LOGINEugenia’s POVThe morning after my proclamation, I woke to the weight of Adrian's arm draped across my waist and the scent of pine and musk clinging to the sheets. For a long moment, I simply lay there, tracing the veins on his forearm with my fingertip, feeling the steady thrum of his heartbeat against my back.He stirred, his nose nuzzling into my hair. "You're thinking too loud.""I'm always thinking." I turned in his arms, pressing my palm flat against his chest. "What happens now?""Now?" He smiled, slow and dangerous. "Now we see if the pack accepts you fully. There's still the matter of the sentries. Kell and Vance. They've been watching you since the attack."I remembered them—the twin brothers with matching scars over their left eyes, posted outside the council room during the proclamation. They'd stood like statues, but their gazes had followed me with sharp, assessing intensity."They're loyal to you," I said."To the pack." He corrected me gently. "And they're still decidi
Eugenia’s POVA week. Seven days of blood, sweat, and the slow, grinding friction of trust being forged in fire. The pack house became a battlefield of small victories—a guard who didn’t flinch when I passed, a kitchen maid who offered me tea instead of crossing herself, a young wolf who asked me to teach him how to throw a dagger.I took them one by one, these small surrenders.The mornings and nights belonged to Adrian. He woke me before dawn, his body hard and demanding, taking me with the relentless hunger of a man who still couldn’t believe I was real. His cock filled me as the first light touched the horizon, his teeth marking my throat with fresh punctures. I learned the rhythm of his need—the way he liked me on top when he wanted to feel worshiped, the way he bent me over the window seat when he wanted to claim me against the glass. Every touch was his. Every gasp I gave was for him. No other man’s hands found my skin. I made that clear w
Eugenia’s POV Dawn came gray and heavy through the windows, the kind of morning that promised rain. I lay still beneath Adrian's arm, my body sore in ways that felt almost sacred. Every bruise, every bite, every raw place where his skin had pressed into mine told a story I wasn't ready to end. But the light creeping across the floorboards reminded me that the world outside these walls still turned, still schemed, still sharpened its knives. I slipped from the bed with practiced silence. Adrian's hand twitched, reaching for me even in sleep, but he didn't wake. The wolf alpha slept like a man who trusted no one—until he trusted someone completely. That knowledge settled deep in my chest, a weight both precious and terrifying. I dressed quickly, finding a pair of leather pants and a dark tunic someone had left folded on the chair. The fabric smelled like pine and wolf musk. I pulled my hair back, checked the dagger strapped to my thigh, and moved toward the door. "Going somewhere?"
Eugenia’s POVThe night air clung to my skin as we returned from the hot spring, Adrian's hand firm around mine. My thighs still ached from the way he'd driven into me against those stones, his seed slick between my legs even now. The borrowed shirt brushed my hips with every step, and I felt the fresh bite on my shoulder throb in time with my pulse. The pack house loomed ahead, its windows glowing with firelight. I could hear the low murmur of wolves inside, their voices carrying fragments of tension and curiosity.Adrian paused at the threshold, his thumb stroking my knuckles. "They'll smell us," he said quietly. "The bond. The blood. The sex.""Let them," I replied, meeting his storm-gray eyes. "I'm not hiding what we are."He nodded once, then pushed the door open. The common area fell silent as we entered. Dozens of eyes tracked us—some wary, some hungry, a few openly hostile. I kept my chin high, the vampire princess walking through a den of beasts who'd been raised to tear my k
Eugenia’s POVHis hand wrapped around mine, warm and calloused, and I let him lead me through the door of his chambers into the corridor beyond. The moment we stepped into the hall, the house seemed to shift around us—a collective inhale, the subtle rustle of bodies pretending they hadn't been listening. Wolves. Their hearing was a liability I'd have to account for.The morning light filtered through high windows, casting stripes of gold across the worn wooden floor. I still wore one of Adrian's shirts, borrowed after he'd torn my gown, the fabric hanging loose on my frame and smelling of pine and smoke and him. Beneath it, my skin was still marked—the bite on my shoulder a vivid bruise, the scratches I'd raked down his back mirrored by his own marks on my hips. I carried him in every ache between my thighs."So," I said, keeping my voice low, "do I get a tour before the pack tries to rip me apart, or is that part of the entertainment?"Adrian's thumb traced a slow circle on the back
Eugenia’s POVI woke to warmth.It was the first thing I noticed, before the unfamiliar ceiling, before the weight of a muscular arm draped across my waist. The fire had burned down to embers, casting the room in a dim orange glow, and Adrian's body pressed against mine like a furnace. I lay still, cataloging the sensations—the ache between my thighs, the lingering sting at my throat where his teeth had marked me, the strange sense of safety that coiled in my chest.I didn't trust it. I couldn't.I'd spent two centuries learning that safety was an illusion, a pretty cage built to hold obedient daughters until they could be traded like livestock. My mother had taught me that lesson well, her cold eyes and colder hands shaping me into the perfect vampire princess—poised, beautiful, ruthless. I had played the part. I had smiled at courtiers I despised, danced with nobles whose hands wandered too freely, and recited poetry for diplomats whose breath smelled of rot and secrets. And now I l
Selah’s POV I felt his gaze on my back as I walked out, a burning weight that promised retribution. Good. Let him burn. Let him ache the way I had ached through the long years of my widowhood, the way I still ached every time I remembered his mouth on my throat, his knot stret
Cain’s POVThe pack house smelled like pine smoke, old blood, and her.That last scent was what kept me hard even after she'd drained me twice against the bark of that oak. Luna. Selah. The name burned through my veins like rotgut whiskey, and every time I looked at he
Selah’s POV The eastern border ran along a jagged ridge of granite and pine, the tree line broken by an old game trail that snaked toward the valley below. The rain had stopped, but the air still dripped with moisture, every leaf heavy and dark. My wolves had gathered—tho
Selah’s POVSleep didn't come that night. Not with Cain's body warm against mine, not with the ring heavy on my finger, not with Aldric's hatred burning in my memory. I lay in the dark, listening to the wind howl outside, feeling the subtle hum of the pack bond—still frayed, st







