LOGINPetra’s office was small and cluttered....filing cabinets, a desk covered in papers, a single chair besides the one behind the desk. Petra sat. Gwen remained standing."You work clean," Petra said, not looking up from whatever she was reading. "Same as before you left. No complaints from the crew, no drama, just moving through the assignments.""That’s the job," Gwen said."It is." Petra finally looked at her. "You want to know what’s different about you?"Gwen didn’t answer."You’re not afraid anymore," Petra continued. Her eyes were sharp, assessing. "A month ago, you had the look of someone who’d been crushed by the weight of everything. Desperate. Afraid you wouldn’t survive the next day." She paused. "Now you look like you’ve already died and came back."It was close enough to the truth that Gwen’s chest tightened."Whatever happened at the Fenwick estate," Petra said, "you don’t need to tell me. That’s your business. But I’m telling you now, keep that look to yourself. Don’t let
The alarm on Gwen’s phone went off at 5 AM.She wasn’t asleep. Had been lying on the lumpy mattress in the darkness for hours, staring at nothing, her mind running through numbers that didn’t add up.Four thousand.That was the number that mattered now. Four thousand dollars a month for her mother’s care. Her omega wages came to approximately six hundred a month if she worked every available shift. Which meant she was short by thirty-seven hundred dollars.Every. Single. Month.She’d done the math a dozen times since leaving Duncan’s office yesterday. Had approached it from different angles, looking for a solution that didn’t exist. Calculated what would happen if she picked up extra shifts, there weren’t enough hours in a week to cover it. Thought about asking for a promotion to a higher-paying position but Alpha Duncan had made clear that wasn’t happening.She was trapped in a box with no exit.Gwen silenced the alarm and forced herself to sit up.The omega apartment was cold. The h
As if it had been a choice."Your status in the pack," Duncan continued, and his voice shifted back to the cold, clinical tone of an alpha dispensing orders, "will remain omega. I cannot take the risk of elevating you, Gwen. If the Fenwicks find out that you’ve been restored to a higher rank, they may interpret it as disrespect. As a slight against their authority."He paused, letting that land."They may decide that your punishment wasn’t sufficient. That our pack deserves a stronger lesson." He looked at the three elders. They nodded in agreement. No sympathy. No doubt. Just the cold calculation of survival."You and your mother will remain omega," Duncan said flatly. "You will remain in omega housing. You will work omega assignments. You will accept omega status and all that it entails. This is not negotiable."Gwen felt something inside her go very still.She’d known this was coming. Had understood on some level that returning to Greywatch meant returning to nothing. That being re
She didn’t know what she was apologizing for. For leaving her alone in this hospital bed. For not being able to protect her from the mate bond breaking. For surviving something that had destroyed her. For coming back changed in ways she didn’t fully understand yet.For everything.Her whole body was shaking now. Every muscle vibrating with the force of the tears she was finally allowing herself to cry. Three months of holding it together. Three months of surviving. Three months of moving through each day without breaking.And now, sitting beside her mother’s unconscious form, she finally broke completely.She wept into their joined hands, her whole frame wracked with sobs. The machines beeped steadily around her, indifferent to her pain. The hospital sounds continued outside the room....distant voices, the hum of equipment, the ordinary noise of people dealing with medical crisis.And Gwen sat there and cried like her heart was breaking. Because it was. Because she’d survived somethin
The car reached the gates.Rolled through them smoothly.Disappeared around the curve in the drive that would eventually lead to Greywatch territory.And all three brothers felt the mate bond stretch one final time....a desperate, anguished pull that made them all inhale sharply as if they’d been struck.Then it settled into a dull, constant ache. A presence that would live in their chests forever. A reminder of what they’d found and what they’d had to release.Cassian stopped pacing."Why did we let her go?" His voice sounded broken. Raw. Like the question was being torn from somewhere deep inside him."Because we had to," Killian said. He didn’t turn from the window. Didn’t watch Cassian. Just kept his eyes fixed on the empty drive where the car had been. "Because keeping her would have made us monsters. And because..."He paused."Because she’s our mate," he said quietly. "And mates deserve the choice to stay. Not to be trapped. Not to be forced. She deserves to choose us. And righ
The morning came too quickly.Gwen woke before dawn, her eyes opening to darkness that was just beginning to soften at the edges. For a moment, she lay there in her bed, listening to the silence of the estate as it slept. Then it hit her, the realization that this was her last morning in this room. Her last morning in this place.She felt a flutter of nervousness mixed with anticipation.Then someone knocked at the door."Come in," Gwen called.The door opened.Nessa appeared with a tray of breakfast, real breakfast, not the sparse offerings from the early days. Fruit, bread with honey, tea. Behind her came Agnes with Gwen’s original clothes folded neatly over her arm."Good morning," Agnes said. Her weathered face held something like approval. "The car is being prepared. You’ll leave within the hour."Gwen nodded.She wasn’t surprised. Had known it was coming."Thank you," Gwen said.Nessa set the breakfast down with a small smile. "You’re happy," she observed."I’m going to see my m







