Linc had been here for a while now. Cast had been quiet, standing across the room just watching us. I knew what he was thinking, what this all looked like. But I also knew that he was trying to stay out of it.Trying to give me space.It didn't help.I didn't want space. I didn't want decisions or reality creeping in. But they were here with every breath I took, every thought I tried to avoid.Linc stood up. He walked over to the sink, washed the plate and fork, and put them away. "I should probably get going," he said as he turned back to me.I didn't want him to leave. I didn't understand why, but the thought of him walking out made me feel sick.Cast must have noticed. "I can leave if you two need more time."Cast offered to leave, like I was choosing someone else. Someone who wasn't him in our house. Then it hit me. This wasn't Cast's house. It was mine. He'd made that clear multiple times, but I wasn't listening. Not until now. I had the choice. I had the power here, not him.I
We walked along the trail behind Linc's house, spiraling deeper into the woods. I had no idea how long we'd been walking. I kept my eyes on the ground, focused on the steady rhythm of our footsteps. It was easier than thinking about everything else.Linc stayed close but didn't crowd me. After a while, he reached out and took my hand. I let him. I didn't pull away or flinch like I kept doing with Cast now. We kept walking hand in hand."Do you regret it?" he asked. "What happened in the office?"My heart started beating faster as the memories began flooding back. His focus had been entirely on me. Nothing like sex had always been before. Where it felt like something to endure, something I had to do because it was expected. But real. He hadn't let me retreat into myself. He had made sure I experienced everything.Over and over.I shook my head. "No, I don't regret it."I felt him exhale, but he still looked uncertain. "I thought maybe it made things worse for you. I wasn't thinking c
LINC - I couldn't believe I said it. "Let me mark you." It came out before I could stop it. I'd lost all sense of control. My heart was still racing, my arms still around her, and I knew I'd crossed a line. She was so fragile, still reeling from everything with Cast. This wasn't the time to push her. I knew that, but I did it anyway. I couldn't hold it back. It had slipped out, and now everything inside me needed her to say yes. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn't used to this. Losing control, saying things without thinking them through first. I always knew what to say and what to do. I prided myself on that. But with her, I couldn't seem to keep it together. She brought out something in me I didn't understand. Something reckless, something almost desperate. I wasn't used to being off-balance. And now, I had thrown the question at her. I waited, my heart pounding in my ears, too fast, too loud. She didn't say no. She didn't push me away, and that made the panic worse.
“We’ll need to go to my pack’s land,” Linc said, his hand resting on mine. “The moon isn’t full, so we’ll need to be there for it to work.” He hesitated for a moment. “Plus, I want to take you somewhere special.”“Special?”He nodded. “It’s a place I used to go when I needed to calm down. It’s a bit of a mess now, but it meant a lot to me growing up.” I agreed, and we left the pond behind, heading deeper into the woods. The further we walked, the quieter everything became. The trees were thicker here. Everything was overgrown and untouched. It was subtle, but I could feel the shift in the air as we neared the border of his pack’s land. After a while, we entered a clearing. In the center stood the remains of an old house, or at least what was left. The roof had caved in, and thick vines tangled through the crumbling stone walls. Arches that once framed the structure now leaned to the side. The stone was weathered and broken. Despite its decay, the place had a kind of beauty.Like nat
CAST - I paced the empty house. The silence felt wrong. It didn't belong here. She didn't belong anywhere but here with me, but she was gone. She had left with Linc, and deep down, I knew that meant something I wasn't ready to face. She'd said she'd come back, but I wasn't stupid. This wasn't her just stepping out for a few hours. This was her walking out of my life. I had broken her. She wouldn't return. She shouldn't. If I had been in her shoes, I would've run from me too. I had ruined everything we had. Sitting in that silence, in the house I had bought for her, for our baby, was driving me mad. I couldn't just stand there, surrounded by the remnants of a life I had thrown away. So I started working on the house again, putting the nursery together, even though I knew deep down that she might never come back to see it. But it gave me something to focus on. Something other than the hole inside my chest where she had been. This house was supposed to be a home for her. For us.
