The sound of boots echoed down the halls. Heavy. Urgent. My heartbeat matched them, thudding against my ribs. I sat frozen on the bed where Carlos had left me, his warning sharp in my ears. Do not move an inch from here. Got it?But I couldn’t block out the words the guard had spoken. A head. Marta’s.My hands trembled. My wolf whimpered inside me, mourning. Marta had betrayed me, yes, but she had also cared for me like family. Now she was gone—just another casualty of Lars’s wrath.Shouts carried from outside, muffled by stone walls. A wave of fear rolled through me. He was here. Lars. My mate. My murderer.The door creaked open. My breath caught, thinking it might be him. But it was Carlos, his movements sharp, his face pale with fury barely contained.“Stay quiet,” he ordered, his voice like iron. “He’s at the gates with half his men. Father is stalling, but it won’t hold. If he scents you…” He broke off, running a hand through his hair. “You have to trust me, Amelia.”My throat ti
The words Carlos had spoken still rang in my ears, heavy and raw. He killed her. My mother. My Luna.I sat frozen on the bed, staring at him. This man who had carried me in his arms as if I weighed nothing. Who had barked orders at guards like his voice could command the world. Now, sitting with his shoulders slumped, he looked nothing like the cold warrior I thought he was. He looked… human.“You were thirteen,” I said softly, the words slipping out. “You can’t—”“I should’ve been there,” he cut me off. His eyes lifted to mine, blazing with that guilt he carried like chains. “A border post was my responsibility. I abandoned it. And because of me, my mother is dead.”The conviction in his tone twisted something inside me. He believed it, utterly.I shook my head. “No. Lars killed her. Not you.”His jaw flexed, his body taut like a bowstring. For a moment, I thought he’d snap at me. Instead, he leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling like it might hold the answers he’d been se
The room was too quiet after Carlos left, but my ears rang with every sound from beyond the door. My wolf strained inside me, claws against my skin, desperate to listen.Then I heard him.Lars.His voice slithered into the hall like poison smoke. Calm, amused, cruel. The same voice that whispered he would never love me. The same voice that laughed as he shoved me from the cliff.“You should have trained your men better,” Lars said. His tone was casual, almost lazy, but beneath it was a blade of power. “It took too long for me to reach you.”I pressed a hand to my chest, my pulse hammering. The air in the room thickened with his presence. He was close—too close.Carlos’s father answered, steady but strained. “You weren’t invited into my territory, Alpha Lars. You’ve already spilled too much blood tonight.”I shut my eyes, trying not to picture what that meant. Still, the copper tang of blood seeped beneath the door. My wolf recoiled.Lars chuckled. “Blood means nothing when it’s weak.
I pressed my palm flat against the door the moment Carlos disappeared. His command echoed in my head, firm and heavy. Do not move an inch from here. Got it?But the silence on the other side wasn’t silence at all. It was muffled growls, the scrape of boots, the rumble of voices deep with power. My stomach twisted, my fingers curling against the wood until my nails bit into it.I wanted to move, to run, to do something. Yet my legs trembled, too weak to hold me, and fear pinned me more effectively than any lock.Then I felt it.Not sound. Not touch. But scent.Sharp. Familiar. Soaked in cruelty. My lungs seized before my mind could name it, but my body knew. My wolf knew. The scent of Lars slid through the cracks of the room like smoke.I staggered back, clutching my chest. The walls felt too close. The air too thin. My mate—the man who threw me from the cliff—was here. Alive, dominant, and close enough to smell me.A low voice carried into the hall, smooth as poison. Lars.“I can smel
Carlos’s arms felt like steel bands around her as he carried Amelia back to the bed, her body limp but her pulse thundering against his chest. She had barely absorbed his words—her body found by the creeks, a month lost in a fog she couldn’t remember—when her knees buckled beneath her. He had caught her before she hit the ground, and now he set her gently on the mattress, his jaw tight, his eyes shadowed with something far darker than pity.“You shouldn’t move yet,” he said, voice low, controlled. Too controlled. “Your body is still weak.”“I’m not weak,” she whispered, defiance flashing in her dull, tired eyes. She hated the sound of her own voice—shaky, thin, like someone else’s.Carlos crouched in front of her, one hand braced on the mattress beside her thigh. The position forced her to meet his gaze. His presence was overwhelming, so close, his scent of cedar and storm wrapping around her until it was the only thing she could breathe.“You’re pale as death,” he said roughly. “Don’
Carlos lowered her onto the mattress like she was made of glass, his arms lingering as if her skin burned him and yet tethered him. Amelia’s body was trembling, not only from weakness but from the weight of his words—a month… by the creeks… dead, and yet not dead.Her lips parted, but no sound came out. She couldn’t process it all. Her chest rose and fell too fast, and when she pressed her palm against the sheets to sit up again, her knees buckled beneath her. Carlos’s hand shot out, pinning her shoulder gently but firmly back against the pillows.“Stop fighting me,” he said, voice low, rough, and too close. His scent wrapped around her, heavy, intoxicating. “Your body is barely holding together. You move like this, and you’ll collapse.”“I already feel collapsed,” she whispered.The words punched a hole through his composure. He had to clench his jaw, his fangs threatening to show. His wolf stirred, prowling under his skin, restless and hungry—not for blood, but for the maddening pul