ADAN STONE. I watched as, group by group, Lucy transported our warriors to their assigned borders. And after the last group was gone, I gave her a nod and transported my body immediately with both Collin and Blade, who were holding onto my shoulders, which no longer bothered me at all. In an instant, we were sucked into limbo, and our feet dropped onto the dusty ground of the plaza. We heard gasps and growls from a few of Ethan’s men around us, but what caught my attention was the blubbering sounds that escaped the throat of the male tied up in a post with his body badly beaten. "Alpha…" Dalton’s voice broke as his whole body shook from his sobs when he realized it was Blade that appeared in front of him. He was completely naked, covered in blood, and had cuts and bruises from the beating. His eyes and lips were swollen, but he was tilting his head up to look at his Alpha in the eye. Blade was trying to keep himself from shaking, but I could feel anger surging up from his aura.

LUCY. "Are we going to be under Alpha Stone now?" "I believe you have a rightful Alpha who will take over your pack," I answered as I walked toward them. "Alpha Fabian is dead, and so is his Beta. We don’t know where Gamma Dalton is or if he’s still alive." "Gamma Dalton is alive." "Thank Goddess!" The crowd gasps, mostly out of relief. "Will he be our Alpha since Alpha Stone doesn’t like or want us?" Someone behind her asked. "First, don’t say Alpha Stone doesn’t want you. He will not come here and help you if he doesn’t care about you. Alpha Blade…" I was not able to finish my words when an older female cut me off. "Alpha Blade doesn’t care about us…" "He’s here… It means he cares about you." Silence. "He’s too late. Alpha Fabian is dead." "If he didn’t abandon us, our pack wouldn’t die out. Others won’t leave, and we could still be a strong pack." "He can’t just come back and be our Alpha when we don’t want him anymore." Oh, this is bad. Adan was right — his pack had

LUCY. We stayed for another hour, giving instructions and reminders to the warriors who would stay here, together with Beta Collin. The omegas working in the packhouse had returned and volunteered to prepare food for Blade and the other warriors, which was already a good sign. Most of the pack was already sleeping, but I was sure there would be a big crowd waiting for Blade tomorrow. And as much as Adan wanted to help a brother out, he didn’t want to interfere with Blade or make his presence known, giving the pack the idea to choose him just to spite Blade. After his one-on-one talk with Blade, we prepared ourselves to return to our territory. Blade offered to have us use one of the cars around the packhouse, but Adan declined as we would rather do it by transporting us in a split second as we both missed our son by now. We only took seven warriors with us. Two of them were injured, while the other four would help carry the dead warriors’ bodies, which reminded me that I had to mee

ADAN STONE. The days went by so swiftly. My days following the retrieval of the Silver Crest Pack from Ethan were spent assisting Blade as he slowly built his pack again, but after a week, I left him on his own and began preparing for Lucy’s 21st birthday. She told me she didn’t want a big celebration on her birthday, and although I promised her I would not give her a big one, I wanted her first birthday with me to be memorable. So I invited people who were important to her to celebrate with us. Nothing big. Just a private family dinner at the first restaurant where I took her. I opened the double door without taking my eyes off her. I wanted to be the first one to see if it would make her happy or disappointed that I didn’t keep my promise. But it’s not yet her birthday, so technically I wasn’t breaching any promises, right? Lucy’s eyes widened as her mouth opened the moment she saw the people waiting inside the big dining hall. Mom and Dad with Aiden. Our Beta couple, Collin a

UNDERWORLD. 5 YEARS AFTER. ADAN STONE. "Luther, look here! Attention must be with me." Lucius snapped his fingers multiple times and covered the area where Luther was looking with dark mist so his attention would shift back to his demon uncle. "No!" Luther grunted when the gullaps he was staring at vanished in his peripheral vision before snapping his head back to Lucius, who was standing almost 300 meters away from him. "Ready?" Lucius asked him, a smirk plastered on his face. For some reason, the years didn’t diminish his fascination with his nephew, if anything, it only grew stronger, and I was happy that the fascination went both ways. Luther smiled at him before his eyes blazed red, and soon he was running at full speed before he ascended in the air and he continued springing forward. He was moving up and fast, but after a few meters more, he was already plunging downward. I felt Lucy’s body stiffen beside me, but I just chuckled and watched as Lucious caught our son mid-air