로그인We called Lance in a panic and he reassured us that they’d get here as soon as they could.
Thankfully, the boys managed to stop hurting and we just moved to where there was shade, desperately hoping for the best but somehow still expecting the worst. Harley’s hand was still wrapped around mine as we sat by the water, the tide rolling in and out in that steady, endless rhythm that had almost convinced me we were safe here. His warmth had been constant, groundinHarley is the first to fall apart. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Not in a way anyone else would notice at first glance. But I do. Because I feel him. The moment his breathing shifts, just slightly too shallow, just slightly too uneven, it’s like something inside my chest tightens in response, instinctive and immediate. I’m already moving before my mind catches up, already at his side as his body slackens against the reinforced surface they set up along the shore. “Harley,” I whisper, dropping beside him, my hands finding his face, his shoulders, anything I can hold onto. “Hey, look at me.” His eyes open, but slower than they should. Heavy. Strained. Like it takes effort just to stay present. “I am,” he murmurs, voice rough, barely there. “Right here.” But it doesn’t feel like he is. It feels like he’s slipping. The makeshift medical unit hums faintly around us. Portable equ
We called Lance in a panic and he reassured us that they’d get here as soon as they could. Thankfully, the boys managed to stop hurting and we just moved to where there was shade, desperately hoping for the best but somehow still expecting the worst. Harley’s hand was still wrapped around mine as we sat by the water, the tide rolling in and out in that steady, endless rhythm that had almost convinced me we were safe here. His warmth had been constant, grounding, something I didn’t question anymore because it had become part of me. So when it changes, even slightly, it’s enough. And then another shift. Subtle, but there. His grip tightens, not painfully, not urgently, just enough to pull my attention back to him. I turn toward him with a small frown already forming, expecting a comment, a look, something, anything. But he isn’t looking at me. His gaze is fixed somewhere past the horizon, unf
The ocean is louder than I expected. Not in volume, but in presence. It fills everything. The air, the space between thoughts, the silence we’ve been carrying since the lab collapsed and left pieces of us behind in its ruins. The waves don’t crash so much as they insist, over and over again, that nothing stays still. That everything moves, even grief. I stand barefoot at the edge of the shore, the water cold where it touches my skin, grounding in a way that feels almost intentional. For a moment, I closed my eyes. Not to escape, but to feel. The wind threads through my hair, carrying salt and something older than memory. The bond hums steadily beneath my ribs, no longer buried, no longer silent, but not whole either. It’s clearer now, louder, like a voice I can almost understand but not fully translate. Behind me, I hear footsteps in the sand. I don’t turn. I know who it is.
ALPHA HARLEY The first thing I notice when I wake is that the silence here is different. Not empty. Not peaceful either. It’s controlled, like everything in this place has been designed to hold chaos just beneath the surface. Lance’s compound sits high above the ocean, carved into the cliffs like something meant to endure storms. I can hear the waves through the reinforced glass somewhere down the corridor, the low crash and pull grounding in a way nothing else has been since we got out of that lab. I sit up slowly, dragging a hand over my face, letting my senses settle. The sickness isn’t gone. It’s quieter, like something waiting instead of attacking, but I can still feel it under my skin. An uneven rhythm in my blood, a delay in my reflexes, a faint drag in my lungs when I breathe too deep. Not healed. Just… paused. My gaze shifts to the bed across the room. Ale
ALPHA GAVIN The hallway outside the containment rooms smells faintly of antiseptic and ocean salt. Somewhere beyond the reinforced walls, waves crash against the cliffs below Lance’s compound, steady and relentless. The sound echoes through the corridors like a distant heartbeat. I lean against the cold steel railing outside the observation room, staring through the thick glass panel at the man sitting inside. Gustavo. My biological father. The man I spent most of my life believing was dead. For years he was nothing more than a ghost in family whispers. A mistake my mother never wanted to speak about, a shadow that vanished before I was old enough to remember his face. And now he sits ten feet away from me. Alive. Alert. Watching me with an expression that is far too calm for someone who was just dragged out of a collapsing laboratory and thrown into containment. “
ALPHA LUCA The helicopter blades finally stop roaring overhead sometime after dawn. For the first time since the lab collapsed behind us, the world grows quiet. Too quiet. The ocean stretches out beyond the compound’s cliffs, endless and gray beneath a rising sun, but my attention isn’t on the horizon. It’s on the reinforced steel doors at the end of the hallway. Behind them sits the man who raised me. My father. Salvatore Moretti. Or at least the version of him that remains after everything we uncovered. The safehouse belongs to my uncle Lance. Officially it’s a private maritime research facility. Unofficially, it’s one of the most secure holding locations in Europe. The kind of place where powerful men disappear quietly when their empires collapse. It smells faintly of salt and antiseptic. Behind me, heavy boots echo through the corridor. Lance approaches, his br
ALPHA HARLEY My fingers drum the steering wheel so hard the leather is starting to peel. Gavin is pacing behind the hood of the SUV like a predator seconds from snapping steel in half, phone crushed in his hand. And Luca? He’s staring at the single, blinking red point on the tablet in his lap, A
ALPHA GAVIN I always thought these galas were the pinnacle of everything I hated. Forced smiles, stiff suits, hollow conversations about donations and legacies. But tonight? Tonight was different. Alessi stood beside me like a goddess in moonlight, her presence so commanding that every overdone
I’d never been on a date. Not a real one. Not the kind where someone asks you, plans something, and then offers to take you shopping so you can feel like you belong in their world. And now I had one with Gavin Wilder. The same Gavin who looked like he could hold anything and make it look like
I stared at the ceiling of my room long after the door shut behind me. The echo of Luca’s laugh still lingered. It was soft and warm and teasing. I could practically feel the heat of his breath from how close he’d leaned in before I stepped out of the car. A kiss. Not tentative. Not almost.







