Se connecterI straightened up. My heart was pounding. I looked around the room and for a single, disorienting moment, I had no idea where I was. The black stone walls, the red sky beyond the window, the dead air of this place—none of it felt right. None of it felt like mine. I felt like a man who had woken up m
Andrei’s POVThe collar of my shirt was pissing me off.I had fastened it twice already and it still insisted on sitting crooked, pulling too tight on the left side. I undid it a third time and redid it, slower, watching my hands in the mirror rather than my own face. My reflection had been botherin
Natalia’s POVHe didn’t hesitate.The moment I swung the rod toward him, his hand shot out and closed around my wrist like a vise. My arm wrenched sideways, and I felt the bones grind together under his grip, and the rod fell. It clattered somewhere on the stone floor, rolling away into the darkness
Andrei’s POVThe room was warm. The bed was soft and plush, the pillows made of feathers and velvet. Everything smelled familiar, the kind of scent that you recognize from a past life but can never put a finger on its source.Home.The woman was laying next to me, just as she always did. Amber hair
But I would do it, because the alternative was my children going through whatever came next, and that was not something I was willing to consider.I wasn’t certain yet. That was the only reason I was still trying so hard now. Because there was still a small part of me that thought that there must be
Natalia’s POVThey came for me after what felt like a full day. I say felt like because it really could have been any amount of time, or none at all. But someone did bring me some slop to eat at some point, so that had to have meant that at least a full cycle had passed.I was on my feet before the
NataliaThe meal began simply enough, with Alexander asking basic questions about my life in foster care and how I’d ended up in Ashmoor. I found myself eager to share, hungry for any connection to the family I’d never known I had.“You were named Lila,” Alexander said, cutting into his roast. “Afte
NataliaThe first thing I noticed when I woke was a pounding pain in my skull that was all too familiar. I realized, with a start, that I had felt this way before—months ago, when Lilith had drugged me at that banquet.This shouldn’t have happened to me again. I should have known better. And yet… I
Across the table, I heard a scoff. We all turned to see Celeste picking at her cake with her lips puckered as if she’d just tasted something sour.“Something to say, Celeste?” David groaned, bumping my knee with his under the table as if to indicate that he’d been putting up with her bullshit for ye
While Damon discussed the wounded and the dead with one of the medics, I was approached by my Beta, who informed me that one of the rogues was captured and left alive for questioning. I immediately made my way over to the tent where he was being held.“You,” I said by way of greeting as I swept into







