SILASI didn’t know how long I sat there waiting for Riley to come back—or why the hell I even bothered. It was pathetic, really. I was sprawled out on my couch, staring blankly at the TV when the first crack of thunder rumbled through the night. A storm was coming, and it wasn’t a light drizzle. This one was going to pour like hell.I flicked a glance toward the door. Still nothing. Gritting my teeth, I forced my eyes back to the screen. Some mindless bullshit was playing, but no matter how hard I tried to focus, my thoughts kept drifting back to him. “He’s got to have some kind of spell on me,” I muttered bitterly, knowing it was just an excuse. The truth? I was the one fucking myself up over him. That damned kid was trouble—had been from the second I laid eyes on him. But thinking it didn’t make it go away. I clenched my fists, replaying the way his lips felt against mine, the way his body— “Christ.” The word tore out of me like a curse, and I shoved off the couch, pacing the r
RILEYThree hours in that damn truck, and Scout had just been a whimpering mess in the back while I tried to focus, my fingers digging through his fur. It didn’t help that the silence swallowed us whole, stretching the tension between us until it became fucking unbearable.Silas’ jaw had been clenched so tight, his knuckles were about to break the steering wheel. His hair had been all wet and sticking to his face like some kind of tortured fucking god, and his muscles had been tight, strung out with rage.Yeah. He was pissed. Really pissed.“You’re bleeding all over the place,” I muttered, my voice rough. He didn’t even twitch. Just kept staring straight ahead, like the road was the only thing keeping him from snapping.Nothing. Not even a fucking grunt.“Where are we going?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. Nowhere good. Silence answered me again. That shit started to piss me off.“Okay, what the fuck is your problem?” I snapped, not caring that I gritted my teeth. “Do you rea
RILEY We got off the train in Duluth and crammed into a cab, Scout trembling in my arms. I kept my mouth shut as Silas muttered an address to the driver, somewhere in Superior. His body language screamed don’t talk to me, and honestly, I wasn’t in the mood for more of his brooding silence either. The city lights faded into quieter streets and then into nothing but endless darkness. The further we went, the more my nerves spiked. The cold air seeped into the cab even with the windows rolled up, and my wolf stirred uneasily under my skin. The cab slowed as we reached the edge of a massive lake, where a house stood near the water like something out of an old ghost story. It was big—too big, with its wide glass windows staring out at the dock like soulless eyes. “This is it,” Silas muttered, throwing cash at the driver before climbing out. I followed reluctantly, Scout curling tighter against me as the biting cold hit like a slap. Silas didn’t even look back to check if I was behin
SILAS“Hey, Jade,” I said the second she picked up. The chaos on her end was impossible to miss—voices clashing, doors slamming, and Jade swearing like her life depended on it.“Sy? Is that you? Jesus Christ, not now!” she snapped, her breath heavy in my ear.“Yeah, I know, bad timing,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “But I need your help.”The sounds on her end dulled for a second, and then the unmistakable thud of a door slamming shut echoed down the line. “Is it him again?” she asked, her voice tight with accusation. “Sy, this isn’t going to end well. You know that, right?”My grip on the phone tightened as I glanced back toward Riley. He was on the floor, sitting cross-legged with Scout sprawled across his lap. His hands moved gently over Scout’s fur, and for a second, I caught the faintest flicker of a smile on Riley’s face. It was small. Barely there. But it twisted something inside me.“It’s not about him,” I “It’s Scout,” I said through gritted teeth. “He’s hurt
SILASMemory from nine years ago…I was nineteen when I had my first boyfriend.Jake was everything I never knew I needed—confident, wild, and so unapologetically himself that it made me ache just to look at him. He was my first love, and though I never said the words out loud, I think he knew.That weekend, the house was mine. Orin had gone hunting with his friends, leaving the house all to me. Jake had come over the moment I told him we’d have the place to ourselves.“Silas, fuck—too much. Too much,” Jake panted, his head thrown back, hands clutching the couch cushions.He was two years older than me.“Shh, I’ve got you,” I murmured, pressing kisses to his temple, holding him as I pushed another finger inside. He was heat and softness, and everything about him made me ache. Jake’s green eyes locked on mine as his lips trembled into a smile. “I want you. Now,” he whispered, voice breaking like a plea. I swallowed hard, barely holding myself together. It was my first time, his too
RILEYMy body burned under his touch, every nerve alive and sparking like electricity where Silas’s fingers brushed my skin. It was too much and not enough, all at once. No matter how many times I told myself to pull back, to stop—because it had barely been two weeks since Marcus died—I couldn’t.The guilt was there, but it wasn’t strong enough to win. He never claimed us fully, I thought, and my wolf stirred in agreement. If anything, he was pushing me forward, urging me to take this, to take him.A moan slipped from my lips as Silas’s mouth found my jaw, biting and sucking in a way that had my legs threatening to give out. My hands clung to his shoulders, gripping his shirt like a lifeline, but nothing could ground me—not when his hands slid down to my waist, pulling me in until I felt the hard press of his cock against my thigh.“Silas,” I gasped into his mouth, tangling my fingers in his hair and tugging, needing more, needing everything.He groaned, deep and rough, and the sound
