LOGINLiam's POVI did not think about it before acting.My hand found the back of Tulip's chair and I pulled it out from under her with a force that sent her sideways, the chair scraping hard against the floor as she went down with it, her gold dress fanning out around her as she hit the ground. The crash of it rang through the entire hall. Every conversation stopped. Every glass paused midway to someone's mouth. The music kept playing for about three more seconds before whoever was managing it caught the room and cut it.Tulip looked up at me from the floor with wide eyes, one hand pressed to the tile, her pinned hair coming loose at the side, her composure completely gone in a way I had not seen from her before. "Liam." Her voice came out small, cracked at the edges, the voice of someone who had genuinely not seen that coming. "Liam, please—""Get up," I said. I was not shouting. I did not need to shout.She started crying and she was saying my name over and over while she pushed herse
Liam's POVThe Gerald estate at night was something else entirely.What had been elegant and understated in the afternoon had transformed by seven o'clock into something that commanded attention.String lights ran the full length of the garden, warm gold against the dark sky. The hall doors were thrown open wide, the sound of live music bleeding into the courtyard where Alphas and their entourages moved between conversations with the careful choreography of powerful people who were always, always working even when they looked like they were celebrating.I stood near the main entrance in the charcoal suit, a glass in my hand that I had not touched, watching the room do what rooms like this did.Gerald found me within ten minutes of the doors opening. He was in deep navy, gold at the collar, the kind of man who aged into his authority rather than away from it, broad-shouldered, silver at his temples, eyes that missed very little. His wife moved
Tulip's POVShe was gone.I watched from the upper corridor window until Colt's SUV cleared the outer gates, until the tail lights disappeared between Gerald's trees, until there was nothing left of Ivy but the faint trace of her perfume still sitting in the hallway like a reminder I did not need.I exhaled.Something unknotted in my chest, slow and deep, the release of a tension I had been carrying since the moment Liam walked into that courtyard with her on his arm like she was something he had chosen deliberately. Like she was something he intended to keep.She was gone now.Finally.I turned from the window, straightened my cream blazer, checked my reflection in the corridor mirror. Hair still perfect. Composure intact.The evidence of everything that had happened in that room already packed away behind my eyes where no one who did not know me would think to look. I had learned that early, how to put things away quick
Ivy's POVTessa moved first."Tulip." Her voice was controlled but it had edges. "You walked into the personal space of the Luna of Blue Elite Pack without knocking. That is not how guests behave in this estate, regardless of who your uncle is."Tulip's bright smile flickered. Just once. "Aunty, I just need a moment with—""I heard what you need." Tessa rose from her seat slowly, the way women with real authority moved, without urgency, without performance, just the quiet certainty of someone who did not require volume to be heard. "There is a way to do things, and barging through closed doors is not it."For a second, just one, Tulip looked like a child who had been caught.Then the second passed.Something cracked open behind her eyes, all that polished composure splitting right down the middle, and what came out of it was raw and ugly and clearly had been sitting there for a very long time waiting for exactly this room.
Ivy's POVI was still staring at her when Rixon appeared at my side like he had materialized from thin air, which was honestly his most reliable talent."Luna…." He kept his voice low, professional, his eyes doing a very deliberate job of not looking at Tulip sitting in the front seat like she owned the vehicle. "The Alpha is ready. You'll be riding with him in this car. I'll take the SUV with the rest of the team."I looked at him. He looked back at me with the practiced neutrality of a man who had seen everything and was currently pretending he had seen nothing."Okay, that's Perfect," I said and turned towards the car. Toward the front passenger door, specifically. The one Tulip was currently occupying with her cream blazer and her designer bag and her whole settled, unbothered energy.I did not say anything. I just stood there.Tulip looked up from her phone. Looked at me then back at Rixon. Something moved across her face, quick and involuntary, the expression of a woman recalcul
Ivy's POV"We have an event to attend. It's far… and we leave early."That was Liam's full announcement. He said it from the doorway of the bedroom in a grey fitted shirt and dark trousers, his jaw carrying the particular tension of a man who had already lost an argument with himself and was not happy about the outcome. Then he walked back out like the conversation was over.I stared at the empty doorway.Rixon appeared ten minutes later. He knocked twice, stepped in, closed the door behind him with the careful energy of a man on a mission he needed to complete quickly and cleanly. He was already dressed, dark jacket, expression pressed into something between professional and desperate."I need you to make him go," he said."Good morning, Rixon.""Ivy…." He exhaled. "Alpha Gerald's ceremony. Every major Alpha in the region will be in that room. Council members, border Pack leaders, people we need on our side before we can make any move against what happened with Noah. If Liam skips thi
Liam's POVI had been in worse situations than bleeding out at a pack border with no guards and three broken ribs. At least that was what I kept telling myself as I lay face down in the dirt of Ironveil's territory, the cold ground pressing against my cheek and my blood soaking steadily into the so
Chapter FourIvy's Pov I should have walked away. He was a stranger, bleeding out between two trees at the edge of pack territory, and every sensible thought in my head was telling me that a man this badly injured at the border could be a rogue or a criminal trying to flee but my feet wouldn't mov
Ivy's PovAmy's eyes filled with tears so fast it almost looked rehearsed. Her bottom lip trembled and she pressed one hand to her chest like my words had physically wounded her. Every person in that shop was looking at me like I had just kicked a puppy.Noah turned to me with that cold, flat look
Ivy's PovThe door clicked shut behind him and I sat there at that kitchen table staring at the divorce papers still unsigned under my hands, and I thought about how five years of my life had just walked out to go check on another woman without even waiting to hear what I had to say.My phone buzze







