MasukEMBER’S POVNathaniel writes on the whiteboard. Two words at the top, in capital letters: CELESTE’S NIGHT.“It was Christmas Eve.” His voice is mostly firm, but there’s a shakiness running through it that I can hear from across the room. “You and Celeste hosted a gathering at the Greenvale estate every year. It was an open house. Pack members, allies, friends, family, business associates. Everyone was invited. Celeste loved Christmas more than anyone I’ve ever met. She decorated the whole estate herself; every bannister and window was strung with lights through the garden until the place looked like it was breathing gold. She’d invite everyone she’d ever smiled at.”“I remember that,” Knox says quietly. “I remember the decorations.”“That year, the guest list was around ninety. It was a sit-down dinner, full of exotic cocktails and music in the ballroom. Children chasing each other through the hallways while their parents drank mulled wine and pretended the world was kind. Staff worki
EMBER’S POVKnox sleeps like a man who hasn’t done it in years. Which, knowing him, might actually be the case.His face in my lap, one arm slung across my thighs, the other tucked under the pillow I wedged beside him around hour three because my leg was going numb and I refused to wake him for something as selfish as blood circulation. His breathing has been steady for six hours straight. He has had no nightmares or gold flickering behind his lids. And I have spent every minute of it memorising the architecture of his face without the armour on it.He looks younger asleep. The sharpness softens. The jaw unclenches. The permanent crease between his brows smooths out, and what’s left under is just a man, exhausted and bruised and trusting someone enough to close his eyes in a room with a door.I run my fingers through his hair one more time and lean down and press my lips to his temple and whisper, “Time to wake up, my love.”Nothing. The man sleeps like the dead.“Knox.”There come
Hi loves! Just a quick update — the next chapter is coming, I promise. I’m still working through it because the next few chapters carry some big revelations and major plot shifts, and I want to get everything right. But fear not — whatever’s coming, the worst is over for Knox and Ember.We’re heading into a new arc and possibly the final arc of this story, so I’m piecing together all the threads to make sure everything lands the way it should. I know it’s been about 48 hours since my last update and I appreciate your patience. In between working on Trading, I’ve also been writing a new story on the side — nothing too serious, just a fun little palate cleanser that’s mostly erotica. It’s been helping me balance out the emotional highs of Trading, and I’m having a blast writing it offline. It’s not out yet, but I hope you’ll love it when it does drop. For now, please bear with me while I work out the next chapters. I’m aiming to have it up by Sunday or Monday at the latest. Thank you f
EMBER’S POV“Soon.”I frown. “Knox.”“Soon, Ember. I’m handling it.”“You JUST swore to love me. Openly. Without secrets. That was — what, four minutes ago? And you’re already doing the face.”“What face?”“The face where you know something and you’re deciding how much of it I’m allowed to hear. You’re not allowed to keep your little secrets anymore, Knox. We literally just had this conversation.”“But Ember, I don’t want to worry you. I’ve got everything under—”“Knox Volkov.”He sighs with a small eye roll and pecks my lips. “You’re so stubborn.”“Speak.”“Logan gave us a forty-eight hour ultimatum.” He says it with a dry, almost bored delivery, like he’s reporting the weather. “Return Gale or he starts the apocalypse. His words were more dramatic, but that’s the gist.”“What is that supposed to mean? What apocalypse?”“He has a flash drive. He says it contains the truth about what happened the night Celeste died.” Knox’s jaw tightens but his voice stays even. “He’s promised to rele
EMBER’S POVI blink and the tears spill anyway, sliding down my cheeks into his palms, and he catches them there, holds them, and the expression on his face while he watches me cry happy tears is something I want to photograph and frame and hang on every wall of that house in Portugal.“When Rafael had me on the floor—” The words come before I’ve decided to say them, pulled from somewhere urgent and deep. “When he was on top of me and my body was betraying me and I couldn’t fight and I couldn’t scream and I thought that was it, that was how my story ended — the only thing that kept me fighting, Knox. The only thing that kept my will alive for one more second. Was you.” My fingers curl into his shirt. “Not the hope of being rescued. Not Sapphire. YOU. The thought of you. The memory of your hands and your voice and the way you look at me when you think I’m not paying attention. I escaped into you to survive him.”His jaw tightens and his eyes go bright again but he doesn’t look away.“A
EMBER’S POV“I don’t care. Somewhere warm. Somewhere with an ocean.”“I have a house in the south of Portugal. On a cliff. You can see the Atlantic from the bedroom and the kitchen and the bathroom and frankly from every room because I had very specific requirements when it was built.”“You built a house on a cliff in Portugal and never mentioned this?”“It never came up.”“An entire HOUSE, Knox.”“A modest house.”“Your idea of modest is most people’s idea of a palace.”“There’s a garden. Olive trees. A terrace where you can eat breakfast and watch the waves and the nearest neighbour is four miles away and there is no one to interrupt or attack or betray or politically manoeuvre and it is the one place in my life where I have ever felt anything close to peace.” He presses his face into my neck. “I want to take you there. I want to sit on that terrace with you in the morning and drink coffee and listen to you complain about the heat because you’re Alaskan and anything above fifteen de
EMBER’S POV“Your Majesty.” Harrison rises as we approach, inclining his head in a bow that manages to be respectful without being servile. “Thank you for accepting my invitation. I trust the drive was pleasant?”“Crawford.” Knox’s voice is flat. “Let’s skip the pleasantries.”“Straight to business
EMBER’S POVMy mother stands in the doorway, draped in designer everything as always.A silk dress in garish emerald that probably cost more than she can actually afford. Jewelry dripping from her neck, her ears, her wrists, every piece fighting for attention.Hair and makeup done to perfection, no
EMBER’S POVI slump back into my seat unconsciously, not realizing how rigidly I’d been holding myself until the tension drains away.Knox lifts our entwined hands to his lips and presses a kiss to my knuckles, his eyes on me.It slows the tightening in my chest. Loosens the knot that Harrison’s qu
EMBER’S POV“Because I saw you on the news.” His voice cracks again. “During a press conference. I saw you standing up there, speaking to the camera, saying five words they have haunted me every night. You are dead to me. And though it wasn’t directed at me, I felt it so much. I felt it down to my







