LOGIN“Stop! Don’t do this!” They can’t hear me, can’t feel my desperate attempts to stop this. I’m trapped inside the worst moment of my life with no way to change it. The world fractures around me, and for the briefest second, my mother’s fingertips brush mine. “Live, Poppy.” Then darkness explodes
** Poppy’s POV ** I blink against the darkness surrounding me. The cabin is gone. The smell of dinner. The warmth of the fire. The laughter in the kitchen. All of it has vanished. Instead, cold asphalt presses against my bare feet. I know this place. Not because I’ve seen it before, but because I’
“It seems our timing,” Leo says, looking between us, “is perfect.”“No, it’s terrible,” Alaric corrects flatly.“That depends on who you ask,” Jake shrugs.Alaric ignores him, turning back to the stove to flip the chicken with far too much focus.“So, what were you saying about defence lessons?” Leo
** Poppy’s POV **I thought Alaric would have been pissed at learning his brother had my number all along and had been messaging me, but he’s amused, and maybe even a little proud. He shakes his head again and laughs; it’s so contagious that I can’t even be mad.“Come on,” he says, standing from the
** Poppy’s POV **Bastian has been gone too long for a simple perimeter check of the cabin. I don’t know why that bothers me, but it does. I catch myself rubbing my thumb over the rim of my coffee mug again. It’s gone lukewarm, but I haven’t taken a sip in several minutes. Instead, I keep glancing
“I only detected five scents in the pack centre,” Bastian says. “The sixth entered here.”He points to a patch of flattened fern that none of us had even looked at.“They were already travelling together.”“That’s what we thought,” Leo says.Bastian doesn’t answer. He simply keeps moving, following
“Paige,” he whispers, voice cracking. “If this is true… if the Moon or the Dawn or whatever piece of divinity lives in you has given us a child… then I will protect you both with my life. Without hesitation.”Parker leans his head against my shoulder, his breathing uneven. “I never thought I’d get t
** Paige’s POV **Morning comes too fast and slow at once. I don’t think I ever actually fell asleep, not fully. I drifted, floated, hovered somewhere between exhaustion and adrenaline. Between fear and hope. Between the things I lost… and the things I might be gaining.A child, a possibility.My ha
“Paige…” I groan against her lips. “You’re… goddess; you’re killing me.”“Good,” she breathes, kissing me again, needy, hungry, almost reckless. “I want to.”I pin her against the door with my hips, both hands braced beside her head. I kiss down her throat, slow at first… then harder when she tilts
** Paige’s POV **I wake to warmth. Not sunlight or the lingering glow beneath my skin, but warmth that feels alive. That feels wrapped in love. The kind of warmth that only comes from my mates.Ryder’s arm is draped over my waist, heavy and protective even in sleep. His breath is slow against the b







