Aurora’s POV“Mummy, what’s going on?” Sammy asked as I bundled him into his car seat.As promised, Zoe had arranged for an Omega to park a rental out here for me. She’d given me the key last night before she’d left. I’d barely glanced at it, and it was a shock to me to see that my borrowed car was a sleek, matte grey G Wagon. It was practical for Sammy and I, sturdy enough to traverse the country roads surrounding the Eternal Bonds Pack yet not too big for driving around Midnight City, but it was more expensive than every car I’d ever had combined.There was no doubt that it was for me, though. Someone had stuck a note under the windscreen wiper, with my fake name written in fancy script across it; inside was a quick introduction to the car, telling me where the fuel cap was, the start button, and a reminder to keep any gas receipts as the pack would reimburse me for my petrol costs. “I just think it would be better if you came to work with me today,” I said, worrying my bottom lip

Aurora’s POV“Maybe,” Zoe said, looking at me with so much worry in her familiar eyes that I couldn’t believe she’d ever deceive me, “you’re exhausted, worried, and seeing things that aren’t really there. You’re terrified of bumping into Selene. That fear, combined with your late night, travelling here, seeing Ethan…” She trailed off, but she didn’t need to keep listing my worries. “I get it. You think I’m hallucinating.”“Not exactly. I think you did probably see a blonde woman, maybe even one with green eyes, but not Selene. I mean, she’s not in Midnight City.” She shrugged, and then she looked at me, really looked at me, and her arms went limp at her sides. “Are you okay, Rory?” she whispered.My skin prickled. I wanted to just come out and ask her for the truth. It felt wrong, keeping secrets from her – even if I was sure she was keeping more than a vague, creeping suspicion from me.She took a half-step towards me, the movement more timid than any I’d ever seen from her before,

Aurora’s POVInwardly, I berated myself for my stupidity while, outwardly, I stammered out an explanation.“It was years ago,” I babbled, “but I’ve never been able to drink anything I didn’t make since. It was cyanide,” I wanted to wince at my idiocy but didn’t dare, “but, luckily for me, I was at work, and I had an antidote nearby…”“Oh my god,” he breathed, his hands hovering near me, like he wanted to help but couldn’t for the life of him figure out how. “That’s awful, Aria. I’m so sorry. If I’d known…”“You weren’t to know. How could you?” Before he could answer that, I added, “Anyway, it was nothing to do with you. I didn’t want you to see.”“Of course.” He nodded, but there was something in his eyes that looked hesitant, like he didn’t quite trust me. I’d not exactly given him a lot of reasons to, but I couldn’t stand being around him any longer than I absolutely had to be. “Did they catch the bastard that did it?”“Yes. He’s serving a life sentence.” Wait, no, what if Ethan loo

Ethan’s POVI headed out to the training grounds. I tried to ground myself, to focus on the slap of the ground beneath my soles, and blood buzzing in my ears, but all I could hear was her.Aria’s voice echoed through my head. Each knock of her words against my skull hurt more than the last. “I think you’d better leave.” She’d sounded so cold, so firm. I wasn’t used to people talking to me like that.Nobody else dared to talk to Alpha Ethan Savage so bluntly. Even their disagreements were packaged in flowery nonsense to soften the sting of their disapproval. But Aria? She’d cut straight through the bullshit. She’d even glared at me until I’d left, tail between my legs. And what was that about? I was an Alpha. I didn’t feel ashamed. If it had been anyone else, I would’ve told her where to stick it.Why did Aria have such a hold over me?‘You like her,’ teased Sterling.I ignored him – pointedly – and rolled my shirt sleeves up. Eternal Bonds’ training grounds were, in my personal and v

Zoe’s POVI didn’t know why I lied to Aurora. It just came out. She looked so crestfallen over my dallying with Ethan that I had to soothe the ache somehow.So maybe I did know why I lied. It didn’t make doing it any easier.But looking at her now, I knew I could never tell her the truth about us. The real truth.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Aurora’s POV“He what?” I gaped at her, sure I’d heard her wrong. Ethan had left me for Selene. Now he regretted that?Good. He deserved to hurt after everything he’d put me through. Grim satisfaction swept through me. “He loved Selene, before you. When you… left, and he married her, he realised she was nothing compared to you.” Zoe seemed to find her stride; now she’d opened up, it all seemed to spill out of her. “She wasn’t the woman he remembered her to be. You, though? You’d never tried to be anything you weren’t.”“So – what? He’s gone off her because she tries to b