LOGINEthan stayed another hour with Aurora, unwilling to let go of the small, warm weight of her presence. Every minute felt like a quiet apology, every shared breath a promise he was afraid to put into words.Eventually, he had to leave. Natasha would be waiting at the house, waiting with her practiced smile and that bright, eager voice she used when she wanted something. The thought of it made his skin crawl. Part of him wanted to take Aurora somewhere far away and pretend none of it existed. But he couldn’t.There was an intruder in his home, in his pack, in his child’s life, and it was his responsibility to remove her. So he rose, pressed a kiss to Aurora’s hair, and turned back toward the Blackwood estate. This time, not to surrender to fate, but to end it.Natasha was pacing the foyer waiting for him when he walked in, arms folded lightly across her chest, lips curved into that familiar, honey-sweet smile that now made Ethan’s skin itch.“Where have you been?” she asked softly. “I kn
Ethan was mid-sentence.“…and with the revised margins, Blackwood Holdings would absorb the risk without...”Then he felt it, not physically. Something deeper, pulled hard against his chest, like a hand closing around his heart and squeezing once.He stopped speaking. The boardroom went silent, a dozen executives watching as Ethan Blackwood faltered for the first time in memory. Ethan blinked, once, then again, his breath shallow. There was no pain in his body. The pain wasn’t his.Aurora.The name surfaced with a jolt so sharp it made him grip the edge of the table. For weeks, no, longer than that, something had muted that name inside him, dulled to the point of irrelevance. He had seen her every day. Passed her in hallways and even heard her voice. Yet...It was as if he had been looking through her. The realization landed slow and sickening: he hadn’t noticed when her laughter faded. Hadn’t questioned when she stopped telling him stories about irrelevant stuffs. Hadn’t felt the quie
NATASHA Ever since I first laid eyes on Ethan Blackwood, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. I’ve always loathed the idea of a fated mate. The thought of being biologically shackled to one person for the rest of my life sounded like a prison sentence. My plan had been simple: reject whoever the universe threw at me, run my father’s company, and enjoy a good fuck every once in a while. No strings, no "forever" nonsense, and definitely none of that suffocating emotional drama.My father knew it. The pack knew it too. They’d tried for years to pair me with influential wolves, heirs, betas, rising alphas to secure alliances. Every attempt ended the same way: disappointment on their side, boredom on mine. I didn’t bow. I didn’t pretend to care. I’m a beautiful woman, I have the sharp mind and the curves to prove it, and I don't bow to anyone. But my wolf, Lily, is a different breed of wild. She doesn't want romance; she wants power. She has always been hungry for every male that crossed our pat
Once she was introduced, Natasha stepped seamlessly into the role of the long-awaited Luna, mark or no mark. She moved through the pack house with practiced confidence, issuing gentle corrections, offering suggestions that sounded like care, and accepting deference as though it were already owed. To most, she was warmth and grace embodied, poised, attentive, undeniably fitting. Respect came easily. Affection followed soon after.In public, Natasha was impeccable. Her smiles were effortless, her voice soft and soothing. She treated Aurora with an almost performative kindness, complimenting her posture, praising her manners, brushing invisible dust from her sleeves as if the gesture itself were proof of affection. She spoke often of the girl’s “remarkable maturity,” always within earshot of others. Anyone watching would have seen a patient future Luna extending olive branches to a withdrawn child.Aurora answered politely. She nodded when addressed. She neither resisted nor leaned in. S
After that day, Aurora learned how to disappear without leaving. She stopped wandering into Ethan’s meetings. Stopped perching beside him during briefings, and stopped offering those quiet, unsettling observations that once made grown men pause and rethink. When Ethan was present, she spoke only when spoken to, and even then, carefully, as if every word cost something.He told himself it was for the best. Silence was safer than the look in her eyes, the one that felt too old, too wounded for a child her age.One afternoon, after an especially long council meeting, Jason and Liam asked for a private word.“With all due respect, Alpha,” Jason began, his voice lowered as he chose his words with tactical precision, “but I’ve noticed the CEO of Voss Dynamics has been getting… very close to you lately.”Ethan didn’t flinch. He merely shrugged, his eyes remaining fixed on the document in his hands, though the ink had long since blurred into a meaningless grey.“It's about time,” Liam cut i
Ethan didn’t slow down after leaving Aurora with Liam. He drove with a cold, jagged purpose, Shadow paced restlessly beneath his skin, the bond tugged at him again, insistent, electric, and agonizingly familiar, pulling him toward a destination his heart refused to name, but his instincts knew by heart.'You dropped the kid and ran,' Shadow rumbled, the voice in his head not unkind, but brutally honest. 'You know exactly where you’re going.'“I’m going to make this stop,” Ethan muttered, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. “Whatever this connection is, I'm ending it.”Shadow laughed, a low, knowing sound that vibrated in Ethan's chest. 'Liar.'He pulled up beneath the monolithic glass-and-steel tower of Voss Dynamics. Natasha Voss didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who ever left her work behind, so he found her still at the office. Security barely slowed him; in this city, his name opened doors with the same crushing force as his Alpha command.Natasha was a
VANESSA I watched the human, Whitney rant dramatically about her “luxury prison” and her “tragic, terrible apartment,” complete with hand gestures and sighs worthy of a stage performance. She sounded genuinely upset, which was… confusing.Back with my herd, my days were spent fighting for scraps,
RUBYShadow kissed me tenderly, his lips patient, and coaxing, drawing me closer without forcing a single thing. It was achingly slow, and yet I felt the ground tilt beneath my feet as if the world itself leaned toward him.When he finally pulled back, I was breathless, I curled my fingers into hi
Shadow kissed her neck gently at first… then claimed her mouth with a slow, fierce hunger. The kiss was consuming, distracting, and utterly possessive, like he wanted to swallow every protest before she could even form it.Ruby yielded immediately. The burning intensity of Shadow’s mouth melted her
After the girl stumbled into Liam’s arms, the rogues began to melt back into the forest too quickly, too easily. Suspicion prickled at the back of Ethan’s mind, but they hadn’t breached the border, and the last thing he wanted was to waste more blood on an uncertain skirmish. Still, he wouldn’t ris







