LOGINAny guesses on who it could be~?
I had just set my phone back on the nightstand when I heard them. Two sets of footsteps outside the cabin. They were sharp, urgent, and… unmistakably familiar. The door swung open before I could even get up, and there they were. Gavin and Harley, both looking like they’d crossed half the state in under an hour. Which, knowing them, they probably had. I stared, frozen halfway between my bed and the door. Gavin looked relieved just to see me. Harley looked like he hadn’t taken a full breath since his phone call. “How did you even get here so fast?” My voice came out sharper than I meant it to, still rattled from the panic in Harley’s voice earlier. They exchanged one of those loaded looks, the kind that said they were having an entire silent argument about who should confess first. Then, in perfect unison… “We had Luca follow you.” I blinked. “You what?!” “He volunteered,” Gavin said quickly, holding up his hands like that made it better. “We weren’t spying, I swear. We just
By the time I stumbled back to the cabin, the girls were deep into manicures, a rom-com, and what sounded like their third round of gossip. Naya didn’t even look up from painting Kayla’s nails when she said, “Okay, spill. Who was that tall and mysterious stranger you were just talking to?” I froze. “You saw that?” “Girl, I was watching from the window like it was my own personal drama.” She grinned. “Distinguished jawline, sexy older man vibes. You looked like you fainted straight into a cologne ad.” Clarisse perked up from her spot on the couch. “Wait, was that a staff member? Because I need his number. For research purposes.” I sat down slowly, still feeling off-balance from the whole encounter. My legs felt shaky, and I couldn’t quite catch my breath. “He thought I was his niece at first. Mistaken identity thing.” “You do have mysterious long-lost heiress energy,” Naya said without missing a beat. I shot her a look, but couldn’t quite manage a smile. “Anyway… he said
ALPHA LUCA I didn’t realize how much I missed her until I saw her name on the resort’s guest list. Alessandra Noone. One line on a clipboard. One little signature scribbled in her messy handwriting. But my heart had practically thrown itself out of my chest when I spotted it. She was here. Safe. Still close enough that maybe, if I was careful or lucky, I could see her face, even from a distance. Back at the mansion, Gavin had basically moved into the library. The guy was living off coffee and ancient texts, hunting through wolf legends and mating bond research like his life depended on it. Maybe it did. Maybe all of ours did. Harley had gone quiet again. Not sulking because it seemed he never really sulked. But I noticed that when Harley hurt, he did it in silence, locked away somewhere the rest of us couldn’t reach. He kept saying she was better off without the constant reminder of their past, of everything he’d done wrong when they were younger. I knew better than t
For the first time in weeks, I was surrounded by noise that wasn’t charged with the electric tension of three Alphas circling each other, and me, like predators claiming territory. After coming inside from the porch, we had started our brainstorming. Laughter bounced off the walls of the lakeside cabin as the girls sprawled across a nest of oversized beanbags and fuzzy blankets, halfway through a bottle of rosé and an aggressively color-coded PowerPoint draft. “Okay, but hear me out,” Naya said, waving her laptop around. “We open with a super deep quote that has literally nothing to do with our presentation.” Kayla nearly choked on her wine. “Like what?” “Freedom lies in being bold,” Naya said dramatically. “But we use it to introduce a paragraph about grammar mechanics.” “Evil genius,” I said, laughing into my chamomile tea. This was exactly what I’d been missing my whole life. Just normal girl time. No supernatural drama. No complicated feelings. No three devastatingly gorge
After discovering something important and terrifying at the same time about our bonds then running off without a word, telling the boys that I was once again leaving was another story. I thought they would yell, you know, out of shock or frustration, or both. But it didn’t come. Then I thought they would beg, especially Luca, who I was already bracing to give me puppy eyes, but that didn’t happen either. Instead, the energy in the house turned electric with suppressed tension. It was like being under a thunderstorm while holding an umbrella. “You’re going away?” Gavin asked, somehow calm, but clearly biting back questions. “It’s for a group project,” I said. “Just for this weekend.” “Is this because of the bond thing?” Luca asked, trying to smile but failing. “No,” I lied. Harley didn’t speak, but that was to be expected. I already knew what he was thinking just by the way his eyes didn’t leave mine the whole time. — The next morning, Naya and I piled into a gloss
I didn’t mean to run. Not really. I didn’t even pack a bag nor leave a note. Hell, I didn’t even put on shoes. All I knew was that something inside me snapped when Gavin said the bond could destroy me. All of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe so I ran. Down the stairs, out the side door, through the trees. The wind howled in my ears. Leaves whipped past my face. My pulse pounded in my skull, in my chest, in my wrists. The further I got from our place, the easier it became to breathe, but the ache in my ribs never went away. It was like something was inside me, pressing outward. Clawing. Screaming. Trying to get free. It wasn’t just fear. It was rage. The kind I hadn’t let myself feel since I was thirteen. They said the bond was rare, that it was sacred. What they didn’t say was that it could kill me. Nor the fact that I would have to choose between them or myself. And the worst part? The truly most awful and gut-wrenching part? I didn’t want to choose. Bu







