I swallow hard when I notice how close Milo's mouth is to mine. “I-I should get to bed, Milo. I have to be up early. I wasn’t able to get morning drills planned.” “Maybe when you wake up, it’ll be done for you.” He lets his lips brush against the corner of my mouth. “Like magic.” “Milo…” His lips trace over my cheek while he breathes in my scent, sending shivers up my spine. What was I going to say? Does it matter? “Are you scared of me, Lenora?” His hands caress my hips with fingers that feel like feathers. “I’m not scared of anything.” When did I wrap my legs around him? “What if I tell you I get a little… bitey when I get excited?” Milo nuzzles my cheek and chomps his sharp teeth. His voice is deeper and scratchy, and his fingers have razor-like claws against my hips. “Would that scare you?” “Ghost, if you try to mark me, we’re going to have a problem.” I whisper in his ear. “You don’t want me to mark you?” “Not until our marriage ceremony.” I lean back and gaze into his d

—Current Day— “You’re suggesting we just… sneak out?” I set the dumbbells down and look at my friends. “You’re fucking with me, right?” “Technically, we can do whatever we want. We’re not prisoners and we aren’t acting ranked wolves yet. Bronx is the only one who isn’t supposed to leave pack territory.” Reggie explains. “We’ve been cooped up in the packhouse for a month except for the supervised wolf runs. We need your help, because you know the best paths through the territory to avoid being caught by guards who think we should be in bed by nine p.m.” “Archie says it’s gonna be a good time.” Marco raises his eyebrow. “Katsh is back from the war, too. Maybe I can get in on that.” “You’re sure Dina and Ryuu are the ones still running shit?” I look around, but we’re the only ones in this corner. “Yeah, Hector said he’s gone a couple times to watch. The crowd is rougher… a lot more dark creatures.” Reggie lowers his voice. “If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to get intel on Sin’s locatio

Lenora’s POV “Luna, we need you at the front gate.” A guard knocks on my office door. “It’s urgent.” I look up at the clock. It’s almost midnight. Why the Hell do they need me to go to the gate? “Urgent?” I close my laptop and go to the door. “What happened?” “There’s four uniformed Council warriors asking for entry. They have, um, prisoners?” The guard looks like he’s not too sure about the word prisoners. “Council warriors?” I furrow my brow. “Do you know why they’re in our jurisdiction? They’re bringing rogues they caught?” “N-no, Luna,” he stammers while I close and lock my office door, “not rogues. They have the Beta, Marco Sanchez, and Arnie Ikeda.” I stop on the spot. “Excuse me?” “Leni? Sugar, I’m sure you’re mad, but please don’t be mad.” Milo’s voice comes through a mindlink. “This entire thing is bullshit. I swear.” “Milo, what the Hell happened?” “Is Randall there yet?” “Randall?” I stop again. “No, why would he be here?” “These dipshits let it slip that he’s o

“Traitor?! Randall, your wolf literally attacked Justice on our own territory and you’re going to stand here and call ME a traitor?” I’m trying to hold my temper, but my grip is getting weak. “Since I became Luna I have accommodated every single one of your requests from the mundane to the ridiculous. I have complied with every stupid, fake, pompous order you mandated. You haven’t found a single flaw in our operations, because there are none. Blood River has done exactly what the Council has requested every time we’re asked. And for what? To be chastised by you? To be accused of treason?! I would say I’m insulted, but that would be a gross understatement.”“She’s deflecting from the fact that she could have killed Basalt! She held him down until guards came to my rescue.” He snarls in return. “We need to start with the head of this pack to cut out the poison. Lenora needs to be removed as Luna and the Blood River pack needs to be seized by the Council immediately. Bronx Mason needs to

Milo’s POV—Flashback—One day, I wanna own a flower shop so I can give Mom flowers all the time. Fancy ones like Dad gets for her. I’m only ten, though. I gotta be older and have money for that, though. It only takes twenty minutes to get to the top of the mountain where the meadow is. I’ll get her flowers from there for now.Today is like a movie. The sky is so blue, and the air is like… it’s like when the teacher lets us go outside for recess. Like that. Oh waaaooooowwww!!! Check it out! The meadow is so pretty! There're red flowers and yellow and orange, purple and pink too. There are, like, millions of them! And a girl? I squint my eyes. Yeah. A girl, sitting in the middle of the field. I sniff the air. I can’t tell what she smells like.“Hello?” I yell at her. Her hair looks more red when the sun shines on it. She has blue eyes and as many freckles as the meadow has flowers. Her nose is kinda pointy and her mouth is dirty from eating wild berries. At first, she looks happy, bu