ログインRiguel’s POV
The drive back to Blackwood should’ve been simple, forty minutes of highway, then the familiar turn onto pack land. But my hands were locked so tightly on the wheel the leather creaked. My wolf paced under my skin, unsettled in a way I hadn’t felt in years.
Something was off.
Not wrong. Just… different.
Selma Hartley.
Even saying her name felt false, like it didn’t belong to her. She was exactly what she claimed, top-tier corporate lawyer, human, sharp, efficient. Perfect for the legal mess choking Blackwood’s expansion.
And yet.
The moment she’d walked into that café, gray suit, hair pulled tight, expression controlled, my wolf had stirred. Not just curiosity. Not attraction.
Recognition.
The mate bond.
Which made no sense. Elsa was dead. I’d mourned her every day for five years. I’d replayed her collapse a thousand times, her falling at t
Riguel’s POVThe drive back to Blackwood should’ve been simple, forty minutes of highway, then the familiar turn onto pack land. But my hands were locked so tightly on the wheel the leather creaked. My wolf paced under my skin, unsettled in a way I hadn’t felt in years.Something was off.Not wrong. Just… different.Selma Hartley.Even saying her name felt false, like it didn’t belong to her. She was exactly what she claimed, top-tier corporate lawyer, human, sharp, efficient. Perfect for the legal mess choking Blackwood’s expansion.And yet.The moment she’d walked into that café, gray suit, hair pulled tight, expression controlled, my wolf had stirred. Not just curiosity. Not attraction.Recognition.The mate bond.Which made no sense. Elsa was dead. I’d mourned her every day for five years. I’d replayed her collapse a thousand times, her falling at t
Elsa's POVThe coffee shop was all polished concrete and muted ambient noise, the perfect neutral backdrop for a performance.I sat across a small, marble-topped table from the man I had spent five years learning to hate, the man I was certain tried to kill me, and the man who, infuriatingly, still had the power to make my heart flutter like a trapped bird.Torture and triumph, the two emotions warred constantly, tightening the knot beneath my ribs until it felt like a steel vise.Riguel Earnhardt looked exactly as I had analyzed him, successful, impeccably dressed in a suit that cost more than my first year of law school tuition, and radiating an effortless, dangerous competence.His scent, the familiar, intoxicating mix of cedar, snow, and Alpha power, was a brutal assault on my senses. I had layered my disguise with a specific, unscented perfume, a tactic Killian had made me addicted to, but even that couldn't block the p
Riguel's POVThe business card felt incongruously heavy in my hand, an anchor in the shifting landscape of my office desk. Selma Hartley.The name was crisp, efficient, engraved in silver that caught the weak afternoon light. I kept turning it over, flipping between the name and the address of her high-powered corporate firm.I couldn’t stop thinking about her. And that was the core of the problem. It was irrational, illogical, and borderline dangerous. She was a complete stranger, a human, a high-flying lawyer with no connection to the scarred, political life of the Blackwood Pack, and yet, she had hijacked my thoughts since the brief, chance encounter where she’d helped find Noah.A stranger. A convenient, professional stranger who should have vanished back into the chaos of the city after that polite exchange.But she hadn't.And the triplets weren’t helping my self-imposed emotional quarantine. Their
Elsa's POVI made it to my car before completely falling apart.The parking garage was mostly empty, concrete and shadows, nobody to witness Selma Hartley's careful composure crumbling into Elsa Andrew's grief.I gripped the steering wheel with shaking hands and let the sobs come.I'd held Noah's shoulders. Felt his bones beneath my palms, solid and real and alive. He'd grown so much, taller, leaner, becoming a young man instead of the eight-year-old I'd lost.And he'd said I smelled like Mama's flowers.Like some part of him recognized me through the disguise, through the five years, through death itself.My baby. My quiet, sensitive Noah who still dreamed about me.And Luca. Gods, Luca's voice had gotten deeper. The way he'd moved through the crowd searching, purposeful, protective, already so much the Alpha he'd someday become.Mateo with his easy confidence, his concern for his father, the glimpses of the joyful chil
Riguel’s POVI couldn’t stop staring at her.This woman, Selma Hartley, who showed up out of nowhere to help look for Noah. Something about her made my wolf uneasy, like he was pacing just under my skin. Made my chest tighten in a way I didn’t have a name for.Because she looked like Elsa.Not exactly. Not enough for anyone else to notice. But in the shape of her face, the way she carried herself. The way she tilted her head when she listened. Same height. Same build under that sharp, expensive suit.But everything else was different.Elsa had warm, honey-brown hair. This woman’s hair was dark red, almost crimson. Elsa’s eyes were soft green. Hers were amber. bright, focused, almost too aware. And the scent… expensive perfume, definitely human. Nothing like Elsa’s wild forest-and-moonflower smell.And Elsa was dead.I’d held her body. Felt the bond snap. Buried her myself.
Elsa's POVThe Meridian Industries deal closed at 3:47 PM.Eighteen million dollars for my client, complete dissolution of their competitor's patent claim, and an NDA so ironclad that no one would ever know what really happened behind closed doors.Another win. Another step closer to the power I needed.I gathered my briefcase, shook hands with the opposing counsel, a man who'd walked in confident and left looking like I'd stripped him to the bones, and headed for the exit.My reflection caught in the building's glass doors. Red hair perfectly styled, sharp charcoal suit, amber contact lenses that made my eyes look nothing like the pale green Riguel had once traced with his fingertips. The scent-masking perfume I wore was expensive, supernatural-grade, completely buried any trace of my wolf.I looked nothing like Elsa Andrew.I was Selma Hartley. Successful, powerful and untouchable.And today, I was in the same city as my sons







