LOGINCeleste's POVThe estate was too quiet for this hour, and I was done pretending I didn't notice.Mason went out earlier to handle something with the pack and wasn't back, and after Jason's call that afternoon I half expected him to be back by the time the sun went down. He wasn't. I moved through the sitting room restlessly, tried reading, gave it up after three pages, and ended up standing at the tall windows overlooking the front of the estate with a cup of tea going cold in my hand.It was nearing eleven o'clock when I saw headlights sweep through the gates.I recognised the car before it fully pulled through the gates and stopped in front of the estate entrance.I set the cup down and went downstairs, moving fast enough that I caught the front door handle while he was still stepping out of the driver's side.He looked up when he heard the door open, and whatever expression was on my face must have said something because the corner of his mouth lifted before I even reached him. I
Jason's POVShe looked at me for a moment, like she was deciding something."Can we talk somewhere private?""Here is private enough.""Jason." Her eyes moved briefly toward the pack members still standing further up the road. "I just need somewhere they aren't watching us."I studied her for a moment. Then I exhaled through my nose, turned without another word, and led her around the side of the Halvern storage blocks where the road narrowed and the buildings gave enough cover to block the crowd from sightline. Nobody would see us here. Nobody would hear whatever this was about to become.When I stopped and faced her, the look on her face told me everything. This had nothing to do with the fight. This had been building long before today."Why do you treat me like I don't matter?""I don't know what you mean.""Yes you do." The composure she wore all morning finally started slipping. "Ever since Celeste came into your lives, Jason. You've completely shut me out. Stopped looking at m
Jason's POVI pocketed my phone and got in the car.I had told Celeste to stay safe and I meant it. The fire Roland described wasn't far from her usual route, and knowing she had already driven through before it escalated was the one thing that made the rest of this manageable.Roland texted me the location before I could even ask. The Halvern Road stretch, just past the old storage units near the pack's eastern boundary. I knew the area well. It sat on the quieter side of our territory, residential mostly, the kind of road where pack members walked dogs and children rode bikes on weekend mornings and nobody expected anything to escalate into shifted wolves and a burning building.The drive took seven minutes. Long enough to go over what Celeste described and stack it against what Roland told me, piecing together how badly a morning argument managed to spiral. By the time I pulled up along the Halvern Road stretch, the scene was already contained. No wolves still shifted, no one thr
Celeste's POVThe estate was at its quietest in the early morning.No movement from the other side of the bed. No low voices carrying from downstairs. Just the soft sounds of a house that hadn't fully woken yet, and the light coming through the curtains at an angle that told me I was up before I needed to be.I moved carefully, getting dressed in the dim light without switching on the overhead, letting Mason and Jason sleep. They were up late dealing with pack matters again, and I learned early on not to disturb them when they finally got a full night. I grabbed my bag and my jacket and slipped out of the room.I was halfway through a cup of coffee in the kitchen when my phone rang.The name on the screen stopped me for a second. Dad.I set the cup down and answered."Celeste." His voice came through warm and steady, the kind of familiar that settled something in me I hadn't realised was tense. "How are you doing?""I'm good, Dad. Really good." I leaned against the counter. "Is every
Rogan's POVI was not a man who left things to chance.Every piece was placed with intention. Every conversation steered exactly where it needed to go. Months of careful work, patience, and the kind of quiet pressure that never showed itself too early or too plainly. And now, sitting in my study with the evening settling around me, I could feel the shape of everything built these past months beginning to hold its own weight.The waiting was almost over.My phone buzzed once on the desk. On my way.I set it face down and leaned back in my chair and waited.Vivian arrived ten minutes later, letting herself in the way she always did, like the space already belonged to her. In some ways she believed it did. That was precisely what made her so easy to work with."Everything is set." She settled back into her chair across from me, composed, her hands folded neatly in her lap. "I accepted the arrangement. Lucien, the Ravenors, all of it. My brothers have no reason to suspect a single thin
Aiden's POVThe snooker table in the back room of the Ashen Hollow rec hall was one of the few places where nobody called me Alpha.Jace never did when it was just the four of us in here. Liam and Luke didn't bother either. We were just four men and a game and whoever was losing held the worst opinions about everyone else's technique."You're holding the cue wrong," Liam said helpfully, which was rich coming from a man who missed his last four shots."I'm winning," I said."You're lucky," Luke corrected.Jace leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and watched the two of them with the expression of a man who listened to this exact argument for years. "We need to go out," he said, unprompted. "I just realized it's been months since any of us actually went out.""It's been longer than months," Luke said.I thought about it. He wasn't wrong. Between the Alpha obligations and everything that consumed the last few months, the idea of just going somewhere for the sake of going quietly







