登入Mate.The word rolls heavily through me from my wolf.Mine.Beside me, Leo adjusts slightly in his seat, closer to me. It’s small enough that he probably doesn’t realise he’s done it, but I notice. His body language remains tense, but he’s no longer actively rejecting our proximity.Callen and Ryder
** Bastian’s POV **The silence inside the car should feel uncomfortable, but it doesn’t. Which is odd. I sit in the back with my arm pressed against the door, one boot stretched beneath the seat in front of me whilst Leo sits in the space beside me like a trapped storm. He’s irritated enough that I
No. Absolutely not.“We’re heading to the same place,” he continues before anyone answers. “And apparently it’s easier to get between here and your territory by vehicle, which we didn’t bring.”I stare at him blankly. “Then hire one.”Callen snorts loudly. Traitor.Alaric just grins wider, as if he
** Leo’s POV **The meeting drags on for hours. By the time the sun starts dipping lower outside the lodge windows, every Alpha in the room smells like stress, exhaustion, and brewing aggression. Arguments spark at least every twenty minutes before Alpha Josh, or Ryder manage to drag things back und
The discussion around the table shifts toward territorial alliances and emergency response plans, but my attention keeps dragging back toward them despite myself. Catching Alaric’s amused stare and Bastian’s unsettling calm.“Alpha Ryder, Alpha Callen, I have spoken to everyone here, and we each agr
** Leo’s POV **Alpha Josh finally calls for the meeting to start officially, but I can barely focus on what’s being said because the twins keep watching me. They’re not doing it openly enough for anyone else in the room to notice, but I feel it every damn time I look up.Bastian lounges against the
** 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
Paige snorts a laugh. “Honestly? I have no idea. But tell him thanks; that actually helps more than he thinks.”We turn down a familiar street, and my chest tightens painfully. These houses haven’t changed. The same cracked pavements. The same leaning fences. The same park.My childhood feels like a
** Paige’s POV **I feel it before Ronnie says the words, a subtle pull in my chest, threads tightening between me and each of them, different textures, different temperatures.“You are Spirit,” Ronnie says to me, his voice steady. “Not light alone. Not life alone. Spirit is will, choice, meaning. Y
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







