Mag-log inKILLIANI returned to Crescent Moon before sunrise, just as the sky was beginning to brighten in the east. Exhaustion weighed heavily on me as I drove through the gates, but I didn't stop to rest or even change my clothes. I went straight to Lia's bedroom. The pack healer was there, gently checking her temperature. She looked up when I entered. "Her temperature is already falling, Alpha. She's stable for now. But I want her resting for the next few days."I barely heard her. Lia was awake, staring at the ceiling while silent tears ran into her hair. Leo slept soundly beside her, one small arm resting protectively across his sister's stomach like he was physically trying to keep her there. The sight of them lying like that nearly broke me. They should have been worrying about toys and breakfast, not whether their mother was alive.I sat on the edge of the bed and gently brushed the damp hair from Lia's forehead. "Sweetheart, can you explain what you meant on the phone? About not feelin
KILLIAN."Play it again," I ordered, my voice rough as the screen went black. "I need to see it one more time."Claude didn't argue. He restarted the footage immediately, the laptop's glow casting dark shadows across the abandoned hunting cabin. Watching it a second time changed nothing, but every frame hurt worse. Candice recognized Marcus, stopped fighting, and willingly climbed into his vehicle after spending three painful days away from her children. I watched her face change from anger to shock, then to something that looked too much like reluctant trust. My chest felt tight, like something was crushing it from the inside.I turned to Adrian, my fists clenched at my sides. "What could Marcus possibly have said to make her trust him after four years of believing he was dead? Tell me everything you know about him. Don't hold anything back."Adrian slowly rubbed his jaw, his eyes fixed on the frozen image of Candice's face. "Candice loved Marcus like family once. He was there during
KILLIAN.I carried Lia back to her bedroom, her small body warm with fever against my chest. She held onto me the whole way, her breathing shaky but steady. I refused to leave her side until the healer confirmed her fever had finally started to drop. I sat on the edge of her bed, one hand resting gently on her forehead as I watched every small movement and every flutter of her eyelashes. The room felt too quiet after all the chaos downstairs. Everything Lia had said kept playing in my head, the weight of it pressing down on me like heavy stones.Aldric paced near the window, rubbing his temples. "Blood echoes should only recognize direct blood connections. Feeling Candice through Marcus doesn't fit any record I've studied. It shouldn't even be possible."Adrian leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "She may not be sensing Marcus himself. If he's recently been close to Candice, Lia could be following some emotional imprint left through prolonged contact. Scent, touch, fear—tho
LIA.I don't understand why all the adults start shouting after the Council man calls me "little echo." The name feels strange, like a secret name nobody ever told me about. Daddy's voice gets really loud as he orders Marta to take me upstairs immediately. Uncle Claude tells Darian to move the prisoner somewhere else. Grandpa Aldric keeps asking the man who taught him that name, his face looking older and scared. But I stay exactly where I am on the stairs because nobody has answered the only question that matters to me.I step down one more stair and ask, "Do you know where Mummy is?"The prisoner looks straight at me. His eyes are mean, but I feel that strange thing again. It isn't a smell or a sound. It feels like standing in a dark room and somehow knowing someone is right behind the door, breathing quietly. The man feels connected to the dead stranger from the tunnel, but there are more connections behind him. So many thin threads stretching into the darkness that my head starts
CLAUDE.I spent the entire drive back to Crescent Moon trying to understand how the Council had managed to get a blood order in less than twenty-four hours. A blood order wasn't some normal custody document. It gave the Council temporary authority to remove a child if an inherited wolf ability was considered unstable, dangerous, or important enough to require neutral assessment and containment. I kept glancing at Killian in the passenger seat. His jaw was locked so tightly I was surprised he hadn't cracked a tooth."Lia is five years old," he growled, gripping the door handle. "She hasn't done anything except sense her mother. How is that unstable or dangerous?"Aldric, sitting in the back, spoke with the heavy weight of old memories in his voice. "The Blood Keepers once used similar laws to gain access to children from rare bloodlines. The modern Council supposedly ended those practices generations ago, but laws are only as good as the people enforcing them. This feels like the old g
KILLIAN.I snatched the photograph from Claude's hand, my fingers tightening around the edges until the paper almost bent. "Tell me exactly what you saw near Candice's car. Every detail. Don't leave anything out."Claude held my stare. "He was standing with the first human officers who arrived after Darian's team reported the abandoned car. He wore a normal dark jacket and stayed at the side of the road. He watched everything for less than five minutes, then disappeared before I thought to question why some random officer had been standing there for so long.""Did he see you watching him?" I asked."I don't think so.""That's not good enough, Claude.""I know. If I'd recognized him then, I would've followed him myself."Adrian leaned closer and studied the photograph with narrowed eyes. "That's Marcus Vale. Candice's former senior operations director. One of the first people she trusted after taking full control of Miller Security. According to every company record, Marcus died in a w
CANDICE'S POV The line just cut out. I stayed there in the empty briefing room, phone still pressed to my ear like a total idiot — just listening to silence. My heart was pounding so hard I swear I could feel it in my teeth. Slowly I lowered the phone and stared at the unknown number on the screen
KILLIAN’S POVThe drive back to Crescent Moon Pack should have cleared my head. It didn’t.My grip tightened around the steering wheel as her face refused to leave my mind. Candice Miller. Even her name felt wrong—like something that didn’t quite belong.I exhaled slowly. “Candice Miller…” I mutter
Candace 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
Killian. “What took you so long?” Elaine purred, laying there all spread out on my bed like the whole damn room belonged to her already. That thin silk thing she wore was slipping off one shoulder on purpose. She stretched slow, smiling up at me with those heavy eyes. “I was getting bored waiting f







