LOGINCassius I stared at the regional trade reports on my desk for an hour, but I hadn't read a single word. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was her. Aria. It had been two weeks since I walked out of her bedroom. Two weeks of forcing myself to walk past her in the hallways without looking, of burying my beast under layers of cold, Alpha duty. She had looked me dead in the eye and told me it meant nothing. A fluke. Just a reaction to the adrenaline. But my wolf was tearing my mind apart, howling constantly for the dormant human who scrubbed my floors. The sex wasn't just a physical release. It was a complete, violent unraveling of my soul. I had never experienced anything like it. The way her skin felt against mine, the desperate sounds she made in the dark—it was branded into my bones. My beast didn't just want her; it recognized her. And that terrified me. I loved my wife. I had spent five years bending over backward to protect Selena, to keep her fragile health stabl
Two weeks passed in complete and total silence. It was the kind of quiet that slowly drove a person out of their mind. Since the night Cassius walked out of my room, leaving me shattered on the floor, he had completely ignored my existence. We didn't cross paths in the hallways. He didn't come to the training yard. If I was assigned to clean a room he was currently in, he walked out before I even crossed the threshold. He was treating me exactly like what I had told him I was: a business transaction. Nothing more. Every time I closed my eyes, I heard his voice echoing in the dark. An itch that needed scratching. The words still burned a hole straight through my chest, but I forced myself to swallow the pain. It was for the best. Finn was safe, my mother was safe, and I was just doing my job. But the isolation was suffocating me. The castle felt like a massive stone prison, and I just needed a break. I needed to see my family, to make sure my mother was actually getting her treatme
Aria I froze, my hand hovering over the handrail of the back stairwell. Selena didn’t look angry. That was what made it worse. She looked perfectly calm, her hands folded neatly in front of her white dress as she walked slowly down the empty hallway toward me. "Luna," I said, dropping my gaze to the floor out of sheer habit. "I have to admit, I was curious," Selena said, stopping just a few feet away. The smell of her expensive floral perfume filled the narrow corridor. "You practically dragged that poor guard away. What on earth were you two whispering about in the pantry?" My heart hammered against my ribs. "Nothing. Finn was just... showing me a shortcut to the kitchens." "A shortcut," Selena repeated slowly. She let out a soft, dismissive little laugh. "Right. Well, I suppose it’s none of my business where the help sneaks off to." She took another step closer. Her voice dropped, losing the polite tone entirely. It was cold, sharp, and meant exactly for me. "For your own g
Aria I woke up buried in the heavy blankets, completely tangled in Cassius’s limbs. The room was quiet, lit only by the pale morning light coming through the window. Cassius was already awake. He was lying on his side, his heavy arm draped over my waist, pulling my back flush against his chest. I could feel the steady, reassuring thump of his heartbeat against my shoulder. A rush of warmth flooded my chest. I remembered the heat of last night, the desperate way he held me, and a huge, genuine smile spread across my face. I shifted slightly, tilting my head back to look at him. Before I could say a word, three sharp knocks echoed at the bedroom door. "Alpha?" Beta Drew’s voice came through the thick wood, muffled but urgent. "The morning financial meeting started ten minutes ago. The elders are waiting." Cassius let out a low, frustrated groan. His arm tightened around me for a second, burying his face in my hair to take a deep breath. "I'm coming," Cassius called back, his voi
The kiss hit like a collision. Cassius tasted like dark wine and ruin. His mouth was punishing, desperate, burning the thoughts right out of my head. I should have shoved him off. I should have screamed at him for calling me a liar, for hauling me through the halls, for being so blind. Instead I fisted my hands in his hair and dragged him closer, moaning as his tongue pushed deep. A growl rolled up out of his chest. Not the king. The thing that lived underneath the king. He let go of my wrists, caught my waist hard enough to bruise, and lifted me off the floor. My legs went around his hips on instinct. I held onto his shoulders while he carried me away from the door, his mouth still on mine. He didn't walk so much as stalk backward, blind, until the backs of his knees hit my mattress. We went down together. His weight pressed me into the bed. He was already hard, straining through his trousers, grinding against the thin cotton of my underwear. The oversized server's uniform
Aria The Luna’s private chambers were completely empty. I knew Selena was still downstairs hosting the elders’ dinner, playing the frail, exhausted mother-to-be. It was the only window of time I was going to get. If I was going to save my own life, I needed physical proof that her pregnancy was a lie. I needed that dark glass vial of wolfsbane potion. I slipped inside and closed the heavy oak door behind me. I went straight for her vanity table. My hands shook as I pulled open the small velvet-lined drawers. I dug through expensive perfumes, jeweled hairpins, and silk ribbons. Nothing. The vial was gone. She must have hidden it or given it back to the Healer. Panic started to claw at my throat. I dropped to my knees, pulling open the bottom drawers of her massive mahogany dresser. I shoved aside folded silk nightgowns, searching blindly for a hidden compartment, a false bottom, anything that could prove to Cassius that his wife was a monster. "Looking for something to steal, Ar







