LOGIN-----Sunlight spilled gold and warm through the heavy curtains of Maureen's private apartment, pooling across the floor in long rectangles that crept slowly as the morning aged. Outside, the shower had receded to light drizzles now. Inside, the air was cool, almost too cool, the hum of the AC the only sound apart from the soft clink of glass as Maureen arranged small vials across the low table between them—dried herbs bundled with twine, pressed silver-grey flowers flattened between sheets of paper, something metallic and faintly luminous that caught the light at all the wrong angles, like it didn't quite belong to this world.Anna sat cross-legged despite her belly, leaning forward with the eager curiosity of a child being shown something forbidden."Wolfsbane." Maureen tapped the first vial, and her voice lost every trace of its earlier playfulness, settling into something flat and careful, the voice of someone reciting a lesson that had once cost her dearly to learn. "It kills mot
The keys glinted in Isabeau's hand like something stolen, like something she hadn't yet decided whether to surrender."Isabeau?" Anna's voice carried the uneasiness that always preceded trouble—the tone of a woman who already knew the answer and intended to argue with it anyway."I'm sorry, madam Anna, but you can't." Isabeau's apology came wrapped in a small, stiff bow, her eyes fixed firmly on the tablet clutched to her chest, as though the device itself might shield her from what was coming."Why not? Because I'm pregnant?" Anna planted both hands on her hips, the swell of her belly somehow making the gesture more comical than commanding. The gaze she leveled at Isabeau was sharp enough that the lady tipped her glasses down and looked anywhere else—the hedges, the gravel, the distant garage doors, anything but Anna's face."Master Ozeth won't allow—""Isabeau." Anna's tone hardened, the playfulness draining out of it like water through a broken vase. "The keys. Now.""Please, madam
"Ashworth?"The name hung in the air like smoke.Mama Eunice tipped her monocle and tilted forward, as if leaning closer would somehow change what she just heard."You heard me right, Mama."Jebediah sighed. The frustration wasn't just in his voice — it was written across his face like a headline nobody wanted to read. He leaned back on the swivel chair and pressed his hand over his face, as if shielding himself from thoughts he couldn't outrun."Son." Mama Eunice's voice shed every layer of humor. "Whatever it is that burdens you this deeply, I need you to ask yourself — is it truly worth the weight you're giving it? What happened to the unbothered Big Bad Wolf?" A knowing tilt found her lips. "Where is the terror that lives in the shadow of the greatest Alpha?""Mama, please." Jebediah lowered his hand just enough to reveal his eyes. "I'm serious." His gaze met hers with blinking. "Dead serious."He sat up straight, shoulders squaring like a man bracing against wind he couldn't see
Jebediah and Emmett's gazes met across the silence, both of them shifting their eyes briefly to sleeping Anna.Jebediah reached over and touched her lightly — just enough to confirm what he already suspected. She was out completely, peacefully, her breathing soft and even against the expensive linen."I think we'll be expecting a visit from Deimon soon, JB." Emmett broke the quiet at last, his voice dropped to something careful. "That's why I wanted to ask. What are you going to do when he comes?"Jebediah sat with that for a moment.The unbothered composure he always wore like armor — the one that had never cracked in a boardroom, nor wavered in a council, never flinched before a challenge — came apart quietly in the privacy of the room. The thought of Deimon Ashworth arriving at his door sent sharp sensations crawling across his skin.He looked up at Emmett with a dark expression, as though Emmett had personally manufactured this problem."Are you certain of what you're telling me,
Deimon and Octavia glanced at each other.The silence between them lasted only a second — but it carried the full weight of two people who had just been completely outmanoeuvred by someone they had been pitying not thirty seconds ago.Sophia rose from her seat. The smile hadn't left her lips. It sat there quietly, doing more damage than any raised voice could."Mother. Brother." She looked between them with the patience of someone explaining something simple to people she genuinely liked. "I don't get it, I just really don't. Why are you two this worked up over a marriage proposal? Not like It's a death sentence." She tilted her head slightly. "Chillax, I'm not a child. I'm thirty-seven — it's perfectly right that I get married.""But sis, you don't understand—""What I don't understand," Sophia said, cutting cleanly through Deimon's words before they could find their shape, "is your concern." Her tone didn't rise, It didn't need to. It simply became sharper. "A potential suitor has s
"You are his golden price." The words landed like a sledgehammer on stone. Deimon hadn't meant for it to come out that hard. But it did — sharp, heavy and final, ringing in the air long after his mouth had closed. Something in him recoiled just from saying it out loud, as if giving the words voice made them more real, more permanent. Sophia said nothing, she was lost of words. She sat completely still, eyes fixed on the floor, breathing quiet and controlled. No tears, no outburst, just silence — the kind that was harder to read than any reaction. Deimon and Octavia exchanged a glance, neither of them knew what to do with it. "Sis." Deimon's voice dropped. "I know it hit you hard the same way it did to me. And I won't stand here and pretend it doesn't still boil my blood — because it does." "Deimon." Octavia rose from her seat and crossed to Sophia, lowering herself beside her daughter. Her hand found Sophia's back, gentle and firm at once. "I think we should stop here. That's
---Both Jebediah and Emmett stayed the night with the Storm-Fangs. Emmett observed their culture — dwindling in number, maybe, but rich in everything else. Their battle style, their customs, their silences that carried meaning. But the most astonishing thing was their meal. One filled belly from t
---"I think the situation just got worse, JB. This is really, really bad." Emmett kept pestering Jebediah, who stayed quiet and seemed to ignore him with deliberate, practiced ease. "You don't get it, do you? A pregnant Luna is a game changer. Everything changes, everything."They were far fro
"Whoa."The word left Anna's mouth before she could dress it up into anything more articulate.She stood at the entrance of the estate's garage — or rather, what she had assumed would be a garage but which revealed itself, with each passing second, to be something else entirely. Something that defi
The bell's resonant peal rolled through Mooncrest Estate like a living thing—ancient bronze struck by ancient ritual, the sound carried on wolf-sense as much as air. It vibrated in Anna's bones, a call that bypassed human hearing and spoke directly to the beast within.Dinner.Anna was on her feet







