登入The night's air carries the smell of diesel, wet stone and old smoke. Nothing like where they'd come from. Even the breeze feels tired.Garren stands at the balcony railing with both hands clasped at the small of his back. Below, the compound spreads out in the dark."Is everything ready?" he asks."Yes, Alpha." Elder Harvey stands two paces behind him, a folder under one arm. He opens his mouth, then closes it again, exhaling through his nose.The corner of Garren's mouth lifts. His eyes catch the light faintly but he doesn't turn around."You're not sleeping, Princess." He senses Frida without even looking her way.Harvey turns, trying to see who he's talking to only to see Frida standing at the balcony entrance, one shoulder against the doorframe, arms loosely crossed. She has changed into a dark robe, her hair down,Harvey straightens immediately. He crosses to her and takes her hand, pressing his lips briefly to her knuckles. "My lady."Frida looks down at the gesture with exhaus
Kai is breathing hard, trying to stay calm. Jackson is watching.Ivy bites her lip, smirking at the heat that fills her. She likes that they can’t help themselves when it comes to her.Kai groans and goes to step forward. Jackson blocks him, pushing her back behind him. Kai bares his teeth.“You sensed it too. She wants it,” Kai bites out.Jackson rolls his eyes.“Go for a run. You're a mess tonight.” Rubbing his neck, Jackson sighs. "You'll ruin her if you should take her."He backs Kai off, but it doesn’t matter because Kai grabs her, dragging her out toward the bathroom on the left and shutting the door before Jackson can stop him.He presses her into the door, holding her there as his mouth closes over hers. He is so fast it makes her breathless.In seconds, they ripped each other of clothes, breathing heavily, eyes glowing like hungry beasts.He lifts her onto his waist, his cock begging at her entrance, his lips covering hers, his hands fucking her wild strands of hair up even m
Jackson's expression doesn't change. "Frida wants Kai as a shield.""She's using him."Jackson follows her gaze toward the ceiling."She's always used him. Since they were children." He pauses. "She used to break things and put them in his hands before their father walked in. A lamp. A window. Once, a bottle of Garren's favourite perfume. Kai took every beating without saying her name."Ivy stares at him.She shakes her head . "And we walked into this. We left Mystic Valley open, we left my parents —" she stops. Inhaling. "They escaped Garren once. Everything that happened to them, everything that drove them out, it was because of this place. And now I've walked us straight back into the middle of it.""Your parents are safe," Jackson says. "We put a defense team in place in case."He doesn't argue with that.Ivy is quiet for a moment, her hands still on the mattress. Then she asks, "Kai's mother." She watches Jackson's face. "Are we going to be able to find out what happened to her?"
The rooms are side by side at the end of the east wing corridor, separated by a shared wall.Ivy steps into her room and lets the door swing shut behind her.The mattress is untouched. Pillows stacked neatly. Fresh flowers sit in a vase beside the window, their sweet scent mixing with the faint smell of old wood lingering beneath the newer renovations.Her bag is beside the dresser. She reaches for her phone.Nothing.The screen goes dark.A second later it's in her hand again. Still nothing.Her gaze drifts to the door. Kai has been gone too long. The thought settles heavily in her chest.Across the corridor, a door closes.Jackson.She walks straight out the door and knocks on Jackson's."Yes, come in," he answers from inside.Ivy pushes the door open and walks inside.His room is similar — same bones, different mood. Darker, the walls a deep slate grey, the bed dressed in charcoal and white, a low leather couch along one wall beneath a window that looks out over the back of the pro
The room is smaller than Kai remembers.Or maybe he is larger. Been away for so long has a way of doing that — shrinking the spaces that once felt enormous, collapsing the distance between the boy who stood in doorways and the man who now fills them.He steps through and all the Elders rise. Harvey, Wade, Archer, Reed, and Zion's heads dip forward in a bow.Then they sit.Kai slows midway into the room. The movement is hardly perceptible, just enough for his boot to scrape against the floor before he takes another step. For a brief moment, he sees them as they once were—louder, younger, filling spaces with arguments and laughter, sharing opinions that no one requested.The weight of the years crashes down on him all at once. He presses his tongue against the inside of his cheek and nods in acknowledgment before moving to stand in a corner at the back of the room."Here." His father's voice. Garren gestures to the seat at his right, the chair that has always belonged to whoever Garren
Walking through the Alpha's High Point, Kai sees that torches are burning along the entrance despite the afternoon light.The great hall holds hundreds, and today it holds all of them.Pack members fill the floor, shoulder to shoulder, faces tilted forward. The council stands in a raised semicircle to the left. Garren's army lines the walls in full dress uniform, still as pillars, chests lifted, eyes fixed forward.Garren takes the front.The hall goes silent so completely it feels like a held breath."There are moments," he begins, his voice moving through the room without effort, "that a pack carries in its bones long after the day itself is gone."He pauses. His eyes move across the hall slowly."My son left Beacon Hill as a young man." He turns, just briefly, to look at Kai directly. "He left without the send-off he deserved."Kai swallows. The memory of the gate flashes through him. He can still hear it closing."Without — " he grinds his jaw — "enough of his father."The hall is
The basket slips from Numenessa's hands, spilling herbs across the ground. She stands still, not out of fear. Her eyes catch her reflection.The river that flows through her garden is clear tonight, with moonlight transforming its surface into liquid silver. And there, looking back at her, is a fac
Because if he claims her now, he steals her choice. But if he waits, he'll go mad and a mad wolf is vulnerable. Easy prey for enemies circling his territory. His father would never take back a banished heir turned feral. The council would vote to put him down before letting him anywhere near Beacon
Elder Torren shifts, his breath catching like it hurts to hold it in. He tries to restrain himself, to conceal the disbelief on his face—but Garren’s fixation snaps something loose in him.“This is madness,” he mutters, barely above a breath.Every head whips toward him.A single, suspended heartbea
The kiss is a mistake he doesn't have time to regret.One heartbeat she’s furious, breathing hard enough to shake, and in the next she’s on him—soft mouth, reckless heat, a collision he never saw coming.Kai reacts before thought can interfere.His hand finds her hair almost in disbelief, fingers c







