*Vanessa*“I can’t believe you actually took in the Helbane defectors,” I say, running my hand across Shawn’s forearm. Lying cocooned against his body, I feel so at peace. We slipped away from the party again, wanting to catch up on everything that happened over the last few days, but we were so exhausted that we ended up just falling asleep wrapped up in each other. The mutual confession we shared seems to have altered something between us. We’re closer than we were before, without hesitation on my end. And Shawn hasn’t made a secret of how grateful he is for the opportunity to love me out loud. “I was never going to exile or execute the entire pack.” He catches my hand in his and twines his fingers with mine playfully. “It wouldn’t be fair. I could tell that not everyone was following Trent willingly, or even necessarily agreed with his politics.”I pause, thinking back to the conversations I had with Trent and Ramona. I hadn’t really gone into much detail about

*Vanessa*“No.” I look at Shawn, blinking in surprise at his sudden outburst. His mouth is pressed in a tight line, his eyes hard.“I understand your concern, young man, but this isn’t exactly a debatable topic,” Elder Luka says, neither offended by his brash response nor intimidated enough to refrain from calling him outside of his title. “Unless you’re not serious about making Vanessa your mate.”From anyone else, their words might sound belittling. But something tells me that Elder Luka is not on the same wavelength as the other Elders in the pack who would never dare talk to him like that. I’d always thought there was something almost mystical about them, something ancient. Even Shawn himself noticed when we spoke about them the last time. He joked about his father being scared of them too. He doesn’t look scared now though, having immediately dismissed their suggestion as swiftly as he did. And knowing what I do about quests to the temple, I can understand why

*Vanessa*It’s the dawn beginning to seep into the apartment that eventually wakes me. Shawn is still asleep, one arm slung protectively over me. I slip out from under the warmth of his body as carefully as I can, determined not to wake him. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to maintain my resolve if he wakes up and tries one last time to convince me to stay. As I get dressed silently, I watch him. He’s beautiful, with his dark hair falling over his forehead in waves, his thick black lashes that brush his cheeks, and the tattooed contrast of the dark ink against his tanned skin. I watch his body rise and fall gently with his breaths as he sleeps in my sheets. I definitely would struggle to resist his pleas for me to stay if he had to get up now. But I don’t want him to wake up completely alone. I find a notepad and pen and scribble out a message for him, then tear out the page, fold it, and leave it on my pillow beside him. I look at him one last tim

*Vanessa*I’m in utter disbelief even as my eyes take her in. She looks like the marble carving come to life. Her skin is warm and her hair is silver and floor-length, brushing against her ankles. Her eyes are silver too, without pupils, darkly lined and accented sidelong with markings I can’t recognize. She reminds me of Elder Luka in her youthful agelessness, features graceful and perfect. But she transcends even the Elder’s ethereal nature. The image of her flickers like a mirage transposed over the marble statue. The sight is both frightening and beyond our realm of beauty. But it’s the benevolent look on her face that causes a tear to roll down my cheek, the softness in her powerful voice that causes indescribable emotion to well up inside me. “Why do you weep, Vanessa?” she asks again, sounding both authoritative and comforting. I wipe at my cheek, scrambling until I’m on my knees so I can bow before her. “There’s no need for that, child,”

*Shawn*When I woke up alone after our night together, it felt like my world shattered. I ran out immediately to try and find Vanessa, but Amara let me know that she was already gone. I understood why she did it, in retrospect. If she felt even half as lost as I did in the days she was gone, I could imagine that enough begging from me might’ve changed her mind. But Vanessa needed to do this. As much as I hated to admit it, as much as the knowledge that she was outside of my protection killed me, I knew that she needed to realize the extent of her own strength if she was ever going to be Luna. She had the intelligence, the grit and the heart of a leader. But she lacked confidence. She allowed her past to stall her progress for so long that it still held a vice around her potential.But the Vanessa that I saw coming over that horizon was changed. I could tell, even just from one look at her. It filled me with a pride that I couldn’t truly express, not wi