Amelia’s POV‘I know who poisoned you. It was the Omega, Rhiannon.’‘I – I’m sorry?’ I pursed my lips and blinked at nothing. I was exhausted from travelling and from playing nice with my parents all day, and now – this?I simply could not fathom it. Why on earth would she want to poison me? It didn’t make any sense.‘I’m sorry, Ames– Amelia.’ Kieran cleared his throat. ‘I didn’t want to tell you like this, I wanted to tell you in person. I…’‘Stop waffling on, Kieran.’ I glanced over nervously at Cal, who was thumbing through a well-read copy of The Beta’s Daughter that I’d left on my childhood nightstand and pulling amused faces at it. ‘I’ll come and meet you,’ I whispered, even though it made no odds to Caleb. He couldn’t hear my mindlink to Kieran – though he could feel every emotion Kieran’s words were making me feel.“Everything okay?” Caleb asked, dog-earing a page of my book and resting it flat across his knees, which made me wince.“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.” I couldn’t mak

Caleb’s POV“What the hell do you mean?” I stared at her like she’d grown another head.Amelia put her hands on her hips, as if this was all so obvious and I was an idiot for not being able to keep up. “Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do. Or maybe you simply don’t know her at all.” Her expression hardened. “Was it worth it, Caleb? Risking everything we’ve worked for, just for some Omega with her fingers in my things?”A muscle flexed in my jaw. Did she know Rhiannon had stolen from her, too? And did that mean she knew that I’d let her? I decided it was safest to change tack. “Why didn’t you ever tell me that you had a true mate?”“What good would it have done?” she hissed. “Now you’re looking at me like you pity me, and I am not a woman who likes to be pitied. It doesn’t change anything, Caleb.”The stab of disappointment I felt at that was so, so wrong. This was fucked up. Hell, I was fucked up.“Kieran is staying here. You’ll never have to deal with him again. Bes

Caleb’s POVThe first thing I did when I got home was go straight to the medical centre. Every fibre of my stupid heart wanted to go to Rhiannon, to make sure she was okay in the wake of all this, but I forced it to shut the fuck up. She was probably the cause of all this, not a victim of its trauma.As he’d said he would, Kieran had remained in the Moon Chasm pack. I couldn’t say I was too sorry to see him go. Now I knew the truth, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. He was so obvious, with his puppy-eyed pining looks and the eager way he always offered to work when Amelia was involved.It was better that he was gone. That was one mate issue down… and one to go.Harley’s cropped black hair was splayed up across the starchy white pillow. She rolled her head towards me, her eyes heavy-lidded. She’d taken the studs and rings in her ears out and didn’t look like herself; her olive skin was wan and the usual glint of daring amusement in her honey-coloured eyes was gone.An image o

Caleb’s POV“Come in, Rhiannon.” My hands were trembling. I shoved them under my desk and set my face in a cool mask, wanting to give away nothing when she entered. Rhiannon didn’t seem bothered by our time apart at all – she’d marched down the hallway outside like she owned it and hadn’t hesitated even a second before she’d knocked. The girl had balls bigger than any Alpha I’d ever met, I had to give her that.My heart was still thumping away, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. Taking a deep breath, I sat tall and waited as the door swung open.Fuck, she was beautiful. I gaped at her for a moment, my thoughts getting more scrambled than a damned egg at breakfast as she lifted her chin and met my gaze with impenetrable grey eyes. The creased leather jacket she wore hung off her, despite her tall, broad-shouldered frame; paired with her nose ring, eyeliner, and slick braids, she looked like the sort of badass I wouldn’t want to mess with if I met her in an alley at night. Or

Caleb’s POVMy dick wouldn’t go down. I crossed my legs, winced, and smoothed out my expression before Rhiannon could notice anything was wrong. But fuck – it was so, so wrong. Everything was seriously messed up but, as I looked at her, her lips and cheeks flushed, her eyelids heavy, her sharp-as-all-hell eyeliner smudged, I didn’t want to make it right.She’d dropped her cool, unbothered demeanour. This was one of those rare moments where I felt like I was getting to see beneath her sarcastic façade. I’d barely seen it before and, as much as I hated that she’d thought she’d seen something and split our kiss apart, part of me was glad.Because oh, goddess, this went deeper than attraction or even lust. The mate bond was in me, everywhere, telling me that after we’d sated our more carnal needs we’d lie together, tangled on the bed, the desk, hell, in the snow, and just talk. About everything. There would be endless nights and days to fill with learning, with filling in the gaps between