LOGINAdrian did not remember the drive to the hospital. He remembered Harmony’s blood on his hands, on his shirt, beneath his fingernails. He remembered the paramedics pulling her away from him and the terrible moment when her fingers slipped from his. After that, everything blurred into fluorescent lights, forms, questions, and the knowledge that the mate bond was still there but growing weaker by the minute.Isabel sat beside him in the waiting room while Colton and Brenden stayed nearby. No one spoke much. Adrian had refused the clean shirt Rosalind sent from Calder Ridge. Harmony’s blood had dried dark across the front of the one he wore, and some irrational part of him could not bear to remove it. It was proof that she had still been alive when he held her.When the doctor finally appeared through the double doors, Adrian was on his feet.“Harmony Ellis?”“Yes.”“Are you family?”Adrian hesitated for only a second. “I’m her fiancé.”Isabel looked at him, but said nothing.The doctor n
“You wanted my attention.”Every head in the warehouse turned. Adrian stood in the doorway. Harmony had never seen him look like that. He was not shouting. He had not shifted. He did not storm into the room with claws or teeth or the uncontrolled rage Balric had promised would come.He simply stood there, shoulders squared, eyes fixed first on Harmony and then on the red mark spreading across her cheek. Something changed in his face. Harmony felt it through the bond. Rage. So violent and immediate that her breath caught.His wolf surged beneath it, demanding blood, demanding Harmony, demanding that every man in the room who had touched her cease to exist. Adrian did not move.Balric smiled.“There he is.”Adrian’s gaze settled on him.“You have my mate.”“And you came exactly as I knew you would.”“No.” Adrian stepped into the warehouse. “I came exactly as she knew I would.”Balric’s smile faltered. Adrian looked at Harmony again. She was frightened. He could feel it now that he was c
Harmony had been in the trunk long enough to lose track of direction. The road changed beneath her several times. Smooth pavement gave way to rougher asphalt, then gravel. Every bump drove her shoulder into the side of the compartment while the smell of gasoline and old carpet mixed with the cold air leaking somewhere around the seal.Her smartwatch was still connected. Barely. Harmony kept her wrist close to her mouth and spoke quietly whenever the noise of the vehicle covered her voice.“We left the main road a few minutes ago. I think we’re on gravel now.”The dispatcher answered through the tiny speaker, her voice breaking beneath static.“I’m still with you, Harmony.”Harmony closed her eyes. That voice had become the most comforting sound in the world. Then the vehicle slowed. Harmony held still. Outside, something mechanical roared to life. A saw. Then another sound. Metal striking wood. Heavy machinery somewhere farther away. She inhaled. Fresh-cut pine.“Logging,” she whisper
Adrian 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







