LOGINBENJAMIN'S POVThe pack was already waiting when our car drove through the gates of Blue Moon.I expected only a few people to be curious, maybe a wave from the guards. Instead, warriors and families stood along both sides of the driveway. They tried to hide how excited they were, but they failed. Someone had tied blue ribbons to the fence. Kids stood on their toes behind their parents, trying to look through the car windows.Lucian pressed both of his hands against the glass. "Are they all here for me?""They missed you," I told him as I parked next to the front steps.He suddenly became shy. A minute earlier he had been asking for ice cream, but now he smoothed his shirt and checked his hair in the window. Alice looked at me from the passenger seat and squeezed my arm.I opened Lucian's door, and the crowd cheered. He pulled back against the seat."You can say hello to everyone a little at a time," Alice told him as she walked around the car to stand next to me. "Nobody is leaving."
ALICE’S POVThe first morning without any guard reporting trouble should have felt normal, but it didn't.I woke up before the sun came up and just lay there listening, waiting for a phone to ring or for boots to run down the hall. The house stayed quiet the whole time. Nobody called Benjamin away, and nobody told us we had to keep Lucian inside.Lucian's bag sat open on the desk chair. He had already packed three shirts, two pairs of socks, his wooden wolf, and so many soccer cards that the zipper almost couldn't close. He kept putting things in and taking them back out again, and he frowned at the pile every few minutes like he was worried he might forget something important.Benjamin leaned against the bedroom door frame. He was already dressed and just watching Lucian.Lucian smiled at him and then got serious. "If I take my stuff to Blue Moon, does that mean I won't live here anymore?"I stopped folding the clothes. Benjamin walked in and sat down on the edge of the bed next to
JOHN’S POVClara's message came in while I was staring at a report I had no plan to finish.Coffee? My treat this time. I promise to keep the cups upright.I read it twice. My first thought was to say no. I was tired. I still had supplies to count, calls to return, and plenty of reasons to stay in my room.But then I remembered laughing with her in that hallway when coffee spilled all over the floor. Being around her had felt easy, and that easy feeling scared me more than any report.I picked the phone back up and typed a reply before I could change my mind.Coffee sounds good. I'll try not to knock over your files this time.Her answer came right away.I'll bring fewer files. Can't promise fewer cups.I smiled at the screen like a fool. I closed the laptop, changed out of the shirt I had worn all day, and went downstairs before I talked myself out of going.* * *Clara was already waiting outside the small café near the estate offices. She held up two paper cups when she saw me."Lo
ALICE'S POVI waited until Benjamin took Lucian outside. Then I asked Damian, David, and Drake to sit down with me.The three of them looked at each other and followed me into the small sitting room. Damian closed the door behind us. David sat in the chair by the window, and Drake sat down on the sofa while carefully holding his healing side.For weeks we had always been busy with something more urgent. We had to deal with Lisa, the attacks, Lucian's safety, and where he was going to live. The house was quiet now, and none of us had any excuse left to avoid this talk."I need to talk about the years you let me believe my son was dead," I said.David looked down at the floor. Drake picked at a seam on the arm of the sofa. Damian kept looking at me and waited for me to continue."I know why you did it," I told them. "The doctors said Lucian had almost no chance of living. You thought he was going to die, and you thought telling me the truth would make me lose him twice."Damian's should
ALICE'S POVThe house finally felt quiet. Lisa was locked up. The rogues were either caught or running for their lives. Benjamin had promised her sentence would be carried out this time, and for the first time in days I believed we might actually sleep through the night.But safety hadn't answered the question Lucian had asked before the attacks ever started.Where was he going to live?I found him cross-legged on the sitting-room rug, the little wooden wolf sitting guard beside a messy stack of drawings. He was rearranging his soccer cards for the third time, sliding the same three back and forth like the order might suddenly make sense. Benjamin sat nearby pretending to scroll his phone, but his eyes kept flicking to our son.I sank down beside Lucian and smoothed his hair. "You're working really hard on those cards.""They won't stay in the right order." He moved one, frowned, and put it back. "Maybe they're supposed to be mixed up.""Maybe," I said softly. "Or maybe you're thinkin
BENJAMIN'S POVDamian and David had already taken Alice and Lucian back to the house when Lisa started screaming again."Get your hands off me!" she yelled as the warriors tried to load her into the truck.She pushed hard against them, but her injured leg gave out and she almost fell. Two guards grabbed her and forced her down onto her knees. Blood soaked through the torn fabric on her side, and every breath she took came out sharp and uneven.For a second she still looked like the woman who used to sit at my table like family. Then I thought about Lily, about Cora, about the poison she planned to give Alice, and about how she jumped into the gorge so she would never have to face her sentence."Check her cuffs," I said.The nearest warrior pulled them tighter. Lisa twisted around to look at me, her hair stuck to her wet cheeks."You think this is over?" she spat.I looked straight at her. "It is for you."Shouting rose behind us. I turned and saw more rogues walking out of the woods w
ALICE’S POVThe days that followed had a rhythm I didn’t trust.Benjamin came every morning. He actually sat at the table — something I still hadn’t gotten used to — and ate whatever I put in front of him. He returned every evening and stayed until Lucian’s eyes drifted shut.Four mornings in a row
ALICE’S POVBy the time I walked into the hospital room, I had composed myself completely. My face was set.Lucian was awake, sitting up in bed. His face brightened the moment he saw me."Mommy. You came back.""I came back." I lifted him into my arms. He smelled like baby shampoo, antiseptic, and
Alice’s POV"What?""Is this your new plan? To trap me again?" Benjamin’s voice dripped with contempt. "Did you run out of tricks, Alice? Is faking our son’s terminal illness really the best you could come up with?"I couldn’t breathe. The hospital hallway seemed to close in around me, the walls pr
ALICE’S POVI hadn't slept. I'd counted his breaths instead.It had been four hours since Lucian collapsed at breakfast. Four hours since I’d screamed loud enough to wake every wolf on our floor of the western wing. Now the monitors did the counting for me — soft, steady, mechanical as my son slept







