LOGINCandace Miller’s POV (Sara)
Six years had gone by since everyone thought I died at that clinic. I stood in my bathroom, staring at the woman in the mirror. She was not the weak Omega who used to clean floors until her fingers bled. She was not the desperate girl who did stupid things just to feel wanted. I was Candace Miller now. I took the money Killian threw at me that day and ran to the human city. I worked multiple jobs through my pregnancy, saved every penny, fixed my face, changed my name, and built walls around my heart no one could ever break again. Now I owned Miller Security. It was almost funny — I built a company doing what my father once did, but on a much bigger scale. I wasn’t just a guard. I was the woman who created security plans for the elite. People paid huge sums just to get me on the phone. “Mommy! Leo took my tablet again!” a little girl screamed from the next room. I sighed and walked into the adjoining room. Lia stood there, angry and red-faced. Behind her, Leo held the tablet high in the air. At five years old, he was already tall for his age — taller than his twin sister. Pain hit me every time I looked at them. They were beautiful, but they carried his eyes and dark hair. The monster who fathered them. “Leo, give the tablet back to your sister right now,” I said firmly. “She’s been on it for so long, Mommy,” Leo complained, but he lowered his arm and handed it over. Lia stuck her tongue out at him and ran straight to me, hugging my legs tight. “Thank you, Mommy. He’s always taking my things.” Leo crossed his arms. “It’s not fair. I wanted to play the racing game.” “You can play after your sister finishes her turn,” I told him. “Share nicely, both of you. Okay?” “Yes, Mommy,” they said almost together, though Leo still looked grumpy. When Leo turned to walk away, his shirt shifted a bit. I saw the small Alpha mark on the back of his neck. Both of them had it. Undeniable proof of who their father was. I had spent every single day of the past five years teaching them how to hide their scent and control their strength. I would never let the Crescent Moon Pack find them. I would rather die than let Killian Blackwood know he had two kids. A soft knock sounded on the door. Maya, my assistant, came in. She looked nervous, which was unusual for her. “Ms. Miller, I’m sorry to bother you,” she said. “Something important came up. You need to see this right away.” I left the twins in their playroom and closed the door firmly behind me. “What is it, Maya?” Maya handed me a tablet. The file was already open. At the top was a picture I hadn’t seen in six years — a crescent moon behind a howling wolf. “The Crescent Moon Pack,” Maya said, her voice low. “They’ve sent three different people in the last few days. They are very desperate, Sara. Their pack has been attacked by rogues for months. Their security systems are not working well. Their warriors are being killed one by one.” I looked at the picture and felt a rush of dark satisfaction. “So the so-called strongest wolf pack is falling apart? The same people who thought they were better than a weak Omega are now begging for help. How the tables have turned.” “They are offering us three times our price,” Maya said. “They say they have heard you are the one who can help them with their problem. They want to meet with you in person.” I laughed. It was not a happy laugh. “They want my help?” Maya nodded. “The old Alpha died after the attack six years ago. Killian is the Alpha now. He has been trying to keep the pack safe. It has been hard. He is the one who asked for our help.” I remembered how Killian looked when he threw money at me. I remembered him telling me to get rid of the babies so I would not ruin his life. Now he was asking me to save him. “Tell them no,” I said firmly. Maya looked surprised. “No? The job is worth a lot of money. It would make our company famous with all the wolf packs. Wolves offer more money than our human clients.” “I do not care about the money,” I said, my voice mean and cold. “I have enough money to buy his whole pack and turn it into a parking lot. If Alpha Blackwood wants my help, he should not send people to ask for me. Tell them that if he is so desperate, he should come here himself.” “You want the Alpha to come to a human city?” Maya asked, shocked. “I want him to crawl,” I said, my eyes flashing with years of anger. “Tell him that Ms. Miller does not meet with people who are not important. If he wants his pack to be safe, he needs to come and ask for my help personally. Otherwise he can watch his pack get hurt.” I could almost taste the revenge. Killian thought I was dead. He thought he had gotten rid of the Omega six years ago. He had no idea that he was about to walk into a trap. I was going to make him regret every mean thing he had ever done to me. “Why are you staring at me like that?” I asked, suddenly noticing the strange look Maya was giving me. “Alpha Blackwood is quite a persistent man who doesn’t take no for an answer and—” “I do not give a bloody fuck,” I deadpanned. “I am starting to wonder what the renowned Candace Miller has against the Blackwood pack,” a deep, commanding voice boomed from the doorway. “Is it a human versus wolf beef, or something more?” My knees went weak. My heart slammed against my ribs as Killian Blackwood — the man I swore to get revenge on — walked into the room, his eyes locking onto mine with pure shock. “Sara…?” he whispered, voice breaking. “You’re alive?”KILLIAN."She's not coming back, is she?"Leo stood in the doorway of my study on the second day, small and still in his pajamas. It wasn’t a question. It was a statement from a five-year-old who had already learned that adults sometimes lied to make things hurt less.I hadn’t slept. The bond in my chest felt like a lamp running out of oil, the flame flickering weaker with every passing hour. Claude’s latest trace had hit a dead end. Three search teams had come back empty-handed. Candice had vanished completely.I looked at my son standing there, blue eyes steady and far too knowing for his age."Come here, Leo," I said quietly, my voice rough from disuse.He walked over without hesitation and climbed into the chair across from my desk. He didn’t cry. He didn’t ask a hundred questions like he usually did. He just sat there, small hands folded in his lap, looking at me like he was waiting for me to fix the world.We sat in silence for a long time.Then Leo reached into his pajama pocke
