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
** Callen’s POV **We all feel the shift in Paige, the way she’s checking out now that she has rested, and the adrenaline has worn off. Her power pushes at her, threatening to consume her. I can see it in the way her eyes are glazed and how she seems to look through things rather than at them. They’
** Ryder’s POV **I feel it the moment I cross the threshold. The bond tightens, sharp and alert, and my wolf lifts his head inside me like he’s just scented a deer on the breeze. The cabin feels different, steadier somehow, but also charged, like the air itself is holding its breath.Parker feels i
** Ryder’s POV **We don’t celebrate. We don’t howl with victory cries or shake ourselves clean of blood and fear. We simply settle, our shoulders relaxing after carrying too much weight. Maybe all that will come later.The pack moves quietly. Not in shock or grief, but in assessment. Enforcers regr
Callen sits beside her on the couch, arm draped loosely around her shoulders. She leans into him without hesitation, and I see the way his presence steadies her.Parker catches my eye from across the room and gives a small nod.“She’s stable,” he says through the mind-link.I nod back.Later, when t







