LOGINDanielle’s POV“You sure look exhausted,” I say softly with a smile creasing on my face as I watch him walk in.Rhett pauses just inside the doorway, one hand still braced against the frame like the room itself is holding him upright. The usual training armor is gone, but the weight of it still clings to him etched into his shoulders, the tight line of his jaw, the shadow beneath his eyes.He gives me a tired smile that doesn’t quite reach his gaze. “I could say the same about you.”I shrug, settling back into the bed. “I didn’t sleep much.”“That makes two of us,” he cuts in with a smile and then crosses the room and sinks into the chair across from me. For a moment, neither of us speaks. The silence between us isn’t uncomfortable either. Instead, it’s heavy, dense with all the things we’ve been circling but refusing to name.Kaelen stirs in his crib near the window, making a soft sound in his sleep and my eyes flick to him instinctively.
Rhett’s POVThe arguing had started before I even decided to settle down.“We cannot bleed our reserves for a war we can’t name,” one of my elders snaps, his palm striking the table hard enough to rattle the ink pots.“And we cannot sit on our hands waiting to be slaughtered,” Captain Rowan shot back from his end at the table. “Three border patrols in one week, Bram. Three.”I take my seat at the head of the table and the room goes quiet. Not immediately I sit, but reluctantly. Chairs scrape as I walk in. Eyes shift to me the way they always do during meetings like this, as if I carried answers all the time instead of responsibility.“Our supply lines are stretched thin already,” Bram continues, lowering his voice but not the conviction of his statement. “Rationing will cause unrest.”“Unrest is better than graves Alpha,” Rowan said.I lift a hand and then silence falls heavy between us, pressing against my ears until I’m keenly aware of my own breat
Danielle’s POV The weight of the wars over the pack for months is the reason Rhett no longer stays in our bedroom. I open up my eyes each passing day to an empty bed and that unsettles me daily. I blink, staring up at his sides and wondering when all of what’s happening will end—wondering when I’d ever get to wake up next to my mate and Alpha. With a lot swirling through my mind, I manage to stand up to my feet. I don’t hear the crack afar off at first. What I hear is Kaelen’s little morning giggles. The sound of delight he makes when he thinks he’s done something clever as a child. I’m seated on the rug now with my back against the sofa, sorting through a basket of his toys, wooden blocks, soft fabric animals, and a little carved wolf Rhett brought back from a border meeting months ago. Kaelen crawls towards me and for some reason a particular thought
WEEKS LATERRhett’s POVThe armor on me right now feels heavier than I remember. Not because it weighs more but because it’s been too long since I’ve worn it.The leather straps bite into my shoulders as I tighten them staring at my reflection, the familiar creak echoing softly in the armory. Steel plates settle over my chest, cool and solid, pressing against my ribs like a reminder of who I am supposed to be when the pack is watching.An Alpha, a warrior. A man to guard his people.Devon stands near the doorway with his arms crossed, watching me with a look I’ve seen too often lately, concern masked as irritation.“You don’t need to do this,” he says for the third time, frowning at me.But I don’t look at him, I reach for my gauntlets instead, sliding my hands into them, flexing my fingers until the joints move smoothly. “I do.”“You haven’t trained on the field in months,” Devon presses. “You’ve been overseeing, commanding, planning. That
MEANWHILE BACK AT MOONSHINE CLAN PACKGeorge’s POV“What’s the update on the borders?” I ask, pacing my bedroom, leaving both hands tucked into my pants. My mind, spinning from exhaustion and rage.“Nothing yet, but we’re working on it,” Maxwell, my most trusted warrior, says with a bow. Leaving me with the heavy thoughts in my head.The last time I stood inside Rhett’s pack, everyone pretended like there were no grudges made from the past. That was the first insult and the second was Danielle.She stood beside him, his arm resting with casual possession at her back, his fingers placed on her spine. Too comfortable for my wolf to handle, almost as though she had always belonged there and as though I had never existed.I remember the moment too clearly. The way she lifted her gaze when she heard my voice. She looked surprised at first but then something I couldn’t name fast enough before it vanished behind control flashed in her eyes.
Danielle’s POVThe mornings are the only time the pack feels soft to me. Times before the drills begin, before voices echo around the house and boots strike the marble floor of the mansion. Before the weight of being watched settles on my shoulders like a second skin.I stand by the window with a cup of tea growing cold in my hands, watching the fog thin over the courtyard below. The same space they have been training in the day before that. Warriors outside move in quiet clusters, stretching through the fields, laughing unaware that Rhett will push them hard again today. He always does lately and I understand why.I mean, peace never lasts long enough to trust it. Behind me, the room smells faintly of milk. And Kaelen’s toys lie scattered across the rug where I left them the night before, wooden blocks, a soft wolf plush, a half-chewed ring he insists on carrying everywhere.I turn in seconds, watching Kaelen lie on his stomach in the middle of the si