CANDICE."You look terrible."The old woman behind the counter said it without judgment, just a simple observation as she poured coffee into a chipped mug and slid it across the counter toward me.I sat in the small roadside diner forty minutes outside Crescent Moon territory, the kind of place truckers and lost souls stopped at 3 AM. No phone. No bag. Just the clothes on my back and the small carved wolf tucked deep in my pocket like a secret I couldn’t let go of.I wrapped my cold hands around the warm mug and stared at the dark liquid.“Thank you,” I whispered. My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. “For the coffee.”The old woman — grey hair pulled back in a loose bun, kind eyes that had seen too many broken people — didn’t ask questions. She just nodded and kept the pot nearby.I sat there for hours, the weight of what I’d done pressing down until I couldn’t breathe.“Greta?” I whispered under my breath, so quietly the old woman couldn’t hear. “Are you there? Please…
KILLIANThe east wing sitting room felt like a cage.Elaine sat across from me, legs crossed elegantly, teacup in hand, looking for all the world like we were negotiating a simple alliance instead of bargaining for Candice’s life.The bond in my chest pulsed weakly — a fading heartbeat that reminded me with every second how little time we had left.Claude stood to my left, fists clenched so tight his knuckles were white. Darian stood by the door, arms crossed, eyes burning with quiet horror as he watched Elaine like she was a venomous snake ready to strike.Elaine took a slow sip of tea, then set the cup down with deliberate grace.“So,” she said calmly, “let’s be clear about what I’m asking for. I want formal recognition as a protected ally of Crescent Moon Pack. Full status. Immunity from my father’s reach. No more surveillance. No more Claude watching my every move like I’m seconds away from betraying you all.”Claude’s jaw tightened. “You leaked information that could destroy this
KILLIANI was losing my mind.The ache in my chest had become a constant, gnawing void that refused to let me breathe properly. Every inhale felt shallower, every exhale heavier, like the bond itself was being slowly strangled. The steady pull that had anchored me since Candice walked back into my life was dimming faster now — a flame struggling against a storm, flickering weaker with every passing hour.I paced the command center like a caged wolf, hands clenched so tight my nails dug into my palms, drawing blood I barely felt. The monitors glowed with useless maps and dead-end traces. The silence in the room was deafening except for the pounding of my own heart.Claude stood in front of me, trying to block my path, his face exhausted but determined.“Killian, you need to breathe,” he said, voice low and urgent. “You’re spiraling. The bond dimming is serious, but panicking won’t help us find her faster. You have to stay focused. For her. For the children. For the pack.”I stopped pac
KILLIAN.It started as a quiet ache.The kind that crept in slowly, like a lantern running low on oil. At first I thought it was only guilt. I deserved every bit of it after the things I said to her in that corridor and the way I let her walk out in silence. But this feeling kept growing heavier, deeper, carving out a hollow space inside my chest that no amount of whiskey or pacing could fill.I sat alone in my study at 3:12 AM. The room felt too large, too empty. Moonlight sliced through the tall windows, casting long shadows across the heavy oak desk. Blank monitors stared back at me like dead eyes. The half-empty bottle of whiskey sat untouched, the glass beside it still clean. Sleep had become a stranger. Food tasted like ash. Every breath reminded me that something vital was slipping away.I pressed a hand over my heart, frowning at the strange coldness there. The pull that had anchored me since Candice walked back into my life used to feel warm and steady, like a quiet promise h
KILLIAN.The pack house was unraveling thread by thread, and every single one of those threads had my name on it.I stood in the doorway of the children’s playroom, watching Leo push his plate away for the fourth time that morning. The toast and eggs sat untouched, growing cold. His small face was pale, his eyes red and swollen from crying through the night. He kept glancing at the door like he expected Candice to walk in any second with her usual soft smile and quiet “eat up, baby.”“Leo, please,” I said, my voice rough and exhausted. I knelt beside him and gently pushed the plate closer. “Just a few bites. You need to eat something. Mummy wouldn’t want you to go hungry.”He shook his head, lips trembling. “I’m not hungry. I want Mummy.”The words sliced through me like a blade straight to the heart.“I know, buddy,” I whispered, pulling him into my arms. He buried his face in my chest and started sobbing quietly. I held him tight, rocking him gently, feeling my own eyes burn with te







