LOGINLana's POVI forgot he was a wolf and not just a wolf but Ronan's brother. The scent would definitely give it away even if anything else didn't. Bastien’s question hung between us, a landmine I’d tripped with my clumsy lie, stupid lie. His eyes, usually so warm and trusting, were sharp with a hurt that cut deeper than anger.My mind raced. Denial was pointless. He knew. He’d smelled the truth, literally and figuratively. A better lie, a believable one, was my only shield.I let my shoulders slump, injecting a tremor into my voice. “He… he showed up. I didn’t let him in. He was at the door. He said he was just checking the perimeter, that with the Witch still out there, he needed to verify our security himself.” I wrapped my arms around myself, a picture of rattled vulnerability. “He was gone in two minutes. I was going to tell you, but you looked so tired when you came in, and I didn’t want to worry you over something that was nothing. It just… shook me up.”I watched his face, search
Ronan's POVShe was gone, just like that and not even leaving a trace of her behind. It was infuriating in many. The silence she left behind was filled with a thousand ghosts as her scent lingered in the halls and every damn corner I turned. The echo of her laugh, the memory of her footfall on the stair, the indent of her body on the other side of my bed were all weapons now, tearing at the cold, hard shell I was trying to forge.I threw myself into work. It was the only engine that could run on the fuel of my anger. Patrol schedules were tripled. Training regimens became brutal, unforathing marathons that left even seasoned warriors vomiting in the dirt. I reviewed every border treaty, every alliance, with a nit-picking, hostile scrutiny. Delegations from neighboring packs left with their tails between their legs, insulted by my cold, dismissive tone.The pack walked on glass. They had wanted their unbreakable Alpha back? They were getting him, forged in the fires of a bitterness so
Lana's POVI woke to the smell of coffee and the unfamiliar feeling of sun warming my face. For a disorienting second, my heart lurched, expecting the grey stone walls of the compound, or the heavy, familiar wood of the Lancaster bedroom. Then it settled: cream-colored walls, the soft sigh of central air, the distant hum of a city waking up twenty floors below.Bastien’s luxury apartment. Our new life.I padded out to the open-plan living area. Bastien stood at the stainless-steel kitchen island, a giant looking absurdly delicate holding a French press. He was wearing sweatpants and a simple grey t-shirt that strained over his shoulders. The sight was so disarmingly normal it made my chest ache.“You’re supposed to be sleeping in,” he rumbled, pouring a mug of inky coffee and sliding it toward me. “City’s noisy. Took me half the night to get used to it.”“It’s a good noise,” I said, wrapping my hands around the warm mug. It was the noise of anonymity. “Thank you. For this.”He shrugge
Ronan's POVThe sound of Finn’s voice, low and venomous in the hallway, was the final straw. He caused all of this so he had absolutely no right to feel wronged.I was out of the study and down the hall before the thought fully formed. I turned the corner to see him crowding her against the wall, his posture aggressive, his words a sharp, quiet assault. She looked exhausted, hollowed out, but her chin was still lifted in that defiant way that once made my heart swell and now made it feel like it was being crushed in a vise.“Enough,” I said, my voice cutting through the tension like a blade.They both flinched, turning. Finn’s eyes flashed with a mix of guilt and defiance. Lana’s were just… weary.“Alpha, I was just,”“I heard what you were just doing,” I interrupted, my tone leaving no room for argument. I walked forward, inserting myself physically between them, forcing Finn to take a step back. I kept my back to Lana. I couldn’t look at her. Not now. “She made her choice. Bastien m
Lana's POVI let the words simmer.“You are not leaving my territory with him,” he stated, each word a law etched in stone.A strange calm settled over me. This was the reaction I’d expected. This was the Alpha who couldn’t conceive of losing. “You don’t have a say in it, Ronan. We had a deal. A week to choose. I chose. The terms were clear: if I chose someone else, I could leave with them. You agreed.”“I agreed to a farce to placate you and my traitorous brothers!” he snarled.“I did not agree to you walking out of my life!”“You don’t get to rewrite the rules now that you’ve lost,” I said, my voice steady even as my heart battered my ribs. “This isn’t a challenge you can dominate into submission. This is the consequence of your own actions. Of the secrets, the pressure, the wars you dragged me into without my consent. And it’s the consequence of everyone in this house telling me the best thing I could do for you was to let you go.” I took a shallow breath. “So I’m letting go. We’re
Lana's POVEveryone was quiet for what felt like an eternity even if it was only just a few seconds.Then, Ronan made a sound. It was a low, wounded noise from deep in his chest, the sound of an animal mortally struck. The fire in his eyes didn’t just die; it was extinguished by an avalanche of pure, utter devastation. He took a single, stumbling step back.Finn’s face went blank, a perfect mask of military neutrality, but his knuckles were white where they gripped the arm of the chair.Bastien… Bastien looked shocked. Then, slowly, a profound, heartbreaking understanding dawned in his eyes. He wasn’t seeing victory. He was seeing a duty he’d promised to fulfill.I forced myself to speak into the void, my voice trembling but clear. “Ronan… Finn… I’m sorry. This isn’t a rejection of who you are. It’s a choice for what I need right now. And I have my reasons.”“Reasons,” Ronan echoed, the word a hollow rasp. “What reasons? What could possibly,”He was cut off as Bastien pushed himself o







