LOGINDamian's POVHe was up before the estate.That was normal. Had been normal since he was nineteen and inherited everything that came with the Blackwood name....the pack, the correspondence, the specific weight of being the one everyone looked to when they needed to know what happened next.He made his own coffee.Stood at the kitchen window and drank it while the estate came slowly awake around him. The distant sounds of the morning shift settling in.He felt Damon through the bond. Still asleep.He felt Eve....quiet and warm, Silas's presence wrapped around hers like a second layer. Both of them still under.Good.He drank his coffee and waited for them to wake up.Silas found him at half past seven.He came into the kitchen already dressed, hair still slightly damp, with the look of someone who had slept properly for the first time in weeksHe poured his own coffee.Sat across from Damian at the kitchen table.They looked at each other."She's still asleep," Silas said."I know," Dam
Silas looked at her for a long moment, something fierce and possessive rising in his chest."He only comes out for you," he said.Eve's breath caught.He kissed her throat...slowly, feeling her pulse jump against his lips. Her hands came up to his shoulders and helding on."Silas," she breathed."Still here," he murmured against her skin.He worked his way down slowly....her neck, the hollow of her throat, her collarbone....taking his time because he finally had time again.Eve arched slightly beneath him, and he felt the movement all through his body."You're doing that on purpose," she said, her voice already going breathless."Yes," Silas confirmed.She made a sound that was half frustration, half want, and Silas smiled against her skin.He lifted his head and looked at her properly. Flushed, hair spread across his pillow like dark silk, eyes heavy-lidded and fully present.Three weeks. He'd held everything together for three weeks, and she was here now, looking at him like that."
POV: SilasHe reached the corridor thirty seconds after they came through.Damian first, then Eve, then Damon and Maya behind them, bag over her shoulder, eyes already scanning the space with the wariness of someone who'd learned not to assume safety.Silas took all of that in with a single sweep.Then he looked at Eve.She looked tired, the kind of expression you have after surviving something rather than drowning in it. There were shadows under her eyes, delicate purple half-moons that spoke of too many hours awake and not enough rest. Her shoulders carried the tension of someone who'd been holding themselves upright through sheer will and hadn't quite remembered how to relax yet.Her gaze found his.He didn't move.Just let himself look at her. Let himself have this moment. Three weeks of not seeing her, and now she was twelve feet away...real, solid, home, and he needed one second to absorb the reality of it before he trusted himself to cross the distance without doing something t
He pulled her in briefly. The hug of an alpha releasing someone he trusted into something good.Damon was off the sofa before Damian had fully stepped back, He was less formal about it, He put his arms around Elena with the energy of someone who expressed everything through contact rather than words."Don't let him be too serious," Damon said into her hair. "He needs someone to make him drink his tea and occasionally laugh at himself."Elena laughed and said "I know.""That's good then." He stepped back. Looked at her face. "Take care of him and take care of yourself.""I'll do both," she said.Eve crossed the room and took Elena's hands. She didn't say anythink. she Just held them. Felt the warmth coming from her hand."Thank you," Eve said. "For everything you were this week. And before this week."Elena squeezed her hands."Go home," she said. "Go home and rest and let them take care of you for a while.""Working on it," Eve said.Elena smiled.It was a good smile. The kind that me
Seraphine was waiting.Not in the formal study, but in the smaller room, the one that felt more like a place she actually lived than a place she performed power from. Two chairs. Tea already poured. The specific deliberateness of someone who had arranged this and wanted it to feel different from a debrief.Eve sat down and Seraphine sat bedside her.They drank their tea in silence for a moment."You're leaving today," Seraphine said."Yes," Eve said.Seraphine nodded. She looked at her cup. Then at Eve with the direct attentiveness that had characterized every interaction they'd had since the first one....assessing, present, entirely without performance."I want to tell you something before you go," she said. "Not as an ally. Not as a faction leader." A pause. "As someone who knew your mother."Eve went still."We weren't close," Seraphine said. "I want to be honest about that....I've told you we were allies and that's true but it was political first. Your mother was careful about who
Maya found her at nine.Everyone else had either gone back to the main room or dispersed to their own spaces. Eve had ended up in the small sitting room alone—not on purpose, just the natural settling of things when celebration energy started winding down.Maya appeared in the doorway with two cups of tea and the look of someone who'd located their target and wasn't taking no for an answer.She sat. Handed Eve a cup. Tucked her feet under herself the way she always did on sofas."So," Maya said."So," Eve said."You won.""I confirmed standing," Eve said. "It's the beginning of....""Eve.""What?""But you won Eve just admit it," Maya said.Eve looked at her."Okay yes," she said. "Yes. I won."Maya nodded with the satisfaction of someone who'd been waiting for that specific acknowledgment. "Good. That's all I needed."They drank their tea."I want to go home," Maya said. "Immediatrly we get back to the estate, i want to go to my apartment, not forever. I know your life is where ever
"He can't do that," Damon said flatly. "The northern territory has been ours for three generations. Our grandfather bled for that land. Our father died defending it. It's ours by right of blood and conquest.""It's ours unless we fail to respond to a formal challenge," Damian corrected, his voice h
The pack house was massive....a sprawling building that could easily accommodate two hundred wolves. Tonight, it was packed with at least a hundred pack members, all gathered for the weekly pack meeting.Eve stood outside the main entrance with the three brothers, trying to calm her racing heart."
"How?" Damian challenged. "By abandoning our dying mate to save our pack? By choosing duty over the woman the universe literally bonded us to? By gambling that she'll survive three days alone when every instinct we have is screaming that she won't?""Yes," Eve responded. "By doing exactly that. By
DAMIAN'S OFFICE - BROTHER'S DISCUSSIONThe three brothers sat in Damian's office, the door locked, supposed business documents spread across the desk that none of them were actually reading."We need to talk about last night," Silas said finally, breaking the tense silence."What about it?" Damian'







