LOGINSelin POV I went to the east wing, where the guest rooms were quieter, and I sat by the window and I looked at the phone. I had one contact on this phone. Louve's number. But I had memorized the other one. Without meaning to, the way you memorize things you're not supposed to want. I stared at the phone for a very long time. Then I opened a message thread and typed a number in manually.I'm at the estate. I know you know that. I know who you are now, or at least who your brother is, which probably amounts to the same thing. And maybe I need you… I paused. Then, looked at what I'd written. Then kept going.I'm not going to pretend that doesn't complicate things. It clearly does. But someone tried to kill me in my apartment, and before that you sat with me in the dark of a stuck lift and you weren't strange about it, which given the circumstances is something I keep thinking about more than I should. I'm not asking you to come here. I know that's not simple. I just wanted to say that I
Selin POV The morning arrived loud. Not in the explosive way of alarms or approaching threats. In the ordinary, domestic loudness of a large house waking up with footsteps in corridors, voices in the kitchen, the smell of coffee drifting through the vents, and the particular energy of people who have been up through a crisis night and are now running on determination and caffeine rather than actual rest. I found Louve in the front sitting room at half past eight. She was not alone.The man beside her I knew immediately, though I had only seen him once from a rooftop-level distance in the dark. My memory sharpened instantly. But Louve had described him enough times over the years, in the gaps between not talking about him, that I would have known him anyway. I froze.Lynx.He was taller than I'd pictured. Not dramatically, but noticeably. He had the kind of presence that didn't announce itself loudly, it simply made the room around it feel slightly denser, the way a mountain makes the
Alexander POV We moved along the inner path that ran between the wall and the first row of old trees. The estate grounds were quiet, but I could feel the watch-presence of the guards positioned throughout. She had this place in order. She always had things in order, even when she was barely holding them."Kael came himself," I said."Yes.""What did he say?"She was quiet for a pace. Then, "He told me to ask Elina about the night my father died."I processed that without reacting."And did you?""Yes."I waited."It wasn't your pack," she said.Three words. Which hit in a quite and precise way. The ground of twelve years of complicated history shifted beneath that sentence. I could actually sense it internally. I looked at her. She was not looking at me yet. She was looking at the path ahead, walking with the measured step of someone carrying something very carefully."Louve," I said."Someone inside our pack killed him, but maybe someone from the panther shifters" she said. "We don'
Lynx POVAustin's message arrived at half past four in the morning. It was three sentences long. And this was direct, the way he always wrote when something was serious and he was trying not to alarm me until he had more information.Movement at the Louve estate last night. Kael himself. Everyone's alright — I think. Call me.I called him without waiting any more time. He picked up on the first ring."How bad?" I asked."No casualties. They came to the wall and Kael spoke directly to Louve. Then they left.""He spoke to her himself," I said."Apparently." Austin answered.I stood at the window of my house, looking at the city in the grey early morning. The streets were empty. The atmosphere felt nice and dangerous at the same time, in ways that could not be understood by a normal human being. The lights were still on in the buildings across the road, the ordinary lamp-lit windows of people sleeping through what had, apparently, been a significant night."What did he want?" I asked."W
Alexander POVI arrived at the mansion before dawn. Odin had called me at three in the morning. The call was brief, and tense, the way he called when something was serious. Panther movement at the estate. Kael himself. There were no casualties. No breach. But something had shifted. I could hear it in his voice without him saying it directly. I drove through the dark, the road familiar even without streetlights, the forest on either side pressing close and old. By the time I pulled through the gates, the first grey light of morning was beginning to touch the eastern sky.Louve was waiting for me in the front hall. And that, immediately, told me more than Odin's call had. My sister did not wait. She acted. She moved. She appeared in the aftermath but rarely at the beginning because she had always been five steps ahead of every conversation before it started. For her to be standing in the entrance hall at half past four in the morning, waiting for me specifically, that meant something ha
LouveShe was in the upper corridor when I found her. Standing near the window that overlooked the rear grounds, still watching. She must have heard the alarm and come out immediately, because she was dressed and fully alert, her silver eyes scanning the grounds below. She heard me coming. And turned before I reached her. One look at my face and something changed in hers. She knew."You spoke to him," she said. It wasn't a question."Kael." I stopped in front of her. "He said to ask you about the night my father died. He said to ask you why you stayed. He said to ask you about a bargain made before I was born."The corridor was quiet. Everyone else was still occupied at the outer walls or securing the lower floors. For this moment, it was just the two of us. Elina looked at me for a long time. Long enough that I knew the answer was going to be something I wasn't ready for."Sit down," she said quietly."I'll stand,” I said.She accepted that without argument. She turned to look out th
Louve POV:The evening air felt different the moment I stepped out. The atmosphere was silent, yet the surroundings felt cold, like the world itself was holding its breath. I didn't look back at Selin's apartment. If I did, I might hesitate to stay with her. And hesitation was something I couldn't
Louve POV A loud, aggressive banging shattered the quiet morning."Open the door! I know you're in there!"My eyes snapped open instantly. The sound echoed through the house again but harder this time, like whoever was outside had no intention of stopping. I sat up sharply, my senses already alert
Louve POVI approached Selin's door as I arrived at her apartment. But something felt strange; the air around Selin's house was so still and quiet. Trying not to conclude, I brushed it off as I thought to myself that I was thinking too much. My wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin. The place was s
Elina POV It's been a while since Louve left the mansion. The mansion fell back into its usual silence. A cold mist must have begun to spread across the courtyard, curling around the stone statues and ancient trees that surrounded the estate. The air carried the scent of damp earth and pine. The a







