LOGINMara Quinn is used to walking into places she shouldn’t—because the truth never waits in well-lit rooms. One late-night meet behind a bar goes wrong, and she sees something no one is supposed to witness: a man’s eyes flashing gold, bones shifting, a wolf where a man stood. She runs. The pack’s Alpha doesn’t let her. Gage Blackwood catches her in the dark, tilts her chin up like she’s a problem he can’t ignore, and delivers a sentence that feels like a threat and a promise all at once: “You’re mine until I decide you’re safe.” Except “safe” doesn’t mean free. It means locked inside a packhouse full of wolves who watch her like prey… or leverage. It means rules she never agreed to and a rival who smiles too easily and whispers that Gage will cage her forever—unless she chooses the right side. Mara refuses to be bullied into silence. If they want to keep her contained, she’s going to make herself useful. She demands answers. She digs into the crime she witnessed, she discovers the ugly truth: the blood spilled that night wasn’t random—it was part of a pack purge that went wrong, and the traitor is still breathing. The worst part? Gage’s “protection” wasn’t supposed to bind them. But a single drop of his blood on her tongue snaps something ancient awake—something that shouldn’t exist. Something the council will kill for. Now the Alpha who tried to control her is fighting the bond he never wanted… and the hunger he can’t shut off. Because Mara isn’t just a witness. She’s a secret and the mark she carries might be the one thing that topples a pack—or crowns her in it.
View MoreChapter 26 Second LockMaraI woke up in a room I didn’t recognize, which was quickly becoming my least favorite trend.For two whole seconds, I stayed still and pretended I was calm.Then my brain caught up.Gone.Packhouse gone. Gage gone. Wren gone. The hall, the note, the council guards, the smell of polished wood and old power—all gone.I sat up too fast and almost threw up. My arm throbbed under the bandage, the silver burn pulsing like it had a tiny, sadistic heartbeat. Cute. Love that for me.The room tilted, then steadied. I forced myself to breathe through my nose and take inventory.Private chamber. Not a cell, technically, because apparently rich werewolves liked their kidnapping with better upholstery. There was a large bed with gray sheets, a low table, two chairs, a fireplace that wasn’t lit, and one narrow window covered by iron bars from the outside. The door was wood, thick and old, with a lock plate too heavy for anything normal.No visible cameras.Which meant eith
Chapter 25 DominanceGageThe circle was already full when I stepped onto the packed dirt.Good.Fear liked private rooms. Power preferred witnesses.The gathering yard sat behind the packhouse, ringed by old stones and older rules. Every wolf in my territory knew what it meant when the circle was lit. No casual talk. No drifting in late. No pretending politics were something that happened behind doors.Tonight, the pack came to watch me bleed without spilling any.Silas stood on the opposite side of the circle in a dark coat, hands loose at his sides, expression controlled. He had dressed for respectability. Former Beta. Current Delta. Ambitious infection. He knew exactly how to look like the reasonable one when everyone else was afraid.The council sat beneath the covered platform to my left. Voss watched with a judge’s patience. Maren watched like she had already chosen which sentence she preferred. Two other elders sat with them, quiet and useless.Mason took position behind my ri
MaraThe only reason Gage let them take me was because I told him to.That made it sound brave. It wasn’t. It was math.Maren had two council guards in the hall, silver-lined restraints visible at their belts, and Gage looked one bad breath away from turning the medical wing into a crime scene. Wren stood behind me with her hands still stained from the paste she’d used on my arm. Mason was somewhere beyond the door, probably deciding which wall to put someone through first.And me? I had a silver burn, no phone, no exit, and a newly discovered habit of obeying Gage when he used that voice.So I said, “Let them.”Gage’s head turned so slowly I almost regretted it.“No,” he said.I slid off the exam table, ignoring the way my legs wobbled. “If you start a fight right now, they win. That’s what they want.”Maren watched us like a woman enjoying dinner theater. “How reasonable.”I pointed at her with my bandaged arm. “Don’t compliment me. It makes me feel contaminated.”Wren made a small
GageI brought her in through the back entrance because the front hall has too many eyes and too many mouths. Mason met me at the threshold, jaw tight, nose flaring at the blood on my hands and the silver tang on Mara’s skin.“She’s hurt,” I said.“I can see that,” Mason snapped, then caught himself. “Alpha. Wren’s ready.”Wren didn’t waste time on greetings. The medical room lights were bright and cruel, the kind that make everything look worse. Mara sat on the edge of the exam table, sleeve pushed up, forearm mottled red where the silver had kissed her. She was pale, angry, and trying not to show either. That stubbornness might keep her alive.Wren pressed gauze to the cut and Mara hissed through her teeth. “Ow.”“It’s silver,” Wren said, matter-of-fact, like she was explaining a splinter. Then she paused—just a fraction too long—and her eyes narrowed at the angry red blooming under the wrap. “It’s supposed to hurt.”Mara’s glare snapped to me like I’d personally dipped the blade. I
MaraGage didn’t speed.That should’ve been reassuring. Instead it made me itch, because his burner had just lit up with a threat and he was still driving like we weren’t being hunted. Hands steady on the wheel. Eyes on mirrors. No wasted motion.The cab smelled like him—soap, leather, and that sha
GageThe second her lips touched my blood, the tether should have settled like a brand and gone quiet. Temporary. Useful. A blunt tool for a human who’d stumbled into pack business.Instead it hit like a strike to the ribs.Heat. Pressure. A hard, instant awareness of her that had no business existi
MaraHe bit down like it was nothing.For half a second I stared at his hand, at the dark line of blood that welled up and ran over his knuckles. Even though I just watched him do it, my brain still tried to file it under normal injuries. Bar fight. Stupid guy showing off. But nothing about him was
GageI don’t like bringing her into town, and she knows it.Mara stood in the cabin’s kitchen doorway in my hoodie, arms crossed like she lived there. The view of her in my clothes made my skin hot. Put thoughts in my head I had to shake away.The ward stone in the baseboard killed her signal and k












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