Linc stood in front of me, so close I could feel the heat radiating from his body. I wasn’t used to feeling this way, but with him, it was different. I wanted more.He stepped closer, softly brushing the side of my neck with his fingers. My heart raced, but it wasn’t from panic. It was anticipation. I knew what he would do, and for the first time, I wanted it. I really wanted it. It was nothing like when Cast marked me. With Cast, I had been terrified, my body stiff with fear because deep down, I knew he hadn’t wanted me.Not then, not in the way I wanted him.But Linc… he wanted me.He leaned in, his breath warm against my skin, and kissed where my shoulder met my neck. I closed my eyes, letting the feeling wash over me. This was different. This was right. I had been scared before, unsure of what it meant to be marked, but now I understood. This was what it felt like to be claimed by someone who actually wanted you. Someone who saw you, wanted to be with you, and wasn’t just fu
LINC - I only thought I was starting to fall for Lila before I marked her. Those feelings, the pull I'd felt growing stronger day by day, were nothing compared to what slammed into me the moment my teeth sank into her skin. The bond between us snapped into place, flooding my senses with something deeper than anything I'd ever experienced. I was gone, completely. Head over heels, no going back. Even if she wasn't my fated mate, she was more than just a chosen one to me. There was something else. Something far more significant. I felt it in my bones, in the way every fiber of me screamed that she was mine. Not because of tradition or pack expectations but because I wanted her. I needed her. She was everything, more than I'd ever thought possible. I lay beside her, watching her sleep, my mind still reeling from the intensity of what had happened between us. Hours had passed since I marked her, since we had made love, yet I couldn't stop looking at her. The bond pulsed between u
CAST - I stared at my phone, the light from the screen blurring my vision. Hours of texting Selena had led me to this.A mess I couldn't seem to pull myself out of. Each message from her seemed to heighten my desperation, like I was reaching for a lifeline I knew I shouldn't take, but couldn't stop myself. She had promised everything. She'd bring all her devices, the cloud files, whatever incriminating texts or photos she had, and let me burn them. Right in front of her. She even offered to let me comb through her phone myself, to prove she had no other copies. I could check every single thing."Plus, if you mark me, you'll know if I'm lying," she reminded me. I didn't want to mark her. That much I knew. I didn't want her in my life at all, not now, not after everything that had happened with Lila. The thought of marking someone else was like trying to swallow broken glass. But the way Selena played on my fears, on my insecurities, was masterful. She always knew how to make me q
DECLAN - We took the long way back to the packhouse. It took far longer than the ten minutes I'd agreed to. Suki was going to give me hell for that. She’d probably time it down to the second and bring it up at dinner, then again at breakfast. I was already prepared to ignore the first three times before I gave in to whatever atonement she had planned. Honestly, I was looking forward to the punishment. Gaia and I fell into old habits. She challenged me to spot tree knots shaped like animals. I told her she was making them up when she did. She called me arbitrary and pronounced it correctly. I lobbed a pinecone at her head. She caught it, grinned, and tucked it into my hood when I wasn't looking. It was familiar. Just two people who used to know every inch of each other, finding the quiet rhythm again without forcing it. When the porch came into view, I slowed. "You and Dorian should stay," I paused. "The east wing at the Roman packhouse is yours if you want it. No strings. Just.
DECLAN - "I'm sorry." I looked over. She kept her eyes forward. Hands shoved into the front pocket of her hoodie. Shoulders stiff. We walked side by side. The trees closed in around us while the porch lights faded behind. Neither of us said anything for a long time. Our feet crunched through the undergrowth. The breeze rolled between us. I didn't try to close the space. Neither did she. But neither of us veered away either. The remains of the old house peeked through the trees. Blackened beams and collapsed stone still scattered across the clearing. A skeleton. A memory. "For how I rejected you. And for not telling you why." I didn't answer until we reached the house. "You didn't just reject me. You vanished." She flinched. "I know." "So why?" She took a deep breath and stopped walking. Her eyes stayed on what was left of the front steps. "I'd gotten the call. The implant was finally approved, and they found a werewolf doctor who could do it. It was scheduled. It was final
DECLAN - That was her fated mate.It was written in the way he tracked her every move, in how he hovered just close enough to guard but not crowd. His posture said protector. His eyes, sharp and constantly scanning, said no one would get within reach unless she wanted them to. He moved like he'd been made for that role. Like every instinct in his body had clicked into place the moment he met her.He moved like he already belonged next to her.Judson finally spoke. "This going to be a thing now? Fated mates falling out of the sky onto your porch?" Then he squinted. "Wait. No way. Dorian?"The other man stepped forward, arms crossed. "Judson."Judson huffed. "Damn, talk about the sky falling. Of course it's you."Gaia looked between them. "Wait. How do you know him?"Judson tilted his head toward Dorian but didn't look away. "Med school. He was top of the class. Never let anyone forget it. Ever."Dorian crossed his arms. "And you were always one sarcastic comment away from getting kic
