LOGIN“Stop! Don’t do this!” They can’t hear me, can’t feel my desperate attempts to stop this. I’m trapped inside the worst moment of my life with no way to change it. The world fractures around me, and for the briefest second, my mother’s fingertips brush mine. “Live, Poppy.” Then darkness explodes
** Poppy’s POV ** I blink against the darkness surrounding me. The cabin is gone. The smell of dinner. The warmth of the fire. The laughter in the kitchen. All of it has vanished. Instead, cold asphalt presses against my bare feet. I know this place. Not because I’ve seen it before, but because I’
“It seems our timing,” Leo says, looking between us, “is perfect.”“No, it’s terrible,” Alaric corrects flatly.“That depends on who you ask,” Jake shrugs.Alaric ignores him, turning back to the stove to flip the chicken with far too much focus.“So, what were you saying about defence lessons?” Leo
** Poppy’s POV **I thought Alaric would have been pissed at learning his brother had my number all along and had been messaging me, but he’s amused, and maybe even a little proud. He shakes his head again and laughs; it’s so contagious that I can’t even be mad.“Come on,” he says, standing from the
** Poppy’s POV **Bastian has been gone too long for a simple perimeter check of the cabin. I don’t know why that bothers me, but it does. I catch myself rubbing my thumb over the rim of my coffee mug again. It’s gone lukewarm, but I haven’t taken a sip in several minutes. Instead, I keep glancing
“I only detected five scents in the pack centre,” Bastian says. “The sixth entered here.”He points to a patch of flattened fern that none of us had even looked at.“They were already travelling together.”“That’s what we thought,” Leo says.Bastian doesn’t answer. He simply keeps moving, following
His eyes flick away, jaw tightening. “That’s not what this is.” “Then what is it?” I demand. “Because if you’re going to tell me to go and leave my son behind again, it’s never going to happen. There is nothing that would ever make me leave him.” He doesn’t speak, and that silence makes me a
I can’t speak. My mouth is dry, my brain short-circuited by the images Callen’s words just painted across the inside of my skull. I should be furious with him. Embarrassed and offended. But I’m not. I’m burning. Heat runs down my spine, blooming between my legs, pulsing with every erratic beat o
“You okay, Rem?” I ask in the mind link. “Leave me alone,” he snaps. “Okay, but if you need me, just shout.” The door opens a few seconds later and Callen steps out. He’s wearing shorts now, and he places three bottles of beer on the table before he flops down into the chair with a sigh. He
Is he trying to freak her out even more? Paige doesn’t speak for a moment and I know she is trying to make sense of his words. I pinch the bridge of my nose, waiting for all hell to break loose. “What the hell are you talking about? You cannot claim me like I’m some property. I barely even know