SILAS Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I was completely screwed. Riley had finally fallen asleep, his eyes swollen and red after pouring his heart out. “If I found them, I’d rip their throats out,” he’d said, and I couldn’t shake the words from my head. All I could think about was that day. I was the kid. I was there when his mother was killed—by my parents. My hands trembled as I shoved them into my hair, pulling at the roots to stay grounded. Was this a coincidence? Or was fate just playing a sick joke, trying to screw me over? I glanced back at Riley, his body restless even in sleep. When he shifted and mumbled something incoherent, my chest tightened. My gut twisted so hard it felt like it was trying to crawl up my throat. I tore my gaze away, jaw clenching, and pushed myself to my feet. Barefoot and silent, I slipped out of the room. What the hell would he do if he knew? If he found out he was in the house of the people who killed his mother? Sleeping in the bed—hell, slee
SILAS The sound of the bulbs humming had me raising my head up. The lights flickered once, twice, and then died and then faint darkness filled the kitchen . Riley’s head snapped toward me, his hazel eyes glowing faintly in the dim light from the setting sun outside. “What just happened?” My hand reached for the flashlight off the counter and clicked it on, casting a beam of light around the kitchen. “Solar must’ve crapped out. Battery’s been running low for some days. I’ll need to head into town and get a replacement.” Riley shifted on the stool, his arms crossing over his chest. “I’ll come with you.” I shook my head before he could even finish the thought. “No. It’s late, and you need to sleep. I’ll be back before you know it.” “Silas—” “You’ve got Scout,” I cut in, already walking toward the couch to grab my jacket. “And it’s a quick trip. You stay here, get some rest. You’ve been through enough.” I heard the soft scrape of the stool as he stood, then felt his p
MARCUSI wanted to take his pain away. Every bruise, every ache—I wanted to wipe them from his skin, to replace them with something else, something softer. My touch. My mouth. Me.So I leaned down, pushing the fabric of his shirt higher, my fingers ghosting over the bruises marring his abdomen. I let my lips settle on the darkest one, pressing a kiss to it, warm and slow.Ronan shifted on the bed, his hand coming up, pushing weakly at my head. “Marcus,” he sighed, his voice rough, tired. I glanced up at him, meeting his heavy-lidded gaze.“What are you doing?” he asked, breath hitching when I moved, my mouth brushing over another bruise, this one stretching along his ribs.“Kissing every pain away.”His fingers twitched against my scalp, his eyes closing for a moment before fluttering open again. His chest rose and fell with shaky breaths, his body rigid beneath me like he didn’t know whether to push me away or pull me closer.I moved higher, my lips dragging up the bruises that cover
RONANThe pack was in chaos when we returned.People who had fled to the shelters were back, but the place still looked like a battlefield. Blood stained the ground, the scent thick in the air. Injured wolves leaned against each other.There was no spell to protect us from the outsiders, but at least we were deep in the woods. At least we made it back.I trailed behind Marcus, Riley’s weight heavy in my arms. I didn’t stop moving until I reached the pack hospital, where I lowered him onto the bed. The entire room was buzzing, healers and pack members rushing from one injured body to the next.Two people hurried toward us.“What happened to them?” a woman asked, her sharp gaze scanning their injuries.Before I could open my mouth, Marcus spoke.“He got shot three times,” he said quickly, his voice coming out breathy. “There’s one close to his heart, but I can still hear his pulse.”Then he turned to Riley, his fingers wrapping around his limp hand.“He was injected with silver. Please—
RONANThe smell of blood was thick in the air.My eyes dropped to the body at my feet, then back to Riley, waiting for his reaction.“I killed your brother,” I said. My voice was low and almost shaky. My fingers curled around the bloodied stick before I let it fall beside the corpse with a dull thud. Riley stared down at him, his face unreadable. Blank. Then, after a long breath, he said, “Yeah. He was a shitty brother.”That was it.No anger. No grief. Just that.For a second, I didn’t know what to say. Then I realized—what was there to say?He was right. Liam was a shitty brother. And Silas’ mate.Riley exhaled sharply, shaking himself out of whatever thoughts stayed in his head. Then he turned. “We need to go. Silas and Marcus are running out of time.”At the sound of Marcus’ name, my chest tightened.The thought of him locked up in that tiny space—by them—made my vision blur, anger burning through my veins. I couldn’t think about it.I just started moving.“We have to shift.”Ril
