there in the hallway, tall and broad, with shoulders that looked like he bench-pressed cars for fun, staring at me like I was the moon.My wolf said *mine*.I said, out loud, "Absolutely not."He blinked. "I'm sorry?"I bent down and picked my medical bag up off the floor. Bottles were everywhere. Ear drops. Fever syrup. A jar of the green salve I'd been rubbing on Zane's rash all morning, which explained the smear on my face that I only just remembered was there. Wonderful. I met my mate with baby rash cream on my cheek.My hands were shaking, which made me angrier."You heard me. I'm not doing
Chapter 474SHAWN"Somebody missing," I said. "Missing how?"Ollie pulled his knees up to his chest. He didn't look at me. He looked at the door, like he expected it to open at any second."I don't know," he said. "That's the problem. I don't know who. I just know.""Okay." I kept my voice low and easy, the way I'd talk to a scared animal. "Start at the beginning. Tell me how you know."So he told me.He told me about the smell. Wildflowers. How it came in his dreams since forever, and how sometimes he'd wake up and it was still in the room, just for a second. He told me about a tune he hummed without meaning to, one nobody else in the house knew."Hum it," I said.He went red. "No.""I won't laugh."He looked at me for a long moment. Then he hummed a few notes, very quietly, barely more than breathing. It was a soft tune. Slow. It went up and then came down gently, like someone rocking a baby.I didn't know it. But something in my chest went tight when I heard it, and I couldn't have
Chapter 473DOMINIC I shook it. "Alpha Zade. Thank you for having me.""This is my mate, Lyn," Zade said. There was no hesitation in his voice. No apology. "And these monsters are Zyn and Zane."The baby on Lyn's hip stared at me with huge serious eyes. Then he blew a raspberry."That's Zyn," Lyn said dryly. "He's our diplomat."I laughed, surprised at myself. "Good to meet you both."The one on Zade's leg peeked around at me, scowled the exact same scowl as his father, and hid again."And that's Zane," Zade said. "He bites.""Noted," I said."Come in," Zade said. "The others are arriving. Xenois sent word he's running late. Family business."Family business. I kept my face still. "Will his Luna be joining?"Zade gave me a careful look. He knew. Of course he knew. Everyone knew the Kingstons didn't like Sophia Blackwood."Not today," he said."Pity," I said, and I didn't mean it, and he knew that too.Lyn looked between us. He didn't say anything. But his eyes went narrow for a secon
Chapter 472DOMINICI hated coalition meetings.I hated the long drive. I hated the polite smiles. I hated sitting in a room full of alphas pretending we all liked each other while we argued about border maps and where Jerome Thorne might be hiding. Two years he had been gone. Two years of rumors and false sightings and wasted patrols. Every month someone swore they'd found him. Every month it was nothing.Mostly, I hated that the Blackwoods would be there.Not Xenois himself. Xenois was fine, as alphas went. Fair. Smart. A little too soft on the reforms for my taste, but fair. I could work with Xenois.It was his wife I couldn't stand being in the same room with.Sophia.My brother Marcus loved her. That was the problem. Before she went back to Xenois, there was a year, one year, when she was with Marcus. He was so happy he couldn't stop smiling. He bought a ring. He showed it to me in our mother's kitchen, grinning like a fool."Don't tell Mom yet," he said, turning the little box o
Chapter 317: LUMINA"How bad do you think this is going to be?" he asked quietly."I don't know," I admitted. "But I think we're about to find out exactly where your parents stand on everything. The changes, the boys, our leadership... all of it.""And if they're hostile? If they've sided with th
Chapter 311: Buried TruthsZADE"How did things go with Simon?" Lyn asked, clearly desperate to change the subject."Productively," I said, moving into the room and letting the door close behind Rivers and me. "We established some boundaries about interfering with pack stability and threatening my
Chapter 302: Figuring Out A PlanOLLIEThat's a terrible idea," I interrupted. "You can't just randomly portal into places where dangerous ancient creatures might be hanging out. What if you open a portal right in the middle of them? What if they grab you and pull you through before you can close i
Chapter 265; Parting JokesXENOISThe morning air carried a crispness that reminded me autumn was settling in properly now, the kind of cold that made breath visible and promised frost by week's end. I stood by our SUV, watching Lumina finish loading the last of our bags while trying not to think







