LOGINCameron nodded once. No theatrics. No posturing. Just truth - raw and ugly. “Blackridge,” he began. “My pack. Or what’s left of it."The room shifted. Wolves stirred beneath skin. Even the air felt sharper.“Blackridge wasn’t just a pack.” Cameron continued. “It was a border power. Old money. Old land. Old enemies. Pinewood sat right on the edge of it - neutral ground everyone pretended not to notice.”My stomach twisted.“You’re saying Pinewood- ” I started.“ - was a surveillance nest,” he finished. “For years.”Every memory flashed at once. The way I’d always felt watched. The unease I’d blamed on trauma. The paranoia everyone said I was imagining.I wasn’t. Those wolves in shadows were real.Cameron’s gaze stayed on me as he spoke, like he couldn’t bear to look away. “You weren’t unprotected there, Clara. You were… contained.”Silas swore under his breath. I have no idea when he appeared. “Mara knew what mine pack was.” Cameron went on. “She made a deal when she arranged your mot
The kiss didn’t end the way kisses were supposed to. It shattered.I was still close enough to Cameron to feel the heat of him, my fingers curled in his shirt, my pulse doing reckless things against his chest, when the door flew open without a knock.“Clara.” Rowan’s voice cut in. Tight. Wrong.I pulled back slowly, breath uneven, eyes never leaving Cameron’s. His gaze stayed locked on mine for a heartbeat longer - dark, unreadable, unfinished - before instinct snapped him alert. Alpha first. Always.“What is it?” I asked, already bracing.Rowan didn’t soften it. He never did when it mattered. “Crestfall Systems just collapsed.”The words hit harder than any punch I’d taken in the woods.“…What?”“Not a dip. Not a scare.” He stepped fully into the room, shutting the door behind him. “Full bankruptcy. Trading halted. Assets frozen. Subsidiaries are falling like dominos.”My stomach dropped. That wasn’t possible. Crestfall Systems was a monster - old money, deep roots, redundancies stac
Across the hall, the doors creaked open as more guards entered - late, tense, confused by the sudden shift in power. Boots halted. Conversations died mid-breath.The room still smelled like violence.The young Alpha lay groaning at the base of the pillar, not dead - unfortunately - but broken enough to serve as a warning. No one rushed to help him. Not one of his witnesses. Not one ally. In this world, weakness invited silence.Cameron stood motionless at my side, blood seeping steadily through the fabric stretched across his ribs. His breathing was controlled, measured, but I felt it - felt the strain through the bond like a low ache behind my eyes.The older Alpha - silver-haired, sharp-eyed, dangerous in the quiet way - took a slow step backward. His gaze never left Cameron.“Then this gathering,” he said carefully, every word weighed, “has just become something far bigger than proposals and politics.”A ripple moved through the room. Not panic. Not fear. Recognition.He bowed his
I turned. He stood at the threshold, dressed in black borrowed clothes that fit him like they’d always been his. Kieran hovered half a step behind him, ready to catch him if he swayed, but Cameron stood tall, shoulders squared, eyes burning with quiet, lethal promise.The bond surged. Not wild. Not frantic. Claimed. Just Claimed.Rhys sniffed the air, than stiffened. “You’re injured.”Cameron smiled thinly. "You’re alive. For now"He took another step forward. The room reacted instinctively - Alphas shifting, wolves bristling, witnesses going silent.I walked toward him without hesitation, stopping just within arm’s reach. “You should be in bed.” I murmured.He dipped his head closer, voice just for me. “I'd missed the show.”I turned back to the room, lifting my chin.“For the record,” I said clearly, “any future proposals should be addressed to both of us.”Rhys’s gaze flicked between us, sharp now. Calculating.“You’re not fully bonded,” he said. “I’d know.”Cameron’s hand slid to
Rowan waited for me outside my bedroom door like a man escorting someone to a duel rather than a meeting.“You ready?” he asked, voice neutral. Too neutral. The kind he used when he expected blood.I adjusted the cuff of my jacket, the dark fabric hugging my shoulders just right. Power dressing wasn’t about flash - it was about control. And tonight, I intended to own the room.I stepped into the doorway, paused just long enough to glance back.Cameron lay propped against the headboard, pale but awake, dark hair still damp from the doctor’s last round of potions. He lifted his brow, watching me with that quiet, dangerous focus of his.I winked.“Oh,” I said lightly, “this should be fun.”His lips curved, slow and knowing. “Try not to start a war without me.”“No promises.”Rowan cleared his throat pointedly.I turned and swept past him, heels clicking against marble as we descended the grand staircase together. The mansion felt different tonight - coiled. Waiting.The main hall was alr
The stairs creaked under my bare feet as I climbed back up, the sound too loud in the stillness of the mansion. Downstairs, my brothers were already arguing about strategy, retaliation, politics, the usual bloody symphony of Vale crisis management. I needed a moment where none of them could reach me.I pushed open my bedroom door softly.Cameron was awake.He lay propped slightly against the pillows now, dark hair damp at the edges, eyes tracking the door the second it opened. Relief hit me first - sharp and sudden - followed by something warmer, deeper, that sank straight into my bones.“You weren’t gone long,” he said.“I wasn’t planning to be,” I replied, closing the door behind me.I crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed again. The scent of him - pine, night, something dark and wolfy - wrapped around me instantly. The bond stirred, not frantic this time. Aware. Curious. Like it was listening.“You look… different,” Cameron murmured.I snorted. “Let me guess. Murder-y?”H







