LOGINDylan was already on the phone when Lumina woke up.She could hear him from the bedroom. Low voice. Controlled. The tone he used when he was getting information he didn't like. She lay there for a moment listening to the rhythm of it without being able to make out words. Then she got up and found him in the kitchen, standing at the window with his back to the room and his coffee going cold on the counter.He ended the call when he heard her come in."Cain?" she said."Yes.""And?"He turned around. "He's still tracing who brought Cruella here. It's not Ethan. Ethan is back in Riverside. This is someone else." He picked up his coffee. Looked at it. Put it back down. "Whoever it is, covered their tracks carefully."Lumina sat at the kitchen table. "So we wait.""We wait," he agreed. He looked at her for a moment. At the slight tightness around her eyes that hadn't been there before last night. At what the evening had cost her, even though she hadn't said a word about it costing her anyt
Somewhere across town, Cain sat across from Dylan at the kitchen table in Dylan’s house and made his case without apology."The annual pack social is overdue," he said. "People are unsettled and troubled, especially with everything that's happened these past months, the move, the security changes, all of it. They need something normal. One evening where nothing is on fire."Dylan looked at him. "We've had a slightly busy few months.""Which is exactly why they need it." Cain set his coffee down. "Just food, people, music, dance, and stuff. The main hall. Nothing complicated."Dylan looked at Lumina across the table, expecting her to defend him.She raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me. He's right.""You're supposed to be on my side.""I am on your side, and that side needs a party."Cain was already reaching for his phone. "Two weeks. I'll handle everything.""You always say that, and then I end up involved.""You're the Supreme Alpha. You're always involved." He stood up. "It'll be
Morgana was on the phone when Ethan woke up.He could hear her from the bedroom; she was talking in a low voice, very calm and precise. He couldn't make out the words she was saying, but he definitely knew that tone. It was the tone she used when she was giving instructions to people she was paying to do things she didn't want her name directly on.He got up. Came out, and immediately she saw him, she ended the call. Then she set the phone face down on the desk."Who was that?" Ethan asked."Someone I hired to do my dirty jobs." She stood and moved to the small kitchen. Put the kettle on. "Sit down. We need to talk."He sat at the table. She made tea. Set a cup in front of him. Sat across from him with her own.He looked at her. "Morgana.""I know," she said. "You're going to tell me this is wrong.""Isn't it?"She was quiet for a moment. Looking at her cup. Then she looked up at him."Can I ask you something honestly? And you must answer sincerely," she said."Go ahead.""When we got
Lumina was curled up on the sofa with a book she had been trying to finish for three weeks when her phone lit up.She picked up. "Hey.""What are you doing?""Reading.""Have you eaten?""Yes.""What did you eat?"She looked at the cold tea on the table and the empty plate she still hadn't moved from two hours ago. "Food.""Lumina.""It was a proper meal, Dylan.""What was it?""Why are you calling me to ask about my dinner?""Because the last time you told me you'd eaten properly, you had half a biscuit and called it lunch." A pause. "Come over."She looked at her book. At the cold tea. At the quiet, empty clinic below her. "It's late.""It's eight thirty.""That's late for some people.""Is it late for you?"She smiled before she could stop herself. Put the book down. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."She could hear the smile in his voice too. "I'll leave the door open."……….He was in the kitchen when she arrived. She dropped her bag by the door, walked straight to the kitchen and
The next morning came quickly, with Morgana at the desk when Ethan woke up.Laptop open. Tea beside her. Notes on a pad she had been filling since three in the morning. She heard him move in the bedroom. Heard the shower run. Heard him come out. She didn't look up.He poured coffee and stood at the window looking out at the city below. Quiet for a long moment. She let him have the quiet. She was almost done anyway.She closed the laptop. Picked up her tea."Sit down," she said.He sat across from her. He looked terrible. Dark circles. Tight jaw. The face of a man who had spent the night fighting himself and lost.She had heard him moving around at two in the morning. She had staye
The day of the summit finally came, and Lumina was all over the place.She almost changed her outfit four times before finally settling on the third option. A deep burgundy dress that fell to the floor in clean lines, fitted at the waist, simple at the neck. The silk hugged her figure like it had been made specifically for her, tracing every curve as she moved. It wasn't trying too hard, but the way it sat on her made her look breathtaking. Elegant. And pure heat.Mira sat on the bed watching the whole process with her arms folded and the expression of someone thoroughly enjoying every second of it."The burgundy one," Mira said."I'm wearing it, aren't I?""I'm confirming you made the right choice." Mira tilted her head. "Dylan is going to forget how to speak.""Dylan doesn't forget how to do anything.""Tonight he might." Mira stood up and walked a slow circle around her like she was assessing a piece of art. "You look incredible. Genuinely. Like something out of a dream that men wr
CHAPTER 10She was still staring at the message when her phone rang.Dylan.She picked up before the second ring."I got another one," she said."I know." His voice was calm. "I'm outside your door."She blinked. "What?""Come and open it."She was downstairs before she finished processing that sent
Thanks to the message, Lumina couldn’t sleep until it was almost 3 am.She lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling with those words sitting in her chest like a stone.Someone had been outside. Close enough to watch her. Close enough to see her face. And instead of knocking, instead of showing thems
Dylan didn't move.He just stood there, looking at the name on her phone screen like it had personally offended him. The air in the room changed. Lumina felt it before she fully understood it. That particular stillness that came off him sometimes. The kind that had nothing peaceful in it."Dylan."
CHAPTER 7 The woman who walked in was warm and chatty, the kind of person who filled a room without trying. She introduced herself as Helen before she even sat down, said a friend had referred her, and settled into the patient chair like she had been coming here for years."Joint pain," she said,







