LOGINShe was right. I sat. She handed me a small basket of green beans and I got to work snapping the stems off, perhaps a little more violently than I should have. To her credit, she didn’t ask anything, and didn’t seem to mind when I shoved a couple of the beans into my mouth as I worked.Finally, abou
Avery’s POVSebastian's office was peaceful, the window open, letting in the breeze. It did little to calm the racing thoughts in my head.“Coffee?” he asked, reaching for the carafe on the side table.“Um. Sure.” I sat, running my hands over my face as he poured it. A moment later, a steaming cup w
Avery’s POVThe drive to Aldric’s pack was quiet, I had to give Sebastian that. He didn’t press me for an answer just yet regarding his proposal. I didn’t want to give him one.When we arrived, I was unsurprised to see Gideon’s car sitting in the driveway. Sebastian’s fingers tightened a little arou
Avery’s POV“Avery…”Gideon’s hands came down to cup my face. His lips were soft and sweet when he kissed me, and my name was so low I almost couldn’t hear it. But he said it again and again, like a mantra, and each time he said it, it sounded even sweeter to my ears.“Avery… I love you.”I smiled,
“I had Claire,” I said, smiling faintly. “She was the exception. But outside of her and Bjorn and my mother, I never really…” I trailed off. “It got a little lonely.”Gideon was watching me closely, and I just now realized that my face was still hot.“Did Bjorn like it there?” he asked.“Not really.
Avery’s POVAfterwards, I laid on my back, staring at the ceiling while my pulse slowly came back down to something somewhat close to normal. The fire had burned low again. The room was warm and dim and smelled like sex and wine, and my muscles were loose and my wolf was content for the time being.
Gideon’s POV The uproar that broke out in the Pack Meeting when Dierdra’s mark disappeared was nothing compared to the chaos that roared through me. I hadn’t believed—hadn’t wanted to believe—that on top of everything she had lied about that too. In the wake of initial shock, I felt a cold calm
Avery’s POV I was up hours before the Pack Meeting was due to congregate. The name was something of a misnomer, it wasn’t actually everyone in the pack. A meeting of the entire pack would take days to gather, and we would need to hold it in the Ceremony Hall or Training Grounds to accommodate thos
Avery’s POV The ride back to Nightwolf Village was tense in every imaginable sense of the word. We had all come in a single car, and Gideon did not call for another, but he directed Dierdra to sit up front with the driver and he sat in the back with me. “I trust you can survive the trip back wi
Avery’s POVFor the next few days I never left my mother’s side. Her stay in the Rogue King’s dungeon had left her weak, malnourished, and had aged in ways that were harrowing to see. I had faith in the pack’s healers, and my presence seemed to provide some measure of relief, whether from my healing







