She stares at me like I’m some magical creature that crawled out from a mystical place instead of the child she left to be raised by her heartbroken mate. After staring for a minute and a few tears, she wipes her hands on her thighs and chuckles nervously. She moves to touch my cheek, but I recoil from her touch. “You are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined,” she whispers.“Who is Waylon?” I say accusatory.She winces at my question, her eyes immediately darting away from mine as she reaches out and grabs my hand, pulling the door open. Elara sticks her head out and tugs me along with her. I hate how her hand in mine is comforting, like a nice cup of tea after hours in the snow warming me from the inside out. I want to hate her, be mad at her for not fighting harder to come back to us, to me. But I’m old enough to know that life is never as easy as making one singular decision. I squeeze her hand, trying to keep my tears at bay. The conflicting emotions are more than I ant

~Sebastian~ I watch Nickolai closely, trying to gauge his thoughts. After our tour with Alpha Alden, I think we are all a little on edge. The guy is clearly an asshole who has zero regards for the mate bond. Which bothers Nickolai more than me. I am more worldly than he is, having been a warrior before officially becoming his shadow. The mate bond is respected everywhere, and everywhere it isn’t respected. You can find chinks in the pack’s defense. That happens when you deny a blessing or betray it. The things you touch slowly crumble and fall apart, or they should. The Black Night pack, however, seems to thrive aside from their slums outside the outer wall. They seem to do well economically and everyone appears relatively happy. Alden refused to let us enter his massive packhouse after his beta Spencer pulled him away for a moment. When he came back, he was fuming and barely talked anymore. He introduced us to his newest gamma, Waylon, though he didn’t mention who he replaced or w

I shove the treaty in the back of my waistband and pull my blouse down over it before adjusting my hair and fixing my makeup. Thanks to the water, I splashed on it. When I open the door, I find Nickolai standing outside of it. He looks exhausted and overly emotional. His eyes meet mine and I can see regret written all over his face as he refuses to come any closer to me. “I’m sorry,” He whispers, his gaze still locked with mine. “I didn’t mean for it to go this far.” I offer him a sad smile. I don’t know what to say. He is feeling guilty and I’m the one who compromised him to steal something beyond important to his pack and their way of life. But as much as I like Nickolai, I have to choose my family, my rebels who need me. We need the protection he is trying to guarantee for his pack. And this treaty is the first step in acquiring that. “You going to go then?” He asks. He drops his eyes to my feet where my shoes are on my feet. I can’t help myself, he looks so sad and puppy-like, s

“Ring the doorbell again?” Nickolai asks, his finger already reaching out to push the tiny button. One of the double doors swings open and a nice-looking woman answers the door. Her skin is so pale that I wonder if she has ever seen the sun, but her eyes, her hazel eyes, look so familiar. The moment she sees us, her eyes go wide, and she nervously wipes her hands on her apron. “Alpha.” She says, turning to Nickolai. “I wasn’t aware that we were expecting you.” I quirk a brow. Side eyeing Nickolai, who stands there staring at her, more like gaping at her. “We were told the meeting for the peace treaty was moved to right now,” I say, speaking for Nickolai, who clears his throat and straightens his back. “Uh… I see. Give me one moment to verify and see where I should take you.” And then the door shuts in our face and we turn to look at each other. After a few moments in silence, the door swings back open and a red-faced Spencer stands before us. “I am so sorry about Elara’s rudenes

Sebastian clears his throat, his eyes staying locked on mine like a true gentleman, not trying to take a peek. I’m not sure if I’m impressed or offended by his lack of perusal of my naked body, but either way, I drop to the ground and grab my towel, clutching it to my chest. I try to swallow down my embarrassment with the reminder that he didn’t see any of me, but again, the thought crosses my mind that maybe I want him to be attracted to me. “Get dressed. We have some things to discuss.” He grumbles as he turns his back to me, affording me a small semblance of privacy to change. Unfortunately, my room is tiny and Sebastian is the size of a monument erected to praise someone in a park which means that he is, of course, directly next to where all my clothing lies, not by choice mind you, merely because there is literally nowhere else for his massive body to be. I stomp my way to his side and yank my drawers open, grabbing the first items I can get my hands up before slamming it clos