LOGINVanessa's POV My eyelids didn't just snap open. They fluttered, fighting a heavy, agonizing weight, tearing away from crusts of dried blood and frost.The first thing I registered wasn't light. It was the absolute wrongness of the air.There was no scent of scorched oil,no metallic reek of smashed wiring. No dripping water from a freezing ravine. Instead, a heavy, cloying wave of crushed mint and damp earth washed over my senses.I blinked sluggishly, my vision swimming, trying to assemble the shattered pieces of my surroundings. The dark, claustrophobic wreckage of the transport was gone. In its place stood impossibly high stone walls covered in climbing ivy, framing an open, manicured expanse of green grass under a pale, unblemished sky."What... what the hell...?"My voice was a ragged, bleeding scrape that bounced off walls that made zero sense. I pushed myself up, my palms sliding across smooth, damp grass instead of jagged iron. My chest didn't flare with the crushing agony of
Vanessa's POV My eyes snapped open.A pounding, jackhammer ache throbbed behind my temples, making every single nerve ending in my skull scream in protest. I squeezed my eyes shut, gasping for breath as I tried to claw my way out of the heavy, dragging fog of unconsciousness.When I finally forced my eyelids back open, the harsh morning light filtering through a small, paned window made me squint painfully. It took several long, agonizing seconds for the room to stop spinning and resolve into sharp focus.I wasn't in a cold forest. I wasn't in Ronan’s mobile command unit.I was lying in a narrow, heavy timber-framed bed draped in rough, unbleached linen sheets. The room around me was small, rustic, and profoundly austere—its walls built from dark, weathered pine logs chinked with gray mortar. A single oak wardrobe stood against the far wall, a heavy iron washbasin rested on a wooden stand by the corner, and the air carried the earthy, medicinal scent of dried eucalyptus hanging from
The Foreign SoilThe hand on my shoulder was heavy, unyielding, and carried the unmistakable, crushing weight of an alpha’s grip.Every instinct in my battered, poison-soaked body screamed at me to shift, to snarl, to tear free and run. But my limbs were like lead. My fingers only managed a weak, pathetic twitch against the damp earth as I tried to claw my way forward into the mud."Well, what do we have here?"A voice cut through the roaring static in my ears—deep, gravelly, and entirely unfamiliar. It wasn't Ronan’s smooth, mocking cadence, and it didn't carry the cold, clinical detachment of Abel’s northern guard. It rumbled with a rough, territorial hostility that belonged to strangers."She’s bleeding out, Captain," a second, younger voice chimed in from somewhere to my left, sounding distant and muffled through the fog in my brain. "Look at the clothes... that’s not local weave. And she came straight out of the river channel. Do you think she's an advance scout from the northern
Vanessa's POV The air inside the vehicle tasted thick, like wet iron and stale dust. My tongue felt too heavy for my mouth, sticking to the roof of my mouth as I tried to swallow. Every breath felt like dragging broken glass through my chest.Footsteps crunched against gravel outside the door. Heavy. Measured.My eyelids felt weighted down by lead, but I forced them apart, the dim, blurring neon lights of the street sliding across my vision like smeared watercolor. A door clicked open. A rush of cold, damp night air hit my face, carrying the sharp scent of cedarwood and cold leather.Ronan’s hands wrapped around my arms.My muscles refused to twitch. My fingers hung limp, unable to curl into fists, unable to grip the seatbelt. I couldn't push back. I couldn't even dead-weight my own body as he effortlessly hauled me out of the driver's seat, his shoulder catching my dead weight. He carried me across the asphalt, his footsteps echoing in the empty lot, and dumped me unceremoniously in
The BaitVanessa's POV The air in the hotel suite was thick, stale, and heavy with the artificial scent of lavender. I stood motionless in front of the full-length gilded mirror, staring back at a stranger.Mandy had pulled strings, quietly working through old contacts to secure this secluded luxury suite tucked right against the eastern edge of Wild Bloomers Park. But the woman reflected in the glass wasn’t the broken fugitive who had crawled through a motel bathroom floor just forty-eight hours ago.I was dressed to kill—and to seduce.I wore a high-slit, form-fitting crimson silk dress that clung to every contour of my body, falling sharply against heavy, thigh-high black leather boots. The neckline plunged low, exposing the sharp angles of my collarbones, and my newly cropped, jagged hair framed my face in a raw, unyielding halo of dark defiance. I looked dangerous, magnetic, and untouchable.Taking a slow, steadying breath, I reached into my tactical pouch, pulled out the small,
The Last GoodbyeVanessa's POV The morning sunlight cut through the greasy, grime-streaked window of the motel room like a knife, landing square across my face.My head was pounding a relentless, savage rhythm against my skull, each throb echoing the bitter reality of the night before. I didn't reach for a pillow. I didn't lie there waiting for the world to make sense. Today wasn't a day for mourning; it was a day for war. I was walking straight into the jaws of a trap as living bait, and I wasn't going to sit around letting any man—cheater, commander, or monster—talk me out of my own execution.Once Ronan was imprisoned, or better yet, lying dead in the dirt, I was coming back to this valley. I would walk straight into Abel’s fortified pack grounds, covered in blood if I had to, and I would take Ethan out of that gilded cage forever.I pushed myself off the grimy floorboards, my muscles aching, and walked straight into the cramped, peeling bathroom.I turned the shower handle, stri







