LOGINCassidy 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
Franklin POVWe ended up in the library.Cameron had pulled a stack of council reports onto the table and was trying to read them. Every few minutes, his eyes stopped moving across the page. He'd go still, stare at the same paragraph, and start again.A leather folder sat open beside him.His will.I glanced at it and immediately wished I hadn't."Cameron. You're not dying. You're having a spectacularly bad month. Those are different things."He held on to it even as I tried to snatch the folder out of his hands."Franklin...""No."He rubbed his forehead."If something happens to me, I need to make sure she can't touch any of it. Not the businesses. Not the estate. Not the trust. Most of it goes to the child. The rest goes to Nadia and you."Under pack law, a mate inherited a significant share of an Alpha's estate. It was a system built around trust.Meridian had found a way to turn that trust into a weapon. They didn't need to seize territories by force when they could place someone
Susan POVJames poured more tea into my cup and slid it across the table.“Mom, I don’t think you should go to that meeting. They’re going to insult you and make you feel guilty for divorcing Dad.”I wrapped my hands around the cup and sat there with the heat pressing into my palms.James was right
Lisa POVMy body felt tight with nerves about seeing the baby inside me for the first time.I still refused to attach any maternal thoughts to it. The child was not mine. Saying my baby would be stupid.Even so, the words kept forming in my head.For someone who had never imagined becoming a mother
Lisa POV“You look like someone handed you a bag full of problems,” I said.Franklin sat on the couch with the remote and flipped through channels, as if the television might suddenly solve his life.He had been doing it for a while.Nothing stayed on the screen long enough to matter.“Just tired,”
Nadia “Open your eyes.”Desmond covered my face and whispered near my ear. “Don’t peek.”“I’m not peeking.”“You always peek.”“That was one time.”He laughed and stepped away.“Alright. Look.”I opened my eyes. A car waited in the driveway, polished to a mirror shine. A red ribbon stretched acros







