جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 48

Logan's POVNinety-nine.I counted the blows in my head because it was the only way to stay conscious. The leather strap cracked across my back again, and I bit down on the scream, tasting copper and rage.One hundred.I blocked the pain, trying to breathe through it, trying to remember that I had earned this. I had lost control of the situation and killed members from my own park. I had lost control. And control was the only thing that separated me from the animal my father thought I was."Father," Lucas's voice cut through the haze, sharp and desperate. "It's enough. You'll kill him."The strap paused. I hung from my wrists, my knees barely touching the stone floor of the east wing cellar, my blood dripping into the grout between the tiles. I didn't make a sound. I never made a sound."How will he learn?" Vincent's voice was cold, measured, the voice of an Alpha who had never once lost his temper in public. "He is the future. He needs to be perfect.""He got her out alive," Lucas

Aurora's POVWhen I got back to the estate, I went straight to the kitchen and pulled a piece of bread from the fridge. I didn't even bother with a plate. I just stood there in the empty room, chewing without tasting it, staring at the marble island, chewing like a mountain goat.I swallowed hard. He was back.After a week of nothing. I told myself I didn't care if he was back or not. I told myself I was relieved, actually, because now Lucas could be my bodyguard again, and everything would be warm and easy and uncomplicated.I was a liar.I threw the rest of the bread in the trash and ran upstairs, my heart beating hard for no reason. I changed into soft shorts and an oversized shirt, grabbed a book from the shelf, and curled up in bed.The words blurred. I read the same paragraph four times. My ears were tuned to the hallway, waiting for footsteps, waiting for the sound of a door opening and closing three feet from mine.Nothing.I fell asleep with the book open on my chest and the

Lucielle's POVI watched Aurora all day.She sat two rows ahead of me in Political Science, and I didn't need to see her face to know something was wrong. Her shoulders were too stiff. Her silver hair, usually catching the light like wire, looked dull, pulled back in a messy bun that she hadn't bothered to smooth. When the professor called on her, she answered in a monotone, her voice hollowed out.She was pale and tired. The kind of tiredness that sleep doesn't fix.I felt my heart move with worry for her … a small, frightened squeeze in my chest. But I didn't know what to do. I never knew what to do. I was the girl who watched from corners, who passed notes instead of speaking, who hid behind my silence. I couldn't march up to Aurora and demand she tell me what was draining the colour from her cheeks.So I sat. And I watched. And I worried with my hands white on my bag strap.After the last bell rang, Aurora found us by the lockers. She looked worse up close … there was a tremor

Logan POV "Where have you been, Briane?" Lucas asked him the moment he sat down.Briane dropped into the leather chair, windblown and unbothered, and shrugged one shoulder. "Sorry, I'm late. I had something to attend to."Lucas leaned back, swirling the amber liquid in his glass, his grey eyes narrowing with something too sharp to be simple irritation. "Uhmm, you always have something to attend to recently."The bar around us was dim and close, all dark wood and the sour smell of spilled beer. This was the kind of place where pack business got discussed in corners, and fights started over nothing. I didn't want to be here. I didn’t like drinking mindlessly or just hanging out randomly. I wanted to be with her right now. I want to train with her. I want to see her smile when she manages to do something I taught her. I want to see her excitement, her will to try and never give up. The way she bites her tongue and tucks her hair up when things start getting serious.Or maybe I should a