LOGINI could hardly believe what I was seeing.The sentence repeated itself over and over in my mind, like a broken recorder stuck on the same line.I stood in the shadows at the edge of the cliff behind the backyard. Ethan stood quietly behind me. Wind rose from the slope below, carrying the scent of the pack—so familiar that it tightened something painfully in my chest.Four months.I had been gone for four months.And yet I returned today.Of all days—today.The day of his Alpha ceremony.On the stage, Fitch stood in a black suit, tall and coldly composed. His palm was pressed against Evelyn’s, their blood mixing, evaporating, forming the bond.
I did not actually oppose the condition Evelyn proposed.To be honest, I was even a little surprised that she had thought of it. But the more I considered it, the more grateful I became that she was the one who voiced it first.Sarah had blocked every one of our numbers. We had known that for a long time. Yet even so, we kept calling again and again—as if persistence alone might loosen the grip of fate.I called twice.Melissa, Evelyn, Alex—even my father. Everyone tried.No response.No rejection message.No voicemail.Nothing.It was as if she had truly vanished from the world.
After learning that three innocent children had been brutally murdered, I barely hesitated before deciding to see my father.In that moment, my conscience felt like it was being torn apart. The wolf inside me paced restlessly, rage and the thirst for revenge tangling with a guilt I could barely suppress.We were supposed to protect them.We were supposed to.So I went to the hospital.As usual, I bought a cup of bitter coffee from the machine at the end of the hallway—so bitter it made my tongue sting. As if that might somehow keep me alert.But the thing that truly made my hands tremble wasn’t the taste of the coffee.It was the truth I was about to speak aloud.As Alpha, my father&
I buried myself deep inside the down comforter.This bit of sleep was far too precious to waste.Sarah leaving, my father collapsing, the pack in turmoil, Caitlin’s shadow, the threat of the rogues—everything felt like ropes tightening around my throat. I hadn’t truly relaxed in a long time. Even an hour of real sleep was something I would cling to.My wolf had quieted too.Zara’s faint scent still lingered in the air.It seeped into the pillow, the sheets, the cracks in the wooden floor. Deep in my consciousness, my wolf inhaled it slowly, like a dying man grasping for one last breath of oxygen.—Remember it.—Don’t let it fade.Half-asleep, I rolled ov
My father lifted his hand slightly.Every whisper in the hospital room died instantly.“Raphael, speak.”Alex’s father slowly stood.I hadn’t even fully heard his first word when a sense of dread crept into my chest.“We need Fitch to become the new Alpha.”The air froze for a second.And then—The wolf inside me snapped awake.He had been waiting for this moment all along.I stared at Raphael, a low growl rumbling deep in my throat.He wasn’t stupid.He knew the rules ve
I packed almost like I was looting the place.Drawers were yanked open. Clothes were dragged out. My toiletry bag went straight into the suitcase. Passport, phone charger, a few pieces of underwear—enough to survive.Everything else didn’t matter.My hands were shaking.Not from cold. From panic.My lips trembled, my throat tightened, and something heavy pressed against my chest. Tears kept surging up in waves, but I clenched my teeth and forced them back. I didn’t have time to fall apart.The suitcase lay open on the bed like a gaping mouth.I threw clothes into it. No folding. No sorting. No color order.The version of me who used to force everything into perfect order had completely vanished.I just wanted to leave.Immediately.Ten days ago, I told Fitch—I wouldn’t come back.Ten days later, I was packing like a madwoman, desperate to run back to the very place I had just escaped from.How ironic.When I swept the last pile of clothes from the closet into the suitcase, my movement
I looked at Evelyn, then at Silvia. Both of them were watching me, waiting for an answer.Honestly, I was uneasy.“What exactly am I supposed to know?” I asked. Sitting there made me feel like an idiot.Today had been filled with nothing but cryptic comments and veiled glances. I just wanted the wh
I hadn’t even taken three full steps when a hand clamped around my elbow. I didn’t need to look to know who it was—what I didn’t understand was how he managed to snap out of it so quickly, fast enough to get up and grab me. Damn football players, their reflexes were always unnervingly sharp.“What
Honestly, even now I still don’t understand why I care about every single word he says. But I have to admit it—whether I want to or not, I do believe him. And that’s exactly the problem. People like him are the worst: claiming they “don’t want anything from me,” yet boldly showing up to stir troubl
“Why would you pick a Benz?” Fitch raised an eyebrow at me. We’d been playing Twenty Questions—or something loosely resembling it—for hours now, trading barbs back and forth. The strange thing was, I wasn’t annoyed in the slightest. I was actually… enjoying myself.It turned out that as long as Fit