DECLAN - "You're not gonna pout if I drink the last one, are you?"Judson didn't even glance over. "Only if you waste it."I reached for the bottle closest to him, smirking when he didn't try to stop me.Crickets chirped loudly in the trees. The house behind us had finally gone still. It was peaceful.A lazy row of empty beer bottles lined the railing like some halfhearted scoreboard. Judson leaned back again, one ankle hooked over the other, shoulders loose. That rare kind of settled that only happened when nothing needed to be said.We were both quiet. Not the kind of silence that needed filling, just the kind that held space. The kind that made it really easy to notice how much I liked having him here. Judson wasn't soft, but he didn't crowd either. There was something about the way he held space, like he understood exactly how not to mess it up. I hadn't realized how rare that was until I felt it.Until headlights swept across the tree line.Judson didn't move, but I straightened
DECLAN - I squinted. "So... you left your pack?"Judson shook his head. "Not really. My sister's mate stepped in. Human guy, believe it or not. Doctor. Weirdly chill. He helps now with the medical side, which freed me up to go to college and train properly. They all said it made sense. I guess... I just haven't thought much about what I was gonna do after."He paused, then shrugged. "Now I get it. I wasn't supposed to leave the South yet. I was supposed to be here. Meeting her. If I'd been back in North Carolina, this wouldn't have happened. Or it would've taken years."He looked out toward the trees. "So no. I didn't leave them. I just followed where I was needed next."I blinked. "You live on the Riverwalk."He grinned. "I know. Kind of perfect, right? It's loud on the weekends and peaceful at sunrise. Plus, amazing food within walking distance."I stared at him.He raised his bottle. "Look, I didn't plan to meet my mate while helping chart bloodwork samples in a borrowed lab, but
DECLAN -When we pulled into the driveway, Dad and Linc were already waiting.They didn't speak, but I felt something in the way they stood there. At the time, I'd figured they were just sizing up Judson, doing the protective dad routine. But now, after everything Judson had said, it clicked in a way that made my chest feel too tight.They already knew.Not just about Judson. About what he might be. About how important he was going to be. Just like they'd known about Mom. Just like they'd kept it all quiet. For me.I'd spent so long thinking I was figuring all of this out on my own. That the timing was random, or fate, or whatever the hell else. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe Cassy hadn't just guided me.Maybe my whole damn family had. Perhaps they'd been walking beside me the entire time, keeping quiet so I could come to it on my own.Judson wasn't the surprise.I was.They stood at the edge of the porch, arms crossed, matching unreadable expressions locked in place. The second we still,
I stepped forward and stifled the growl as best I could. "Hey. Get up. Now!"The guy startled awake. "What?"Tory shot up in the bed, wide-eyed. "Declan, no! No, wait! This is... this is Judson."She looked panicked. But not afraid. Not at all."He's... he's my..."I stopped. Everything shifted. I looked at her. Looked at him. Looked back."You're mate."She nodded.I took a breath. Held it. Then stepped forward and stuck out my hand. Judson stood, still looking like he expected me to deck him. He shook my hand. I shook his harder.Tory glanced between us, then spoke up. "He's a nurse practitioner here. Was walking past the ICU when I first came in. Caught my scent in the hallway and almost dropped his coffee."Judson rubbed his hand where I'd gripped it "I tried to play it cool. Avoided eye contact, walked the long way around, you know, the usual 'don't poke the angry fathers and big brother' protocol. I thought I was being slick about it too. Barely even looked at her. Just nodded a
We didn’t leave the woods.Not that day. Not that night. I didn’t want to, and neither did she.We ran until our legs trembled. We played, circling and snapping at each other’s heels, tackling and wrestling in the mossy patches of clearing. We swam again, slower this time, more tangled up in each other than anything else. We lay in the grass and the sun, curled together, drowsy and content.And then we shifted.Over and over.Human, wolf, back again. Each shift smoother than the last. No moon. No pain. Not really. Not like the pain I had braced for my entire life. Just choice. Pure choice and ability. The power that came with it was almost addictive. I always wondered what they meant when saying the power overtook the pain. It was raw. It was strong. I loved it.And I loved her.We didn’t talk much, not out loud. But we didn’t need to. We were in each other's heads and had no plans to leave. When we shifted back to skin, we couldn’t stop touching. Couldn’t stop reaching. It was like
It hit all at once.One second I was halfway to my knees, still trying to breathe through the pull of her shift. The next, my ribs cracked outward and my body folded. I didn't fall. I collapsed.The pain was nothing like the moon-forced change I'd endured before. This wasn't guided or timed. This was raw. A hundred fractures all at once, my limbs pulling and twisting, muscles screaming as they rearranged.I couldn't stop the sound that tore out of my throat."Cassy!"I didn't even know what I was asking. Just that I was begging. My mind reached for her. I was desperate and frantic.Her voice came, faint and steady."You're never selfish, so you would've never asked."Bones popped in my jaw. My fingers stretched, then broke, shifting in crooked bursts. I slammed my hand into the dirt and gritted my teeth against the next snap. My skin burned. My eyes blurred.Oh shit.Did she make me...Cassy... Did you do this?Another bone cracked somewhere deep in my back, cutting the thought in hal