LOGINThe house smelled like fresh paint and possibility.Fifteen weeks pregnant and I was standing in an empty living room with sock feet on hardwood floors, turning slow circles, trying to understand that this was ours. Not the estate. Not a pack house full of people we loved. Just ours. Mine and Lycian’s and the baby’s. Four walls and high ceilings and windows that caught the December afternoon light and threw it in long gold rectangles across the floor.We had been looking for two months. Lycian had a list of requirements. I had a feeling I was chasing without knowing exactly what it was. We had walked through house after house and none of them had it, that particular quality of a place that felt like it had been waiting for you specifically.This one had it. The moment I walked through the front door the first time I had stopped in the entryway and just stood there. Lycian had watched my face and pulled out his phone and called the agent before I said a single word.That was three week
The gown was not designed for a baby bump.Thirteen weeks. Still small enough that most people wouldn’t notice under regular clothes. But the graduation gown was stiff and shapeless and I had spent ten minutes in the bathroom fighting the zipper before Lycian knocked and asked if I was okay and I said yes even though my eyes were wet, which he knew because he felt it through the bond, which meant he came in anyway. He fixed the zipper without commenting on the crying. Smoothed the fabric across my shoulders with both hands. Stepped back and looked at me the way he looked at things he wanted to remember.He didn’t say anything.He didn’t need to.The ceremony was outside on the university’s main lawn. Rows of white chairs. A low stage with a podium. December cold sharp in the air, everyone’s breath showing in small pale clouds. The faculty stood at the sides in their formal robes trying not to shiver and mostly failing.I found my seat in the third row. Around me were students I had sh
Lycian carried my bag to the lecture hall door like it was the most natural thing in the world.It had become the most natural thing in the world.He walks me to class three mornings a week now. Fell into step beside me somewhere between the estate gate and the biology building, his hand finding mine without either of us deciding it would. Eleven weeks pregnant and we had built this small routine so quietly that I hadn’t noticed it solidifying until it was just part of how Tuesdays worked.He stopped at the door the way he always did. He never came in. We had figured that out early, me needing the classroom to be mine alone, and he had accepted it without discussion or complaint. Just stopped at the door, handed over my bag, waited.I stood on my toes and kissed him. Brief and warm. His free hand came up and touched my face, just his fingertips against my jaw, the lightest possible contact. That small thing undid me more than anything larger would have. The gentleness of it. The way h
The campus looked the same.That was the strange part. I had half expected it to feel different. To somehow reflect everything that had changed inside me. But Mooncrest was just Mooncrest. Same stone buildings. Same oak trees. Same students cutting across the quad with coffee cups and backpacks and the particular tired energy of a Thursday morning that had nothing to do with anything except being tired on a Thursday.Nobody looked at me.I pulled my jacket tighter and walked toward the biology building. Ten weeks pregnant and not showing yet, but I felt different in my own body. Slower. More deliberate. Like I was carrying something I couldn’t put down and didn’t want to.Lycian had offered to walk me. I had told him no.Not because I didn’t want him. Because I needed to know I could do this on my own. Walk across this campus like a regular person. Like a student. Like someone whose biggest problem was a missed lecture and not an ancient bloodline and a war she had barely survived.Th
I had been carrying the secret for three days.Three days of crackers hidden in my nightstand drawer. Of excusing myself from pack dinners when the smell of garlic hit wrong. Of Lycian watching me across the table with those careful eyes, saying nothing, waiting for me to be ready the way he always waited, without pushing, without crowding, just present and patient and certain I would get there.Tonight I felt ready.The pack had gathered in the main room the way they always did on Sunday evenings. The long table was loud and full. Damien was arguing with aunt Clara about whether he had burnt the edges of the bread or just given it character. Tessa was setting out plates in the wrong order and insisting she had it right. My father sat at the far end with his tablet, pretending not to listen to everyone else while clearly listening to everyone else.I stood in the doorway for a moment before anyone noticed me.Just watching.The warm light above the table. The smell of roasted meat and
The Council chambers smelled like old wood and candle wax.I had been in this room before under very different circumstances. Heart hammering. Wolf bristling. Every muscle in my body is ready to run or fight or both.Today my hands were still in my lap. My breathing was even. Lycian sat beside me, his knee touching mine, that small contact saying everything that didn’t need words.Twelve Council members filed in and took their seats.Elder Catherine sat at the center. She looked older than I remembered. Or maybe I just saw her differently now, without the lens of fear distorting everything.Nobody spoke for a moment. The candles along the wall threw soft light across the stone. Rain tapped steadily against the high windows.Then Elder Catherine folded her hands on the table and said, “The Collective has been confirmed dissolved. Every facility. Every operative. Every cell.” She paused. “It’s over.”Two words. I had been waiting months to hear them and now that they were in the air I d
“Cancel the wedding,” Lycian said immediately. Voice hard. Final.“What? No.” I stared at him. “We’re not canceling because they’re watching.”“They just threatened us. Directly. At our wedding, we’ll be exposed. Vulnerable. Perfect targets.” He was already pulling out his phone. “We postpone. Move
I showed Lycian the message without a word.His jaw clenched. Gold bled into his eyes. Through the bond, I felt his wolf surge. Furious. Protective. Ready to hunt.“We’re leaving,” he said. Voice tight. “Tonight. The beach trip. We’re going now.”“We can’t run from this.”“It’s not running. It’s re
“You can’t wear that.”I looked down at my jeans and sweater. “What’s wrong with it?”Lycian stood in the doorway holding a garment bag, looking nervous. “Nothing’s wrong with it. But we’re going somewhere nice tonight and I want you to feel comfortable.”“I am comfortable.”“Fine. I’m not comforta
I didn’t sleep that night.Just lay in bed staring at the ceiling while Tessa snored softly across the room. My phone sat on my nightstand. Dark. Silent. Waiting for the decision I had to make by nine o’clock.Take Marcus Blackthorn’s money. Stay away from Lycian. Keep my scholarship and actually h







