LOGINSELENA'S P.O.V My heart immediately sank to my stomach, and I clamped a hand on Amanda's mouth to stop her from saying a thing. She looked up at me with wide, confused eyes, and I shook my head slowly. Please, no. Don't say a thing. She must have seen the desperation in my eyes because she nodded."What.... what do you mean? Someone you know? Is it... maybe me? We met back then...""Not you," Alpha Cole said, and I could hear the slight tinge of irritation in his voice.There was a short beat of silence before Alpha Cole spoke up again."Fancy seeing you here," he said, and now his voice sounded like it did when he was circling around a prey and was deciding the best way to ruin it."I..." Alan started to say, but Alpha Cole gave a small chuckle."You what? You heard Selena is back in the palace, so you came back too, huh? Lurking in this place nonetheless, like the coward I knew you to be."My brows furrowed. Wait. Did Alpha Cole and Alan know each other before this? Because if he
SELENA'S P.O.V"How is Gabriel doing?" I asked as I took a seat. They had made the best of what they would with the space, and it looked almost like a home."Oh, he is absolutely perfect. He has asked about you all the times I have been to the reforms, which is a little too much considering he has been there less than a month."I nodded, then looked at Amanda who was now sitting on my lap, her smile big."I missed you so much," I whispered, gently caressing her face. "If I had known you were here, I would have come sooner."She gave a small smile, then shrugged in that way that always reminded me of her father. "Aunt Sarah fed me a lot of sweets, but I missed you too."I broke into a laugh. "You betrayer. So you were happy I wouldn't enforce portion control?"She giggled, and I pulled her to my chest, my fingers combing through her hair.I looked up. Alan was sitting across from us, his eyes thin, his lips set in a straight hard line of displeasure.I cleared my throat. "How have you
ALPHA COLE'S P.O.VThe car came to a slow stop, and I turned, my eyes narrow. The last time I was here, I had just lost everything, and I came out with nothing more than the tattoo on my back.I took in a deep breath as the car door opened, and I stepped out, then walked into the large compound. The compound belonged to the priestesses of the moon goddess, and the central house belonged to the seer."Alpha," said a few priestesses as they ran out to meet me.I turned, my brows raised. "Yes?"They greeted, their eyes darting to my shoes, before one of them stepped forward, her smile small."You are to remove your shoes, Alpha."I tilted my head upwards. "I refuse to."The girl's eyes widened, and she swallowed. "Alpha, these are holy grounds where the moon goddess herself is invoked and...""And what?" I asked, my voice as low as I could keep it. "I refuse to take off my shoes. Should I expect resistance from you?"She swallowed hard, and for a long minute, she looked like she was genu
SELENA'S P.O.V I walked back to the dignitary quarters in a daze, my chest feeling a little too tight for the emotions I was somehow managing to carry inside it.I closed the door behind me once I slipped into the room, and I gently leaned back on the door, my heart ripping open once again. I went to the floor, my knees pulled to my chest as I wrapped my hands around them, fresh tears welling up in my eyes.This felt even worse than missing him. I was able to go five years riding on hate and shutting away everything thay could have been good about us.But having him lie down on my chest and tell me about all of the things we could have done together, including having a daughter, and then having to go back to being enemies the next morning, it killed me inside.How do I start telling him that he had missed his daughter's birth? That he had missed that first cry? That he had missed her first walk and her first laugh and her first crawl and that the first time she said Dada she hadn't b
ALPHA COLE'S P.O.V I woke up to the steady, consistent feeling of soft, small hands pushing into my hair. I moved slowly. The body beneath me was warm, soft, and felt like everything I had been missing all my life.My body felt heavy. I can't remember the last time my body felt heavy from sleep. Well, yes, I could. I had never forgotten. I moved, my hands wrapping around her slim, slender waist. She was warm, mostly naked under me, but this comfort meant more to me than heat."You are awake."I swallowed hard, my eyes closing tighter. "Not yet."She gave a small laugh. "Trying to smuggle a few more minutes in?"I nodded. She adjusted, pulling up the sheets over me. It felt warm. I felt almost like the Cole I used to be. Like the man who could be carefree and didn't have to bother about the wrath of an entire council."You still look the same when you sleep," she said, her voice low and teasing. I should probably tell her that she can't do that. That we are not friends. That she hasn
SELENA'S P.O.V I swallowed hard, tears running down my cheeks steadily. "Cole..." I said as I tried to reach out to him, my heart thumping hard in my chest. He had my name on his spine. My name on his skin like... like I meant more than that one night.He immediately pulled up the robe and moved away before I could touch him. He stood and turned to me. His eyes were glassy with tears, but he was fighting so hard that his jaw clenched. "Cole," I said, immediately getting out of bed too. I covered the distance to him, my eyes darting across his face. "Talk to me. Please.""About what?" He asked, meeting my eyes. "What am I going to tell you that isn't going to make me seem like a pathetic fool right now who is going against everything he believes in?""Why is that a bad thing?" I asked, my chest rising and falling rapidly, my breaths short. "You wanted to know if I could walk over everything that I believed in in order to get to you. Why can't you do the same for me?""Because it got
SELENA'S P.O.V I dried off the dampness of the shower with the towels from inside the bathroom and stepped into the walk-in closet. Luckily, there were a few clothes there, and I found a dress that was manageable. I pulled it on and started to dry out my hair when a knock came on the door.My brow
ALPHA COLE'S P.O.V Selena. Selena is in my palace.My eyes thinned as I looked between the women in the dungeon and the soldier still lying unconscious outside. He had been carefully tucked away, and he had a single hit to the side of his neck. Like the edge of a dagger.That was Selena's signatur
SELENA'S P.O.V The dance troupe proceeded to the palace, and I joined, quickly learning their chants as we made the short journey to the palace.Soon enough, the palace loomed in front of us. I stopped for a second to catch my breath, my chest heaving. I still knew the palace like the back of my h
SELENA'S P.O.V I cleaned out the guns and daggers, laying them out on the floor in the room. I stepped back, my eyes taking in the weapons. Most of them were my hunting gear, as I have had no use for weapons in five years.The sun was already coming up, and tomorrow would be the full moon festival







