LOGINCELINE (wolf: Casey)"Kythan." Zithan's voice sharpened, impatient now. "Who is Fallon?"Kythan didn't answer right away. He just stood there, jaw working, eyes distant, somewhere none of us could follow."Kythan," I said quietly, pushing myself further upright despite the ache still radiating through every limb. "Please. Just tell us."He blinked, finally surfacing, and dragged a hand down his face. "After Lan had stalked Celine to the eatery. Following her around. so I had our people run a background check. Full investigation. I wanted to know exactly who he was before he got anywhere near Celine.""You never told us that," Rythan said, frowning."There wasn't time," Kythan said. "Everything happened so fast after that — Celine fight with Cassandra, she leaving, the search, Dilala, all of it. I pushed the investigation aside. The police sent over a file a few days ago. I never even opened it."His hand was already moving toward his pocket."Kythan," Ruby said slowly, watching him w
CELINE (wolf: Casey)I opened my eyes, and Awareness came back slowly, in pieces.First, my body — heavy, aching in places I didn't have names for, muscles sore in ways that felt entirely unfamiliar. Not the ordinary soreness of overexertion. Something deeper. Something that felt, strangely, like my body had done something it had been waiting its whole life to do, and was now paying the price for finally getting the chance.I shifted. The memory surfaced slowly, disjointed. I actually shifted. I was a wolf.'I was magnificent,' Casey murmured, still weak, still recovering herself, but something proud bleeding through the exhaustion in her voice.Then the rest of it crashed back in all at once — Lan, the fight, Martin going down and not getting back up.My eyes flew open. "Martin." My voice came out cracked, barely more than a rasp. "Is he — where's Martin?""He's alive." Zithan's voice, close, immediate. I turned my head and found all three of them crowded near the bed, faces tight w
CELINE (wolf: Casey)Martin hit the ground and didn't get back up."Martin!" My voice broke entirely, tears streaming down my face, mixing with the blood already there.Lan turned toward me instead, blood dripping from his throat where Martin's teeth had torn through fur and flesh, his massive black form stalking closer, closer, each step deliberate.‘He's going to kill him.’ The thought crashed through me, vicious and clear. ‘He's actually going to kill him, right in front of me, and it will be my fault. All of it.’‘Casey can you try again? Let’s do this?’ I pleaded with her almost on the verge of tears.'Celine.' Casey's voice came through shaking, fear bleeding into every word. 'I don't think I can do this. Last time it felt like my body was tearing itself apart from the inside. I don't know if I'll survive trying again. I don't know if we'll survive it.'‘You're scared.’ I understood that, even through my own terror. ‘I'm scared too. But look at him, Casey. Look at what's happeni
CELINE (wolf: Casey)"Still hoping someone's coming?" Lan tilted his head, reading the fear plain across my face despite everything I was doing to hide it."Mindlink them," Casey urged again, sharper this time, panic bleeding through her voice. "Celine, please—""I said no." My voice shook even as I said it. "I can do this myself.""You can't," she snapped back, desperation cracking through now. "I don’t know if I can last long. Look at him. Look at him, Celine. This isn't revenge anymore—""I don't care." I cut her off, stubborn even now, even with every instinct screaming I was wrong. "I'm not calling them. Not for this."Lan took another step closer, and I backed up instinctively, nearly tripping over a tree root."No more talking," he said, almost gently, like he was soothing someone instead of hunting them. "Let's go, Fallon."I froze. "What did you just call me?"Something flickered across his face — annoyance, maybe, at being corrected. "You think running changes anything?" he
CELINE (wolf: Casey)The next evening, I told Rolan I wanted to walk alone.He'd hovered in the doorway, clearly debating whether to argue, before finally relenting with a reluctant nod. "Just stay close to the main path," he'd said, and I'd promised I would, grateful for even this small stretch of space to breathe in without anyone watching me too closely.The park was quiet, the kind of golden-hour calm that made the whole world feel briefly, deceptively gentle. I let my feet carry me along the path, trying to enjoy it — really enjoy it, for once, without my mind racing ahead of me.It didn't last.My thoughts drifted, as they always did lately, back to the triplets. ‘Had they actually left the pack? Gone home, given up, decided I wasn't worth the trouble after all?’ I doubted it. I knew them too well for that. Stubborn didn't begin to cover what those three were capable of.‘This one small pocket of peace, I thought, almost bitterly, and even here, they manage to take up space
KYTHAN BLACKTHORNE (wolf: Vexan)I walked back toward the hotel with my shirt still damp, my pride somewhere in pieces behind me, and Vexan pacing restlessly inside my chest the entire way.'We need to see her again,' he said, for the third time in as many minutes. 'Soon. I can't settle like this.'I know.I'd promised her father I'd bring her home. That wasn't some casual, throwaway line I'd tossed out to end an uncomfortable conversation — I'd meant it, fully, standing in that room with every ounce of pride I had left on the table. And I knew, better than anyone, exactly how much of the distance between us was my own doing. Every cruel word. Every cold silence. I'd built this wall brick by brick, and now I was standing on the wrong side of it, wondering how I'd ever get back over.I didn't blame her for lashing out tonight. Not really. If anything, I'd expected worse.But Goddess, it still hurt.‘How did she get this cruel,’ I thought, the question circling without an answer.Afte
CELINE The moment I was finally outside that house, everything hit me at once. My knees nearly buckled. I grabbed the gate post to steady myself and then the first sob tore out of me, ugly and uncontrolled, and once it started I couldn't stop it. My shoulders shook violently. I pressed my
CELINE I rushed downstairs with my bag clutched against my side, eyes glued to my phone as I tried to power it back on. My mind was still clouded, thick with everything that had happened in that room. Everything Alpha Zithan had done to me with his hands and his mouth and that devastating patien
CELINE I stood at the top of the stairs and stared at the empty corridor where the cold-eyed man had just been. The warmth I remembered from this morning was completely gone. Stripped away as if it had never existed. Those familiar features, same dark hair, same jaw, same mouth — had looked at m
CELINE "Damn! Your stepsister's got a fat ass!" Doland spanked me hard, tossing me a shameless wink. I scoffed, disgust curling through me like. This wasn't the first time he had put his hands on me. I spun around, ready to say something he wouldn't forget in a hurry. I stormed towards him,







