LOGINAdrian had read the same paragraph six times.He sat behind the desk in his office at the main house, one hand resting against a financial report while the other tapped an increasingly irritated rhythm against the wood.Harmony had wanted space.He had agreed to give it to her.Apparently agreeing and being good at it were entirely different things.His wolf had been restless since she left Calder Ridge that morning. Not frightened. Just displeased. Pacing somewhere beneath Adrian’s skin, demanding that they go find their mate, follow her scent through town, sit outside whatever café she chose until she was ready to return.Adrian had ignored him.Harmony had asked him to trust her.So he worked.Or attempted to.He looked at the clock.She should have checked in by now.Adrian reached for his phone.Then pain struck.Not physical pain.Fear.It slammed through the bond so suddenly that Adrian doubled forward, one hand clutching his chest.Harmony.His wolf exploded inside him.Find h
For the first hour, Harmony almost forgot there were wolves in Montana.The town consisted of one long main street, a few side roads, and enough independently owned businesses to make it look as though someone had designed it specifically for a Christmas movie. There was not even a proper traffic light. Cars took turns at four-way stops while pedestrians crossed wherever they pleased and no one seemed particularly concerned about it.Harmony walked slowly with a paper coffee cup warming her hands.She had needed this.Humans.Normal humans.A woman pushing a stroller. Two older men arguing cheerfully outside a hardware store. A teenager carrying three pizza boxes toward a pickup truck. Nobody was shifting. Nobody could smell that Harmony was somebody's mate. Nobody expected her to help lead an ancient supernatural community.She breathed in the cold mountain air.Better.The first store she entered was half gallery, half woodworking shop. Tables, bowls, carved signs, sculptures, and f
Harmony burst through the door of Cabin 12 and spun around before Adrian had fully stepped inside.“I’m supposed to do what?”Adrian closed the door carefully behind him.“Harmony—”“No. I need an actual explanation this time. Not another I was building up to it explanation.” She pulled off her coat and dropped it over the nearest chair. “Your mother just announced over dinner that apparently I am supposed to become some kind of wolf queen.”“You are not a wolf queen.”Harmony stared at him.“Not exactly.”“That did not improve things.”Adrian almost smiled, then apparently thought better of it.“A Luna is a leader within the pack. Traditionally, the Alpha’s mate takes that role.”“Traditionally?”“Yes.”“And the pack is stronger if there is a Luna?”Adrian hesitated.“Harmony.”“That is what your mother said.”“It can be.”Harmony began pacing.“Great. Wonderful. So all I have to do is keep building the career I spent ten years working toward, fly back and forth between London and Mo
Harmony had two days left at Calder Ridge.Two days before she was supposed to fly back to London, present her findings, and begin the much less romantic part of international partnership development involving contracts, attorneys, budgets, and people asking questions about projected returns.The negotiations were going well.Very well.Penelope had received daily updates, the internal team at Calder Ridge had started exchanging preliminary documents with Harmony’s company, and barring some unexpected disaster, Harmony was fairly certain she would be returning to Montana sooner rather than later.For now, however, she was trying to keep up with a wolf.“You are doing that on purpose.”Adrian’s wolf stopped twenty feet ahead on the trail and looked back at her.Harmony put both hands on her hips.“I have very short legs.”The wolf huffed.“Do not huff at me.”He huffed again.Harmony pointed at him. “You are impossible in every form.”His mouth opened slightly, which Harmony was increa
Adrian took the proposal seriously.Harmony had expected him either to resist because she was involved or agree too quickly because she was the one presenting it.He did neither.He brought Margot, the finance director, the conservation lead, and two council members into a meeting at the lodge and became the businessman Harmony had met on the plane.Focused. Careful. Sharp.And very obviously mated.Adrian sat beside Harmony rather than at the head of the table. He did not interrupt her presentation or answer questions directed at her, but his hand rested against the back of her chair or occasionally touched the small of her back when someone leaned too far across the table.Harmony pretended not to notice.She noticed every time.She presented the proposal exactly as she would have anywhere else.Market position. Guest experience. Revenue potential. Brand integrity. Controlled visibility.“Narrative protection,” Harmony said, advancing the slide.One of the council members frowned.“
Adrian did not hold anything back.They remained in Cabin 12 long after the fire burned low, Harmony curled against him while he filled in the six months she had only experienced through silence, dreams, and fragments over the phone.He told her about Daniel.Not only that he had died, but how.How the Black Moon pack had come onto Calder land under the pretense of peace and gone directly for the leadership. Daniel. Justin. Mark. Alpha, Beta, Gamma. How quickly the pack bond had shattered afterward, leaving everyone frightened, disoriented, and struggling to organize while an enemy moved through their home.He told her about the safe room. About Daniel forcing Isabel and the children inside, locking the door behind him because he knew his mate would have followed him into battle if given the chance.Then he told Harmony what happened when Daniel died.Harmony listened without moving as Adrian described Isabel screaming, her body breaking beneath the severed mate bond, her wolf dying i







