LOGIN**Stella's POV** Auntie Lisa turns to me immediately. "No." Her voice is firm. "No, I'll go. You don't need to do that. Tell me where she is and I'll drive up there myself." She is already looking at the doctor. "The Shanori hills — how far?" "Auntie Lisa—" "You've already done enough as his boss." She says it without hostility but she says it plainly, the way women of a certain age say things they mean completely. "You brought me here. You're paying for—" she gestures around at the room. "You don't need to go chasing healers up a hillside in the middle of the night. That is not your job." "It's not about the job," I say. "Then what is it about?" I look at her. I look at Shawn. And then I say the thing that is simply true. "He has been the best employee I have ever known. He has shown up every single time I needed him to. Without complaint. Without explanation. He has just — shown up." I pause. "I have never once said thank you for that. Not the way it deserved to be said." I
**Stella's POV** "I'll ask you again," I say, not backing down. "Who are you?" "And I'll ask you again too," she says, with the patience of a woman who has absolutely nowhere to be and no intention of being rushed there. "Who are you? Because I have been in this house for a month plus." She sits up fully now, arms folding across her chest, mirroring me without knowing she's doing it. "One month. And you have not shown up once.... So I'll ask you what I asked you — who are you, and why are you in this house at this hour?" She's been here a month and Shawn never mentioned her?! My eyes widen in disbelief. "You've been here a month," I say slowly. "I have." "Are you related to Shawn?" Something shifts on her face at his name. Softens, almost imperceptibly, the way faces do when you say the name of someone they love. "I'm his auntie Lisa," she says simply. I frown. "Shawn doesn't have an auntie." "Is that what he told you?" "He told me he has no family." I hold her g
**Stella's POV** The doctor leads me through a set of double doors and down a corridor and stops outside a room. "He's in here," he says. I walk in and then I stop. Shawn is lying in the bed with tubes running from his arm and a monitor beside him and his eyes are closed and his face is slack in the particular way of someone who is not simply sleeping. I gasp, lifting both of my hands to my mouth because I was not prepared for this. He was standing two hours ago. He was talking to me. He stepped off my elevator with my daughter behind him and his eyes found mine and he was present and upright and entirely himself and now he is lying in a hospital bed looking like something that has been taken apart quietly from the inside. "Why is he unconscious?" I ask. "I thought—" I stop. Start again. "He was awake. He was talking to me less than two hours ago. Why is he still unconscious?" The doctor clasps his hands in front of him. "We induced the coma." "Why?" I look at him wi
**Stella's POV** Shawn opens his mouth to respond to me but then suddenly goes down fast and heavy the way a person goes when their body has simply stopped negotiating, and he hits the floor before I've finished processing what I'm seeing. "Shawn." I'm on my knees beside him in an instant. "Shawn." I put my hand on his face. His cheek is cold in a way that has nothing to do with the room. "Hey. Look at me." Nothing. I shake his good shoulder and his head lolls and his eyes stay closed. He does not move the way a conscious person moves. "Shawn. Hey." Still nothing and then I hear footsteps behind me. "Mommy?" Maya is standing at the end of the hallway with Maria behind her, both of them drawn out by the sound of him hitting the floor. "What happened to the kind man?" Maya's voice is small. I don't turn around. I keep my eyes on Shawn's face. "Maria." My voice is level. "Take Maya to the kitchen. Feed her. Give her whatever she wants. I will be there soon."
**Stella's POV**"Hi, Mommy." Maya's voice is smaller than I remember. Or maybe I've just been missing it long enough that hearing it again makes everything else go quiet.I cup her face in both hands. Turn it gently left, then right. The mark on her chin is a bruise, fading but there. There's also a small scrape along her jaw I didn't see from a distance.My heart constricts with rage I don't show on my face."Are you okay?" I ask. "Does anything hurt?"She shakes her head."Your chin.""It doesn't hurt anymore."I look at her for a long moment. She holds my gaze the way she always has — straight on, even when she's nervous. That part hasn't changed."Are you hungry?""Yes.""Cold?""No."I smooth her hair back from her face. She leans into my hand the way she used to when she was small enough to carry, and something in my chest folds quietly in on itself."Okay," I say. "Okay."I continue doing inventory on her body to check for any more bruises, then — something that isn't tirednes
**Stella's POV** I glance at my phone screen and see my dad's name flashing. I answer before the second buzz has finished. "Hey Dad, if this is about Rose," I say quickly, "I already handled it. She's gone and I'm upgrading the security system first thing tomorrow." "It's not about Rose." He sounds surprised. "Then what—" "Shawn is on his way to you." I sit up because now he has my full attention. "Okay. But why is he—" "Remember the errand I sent him on this morning." "Yes." "He found her." "Found who?" I frown at the statement. "Maya." He says her name gently. My heart skips a beat. "What did you say?" "He's bringing her to you." I am on my feet before I realize I've moved. Noah looks up at me from the sofa — sensing something has shifted without knowing what. "Say that again," I say as my eyes fill up. "Stella—" "Please." My voice cracks on the word. "Say it again." "Shawn found Maya. She is safe. She is unharmed. And he is bringing her to yo
**Stella's POV**Shawn doesn't answer my question. He just lets the silence stretch thick until I can't take it anymore."Well, will you answer me?" I ask impatiently."Your father is expecting us for dinner." His voice is cold again, like I didn't just throw myself at him."What?" I blink rapidly
**Stella's POV** The humiliation crashing over me in Shawn's home eclipses anything I endured at the auction den. Now I know that Shawn is a sick bastard. What kind of person buys a sex slave and brings her back to meet his mate? I swallow hard, my throat tight, wishing I were anywhere but t
**Stella's POV** "I don't have all night to wait for you to think. What will it be?" Shawn's deep voice brings me out of my daze. "I pick the first one," I whisper immediately. "Good." He immediately helps me into the passenger seat, his hands surprisingly gentle but I wince when I have to
**Stella's POV** Shawn is standing in the bedroom wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Oh my goodness, are we getting straight to business? My breath catches in my throat. I jerk my eyes up to his face, heat flooding my cheeks so fast I feel dizzy. "You're done with your cal







