INICIAR SESIÓNRONAN POV"You're always busy. Busy saving lives, busy being so noble and brave and quiet." Celeste took quick steps across the floor and slapped the rack right out of Arden's hand. Glass tubes rolled everywhere across the tile. "Don't you dare turn your back on me."Arden looked down at the scattered glass tubes, then slowly looked back up. She didn't look scared at all, just incredibly tired and patient, and it made my chest hurt to see it."What do you want, Celeste?""I want you to admit it." Celeste's voice shook, and it wasn't the fake tremble I had heard during the council meeting. "I want you to say it to my face. You planned this from the very first night. You made yourself sick with need, or you made him sick—I don't know how—but you used it. Two rut fevers in two months, and both times you were the only one.""That isn't how it works.""Isn't it?" She let out a harsh, ugly laugh. "You came out of prison with nothing, and now the King is sleeping with you. You trapped him, A
RONAN POV"Two things." He set the phone on my desk and turned the screen toward me. "First, the council vote on reviewing Arden's contract was scheduled for the end of next month. As of an hour ago, it has been moved up to this Friday."I stared at the date. "By whom?""By Severin's office, on his signature." Lucian's mouth went thin. "He cited the state dinner attack as an emergency reason. Nobody argued, because nobody wanted to be the one who looked like they were protecting a convict.""And the second thing?"He tapped the screen, and a grainy security clip began to play. It was the east corridor on floor seven, shot from above, and I watched a man in a dark coat approach a door I knew well. It was Celeste's, the one that had been locked all day, and as I watched, it opened a crack, and a pale hand reached out for a sealed envelope."Severin's courier," Lucian said quietly. "Private, with no log entry, delivered at eleven fifty-two. Whatever it says, he didn't want it going throu
RONAN POV"Then tell me what you think," I heard Arden say. I stopped so fast my shoe squeaked on the concrete floor.I was standing in the basement hallway, ten feet from the lab door, with my back pressed against the wall. I hadn't meant to come down here. I kept telling myself to stay upstairs and let my fever fade, but my feet brought me here anyway.The door was open a tiny bit, letting a strip of light spill onto the floor. My werewolf hearing is sometimes a curse, and I could hear every single breath on the other side. I knew I should walk away, but I stayed."It's not really a guess, just a feeling I've had since the day I met you," Selene said. Her voice was gentle, just like when she used to sit on the edge of my bed when I was little. "I kept quiet because I wasn't sure, and an old woman's guesses shouldn't mess up a young woman's life.""But you're messing it up now.""Yes." A cane tapped once on the tile floor. "Because I've watched you for weeks, child. I've seen how you
ARDEN POV“I think you're very brave, truly.” She took a quick step closer and pushed the tray an inch toward me. “I put extra bread on it, and the good jam, because Cook said not to, and I thought that was unkind. You look so tired, miss, and I wouldn't want you going hungry.”I looked at the tray, then at her anxious little face, and something tight and tired settled in my chest. I couldn't tell if she was kind or afraid or simply sent to see how I'd take it, and I didn't have the strength to find out.“You don't have to pretend,” I said.“I'm not pretending, miss, I swear it.” Her eyes shone, wide and wet. “Please don't be angry. If Cook found out I said anything, she'd send me to the pots for a month.”“I'm not angry with you.”“Then you won't tell?”“Tell who?”“Anyone,” she whispered. “The Luna especially.”That was when I understood what the visit had really been about, and my voice came out cooler than I'd meant it to.“The Luna can think what she likes,” I said, more sharply
ARDEN POVI must have fallen asleep near dawn, because the next time I opened my eyes, the room was bright and the bed was empty."Gone," I said to the empty room, my voice sounding smaller than I wanted it to.The sheets beside me were still warm. I slid my hand across the dent where his body had been, feeling the heat fade slowly under my fingers. Morning light leaked through the curtains, and I could hear the city waking far below—horns,engines, and the hum of a world that hadn't changed at all.He had stayed longer than last time. I made myself admit it, because it was true. He had stayed until nearly dawn, with his hand on my ribs and my name on his lips. It was more than he had ever given me before.Still, it felt like an escape, and it left a cold space in my chest.I found my robe on the floor next to his torn shirt and dressed without looking at the bed. A glass of water sat on the nightstand. I stared at it for a long time, wondering if he had left it for me or had someone
ARDEN POV“Yours.”“Again.”“Yours, Ronan—fuck.”He drove harder. One hand pinned my wrists above my head. The other gripped my hip so tight I knew there would be bruises. Sweat dripped from his chest onto mine. The wet slap of skin on skin filled the room, mixed with his low,continuous growls and the broken sounds I couldn’t hold back.“Smell so fucking good,” he muttered against my throat. “Been driving me crazy for months. Need to come inside you. Need to mark you so every wolf in this tower knows.”I came first, sudden and violent, clenching around him so hard my vision went white. He kept thrusting through it,dragging every last tremor out of me until I was shaking and oversensitive.He pulled out suddenly, breathing hard, the head of his cock wet and glistening against my stomach. He was close—I could see it in the way his whole body locked up.“Not yet,” he growled. “Want you on top. Want to watch you take it.”He rolled onto his back and pulled me with him. I straddled his hip







