LOGINAriana's POVKade moved fast. He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the study door. His grip was firm but not rough. I stumbled after him down the corridor.We passed the kitchen. We climbed the stairs in silence. My legs felt heavy. Every step hurt.He led me straight to his room. The door clicked shut behind us. The familiar space felt different now. I yanked my arm free the second we were inside. Anger boiled up hot and fast. "How could you?" I shouted. My voice cracked. "I trusted you, Kade. I came back here thinking this was home."He stood by the door. His shirt was still half-buttoned. Hair messy from her fingers. "Ariana, listen—""No, you listen!" I stepped closer as my hands shook. "You were fucking her right there on your desk. Moaning into her neck like she mattered. And it had to be her? Of all people?"Tears burned my eyes. I blinked them back hard. "She made my life hell in my old pack. Her father was the Alpha. He let her torment me every single day. She spread li
Ariana's POVMy feet moved before my brain caught up. I set the glass down on a side table. The cool wood felt solid under my fingers. I needed to know.I walked back down the corridor. Each step was quiet on the thick rug. My heart pounded hard in my chest.The study door stood closed. A thin line of light showed under it. The sounds grew louder and clearer.A woman's moan cut through the air. It was raw and needy. "Yes, Kade. Harder."I reached for the knob. My hand shook a little. I turned it slowly and pushed the door open.The scene hit me like a slap.Kade was on top of a woman on his big desk. Papers and books lay scattered on the floor. He thrust into her deep and steady. His hips moved with power. Sweat gleamed on his bare back.The woman lay under him. Her legs wrapped tight around his waist. She arched up to meet every push. Her nails dug into his shoulders. Moans spilled from her lips without shame."Fuck, you feel so good," Kade growled low. His voice was rough with lust.
Ariana's POVThe pack house had a specific silence at midnight.Not empty, but settled, the particular quiet of a building that had exhaled after a long day and was finally still. Floorboards that creaked during daylight hours seemed to hold their breath. The heating system ticked at longer intervals. Even the air felt different, thicker, slower.Insomnia was a side effect nobody mentioned when they told you about cancer. The treatment fatigue that made your body desperate for rest while your mind refused to cooperate, running its familiar circuits long after the rest of the world had gone dark. I'd gotten good at navigating the house in the small hours.I pulled on a cardigan over my sleep clothes and went downstairs.---The kitchen was exactly as I'd left it after dinner.Clean counters, the low light above the stove left on the way Marcus always left it, the particular smell of a kitchen that had fed a lot of people and was resting between meals. I filled a glass from the tap and
Ariana's POVIt started small enough that I almost convinced myself I was imagining it.Kade missing dinner on a Tuesday. Kane leaving before breakfast on a Wednesday. Both of them present in the pack house but somehow unreachable, the way a person could be in the same room as you and still feel like they were somewhere else entirely.By the end of the first week I'd stopped convincing myself.---The pattern was consistent enough to have structure.Kade left early. Returned late, sometimes not at all, on three separate nights his bedroom door stayed open and dark and I knew without checking that the bed hadn't been slept in. When he was home he was on his phone, or in his office with the door mostly closed, or deep in conversation with Marcus or someone I didn't recognize, voices dropping whenever I passed in the corridor.He wasn't avoiding me exactly. He spoke when I spoke to him. He asked if I'd eaten, if I'd slept, if my energy levels were holding. All the right questions delive
Ariana's POVThe pack house looked exactly the same.Same warm light through the ground floor windows, same stone steps, same heavy front door that always caught slightly on the left side if you didn't lift the handle. I stood outside it for three seconds after the car stopped and let the familiarity of it settle over me like the linen Morgana had placed around my shoulders.Everything seem normal.I went inside and went to bed and didn't ask Kade anything that night because some conversations needed daylight and I needed sleep more than I needed answers.---Morning arrived grey and quiet.I found Kade in the kitchen before anyone else was up — earlier than usual, his coffee was already made, standing at the counter reading something on his tablet.He looked up when I entered. Something moved through his expression and was controlled before it fully arrived."Morning," he said."You said you'd tell me." I pulled out a chair and sat down without preamble because I was tired and sore
Ariana's POVI knew Kade's body just like the back of my hand. Not only romantically but the way you learned to read a sky after enough time spent underneath it. The set of his shoulders when he was managing something difficult. The particular stillness that settled over him when he'd already decided something but was waiting for the room to catch up. The way his jaw shifted by a fraction when he was holding back the version of himself that didn't have to be careful.He was holding back right now.Standing by the window with his hand dropped from the frame, watching me with the controlled patience of a man who had made his case and refused to press it further because pressing it would mean admitting how much the answer mattered.That restraint cost him something. I could see exactly how much.I looked at Morgana.She sat with the unhurried composure. Her dark eyes were steady on mine, carrying no urgency, and pressure held out like a door that would stay unlocked regardless of when I
Ariana POVDr. Morrison returned twenty minutes later, her expression even graver than before.She sat down across from me, her hands folded on the desk. "I'm sorry for the interruption. But we need to talk about your results.""Please," I whispered. "Just tell me."She pulled up the scan images o
Lydia moved closer, her wolf visible in her eyes. "You know what I think? I think if you disappeared, if you just vanished into the forest and never came back, they'd be relieved. No more complications. No more dividing the pack. They could go back to finding a real mate instead of playing house wi
Ariana's POVMarcus took a deep breath, his expression grave. "When human women have sex with Kade and Kane constantly, their health deteriorates."My heart stopped. "What do you mean deteriorates?""The twins' curse, their alpha power, whatever you want to call it, it's too much for normal human b
"Just make me forget," I whispered instead. "Please. Make me forget everything but this." They exchanged one of their looks, some silent communication passing between them. Then Kade was moving, positioning himself at my entrance while Kane's hand found my throat, not squeezing but possessive. "







