LOGIN"Isn’t that taking things too far?" Portia whined, blinking up at Alistair as he kept staring at her sternly. "Uncle, please—”"It is Alpha to you," Alistair snapped.The words cracked through the suite like a whip. Portia's mouth closed so quickly that her teeth clicked. Her eyes dropped to the carpet, and for a long moment the only sound in the room was her ragged breathing.When she spoke again, her voice was small and subdued."Alpha Vance," she continued carefully, "I don't think it's serious enough to involve the council.""No," Alistair replied, his voice cold and abrupt. "You need to understand the consequences of your actions. It is that serious."He walked to the window and stood with his back to her, his hands clasped behind him as he looked down at the city."You have placed a pack as respected as ours at the mercy of a smaller one," he said quietly. "You have disgraced your entire pack, in case you have not realized it yet, Portia. When I go to Alpha Miller to repair th
"Can you believe Dad has a fucking bastard out there?" Portia hissed the second her brother's face filled the screen.Sterling was sprawled across his bed in only shorts, idly bouncing a tennis ball off the wall above his headboard. "What?" he drawled, catching the ball without looking, then he squinted into the camera. "What do you mean, a bastard out there? You disappear for days, and this is what you come back with?" He leaned closer to the screen and tilted his head. "Are you high?""I'm serious right now, Ster," Portia snapped."I'm serious right now, Ster," Sterling mimicked in a high, whiny voice, rolling his eyes. “You know how much I hate being called that.”Portia rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Sorry,” she said grudgingly. “Now, can you be serious?”He let out a sigh and tossed the ball at the wall again. "Well, we shouldn't be surprised, should we? We always suspected it. You know how Dad was. It wouldn't shock me if he had a couple of them out there. So congratulation
Caspian's fingers dug into the arms of the chair as Solana folded forward.At first, his brain refused to make sense of it. He heard a crack, sharp and wet, like a branch snapping in the rain. Her shoulders rolled in a way shoulders were not built to roll, and her back arched higher and higher. Her hands hit the floor, and her fingers drew in on themselves, shortening and thickening as he watched. Something pale was spreading across her arms.That's fur, a distant part of his mind said calmly. That is actual fur.Her face stretched forward. Her ears slid up her skull. The camisole tore down the middle with a soft rip and fell away in pieces, and a low, rumbling breath filled the room that did not belong to any human being.Then it was over.A snow-white wolf stood in the middle of the living room where his best friend had been standing a moment ago. She was huge, far bigger than any wolf he had ever seen in a documentary. Her thick f
Solana pulled into her reserved bay in the building's underground garage, killed the engine and did not move.Her hands stayed locked around the steering wheel. In the rearview mirror, a pair of headlights swept across the concrete pillars as Caspian's silver car rolled in and parked right behind her. Her heart was pounding so hard that she could feel it in her throat.She did not need this tonight, not after Portia and not after the shattered door and the claws. But she kept hearing the way Caspian had said Alpha, the way the word had cracked in the middle, and she kept seeing the fading bruise on his neck."Damn it," she whispered, and slapped her palm against the steering wheel. "What had that bastard done?"A sharp knock rattled the window beside her head, and she jumped.Caspian was standing outside the car, staring down at her with his jaw set and his face more serious than she had ever seen it.Solana let out a long breath. "Well," she muttered to herself, "let's cross this br
The moment Alistair's footsteps faded down the stairs, Solana's shoulders slumped as if someone had cut the strings holding her up."Oh, goddess," she muttered, sinking into the nearest chair, and only then did her hands start to shake. "What a fucking mess."She pressed them flat against her knees and watched them tremble anyway. When Portia had dropped onto her haunches with those amber eyes fixed on her throat, Solana's heart had climbed into her mouth. She had spent years arranging her whole life around avoiding moments like that one, and it had found her anyway, in her own studio, wearing a silk blouse.Sister.She let out a short, disbelieving breath and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips.Of course the man who had spawned her would raise something like that. She could not bring herself to call him her father, not even in the privacy of her own head. A man who left one daughter in a motel and gave the other a crown would naturally breed a rude, entitled brat who thought her
"What?" Solana snapped, spinning around so fast that her hair whipped across her cheek. "What did you just say?""What do you mean, she's my sister?" Portia demanded in the same breath, her tears stopping as if a tap had been shut off. She pushed herself to her feet and leaned against the wall, eyes darting between them. "That's not funny, Uncle. That's not even close to funny.""You two will need to have a seat," Alistair said.Portia did not move. She glared at him with her chin trembling, the satin bunched in her fists, as though the words had been spoken to someone else."Now," Alistair said, his voice firm.The word fell on her like a hand. Her shoulders jerked, and a shudder ran down her spine. She resisted for the space of two breaths before she dragged herself up and shuffled to a chair, hissing through her teeth the entire way, and dropped into it with the fabric clutched around her.Solana stayed standing for a moment longer. Then she crossed to the nearest chair, pulled i
Solange woke slowly, her body aching in all the ways that made her heart flutter and a strange humming in her chest. Her head was foggy, but she felt a calm she had never known, like she was connected to something that had been missing all her life. She felt… claimed, as if the night had somehow gi
The moment the penthouse door shut, Alistair’s restraint evaporated.He pinned her against the door, his large, calloused hand sliding up to grip the back of her neck with a terrifying but delicious pressure, and he slanted his lips over hers again.He was rough, but in a calculated way that made h
"Sol! Table four needs a server," the manager barked. "And don't look him in the eye."Solange nodded and quickly hurried down the corridor to the VIP lounge of the Sapphire Heights, wrinkling her nose at the smell of expensive cigars and the heavy, humid scent of a desert storm rolling over the Ve
Solange felt a literal snap in the center of her chest as she stared at the heavy oak doors. It wasn’t the metaphoric ache of a breakup. It was a white-hot blade of agony carved through her ribs, twisting around her heart and pulling tight.She tried to scream, but the air in her lungs had turned t







