Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 60

Trixie's POVWe told our parents on a Thursday evening, the four of us gathered around the kitchen table like we were about to discuss something as ordinary as a school schedule instead of a plot that might get someone killed before it was over.The apartment felt smaller than usual with all of us crowded around that same worn table, mugs of tea going cold as the conversation stretched longer than any of us had expected. Outside, the evening had settled into full darkness, streetlights flickering on one by one down our block. Yasmine started, steadier than I expected given how much of this had originated with her own mistake in trusting Hugo in the first place. She'd rehearsed her opening line in the mirror that afternoon, she'd told me quietly beforehand, terrified of breaking down before she even finished explaining the danger we were all walking toward together."There's something you need to know about the gathering next week," she said, hands folded tightly in her lap. "About Hug

Trixie's POVI found Elder Corwin at the small shrine near the edge of pack territory, the same place Harlan mentioned he sometimes went to think when the weight of being an Alpha's heir got heavier than usual.The shrine itself was smaller than I expected, weathered stone worn smooth by decades of quiet visitors, tucked into a clearing surrounded by trees old enough to have watched generations of this pack come and go. I hesitated at the edge of it, unsure whether I was welcome in a space that clearly meant something sacred to people who'd grown up understanding its significance."I wondered when you'd come find me yourself," he said, without turning around, his pale eyes fixed on the modest stone altar in front of him. "Harlan told you what I shared with him. I assumed you'd have questions of your own eventually.""I have a lot of questions." I stepped closer, careful of the reverence the space seemed to demand even from someone who didn't fully understand its significance yet, boot

Trixie's POVSix days until the gathering, and somehow I was starting my morning with a stranger parked outside my building instead of coffee.My father was already at the window when I came downstairs, coffee cooling forgotten in his hand while he watched the street with the kind of attention that used to be reserved for storm warnings. He didn't say anything when he saw me looking, just nodded toward the car parked across from our building, like the sight of an armed stranger keeping watch over his daughter was simply the world we lived in now."He's one of Harlan's father's best," he said finally, something in his voice carrying both relief and a grief he'd probably carry for the rest of his life, the particular ache of a man who'd learned the hard way that love alone had never been enough to keep his family safe. "Let him do his job, Trixie.""I will," I said, and meant it, even if every instinct I owned still bristled at the idea of being watched.He introduced himself as Wes onc

Trixie's POVFive days until the gathering, and I spent the first twenty minutes of it lying awake running through every version of Darius Vale's face I could still remember, dulled by time but never quite gone, the particular calm he'd worn while everything my family had built once turned to smoke and ash behind him.I found my father already awake when I finally gave up on sleep, sitting at the kitchen table with two cups of coffee like he'd known I was coming."Harlan called you." It wasn't really a question. Something in the set of my father's shoulders told me he'd already spent half the night with this same information sitting heavy in his own chest."Ahead of you, actually. Wanted us to hear it from someone who cared enough to soften it first." He pushed the second cup toward me, and I wrapped both hands around it, grateful for something warm to hold onto besides my own spiraling thoughts. "How are you doing with it?""Honestly? I don't know yet." I took a sip, buying myself a

Trixie's POVThree days until the gathering, and my forearms had finally stopped aching quite so much by the time Declan decided I'd earned an actual sparring partner instead of just running drills against his patient, unbothered resistance every morning."Someone requested this specifically," he said, nodding toward the training grounds' entrance without further explanation, the kind of deliberate vagueness I was starting to recognize as entirely intentional where he was concerned.Yasmine walked in wearing gear I hadn't seen on her before, hair already braided back tight and businesslike, an expression on her face that told me she'd rehearsed whatever she was about to say at least a dozen times on the drive over."You're training now too?" I asked, equal parts surprised and something warmer I didn't quite have a name for yet."I asked Declan yesterday." She dropped her bag beside mine, not quite meeting my eyes. "Figured if you were going to be stubborn enough to learn how to protec