Mag-log inElaineWar was declared with my photograph in the background.An old photograph, taken before the bruises were visible, before I learned to look at the floor when Maxon entered a room. In the picture, I was wearing a white dress and smiling as if my life belonged to me.He had stolen even that version of me.In the public square, thousands of people shouted my name, even though they didn’t know me.They didn’t know I’d escaped hidden in a trunk. They didn’t know that Maxon beat me, raped me, and threatened to kill children to keep me quiet. They didn’t know that my father had sold me for a campaign and then died when he tried to regain a belated shred of conscience.Even so, they shouted my name as if they were going to rescue me.I felt nauseous.Arsel turned off the feed.“Turn it back on,” I pleaded urgently.Arsel looked at me.“You don’t need to hear any more.”“It’s not for me.”Liv understood before he did.“She needs to study the speech,” she said, and I nodded.“The exact wor
MaxonElections weren’t won with votes; they were won with fear.Votes were just the receipt people demanded to pretend they’d voted freely.I stood in front of the wall of screens in the command center as the results shifted from yellow to dark blue, our party’s color. State governorships, mayoral offices, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and border districts were turning blue. One after another, the human maps surrendered before me without my having to fire a single bullet in front of the cameras.We had completely conquered our territory.Paul Thorn’s face appeared on every broadcast like a martyr. Thousands of fools were mourning a man who would have sold his daughter twice over if it guaranteed him a bigger office.His death had served us far better than his life.“We have a majority in thirty-seven state governments,” Darwin reported from the central table. “The northern districts are still counting, but our party’s candidates are leading in all of them. The presidency
ElaineThe black door wasn’t real.It was a projection on the map, a construct of light, dust, and magic created by Amelie to understand a pattern. It couldn’t hurt me. It couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t look at me. It couldn’t reach out with invisible fingers toward the back of my neck.And yet I felt it watching me.The opening was tiny, a thin line in the air above the table, but its presence disrupted everything.Amelie couldn’t take her eyes off the door.“Turn it off,” Selene said.“I can’t,” Amelie replied.“What do you mean, you can’t?” Izan asked.Amelie raised both hands, but not toward us. Toward the projection. Her fingers were trembling.“I’m not holding it. The map is responding to something external. The anchor needle didn’t
ArselSeeing Herman behind the little girl was the closest I ever came to losing my mind.Leo lunged at my skin, my claws shot out, and Elaine grabbed my hand.She didn’t hold me tight. She couldn’t physically stop me. That wasn’t possible. But the oath burned between us, and her voice reached me before my fury did.“Arsel.”One word.My name.Not Alpha. Not mate. Not wolf.Arsel.I breathed.It was a ragged, cruel breath, but I breathed.“If you go in like that, he wins,” she said, without taking her eyes off the building. “He wants images. He wants blood. He wants to be attacked in front of the children.”“He’s touching a little girl.”“I know,” she replied, and the way she said it broke me. “Believe me, I know.&
ElaineThe world was reduced to a photograph.The orphanage’s facade took center stage on the screen, bathed in a grayish afternoon light.I didn’t recognize the building, but I recognized the blue blanket from the old orphanage.One I’d bought at a charity fair because a girl named Meli said it looked like the sky folded up.The memory came flooding back.Meli is laughing with two missing teeth. Kris scolding me for spending too much on blankets. Me promising that every child would have a different one so they wouldn’t feel like they were sleeping in a borrowed place.I brought my hand to my mouth.Come get them, Elaine.Maxon knew.“I’m going,” I said.“No,” Arsel replied at the same time.“Arsel.”“You’re not going to
ArselPaul Thorn’s death set the human world ablaze before noon.Not with visible flames, but with that kind of modern fire that spreads across screens, headlines, and voices that feign objectivity while stoking the flames. Within hours, Paul’s name had become a rallying cry. His face appeared on social media, on news channels, and on giant screens throughout the capital. Human analysts repeated the word “security” with the same devotion with which the ancients invoked gods.To them, Paul Thorn wasn’t a man who had sold his daughter and then tried too late to stop the monster.He was a martyr.And Maxon was ready to crown himself with his blood.From Eclipse’s strategy room, I watched as the humans spun a lie around a corpse.“We have to leak the audio,” Liv said for the third time.“No,” Elaine replied.She was sitting in front of the map, with a blanket draped over her shoulders and a cup of cold tea in her hands. She hadn’t taken more than two sips. My mother watched her from a cor
ElaineStepping out of the hospital room was like entering a whole new world.Everything was strange, different, and foreign to me.Arsel never let go of my arm and kept me close to him to keep me from getting dizzy or tripping over something. I tried to walk on my own, but he looked at me seriousl
ElaineI opened my eyes, and the white lights blinded me again.I swallowed hard when I found myself in another hospital room, on a much larger and more comfortable bed, but with my arms hooked up to IVs. That was a complete reality check.Shit, it’s real, I thought in horror.I had lost my memorie
ElaineMy head felt like it was going to explode.It felt like someone was hammering it with force and painful violence, so I groaned in pain. I opened my eyes carefully and was completely blinded by a white light. My lips were dry, and I was so thirsty that I would have drunk toilet water if I cou
MaxonElaine left.The thought gnawed at me the moment I found out. The plane ticket danced in my mind like a damn mockery, and I was writhing with rage.Finding the plane ticket had been a clear sign that my pet wanted to run away from me, but I ignored it because I thought teaching her a lesson w







