LOGINXAVIER The words did not change no matter how long I stared at them.She signed. Now she bleeds.Five words. Black ink. Clean handwriting. No tremor, no hurry.Whoever had written them had taken their time.My wolf wanted to tear through the building wall by wall until it found a throat. I kept my hand flat on the kitchen table instead, fingers spread beside the photograph, because if I curled them, something would break.Again.Deena stood close enough for me to feel the heat of her body at my side. She was quiet, but the bond betrayed what her face refused to show me.Fear.Anger.Humiliation.And beneath all of it, a steady beat of defiance that made my wolf lift its head.“Let me see it,” she said.“No.”Her eyes cut to mine.I heard the mistake the second it left my mouth.Nicole made a sharp little sound behind her. “You are learning nothing at an Olympic level.”I turned the photograph over and handed it to Deena.Her fingers brushed mine.The bond sparked hot.She read the me
XAVIER For one breath, the study became very still.Then Deena moved.She stepped toward Mace’s phone, eyes locked on the grainy image of her open apartment door. Fear came through the bond first, hot and sharp. Anger followed right behind it.Good.Anger would keep her standing.“That’s my apartment,” she said.“Yes,” Mace answered.Her gaze cut to me. “You had people watching my building.”“For your protection.”Her mouth tightened. “And were you planning to mention that before or after I found out through supernatural breaking-and-entering surveillance?”“No.”Honest. Too blunt. Still true.Nicole gave a humorless laugh. “Wow. Growth canceled.”I ignored her and looked at Mace. “Status of our men?”“Two outside. They held position when the hall cameras went dark. No visual on who entered.”“Heartbeats?”“Too much building interference from the street. They’re moving closer now.”“No engagement unless the intruder exits.”Deena stared at me like I had lost my mind. “We’re going.”“
XAVIER The coffee burned over my hand.I barely felt it.Porcelain had cracked through my palm, broken by fingers that should have known better than to lose control in front of my household. Hot coffee dripped from my knuckles onto the kitchen table, spreading between plates of pancakes and half-finished mugs.No one moved.No one breathed too loudly.Across the table, Deena clutched her marked wrist beneath the edge of the table, trying to hide the pain from me.She was terrible at it.The bond fed it straight into my chest anyway.A sharp, living heat. Recognition. Fury. Fear.My wolf surged so hard my vision sharpened.Human wife.The Human Problem.Whoever had written those words had done more than deliver a file. They had named her in the language of old law. They had made her public. Political. Open to challenge.Mine, the wolf snarled.Not property. Not possession.But under my protection.At my table.In my house.Mace’s radio crackled again. “Alpha?”I released the ruined mu
“Someone inside this estate told them.”Elder Miriam’s words hung in the cold garden air like smoke after a fire.For a heartbeat, nobody spoke.Then Xavier moved.Not fast in the way Mace moved when bullets were involved. Not frantic. Xavier Evers did not do frantic. He became quieter. Harder. The half-dressed man on the terrace vanished behind the Alpha King so completely I almost wondered if I had imagined the bare chest, the loose hair, the wolf still lingering in his eyes.Almost.“Mace,” he said.Mace was already turning. “Locking down communications. No one leaves the estate.”My head snapped toward him. “Nobody leaves?”His gaze flicked to me. “Until we know who passed the information.”Nicole lifted the bat she still refused to put down. “Quick reminder: some of us were dragged into this murder mansion against our will.”“You came voluntarily,” Mace said.“I came with snacks and a bat. That’s called survival, not consent.”Xavier looked at me. “You and Nicole will go to the g
For one stupid heartbeat, my brain tried to make the wolf into anything else.Large dog.Escaped zoo exhibit.Stress-induced hallucination with excellent fur.Then I saw the shredded black fabric on the floor where Xavier had been standing.My breath stopped.The wolf stood in the broken spill of light from the living room, massive shoulders rising almost to my chest. His fur was dark brown, thick and wild, with deeper shadows along his spine. His paws were too big. His teeth were too sharp. His entire body looked like nature had gotten angry and built a weapon.But the eyes were the worst.Dark red.Not glowing like cheap horror movie bullshit. Worse than that. Alive. Intelligent. Fixed on me.Nicole’s voice came out thin beside me. “That is not a dog.”“No,” Mace said.She lifted Jeffrey with both hands. “If he eats her, I’m going for his eyes.”The wolf’s lip curled.Nicole froze. “He understood that.”Mace exhaled like patience physically hurt him. “Yes.”I should have backed up.
“Wife.”The word dropped into the room and detonated.For a second, nobody moved. Not Xavier. Not Mace. Not Silas with his cold little undertaker face. Even Nicole went still beside me, and Nicole only went still when she was either sleeping or deciding where to hide a body.I stared at Elder Miriam.Then I laughed.It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even really amusing. It came out sharp and wrong, like my brain had slammed into a wall and decided humor was cheaper than a breakdown.“No,” I said.Miriam closed the leather-bound book slowly. “Miss Williams—”“No.” I pointed at the book. “Whatever dusty wolf Bible you pulled that from, no.”Xavier’s face had gone carved-stone still. “Miriam.”The elder did not flinch. “She deserves the truth.”“The truth?” I repeated. “The truth is I signed an emergency authorization form because a man was dying on my table. I did not walk down an aisle. I did not say vows. I did not consent to marry a stranger with a disappearing medical file and a dramatic







