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
“Everyone stay where you are,” the woman calls. “We need statements from all of you.”Her gaze flicks briefly to the Twiceborn, and something in her expression tightens. I don’t think it’s suspicion or fear. Just a quiet, uneasy sense that she’s looking at something she can’t quite name.I’d been wo
I clear my throat. “I don’t want Poppy anywhere near Greg. Jaxon can stay with her today with the Twiceborn guarding them both.”Ryder considers this, then nods once. “Leo and Jake stay with them then.”Callen stretches his neck. “Great. So what are the rest of us doing? Because watching Greg eat av
Greg scoffs. “What are you talking about? You should be in prison for what you’ve done to her and for kidnapping my son. This is clear abuse. She even has the scars to prove it. You are all insane.”A deadly kind of anger flows through the bond from Ryder, and I place a hand on his arm to calm him.
** Ryder’s POV **I never thought I’d see these roads again. Not in this lifetime. Not in any life.The tyres hum steadily beneath us, carrying us straight into the past I thought I’d buried. Old scars itch under my skin. Wolves don’t get phantom pain, not really, but I swear I feel it now. Memories







