LOGINChapter 39 Zara woke to Damien’s mouth between her legs. The bond made every lick sharper. She felt his hunger like it lived in her own skin. She grabbed his hair and pulled him closer. He growled against her clit and sucked harder. Two fingers pushed inside her. She came fast. Her thighs shook around his head. He moved up her body and thrust his cock into her in one hard stroke. She was wet and open. He fucked her deep. The headboard hit the wall with every thrust. “Feel that,” he said against her ear. “The bond lets me feel how tight you are. How you clench when I hit that spot.” She wrapped her legs around him and met every stroke. “Harder. I want to feel you tomorrow.” He gave her what she asked for. The pace turned rough. Skin slapped skin. She came again with a broken cry. Her pussy pulsed around him. Through the bond she felt his pleasure spike with hers. It pushed her higher. He flipped her onto her stomach. Pulled her hips up. Slammed back inside. One hand reached unde
Chapter 38Three months had passed since the council vote. Zara’s event planning company had doubled in size. WolfeGroup remained her largest client but new contracts arrived every week. She hired three more planners. The office now took two floors above the florist shop. She still loved the details. The flowers. The lighting. The way a good event made people feel seen.Nadia had moved in with Marcus. They fought loud and loved louder. Zara met her for lunch every Thursday. They laughed about how both of them had ended up with wolves who growled more than they spoke and how neither would change a thing.Damien had learned to ask more than he ordered. Most days. When he forgot she reminded him. Then they ended up in bed and the reminder turned into something better than words.Tonight was different.Tonight she would take his mark.The private ceremony was set for midnight in a clearing deep in pack land. Only Adaeze as elder witness. Marcus standing guard at the edge. No crowd. No pol
Chapter 36The council hall was nearly empty. A few wolves lingered near the doors. They watched Damien and Zara with a mix of respect and wariness. The vote had passed but the room still smelled of tension and old power.Adaeze stopped them at the exit. "The pack will test this. Both the bond and your leadership. Be ready."Damien nodded. "We will be."Zara met the elder's eyes. "Thank you for the records. And for the vote."Adaeze gave a small smile. "Do not thank me. Earn it."Then she was gone.They walked to the car in silence. Marcus waited. He drove without questions. The city passed in streaks of light.In the back seat Zara leaned against Damien. The weight of the night pressed on them but the bond made it bearable. She thought about the way she had stood in front of the council and spoken her truth. How it had felt to claim her place instead of shrinking. How Damien had stood beside her without trying to speak for her. That had mattered more than any vote. The bond felt diff
Chapter 35The council called a short recess before the final vote on the mate bond. Damien led Zara into a small private room off the main hall. The door closed behind them. The noise of the council faded to a low murmur.He turned to her. His eyes were steady but the control he always wore looked thinner than it had all night.“The mark is not just a symbol,” he said. “It ties you to the pack. To me. You would feel what I feel. You would carry some of the weight the alpha carries. You would be in danger every time a rival pack looks at us. It is a lifetime. Not a contract. Not something you can walk away from if it gets hard.”Zara stayed close. “You said you would not ask me to take it.”“I will not. I cannot. The choice has to be yours or it means nothing. I have spent years forcing myself to control everything because I could not save the person I was supposed to protect. I will not do that to you.”She looked at him for a long moment. “Then tell me what you want. Not what the pa
Chapter 35The council called a short recess before the final vote on the mate bond. Damien led Zara into a small private room off the main hall. The door closed behind them. The noise of the council faded to a low murmur.He turned to her. His eyes were steady but the control he always wore looked thinner than it had all night.“The mark is not just a symbol,” he said. “It ties you to the pack. To me. You would feel what I feel. You would carry some of the weight the alpha carries. You would be in danger every time a rival pack looks at us. It is a lifetime. Not a contract. Not something you can walk away from if it gets hard.”Zara stayed close. “You said you would not ask me to take it.”“I will not. I cannot. The choice has to be yours or it means nothing. I have spent years forcing myself to control everything because I could not save the person I was supposed to protect. I will not do that to you.”She looked at him for a long moment. “Then tell me what you want. Not what the pa
Chapter 34: The ReckoningThe footage froze on Damien’s half shifted face. The image hung in the air like a threat. Victor stood with his arms crossed, the picture of quiet victory.No one spoke for several long seconds.Zara stepped forward again. She did not look at the screen. She looked at the council.“That footage is real,” she said. “It shows a man who lost someone he was trying to protect. It shows grief and rage. But it does not show the whole truth. Victor cut the part where Damien stopped himself. He cut the part where he chose the pack over his own pain. He cut the part where he carried that guilt for years without letting it destroy the people who depended on him.”She turned to Lena. “Tell them what Victor really offered you. Not protection. Not safety. He told you if you did not stand here and lie about my mother’s blood he would finish what his father started. That is the man asking you to remove Damien as alpha.”Lena’s hands shook. She looked at Victor then at the co
Chapter Twenty-Two Zara says yes before she finishes thinking about it. It is nine thirty on a Thursday and she has been in the Wolf group building since eight that morning and the planning session for the next event ran forty minutes over and Cora is off rotation tonight and when Damien appears i
Chapter Twenty-OneThe last guest clears the venue at ten forty-three.Zara knows the exact time because she checks it. She always checks it. The gap between projected end time and actual end time tells her something about the event design and tonight the gap is four minutes under, which means the
Chapter TwentyZara knows within twenty minutes of being in the room that this event is different.Not the logistics. Those are clean. The venue is a converted private estate in Buckhead, everything she specified delivered exactly right, the florals on brief, the lighting warm and precise, the cate
Chapter SevenDamien gave Victor exactly one hour after Zara walked out before he called him in.Not because he needed the hour. He does not need it. He knows what Victor had done the moment Zara said an unknown number and Isla Vane in the same sentence. He gives himself the hour because he learne







