Mag-log inFreya I pulled Ezra away from the bleachers with my hand wrapped tight around his, walking fast enough that he had to jog a little to keep up, and I didn't say anything until we were far enough from the crowd that no one could hear us."Ezra, listen to me," I said, crouching down to his level. "You can't talk to strangers like that. You don't know that man.""He's not a stranger," Ezra said, frowning at me like I had said something ridiculous. "He's your friend. I've seen him before, remember, at the mall and at the apartment. He's cool. I like him. He's like Uncle Ronan."I felt my chest go tight, but I kept my face soft, because the last thing I wanted was for him to think he had done something wrong. He hadn't. He was just a child who liked talking to people, who didn't know what any of it meant."Okay," I said, brushing his hair back. "Just be more careful next time, alright? Come find me first.""Okay, Mommy," he said, already bored of the conversation, his eyes back on the fiel
AlaricA week after the incident at the lobby, I sat behind my desk with the phone against my ear, and on the other end King Bastian Moor of the Moonshade Pack cleared his throat before he spoke again."I heard what my daughter did," Bastian said. "Outside an apartment building, with guards, against a woman and her child. That is not how I raised her and it is not how this alliance is meant to look.""Then you understand my problem," I said. "Because right now your daughter is walking around my territory like she owns it and using your name to back her up.""She does not have my blessing to do any of that," Bastian said, and there was real irritation in his voice now. "I will speak to her myself and I will speak to her hard. If she puts a hand on that woman again, or on the boy, I will pull her out of Blackmoor myself and there will be no alliance left to discuss. I am not going to lose standing with the council over my daughter's temper."I felt myself relax a little. "See that you d
AlaricI drove back to the office with Isabella sitting stiff in the back seat, arms crossed, refusing to look at me, and I let the silence sit between us because I needed the drive to think instead of argue."She provoked me," Isabella finally said, breaking the quiet before we even reached the gate. "You saw how she talks to people. I'm not the only one at fault here."I didn't answer her, my mind stuck on a question that mattered far more than whatever excuse she was building for herself.How did she know where Freya lived.Ronan had spent months keeping Isabella far away from Freya and Ezra, careful about every detail, every name, every scrap of information that could lead anyone from Moonshade to that apartment, and he would never have handed that address to the one person he was actively trying to shield them from.Which meant someone else gave it to her.By the time we reached my office, Isabella had switched from defensive to sulking, dropping into the chair across from my des
FreyaThe entire lobby goes silent under the weight of his voice, so silent I can hear my own pulse pounding in my ears, and the two men holding me let go so fast I nearly stumble forward, catching myself against the edge of the front desk."Release her," Alaric says, and it isn't a request, it's an order that vibrates through the marble under my feet, and the guards step back immediately, hands raised like they're trying to prove they're no longer a threat.Isabella scrambles up off the floor, cradling her wrist, her face twisted with pain and fury in equal measure. "You broke my wrist.""I'll break more than that if you touch her again." Alaric turns on her fully now, his whole body radiating a kind of controlled rage I've never seen directed at anyone but Vivienne. "What the hell gives you the right to bring armed pack members into Blackmoor territory and attack a woman and terrify a child over a handbag.""She attacked me first," Isabella spits, pointing a shaking finger at me. "A
Freya I stop dead in the middle of the lobby, Ezra's hand gripped tight in mine, and pull him half behind me before I even fully register what I'm doing."Can I help you?" I ask, keeping my voice level even though every instinct in my body is screaming at me to turn around and get my son out of this building.Neither man answers. They just stand there, arms crossed, filling the space in front of the elevators like a wall of muscle stuffed into expensive suits refusing to let us pass through, and my mind races through everything I know about Moonshade, about Isabella's father, about the alliance Alaric is supposedly forcing on Ronan and wonder why they are here."This is King Alaric's territory," I say, louder this time, loud enough that a couple crossing the lobby toward the mailboxes stop and turn to stare. "Are you telling me Moonshade is declaring war on Blackmoor by threatening private citizens on his own soil?"Still nothing. My heart is hammering hard enough that I can feel it
Freya "Maybe not," he says, "but I'm going to find out anyway, one way or another."I stare at him, at the way he's standing there like the answer is owed to him just because he wants it, like five years of silence never happened, like he didn't leave me unconscious on the floor and walk right past me without looking back."You won't," I say. "Because there's nothing for you to find. My son is mine, and what I call him, who he calls daddy, none of that has anything to do with you.""He asked permission, Freya. A child doesn't ask permission to use a word he's grown up saying, and that tells me he doesn't have a stable father figure in his life, which is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from my cousin.""It tells you nothing. You don't know him, and you don't know me anymore either, whatever you think you remember.""I remember enough.""You remember a version of me that doesn't exist anymore." My voice comes out harder than I mean it to, but I don't take it back. "The woman you r







