INICIAR SESIÓNRae
I could still taste him.
Grant’s weight pinned me to the mattress in the best way, heavy and solid and here, and every place our skin touched burned.
The b
RaeI woke slowly, mostly because I was too warm and comfortable to bother figuring out where I was.Something heavy rested across my waist, my cheek was pressed against a solid chest, and one of my legs had somehow become tangled between two much larger ones beneath the blankets. I shifted, and the arm around me tightened before a familiar sleepy sound rumbled above my head.Grant.Memory arrived all at once after that.The command dorm. Grant kissing me. His bedroom. Everything between us finally breaking open after six years of anger, hurt, and wanting him anyway.Then the marks.Heat rushed into my face as I lifted my head and found Grant still asleep beside me. His hair was completely wrecked, and without the faint line that usually lived between his eyebrows, he looked younger. More like the boy I remembered sitting beside me on the riverbank than the future Alpha who had spent six years pretending I didn’t matter.My attention drifted to the fresh mark on his neck.I had put th
JulienThe first surge hit halfway through dinner.Brax stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth.Across the table, Linc’s head came up at exactly the same moment, and whatever our fathers had been discussing about the regional training agreement disappeared beneath a sudden rush of heat that had nothing to do with the crowded restaurant.I put my glass down carefully.Brax looked at me.I looked at Linc.None of us needed to ask whether the others had felt it.The connection between Rae and Grant had changed.Again.It had already happened once earlier that evening. That first shift had been familiar enough that I recognized it immediately, even from nearly forty miles away. The same deep ripple had moved through the Sacred Pack when Rae accepted Linc, then me, then Brax. Grant’s had struck harder, probably because his bond with Rae had existed consciously for years before any of ours broke through the seal, but the shape of it had been the same.Recognition settling into acceptanc
RaeI could still taste him.Grant’s weight pinned me to the mattress in the best way, heavy and solid and here, and every place our skin touched burned. The bond that had finally locked into place hummed under my ribs like a second heartbeat, deeper than any of the others had been at the start. Six years of silence and distance and careful avoidance had collapsed into this: his bare chest against mine, the thick ridge of his cock pressing hard against the seam of my jeans, his mouth still close enough that every exhale ghosted over my lips.
GrantHer gaze dropped to my mouth. Mine did the same.Something inside me snapped.I crossed the last of the space between us in one stride, cupped the back of her neck, and dragged her mouth to mine.There was nothing careful about it. Nothing soft. Six years of restraint collapsed into the hard press of my lips against hers, the rough sound that tore out of my throat, the way my other hand locked at her waist and yanked her flush against me. Rae made a small, startled noise that I swallowed whole. Her hands flew up, fingers curling into the front of my shirt like she needed something solid to hold onto.I kissed her like I was trying to erase every second I had wasted.My tongue swept into her mouth the moment she opened for me. She tasted like the tea she’d been drinking earlier and something warmer, something that was pure Rae. My wolf roared so loud I felt it in my bones. Mate. Finally.T
GrantRae asked for five minutes alone with Jesse.My wolf hated every second of it.He paced beneath my skin while Julien, Brax, Linc, and I waited in the corridor outside Mansfield’s secure classroom, his agitation scraping against the bond.Mate. Go.No.Upset.I knew.Even through the unaccepted bond, Rae’s emotions pressed against mine in restless waves. Confusion. Hurt. Frustration. Something sharper that disappeared before I could identify it.None of that changed the fact that she had asked us to leave.Five minutes meant five minutes.Six years ago, I would have found a reason to decide her safety mattered more than what she wanted and gone back inside anyway.I knew where that kind of thinking led.Brax shifted beside Julien. “Five minutes is taking a long time.”“It has been four,” Julien said.“That is almost five.”“It is mathematically not.”Brax looked toward the door. “If Vicker says something stupid enough to make her cry, the five-minute agreement should have an emer
RaeJesse’s words seemed to stay in the room after he said them.She was the one who told me to bring you home.Nobody spoke immediately. I could feel the reactions around me without looking at anyone. Grant’s anger burned hottest, but beneath it was something colder now that Jesse had confirmed Elena had been directing him toward Vicker territory. Julien was already turning the information over from every angle, while Brax’s usual warmth had sharpened into distrust. Linc remained steady, but there was nothing relaxed about him.Jesse looked like he wanted to take the words back.Not because they weren’t true.Because he finally understood what they meant.Mansfield closed the folder in front of her. “I need to contact the Vicker Alpha.”Jesse’s head came up. “Why?”“Because his sister-in-law concealed her relationship to Rae’s mother, used an old identity to access restricted concealment texts, researched hidden lunar bloodlines, and then encouraged his son to bring Rae directly into
RaeAnd when I finally looked up, it wasn’t who I expected.Not even close.Brax Weston stood in the doorway balancing two pizza boxes, four sodas, and enough confidence to make it seem like he’d been invited.Chrissy’s eyes widened.Brax grinned.“Good,” he announced. “You’re alive.”I blinked.“W
RaeBy the time I made it back to my dorm room, the box in my hands felt heavier than it had any right to.It wasn’t the weight of the things inside it. It was everything attached to them—the way Sonya had looked at me, the way Julien hadn’t backed down, the way Grant had stepped into the conversat
RaeBy the time classes ended, I understood something I hadn’t been prepared for when I walked into Ravenwood Academy that morning.Being ignored had been easier.At least when I was invisible, people didn’t look at me like I was something to be figured out.Now they did.The whispers had changed.
Rae The Ravenwood Pack had one human.That human was me.Most wolves didn’t bother remembering anything else about me. Not my name. Not how long I had lived on their territory. Just the simple, inconvenient truth that I didn’t belong in their world.Humans didn’t live inside wolf packs.Yet someho