RONANI couldn’t even enjoy it. The moment. The fucking words I’d been dying to hear from him, the ones I never thought I’d get. Couldn’t let them settle in my chest, couldn’t hold onto them, couldn’t even breathe them in before the earth shook and everything turned to chaos.Not when Marcus went to fight, leaving me behind to walk the frozen woods in silence with Riley, searching for shelter. Not when Liam—Riley’s own brother—came out of nowhere, and the world around me went dark. Not when I woke up, and Marcus was gone, taken from me while I was chained and powerless to stop it.And I did nothing.Not because I was weak. Not because I couldn’t break out of the silver chains slicing into my skin.But because I knew it wouldn’t change a damn thing.I could have torn through them, killed them all, but I would’ve only gotten myself and Marcus killed in the process. So I watched as they took Silas. Watched as they took my Marcus. Watched them walk away like we were nothing, like we were
RONANI didn’t know how long we had been at it, how many hours had bled into days, but it didn’t stop, not once. The routine had become so familiar, so consuming, that I stopped keeping track of time. When I woke up, we fucked. After breakfast, we fucked. In the shower, against the wall, on the floor—anywhere he wanted me, he took me, and I let him.Three days.Three long days of staying with Marcus, of lying in his bed, of feeling the warmth of his body against mine, of listening to his voice, low, close, whispering things I shouldn’t want to hear. Three days of knowing, without a single doubt, that he had finally come to terms with something we had both seen coming—Riley was no longer his.But I was here.I carried his mark.“I should go,” I muttered, my voice quieter than I meant it to be as I sat on the couch, feeling far too comfortable in his space. “Silas must be worried about me.”Marcus moved beside me, the heat of his body close, and then his fingers found mine, sliding betw
RONANI didn’t know why I was here.Why I was sitting outside the house of a man I hated, watching him like some stalker, waiting for something—anything.When Riley and Silas talked about Marcus, it pissed me off. It scratched at something deep inside me, something raw, something restless. Maybe it was this damn mark, this—this pull that bound me to him like an invisible chain, tugging at me every time I tried to ignore it.Or maybe it was because I pitied him. Because I knew Riley was rejecting him today.Or maybe I was just stupid enough to have started falling for him.The night was cold, but that wasn’t why I shivered. Even with my body running hotter than a human’s, the chill slipped under my skin, sank into my bones, curled up inside me like an ache I didn’t want to name. I wrapped my arms around myself, exhaling into the dark. I didn’t know how long I waited—hours, maybe? Long enough to start doubting if this was a good idea.But then, I felt him before I saw him.The mark hidd
### MARCUSIt made my skin itch that Ronan wasn’t going to run with the pack. . And damn it, I knew it shouldn’t bother me, not when I had already made my decision, not when tonight was about marking Riley, about breaking that unwanted mistake of a bond that should never have existed in the first place.But still, it scratched at me, an irritation I couldn’t shake, one that had lingered in the back of my mind for days. Because for the past three days since we came down, I had barely seen him, only catching glimpses when I wasn’t supposed to be looking, only noticing the way my eyes kept drifting toward the window of my office, hoping—fucking hoping—to see him, even if it was just for a second.And the only time I had seen him clearly, really seen him, he had been standing outside my door, watching me, not even trying to hide it, as if the pull between us was too strong to fight.It should have made me angry. Should have made me snap at him, should have had me chasing him away. But ins
MARCUSI had just cheated on my mate.And it didn’t matter that it had felt good, that it had been something I hadn’t realized I was desperate for until I had it, something that left me raw and aching. None of it changed the fact that I had betrayed Riley—the one person I loved, the one person who had always been mine.I couldn’t bring myself to look at Ronan, not when I could feel the way his gaze followed my every move, like he was dissecting me, picking apart every breath I took. It made my skin prickle, made my stomach tighten, and I hated it. I hated knowing what I’d done.And I hated that I didn’t regret it as much as I should have.Riley stood in front of me, close enough that I could reach for him, close enough that I could lose myself in the familiar scent of him, but my thoughts were a mess, tangled and fraying at the edges. My pulse pounded, my mind running circles around itself, trying to convince me that I had scrubbed every trace of Ronan from my skin, that there was not
RONANThe bastard marked me.A violent shudder wracked through my body, but I wasn’t sure if it was from fear, my heat, or the sick pleasure humming through my veins.Marcus’ eyes were wide, the harsh lines of his face tightening, jaw locked like steel. He stared at me like this was my fucking fault.A hiss slipped from my lips. His hands were still gripping my waist, but I didn’t care—I pressed down, hard, grinding against him. Fuck. I couldn’t help it.The heat. The bond. The way it slithered through my blood, coiling around my ribs, pushing at every nerve—I couldn’t stop myself.I pressed down again.Marcus sucked in a sharp breath, his grip tightening as a shudder ran through both of us.I didn’t want this. Didn’t want him.But the mark burned against my skin, and my body begged for it—screamed for it.“Just do it,” I bit out.His jaw clenched. His eyes flicked downward, dragging over my heavy trousers, taking in the shape of me, the way I was already leaking for him.A muscle tic