LOGINHe spoke first, his tone low but firm enough to carry. “We can wait,” he said. “Children will come when they’re meant to. The Pack already has its heart.” The room stilled for a breath. Mara looked over her shoulder, her hands still sunk in flour, her eyes soft and startled. “You mean me?” she asked
LILAThe house woke before dawn. Old wood shifted, the hearth whispered, and the air felt different—alive again. I stood at the foot of the stairs when I heard them coming. Two sets of steps, uneven from the road, but in rhythm all the same. When the door opened, cold air rushed through the hall. Ga
“I thought I had to be perfect,” she said. “Every step, every word. Like one mistake would make them lose faith in me.”“Then let them,” I said. “Let them see we bleed too. Let them see what real looks like.”Her eyes lifted toward the sky, catching the first streaks of gold between the branches. “T
GAVINHer breath came out in bursts, sharp enough to cut. She pressed her palm to her mouth, like the words might spill if she didn’t hold them in. I moved before I thought, closing the space, catching her hands in mine. Her fingers were cold and damp, her pulse racing under my thumb.“I can’t be wh
GAVINThe scent hit me before I saw the gate—hers, faint and fading, scattered by wind. I caught it the second I stepped into the hall, and everything in me snapped to attention. The council chamber still echoed in my head, the droning voices, the talk of territory lines and alliance disputes. I had
MARAI knelt beside a pool fed by a narrow stream. Moonlight rippled across its surface, silver on black. My reflection flickered there, the same face that wore the Luna’s mask every day, only softer now—bare, unsure, alive. I cupped my hands in the water and let it run down my wrists. The cold snap
LILAThe next day, I dropped Gavin off at school and stayed hidden in my study, trying to avoid Tyler. I had a cup of steaming tea with me, I was halfway into my second sip when the door creaked open. I turned, thinking it was the servant assigned to my study...But it was Reid.He stepped in with h
I didn’t like this. I didn’t like them. They didn’t like being beneath Tyler, that much was obvious. But how far would they go to fix that?Would they… give intel to the Red Hand? Feed promises into Janet’s ears just to destabilize Tyler’s reign?I pressed my lips together, watching them out of the
LILAWarmth.That was the first thing I felt before I even open my eyes. The heat of Tyler’s bare chest pressed to my back, the lazy rise and fall of his breath against my neck. His arm was heavy over my waist, pinning me to the mattress like an anchor, one I didn’t know if I wanted to keep or cut l
I miss Jackson too, I thought suddenly. He was the one I could tell everything. There were no secrets.A pang of loneliness hit me hard.But here, in the pack, with Tyler and Gavin, I had to hide the truth. Every day was a careful dance on a tightrope stretched over a pit of secrets.The bell rang,







