LOGINBailey’s POVI keep my distance after that night, not because it is easy but because it feels necessary, like if I bend even a little everything ugly will rush back in, so I eat alone, I stay behind closed doors, I speak only to Leila and even then I choose my words carefully, because the house feels like it is listening.“I’m fine,” I tell her every morning when she asks, and at first it is true enough.Until it isn’t.I wake up one morning drenched in sweat, my head heavy and my skin burning, and when I push the blanket off me it feels like the air itself is warm, like my body is holding too much of something and does not know what to do with it.“Okay,” I whisper, sitting up slowly, “This is not normal.”I press my palm to my forehead and flinch, and my heart starts to race even though I do not feel weak or dizzy or sick the way sickness usually feels.“Leila,” I call, louder this time.She comes in quickly, already worried, and the moment she touches my arm her eyes widen.“You’re
Chapter 28Bailey’s POVBy the time dinner ends, I already know nothing useful is coming out of it, not answers, not honesty, not even a decent lie that tries hard enough, just silence stretched thin and polite voices pretending not to hear the questions breathing under the table, and when I excuse myself nobody stops me, which somehow hurts more than if they had.Back in my room, I close the door slowly and rest my forehead against it like I might leave an imprint, like the wood might absorb some of the noise inside my head, and I let out a breath I did not realize I had been holding since Raven pushed his chair back earlier.“This is ridiculous,” I whisper to myself, though there is no one to contradict me.I pace, then sit, then stand again, my thoughts chasing each other in circles that never quite connect, because every road leads back to the same wall, Declan watching me like he is guarding something, Rider watching me like I am something to be handled, Raven watching nothing at
Raven’s POVFive years agoI stood in front of the florist shop longer than I needed to, staring at the window like the flowers inside were going to judge me for buying them again, I know that if anyone saw me with the flowers, they would assume they were for my mate and not for my brother’s woman, which already made my chest feel tight.“You’re late today,” the florist said when I stepped inside.“I got held up,” I replied, even though it was a lie and I had only been standing outside arguing with myself.She smiled politely. “Same ones as usual.”“Yes,” I said quickly. “White and blue.”“For Hera,” she said casually.I stiffened but nodded. “Yes.”She wrapped the flowers carefully and I paid without looking at the total because I never did. Whatever it cost always felt cheaper compared to the way Hera smiles at me whenever I brought them to her.As I turned to leave, I caught sight of a familiar shape outside, a woman pulling her cloak tighter as she slipped into the narrow alley ac
Bailey’s POVI stayed in my room after Raven left, sitting on the edge of the bed with my feet on the floor, like if I stood up too fast I would chase after him and I refused to do that because I was tired of always being the one who bent first, tired of feeling like I had to shrink so people would explain things to me gently.“I didn’t even mean it like that,” I muttered to myself, staring at the wall. “I just asked.”The silence in the room pressed on me and my chest felt tight. I kept replaying the expression on his face when I said her name, the way something in him shut down so fast it scared me, and for a second I wondered if I had crossed some invisible line I was never meant to cross.But then my pride kicked in.“No,” I said out loud. “If I go after him now, he’ll think I’m apologizing for wanting answers.”I stood up and paced the room, then sat again, then stood again, restless like my body did not agree with my stubbornness.“He said I should ask,” I whispered. “So I asked
Lancaster’s POVI did not know how long I have been here. Time stopped the moment they tied me to this chair, the ropes on my wrist had cut so deep that I couldn’t feel my hands anymore and they’ve been asking the same questions over and over again with voices that did not rise or fall and hands that never hesitated to strike me whenever I gave an answer they didn’t like.“Where is the money,” one of them asked again.“I don’t have it,” I croaked, my throat raw, my mouth tasting like blood and bile. “I swear I don’t have it.”A fist connected with my jaw and my head snapped to the side, the chair creaking beneath me.“You said that yesterday,” another voice said calmly. “You also said it the day before.”Have I been here for that long? Days? I cannot remember. The room has no windows, nothing.“I’m telling the truth,” I sobbed. “I don’t have anything left.”Someone laughed softly. “You always say that.”The pain came again, sharp and overwhelming, and I screamed until my voice broke a
Rider’s POV“That’s not possible,” I said flatly, my voice already sharp before Raven even finished his first sentence, because some things simply did not resurface, not after the way we buried them, not after the silence we enforced. “No one speaks her name anymore.”Raven stood near the center of the room, shoulders tense, eyes too dark, and Declan hovered close by like he was already bracing for impact.“She said it,” Raven replied quietly. “She said Hera.”I felt heat crawl up my spine. “Sit,” he added after a pause, gesturing toward the chairs. “I need to explain this properly.”“I don’t need you to get comfortable,” I snapped. “Start talking.”Declan cleared his throat. “Rider.”“Not now,” I shot back without looking at him. “If Bailey knows that name, then something has gone wrong.”Raven inhaled slowly. “She heard it from Leila.”That was it.That was the spark.My hand slammed into the table hard enough to rattle the room. “You let a maid fill her head with that story.”“She
Bailey’s POV“I don’t understand why you’re all staring at each other like that,” I said, my voice already softer than I meant it to be, breath uneven, because the room felt different even before any of them touched me, and I could feel it in my skin, in the way my wolf was restless, pacing, pushin
Bailey’s POVI couldn’t stop replaying Raven’s words in my head even after breakfast was long over, every step I took beside him feeling careful, measured, like I was walking on something fragile and didn’t want to be the one to crack it, and the worst part was that I didn’t even know what I was af
Bailey’s POV“I was not being greedy,” I blurted out before my brain could catch up with my body, my face already hot, my voice already giving me away, and that was when Rider’s arm tightened around me just enough to make it impossible to pretend I was invisible.Declan didn’t even get to enjoy my
Bailey’s POVI didn’t know what to do with Raven standing there in front of me like that because I was used to Rider’s anger that filled a room and Declan’s jokes that never stopped flowing, but Raven was quiet, still and intense in a way that made my thoughts scatter instead of sharpening, and it







