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 eye catches mine, and my chest tightens. “You don’t need to either,” I say softly.He gives a little shrug, eyes flicking to the window. “Old habits. You spend enough years being told to keep everything hidden away, eventually you forget how to let it out.”“Remy…” I whisper. “You can, though. W
** Ryder’s POV **The forest is quiet tonight. Too quiet.It’s the kind of quiet that makes every instinct in me hum with warning.Before we set out on our first patrol together, I’d gathered the new enforcers in the clearing outside the cabins. They stood in a semicircle, Midnight wolves, strong an
Callen catches my eye over the stove; he grins at me. “Looks like breakfast just got crowded.”“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I say softly, watching as the men gather around the table, the people who’ve very quickly become my family.Ryder sets Jaxon down and meets my gaze, something tender fli
I don’t even remember when my eyes close. One second, Callen’s voice is painting pictures of the Moon Goddess, her pearly white hair glowing brighter than the stars, and the next, that glow fills the darkness behind my eyelids.It feels like I’m still listening to him, but his voice fades, replaced







