Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

KIAN POV"You want to move my personal security detail around her building without telling me the full reason first."Silas said it flatly, not quite a question, arms folded across his chest in the small hotel room I'd taken two streets from Elira's offices."The Ironfang name doesn't stay quiet for long once it's out," I said. "You know that better than I do.""I know it well enough to ask why you're suddenly so determined to protect a woman who made it very clear three years ago that she wants nothing from you."I didn't have a clean answer for that, so I gave him the honest one instead."Because I let her walk out of that pack alone once already, pregnant and unprotected, and I told myself it was the responsible choice." I sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. "I'm not making that mistake twice, whether she wants my protection or not."Silas studied me for a long moment, something almost gentler than usual behind his eyes."You're in love with her," he said. "Properly. Not just

KIAN POV"You're the tall one."The girl said it like an accusation, arms crossed, standing directly between me and her brother as though she'd appointed herself the family's first line of defence."Wren." Elira's voice held a warning and a laugh both at once. "Manners.""I'm allowed to check," Wren said, not moving an inch. "Mama said you have Rhys's eyes. I need to see for myself."I crouched down slowly, so I wasn't looming over either of them, and let her look as long as she needed to."Well," she said finally, straightening up with the satisfaction of a job well done. "You do. That's annoying, actually. I wanted them to be different so I could tell you weren't really him.""I understand," I said, and meant it more than she could possibly know.Rhys hadn't moved from behind his sister, watching me with the same careful stillness his mother had described, until something in his expression shifted, quiet and searching."Are you going to leave again?" he asked.The question landed ex

ELIRA POV"I traced the number. It's not going to make you feel better."Callum Ren spread three printed sheets across my kitchen table, methodical the way only a man who used to run corporate security for three different packs could be. Dmitri had brought him in an hour after the phone call, no explanation needed beyond a single grim sentence. He's the best. He'll find who called you."Tell me anyway," I said."The call bounced through two burner relays, but it originated from a fixed line." Callum tapped the third page. "Registered to a private hunting lodge two hours north of Ashgrove territory. Owned, on paper, by a shell company. But the shell company's only listed director is a woman named Selene Voss."Kian, standing by the window, went utterly still."That's not possible," he said. "Selene Voss died eleven years ago.""On paper," Callum said again, careful and precise. "Deaths get faked all the time, Alpha Voss, especially by people with money and motive to disappear cleanly."

ELIRA POV"He's using her son as leverage. Which means he'll use my children the exact same way, the second he thinks it will work."I said it out loud because saying it steadied me, gave the fear somewhere useful to go instead of just sitting frozen in my chest.Callum had moved Selene to a secured room upstairs, still watched, still cautious, but no longer treated as a threat. Kian stood near the window with his arms crossed, jaw tight, working through something I recognised now as the particular grief of learning your entire childhood had been built on someone else's forced silence.My phone buzzed. A text this time, not a call. Unknown number again.*Bring the twins to Hart Manor by Sunday. Come alone, or come with an army. It changes nothing except how much noise we make when this ends.*I showed it to Kian without a word. His expression didn't change, but the muscle in his jaw jumped once, hard."He's not getting anywhere near them," Kian said."I know that." My hands were stead

ELIRA POV"Whatever happens in there, you do not let go of my hand."Kian said it quietly, just before the manor's front doors, his fingers laced through mine tight enough to ground me against the shaking I refused to let anyone else see."I won't," I said, and meant it more than I'd meant almost anything in three years.The pack council chamber had been arranged like a courtroom, rows of watching faces on either side, Robert seated at the head table with Marisol beside him, composed and cold in a way that made my skin crawl. Selene sat further back, flanked by two of Callum's men for her own protection, her eyes fixed on Kian with an expression I couldn't quite read."You came," Robert said, mild and pleasant, like this was any ordinary council meeting. "And brought quite a lot of company for a simple family conversation.""This stopped being a family conversation the moment you threatened my children," I said, my voice carrying clearly through the chamber. "So we're doing this in fr