ANMELDENSebastian left without another word and the door closed behind him with a soft click.Nicholas looked at Lucian and found his youngest brother staring at the floor with his jaw tight and his whole body vibrating with tension."Are you okay?" Nicholas asked.Lucian looked up and his eyes were gold. "Do I have a choice?""No," Nicholas said honestly. "None of us do."Lucian laughed again, sharp and humorless. "Seven weeks. Two incomplete bonds. And something out there powerful enough to steal our mate from right under our noses." He met Nicholas's eyes. "We're fucked, aren't we?""Probably.""And there's nothing we can do about it except wait for her to wake up and hope she still wants us after everything.""Yes."Lucian nodded slowly and then turned and walked out of the office without another word, leaving Nicholas alone with his maps and his notes and the crushing weight of everything they stood to lose.Nicholas sat down at his desk and stared at the map on the wall where he had mar
Lucian stopped pacing and turned to look at Sebastian. "How long can you handle it?""I don't know." Sebastian dropped his hand from his chest and clenched it into a fist at his side. "Days maybe. But not weeks. Not with the curse still active and the bond incomplete and her lying unconscious down the hall."Nicholas felt the weight of that settle over all of them. Seven weeks until their twenty-sixth birthday. Two incomplete bonds, one of them now half-finished and aching. And whatever had taken Lilith tonight was still out there."We need to talk about what happened," Nicholas said, straightening. "How she ended up six miles into the forest in the middle of the night.""Victoria," Lucian said immediately. "It has to be Victoria. Who else could compel her like that?""Maybe." Nicholas walked around his desk and leaned against the front of it, crossing his arms. "The magic signature in that clearing was old. Powerful. Morvaine magic, certainly. But...""But what?" Sebastian asked."If
Rhen shifted back to Sebastian immediately, and Sebastian was on his hands and knees on the floor, gasping, staring at Lilith with wide eyes. "She....she pushed me off. I was halfway through the mark and something just...threw me."Nicholas looked at Lilith and felt his blood run cold.She was still convulsing but the force that had thrown Sebastian was gone now, pulled back inside her. Her body was glowing faintly....just barely, a silver light pulsing beneath her skin in time with her heartbeat."What is happening to her?" Nicholas demanded, turning to Dr. Aldric.Dr. Aldric moved closer carefully, his eyes fixed on Lilith, and when he spoke his voice was awed and terrified in equal measure. "She rejected the mark.""What?""Her body...or her magic....rejected being claimed while she's unconscious."Dr. Aldric gestured to Lilith's throat and Nicholas saw it clearly now. The mark was there. Sebastian's bite had broken skin, had started the bond forming. But it was incomplete. Half-fi
He kicked open the door to his bedroom and laid her carefully on his bed, smoothing her tangled hair back from her face. Her nightgown was torn and filthy, her feet scratched and bleeding, but her breathing was steady and her pulse was strong under his fingers."Lilith," he said quietly, his hand cupping her cheek. "Come on. Wake up."Nothing.Sebastian dropped to his knees beside the bed and took her hand, pressing it between both of his. "Please. Please wake up."Lucian was pacing at the foot of the bed, his whole body vibrating with barely contained violence. "Where the fuck is the doctor?""Here."Dr. Aldric swept into the room with his medical bag already open, his silver hair catching the lamplight as he moved to Lilith's side. He was older than any of them, had been the pack physician for thirty years, and his hands were steady as he began his examination.Nicholas stepped back to give him room but did not go far. Just stood at the edge of the bed with his arms crossed and watc
Lilith.She was there.Curled up on the moss-covered ground in the center of the clearing, her nightgown torn and dirty, her hair tangled around her face, her bare feet scratched and bleeding. She was lying on her side with her knees pulled up to her chest, perfectly still except for the slow rise and fall of her breathing.Asleep.Just sleeping.And completely alone.Kael shifted before he consciously decided to do it. The transformation ripped through him fast and brutal, and then Nicholas was standing naked in the clearing with his heart slamming against his ribs. He ran to her and dropped to his knees beside her, his hands immediately going to her face, her throat, checking for injuries, checking her pulse."Lilith," he said, his voice rough. "Lilith, wake up."She didn't respond.Sebastian and Lucian shifted behind him and were at his side in seconds, both of them just as naked and just as frantic."Is she hurt?" Sebastian demanded, his hands hovering over her like he was afraid
His finger landed on a spot deep in the northern forest, miles from the estate, where his father's notes had marked the location of ancient standing stones.There, he said into the link. The old circle. North-northwest, about six miles into the forest. That's where she would take her.Then we go, Sebastian said immediately. Right now before Victoria does anything to her.Wait, Nicholas commanded, and felt both his brothers bristle at the order. We can't just go charging in blind. If Victoria has Lilith in a trance and we startle her, she could hurt Lilith. Or worse....she could use Lilith against us.So what? Lucian's voice was shaking with barely controlled rage. We just leave her out there? With Victoria? No, Nicholas said, and his voice dropped into the Alpha tone that brooked absolutely no argument. We go. But we go smart. We track her quietly. We observe before we engage. And we do not let Victoria know we're there until we have no other choice.He reached for the pack link and
POV : LILITHThe darkness was different here.Not the cold, suffocating black of the dungeon. Not the crushing nothingness of unconsciousness. This darkness was soft. Warm. It smelled like the inside of her childhood home....woodsmoke and dried lavender and something else she had no name for, somet
Lucian kept walking.The next cell held a woman, her hair matted and dirty, her clothes torn. She pressed herself against the back wall as he approached, her eyes wide with terror. Whatever she'd done to end up here, she remembered what the Blackwood brothers were capable of.More cells. More priso
I woke up to pain, every muscle in my body screamed. Every nerve ending was raw and oversensitive. I was a wreck of bruises and bite marks and things I'd never be able to forget no matter how hard I tried.But I knew it wasn't over yet.The marking still had to happen.So I wasn't surprised when I
I barely had time to catch my breath before Sebastian was pulling me up again, his large hands gripping my waist with bruising force."Not done with you yet," he rumbled, positioning me on my hands and knees on the center of the massive bed. "Need to feel that tight pussy again."My arms were shaki







