ログインLena"You have to tell him." Iris said it like a command, not a suggestion."But what if—""No what ifs." She cut me off before the fear could take hold completely. "Tell him first. If it comes down to it, we reach out to your father."My whole body went cold at the mention of him. I shook my head hard."That man wanted nothing to do with me once his spell broke." I snapped, pushing up off the bed to pace the room. "I want nothing to do with him."How could she even bring that up.Iris stood and followed me. "He is the—""I don't care who he is. I don't care what his status is. I don't need him." I said it firmly, but something in the way she held herself made me stop. "I don't need him. Right?"Iris took my hands and looked everywhere except directly at me. "This could mean nothing. But the first time we were attacked, and the day we got followed leaving the library, you felt it before I did. Both times. Your reaction was what made me notice, the way your whole body went stiff before
Lena"Why are you crying, Lena?" Iris rushed to my side and dropped to the floor beside me, her face tight with concern.I turned away and wiped my eyes but it did nothing. She had already seen the mess of me."You didn't knock." I said, grasping for anything else to talk about. "What if I wasn't dressed."She looked at me like I had grown horns. "I have seen you in your baby suit. I've watched you throw up on yourself. I undressed you and bathed you after your aunt died because you refused to clean up after yourself for three days." All trace of her usual playfulness was gone. "Don't test me. Why are you crying?"My head pounded with everything crashing through it at once. I clenched my teeth trying to hold it back and lost the battle anyway."I don't know." I said, voice cracking, arms flailing. "I'm just tired and confused and scared.""You still haven't told Lucian?" Her face fell when I nodded. "What's stopping you?""A lot happened today, Iris.""That should have been the first
IrisI left Jake with the guards in the living room and headed toward the kitchen.He was busy setting up a protected route back to the pack in case we needed to leave in a hurry, brows furrowed in concentration as he traced lines across a map spread over the table. A serious Jake wasn't something I saw often and I didn't want to break it.I peeked into the kitchen and found Rivel flipping pancakes and steak in two different pans at once. His back was to me. I moved in as quietly as I could and watched his shoulders straighten anyway.He already knew I was there.I let out a sigh and rounded the counter to stand a careful distance from him. "Someone can't even sneak up on you.""That would be risky and negligent of me." He didn't even glance over.I looked around the kitchen. Everything was spotless. No flour on the counter, no spilled milk, nothing out of place. "I didn't know you could cook."He turned to me then, eyes bored, like he genuinely didn't care whether I stayed or left. "
LenaI froze for half a second.In my bid to shake it off and act normal I lost my footing completely and tripped over my own leg. My toe hit the ground first and I hissed.Lucian caught me before I finished falling. His hands found my waist and he pulled me into his side, face full of concern, and before I could protest he lifted me bridal style. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck and hid my face against his skin. The rest of them didn't catch it. Or if they did they said nothing.He carried me through the front door and up the stairs, Jake whistling from somewhere behind us, and shouldered open the door to his room. He set me on the bed with a gentleness that made me feel like something that could shatter."You don't have to be that gentle with me." I said. "I won't break."He looked at me, hands still holding mine, thumbs drawing slow circles across my knuckles. "I'll always be gentle with you, Icy." His voice was quiet. "And I'll never let you break. Ever."I smiled and
Lena"Lucian. Lucian, are you alright?"I dragged myself back to him, heart in my throat. Iris was beside me doing the same. But what we found made us both stop.He was crouching on the ground. Naked. And smiling.Iris turned around immediately.I scoffed, pushing myself to my feet. "Lucian, goodness. You scared me." I said, trying and failing not to laugh at his situation. He was still covered in blood. "Are you hurt?"His lips pulled up slowly. "It would take a lot more than five rogue wolves to put me down, Icy."He glanced past me at the wolf that had gone down first, the one he had dropped at the start of everything. Iris was already crouching beside it, two fingers to its neck.I looked back at Lucian. His shoulder wound was closing on its own, the skin knitting back together right in front of my eyes. "So what are we going to do with you?"He shrugged and stood, pulling me firmly in front of him.Iris approached us. She had a chain wrapped around the unconscious wolf's legs tha
Lena"We've got company." Lucian said and I held my breath.Five figures stepped out from the tree line.They were cloaked in black and they moved toward us in slow, coordinated steps, each one broad and radiating something so wrong that my hand went to my stomach before I could think about it. Their red eyes were fixed on me. All of them. Like Lucian wasn't even standing there.I grabbed his shoulder. "We have to run."He didn't move."Ice." My voice came out desperate. They were closer now, cutting the distance between us in unhurried strides. "Lucian, come on. What are you doing?"He turned to me for just a second and I saw his eyes. They were glowing, steady and fierce, and that was all I needed to understand. An Alpha wolf doesn't run.He pushed me gently backward and stepped fully in front of me. "Go behind the tree, Lena. Don't look."The command in his voice moved my feet before my brain caught up.One of the men broke from the group and started toward me. Lucian caught him by
Iris POV The weights were going to be the death of me. I had said that three times already this evening but Jake kept adding more to the bar like my complaints were suggestions and my burning arms were encouragement. I gripped the bar, jaw clenched so tight my teeth ached, and lifted. "Umfff."
Two months passed.Two months of constant fear and paranoia. Two months of sleeping with one eye open the way Elira used to, checking locks she had never thought about before, watching doorways and windows and the faces of people she didn't recognise on campus. Two months of hiding my bump under cl
Lena"Lena. When were you attacked?"I was quiet for a beat too long.How do I even begin to explain it?"Lena." He said it again, and something in his tone told me he was not going to stop without an answer."Once." I said it into his shirt. "At the apartment. Three men. Iris handled most of it."
LucianMy wolf was already ahead of me.Every sense I had went sharp the moment I turned the corner leading to the cliff side. The wind, the drop, the sound of the grass moving near the edge. And then I saw her, standing so close to it that my heart stopped before my legs did."Lena!"I ran and for







