MasukLisa POVThe atmosphere inside Alpha Kieran's house had changed.It wasn't dramatic, yet I felt it. Conversations between him and my mom ended too quickly, and silences lingered. My mother stayed polite, but the ease she usually shared with Kieran was gone.The distance between them reminded me of the months after my father left, when my mother carried her hurt like armor.I couldn't blame her. I couldn't blame Kieran either.Cassidy's story had come out in pieces. Nothing fit into heroes and villains. The more I learned, the harder it became to decide who was right. Cassidy had reason to be angry. Kieran still carried the weight of his mistakes. Everyone had lost something, and nobody got it back.The part that stayed with me most was their son. Until now, I'd only known that Kieran and Vanessa had lost a son. I hadn't known another mother stood behind that story. A woman who had carried him, raised him, fought for him, and buried him.The grief in Cassidy's eyes made sense. So did t
Cassidy POVEven more ironic was my mother's death the following year. By then, she was the only person who still called me every morning. The only person who visited, scolded me for being stubborn, and still convinced me to eat afterward.When she died, the silence changed. Before, it had been loneliness. Afterward, it became heavier.There was no one left to pull me back when I started spiraling or to stop me from chasing ghosts.No one left to remind me that there was still a world beyond grief.The funeral ended. People went home. The casseroles stopped arriving. The phone stopped ringing.And for the first time in my life, I realized there wasn't a single place left where I belonged without conditions attached to it.Lawrence was gone.My children were gone.My mother was gone too.I remember standing in the middle of my kitchen a week later, staring at two coffee mugs in the drying rack.One was mine. The other had been hers.I couldn't bring myself to put it away.That was the
Life moved on anyway.I became pregnant again. Lawrence was ecstatic.He started making plans for a bigger house. For the first time in years, I started imagining a future too.Nolan's nanny, who was kind enough to occasionally update me on his progress, described something she had seen under his pillow during a phone call.Something wrapped in cloth sat beneath the edge of my son's pillow. Symbols had been stitched into the fabric with dark thread. She sounded more curious than concerned. She seemed to think it might be some sort of protective charm and wondered whether I'd left it there during one of my visits and forgotten to mention it.I hadn't.The image stayed in the back of my mind long after the conversation ended, but I wasn't even allowed to investigate further because three days later, my son collapsed.The call came while Lawrence was mowing the lawn. I still remember screaming and rushing to the van, with Lawrence running after me shirtless."Calm down, Cassidy," he said
Cassidy POVA month later, formal invitations to the wedding arrived. I never responded.On the day of the wedding, I stayed home. My mother attended because the invitation had come directly from the future Luna. Refusing would have created gossip neither of us needed.When she returned that evening, she set a small gift box on the kitchen table and removed her shoes."How was it?" I asked, scooping ice cubes into my mouth.My mother looked at me and sighed."Beautiful."I nodded.She unpacked a small container and placed it in the refrigerator."Vanessa asked about you."I grabbed another ice cube."Did she?""She misses you."I nearly laughed.My mother closed the refrigerator door."Cassidy..."There was a warning in her voice.I looked away."You can't stay angry forever."That did it."Why does everybody keep saying that?"Her head drew back at the force in my voice. I pushed away from the counter."Stay angry at what? At who? Kieran married his mate. Good for them. They're happy!
Cassidy POVThe fundraiser carried on as daughters drifted between tables and volunteers moved quietly through the crowd collecting pledge forms.A projector near the stage cycled through photographs of newly funded shelters, scholarship recipients, and refugee families standing in front of freshly completed homes.Laughter rose from one corner of the room when someone won a bidding war over a vacation package. Across the hall, two women debated donation figures. To anyone walking through those doors, it was exactly what it appeared to be: a room full of wealthy women raising money to improve other people's lives.I kept walking until I reached the women's restroom near the eastern wing. The door swung shut behind me.For the first time all day, nobody was asking questions or watching me.I gripped the edge of the sink and let out a shaky breath before staring at my reflection.The fluorescent lights overhead were unforgiving. They highlighted every sleepless night, every old scar, ev
Lisa POVThe closer we got to our destination, the worse the decision felt. Nobody spoke much. Unfortunately, the silence gave me too much room to think.Alpha Kieran, who trusted these people and owed them his life, didn't look relieved to be taking me there. He looked like a man delivering someone to a place he respected and feared in equal measure.Every few minutes, my hand drifted to my stomach. I kept asking myself the same question. If these women were truly safe, why did joining them feel so much like walking into danger?I sat in the back row of the jeep beside Cassidy. Harry had planned to come with us. Unfortunately, his grandmother had apparently spent days demanding answers about where he'd disappeared to and why he kept turning up in the middle of pack disasters.Alpha Kieran had compensated him generously for everything he'd been dragged into. Harry promised he'd come back.The driver and guard occupied the front seats, while Alpha Kieran and my mom sat in the middle ro
LisaCameron agreed to let me go, though not without conditions. Security would drive me, I would check in every day, and I would be back in exactly one week. I nodded through all of it because I was too relieved to argue about the details.The drive to Creek Keepers took four hours. I spent most of
LisaTime blurred together until I could no longer tell when night ended and morning began. I lost count of how many times Cameron and I had sex, how many times I begged him to fill me, and how many times his knot locked us together. The only thing that existed was the relentless need and the way he
CameronI woke in the middle of the night in a hotel room drenched in sweat and painfully hard. My wolf snarled inside my head, pacing and demanding that I go to Lisa. Not Evangeline, not my mate waiting at home, but Lisa. The urge hit with such force it bordered on pain. I sat up in the dark grippi
LisaMy pre-heat began with a strange pulling sensation in my abdomen.I was at the nursery helping a child sound out words from her reading book when the feeling started, as if something inside me had shifted. I pressed a hand to my stomach and tried to ignore it.Probably cramps. Except my period







