LOGIN“If he's going, I'm staying here.”Callen clutches his chest. “Pops.”“Don't Pops me.”“It’s my house! And I was going to barbecue.”She hesitates.Callen sees it. “So that's a yes.”“I hate you.”“No, you don't.”Poppy sighs and reaches for her shoes. For a few seconds, the cabin almost feels norma
** Leo’s POV **The cabin is silent, as if time itself has stopped whilst we all process what Poppy has said.If she’s right, if they’d been watching her, following her, then I’ve failed. I’d let my mate leave; I’d given her the freedom to make her own choices, and that had left her vulnerable. I sh
I stare at her. Something shifts. A sound, but not from the room, from memory. My mother’s voice. I stagger back. Paige catches my arms. “What?”I shake my head. “Wait.”Rain pounds against metal. Fire crackles nearby, but my whole body is freezing. Mum’s hand is against my cheek. My eyes flutter o
** Poppy’s POV **Paige stares at me like I’ve just told her I think the Pope’s an alien. For a second, she doesn’t move. I’m not even sure she’s breathing. Then she blinks slowly before shaking her head. “No, you didn’t,” she says firmly.“I did, Paige. I wouldn’t make something like this up.”“N
“I haven’t felt it here.”Bastian’s head tilts.“Not once?”I search backward through the weeks. Even when everything inside me felt wrong, even when the voice was louder, even when I thought the shadows were moving, there was nothing like that.“No.”Alaric folds his arms.“That matters.”I look at
** Poppy’s POV **Bastian stares at his brother for a moment.“What?” He asks when Alaric doesn’t say anything.“Could you maybe not announce things like that while she’s half-naked?”Bastian looks down at me.“Sorry.”I don’t even care about my state of undress anymore, because my brain is still st
** Ryder’s POV **The second the car doors shut, the world goes quiet. It’s not a peaceful or relieved quiet; it’s a stunned silence.Paige sits between me and Parker in the back seat, staring straight ahead. She hasn’t said a word since the police finally let us go. Her glow has dimmed to almost no
The absence shifts and my head snaps toward the treeline, the Twiceborn all following my gaze with their hackles raised. The hollow I felt earlier… it’s closer now. Still not visible, still wrong in a way that makes my skin crawl, but aware… watching.“Ronnie,” I say urgently. “That thing I felt. It
Remy sits beside me, close enough that his arm presses against mine. “If anything feels off, anything at all, you tell us. No hiding anything, no being brave.”I roll my eyes. “You guys are seriously overreacting.”They stare at me. Silent, united and completely unconvinced. God… I love them. My che
“Everyone stay where you are,” the woman calls. “We need statements from all of you.”Her gaze flicks briefly to the Twiceborn, and something in her expression tightens. I don’t think it’s suspicion or fear. Just a quiet, uneasy sense that she’s looking at something she can’t quite name.I’d been wo







