CAST - Waking up on Linc's couch felt strange. I didn't know where I was for a moment. I hadn't slept like that in... I couldn't even remember the last time. Maybe since the divorce had gone through. I hadn't slept more than an hour or two at a time, and it must've finally caught up with me. My body had clearly crashed, forcing itself to shut down. I blinked and looked around the room, piecing together where I was. Lila's scent was all over me. It was comforting and painful at the same time. I could tell she had been touching me while I slept. That's probably why I'd slept so hard. It wasn't something I wanted to think about for too long. Her scent was still too familiar, and I wasn't ready to process what it meant now that everything between us had changed. She still smelled like... Mine. I heard quiet sounds coming from the kitchen. I pushed myself up and made my way toward the noise. My legs were heavy, still stiff from sleep. I wasn't in a hurry. Part of me didn't want
I stood by the window, watching Cast pace on the driveway with his phone pressed against his ear. He'd mentioned something about handling business, things he'd neglected for too long. Now that he was rested, he needed to start paying attention to things again before everything started falling apart. But I knew better. The thought of him talking to Selena was worming its way into my head. It shouldn't bother me, but it did. And I hated that. Linc slid his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. I leaned back against his chest. "He's not leaving," he murmured against my ear. "Yeah... That's not what I'm scared of," I confessed. "I know," Linc answered. "As soon as I'm Alpha, I'll command her to stay away from him. Then, she won't have a choice." I turned to face him, surprised by the certainty in his voice. "Is it really that simple?" He sighed. "With the women in my family… yes." I studied him as unease started creeping in. "You talk about your family like that a lot," I
Linc paced by the door. "I'll be back before the meeting," he said, keys in hand. "Just need to grab some things from the apartment. Clothes, paperwork. You going to be okay here?" "I'll be fine," I answered, knowing he was concerned about leaving me here with Cast. I traced the stubble along his jaw, feeling him relax under my touch. "Stop worrying about that. You know where I stand. I chose you."His smiled. "I know," he said softly, his hand resting on mine for a moment before he pulled away. "I'll be back soon.""Do you have a suit I can borow?" Cast asked from the living room. Linc chuckled under his breath. "Yeah, man, I'll bring something for you. I can't have you show up in a T-shirt and jeans." Then he was gone, and I was left standing in the silence, aware of the charged atmosphere settling in the house. Cast was in the other room. I felt his presence, the familiar feeling of it tugging at me. Like a thread I couldn't sever no matter how hard I tried.I walked into the li
LINC - I stood frozen in the doorway. Exhaustion and a strange feeling as I was driving away clouded my thoughts. Seeing them like that, resting against each other, was all it took. It didn't matter how innocent it was. The anger overtook all my senses instantly. Fucking instantly.Lila's head snapped up when she noticed me. "Linc," she said, pushing away from Cast. "It's not what you think."I couldn't respond. My body was too weak to trust with words. But the jealousy, the burn of everything I'd been trying to hold back, broke through. Cast moved back slowly, his hands lifted in a passive way that only made me angrier. He could feel the shift in the room. He knew I wasn't in a good place.I barely looked at her. "Forgot my keys. Seems like I missed something else, too."Cast didn't react or rise to meet the challenge. He didn't want this fight. I knew that. But I was too far gone. The control I thought I'd mastered slipped. I stepped toward him, ignoring Lila."What's going on?"
The room was packed, every pair of eyes locked on us as we entered. At the far end, Selena sat beside a man I didn't recognize. I almost didn't recognize her either. She looked pale and thin. Her usual sharpness had dulled.Linc leaned in close to my ear. "That's Astin," he whispered. "My brother."I froze. That was the one he was challenging? He had dark hair, much like Linc. It would be easy to assume they were brothers if I didn't already know he was adopted. He scanned the room with a detached indifference, but there was something else. Something dangerous in the way he held himself. His presence made my skin crawl. He exuded an almost evil energy, like he could snap his fingers and tear everything apart without a second thought.He was everything Linc wasn't. Calculated. Heartless.I swallowed hard, pulling my eyes away from him and back to Selena. She hadn't seen me yet. Her attention was focused entirely on the man beside her. Her adopted brother. The connection between them w
The drive back to Linc's house felt longer than usual, every second stretching into what felt like hours. I knew he needed medical attention, but he'd refused to go to the hospital. He was slumped against the seat, holding his ribs, eyes barely open. I kept glancing at him. The bruises and cuts made it hard to look away. Each bump in the road made him grunt, and it took everything I had not to scream at him to let me help.We reached the house, and I rushed to his side, helping him out of the car. He staggered, his weight pressing down on me as he tried to catch his breath. "You're not doing this alone," I warned, already slipping an arm around his waist. He leaned into me, taking that step without argument, and I guided him through the door.The house greeted us with an eerie silence. I helped him sit on the couch before grabbing a clean towel and water. "This might sting," I warned as I pressed the wet towel against a deep gash on his cheek.He flinched but didn't pull away. "I've h
CAST -Selena was sitting across me in what I guess was my bedroom at Linc and Lila's place. I couldn't exactly leave. Not with Linc barely functioning. I needed to stay here to protect Lila and my baby. And Selena. I couldn't look at her without getting upset about all the damage and chaos.She had her legs pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around them. I wanted to help, to say something that would make this easier, but I had no idea what to say.I crossed the room and kneeled in front of her. "Selena."She didn't move, didn't even look up. Her body trembled, her breath coming fast. She was having a panic attack. It was clearly a panic attack. I couldn't keep standing there doing nothing. "Talk to me," I urged.She finally looked up. "I don't know how."I could've pulled her into my arms then. Instead, I held back, waiting for her to speak. "You have to try," I told her. "We can't stay stuck like this. If we are going to move forward, we can't."She shuddered. "I've
CAST -I'd already cum multiple times, but that felt like hours ago. My body was beyond the point of exhaustion, every nerve burning with overstimulation.But Selena kept going. She rode me like it was all that mattered, her thighs tightening around me as she moved. Every thrust, every roll of her hips pulled me back into the moment, back into her. Until there was nothing left but sensation. Nothing else mattered. Just her. Just us.There was still an us. After everything, there was still an us. Her eyes stayed on me, never wavering, and I was gone. Lost in her. I forgot everything. Forgot who I was, where I was. It was just feeling her body against mine, her on top of me, keeping me tethered to reality. Her reality. I grabbed her hips, digging my fingers into her skin as she pushed harder. My body trembled beneath her as the ache grew almost unbearable. Each second dragged me further under, pulling me away from thought and the world outside this moment. I was sinking into her,
CAST -I wasn't sure why it happened. Why Linc let it happen. Why any of us did. It was like the moment had taken on a life of its own, and we were just caught in its current. She had crumbled onto the floor, overwhelmed by how we were acting. I couldn't leave her there. I bent down and scooped her up, her body slack against me, and something in the way she folded into my arms shattered the last of my restraint.Her lips were right there, and I didn't think before kissing her. It wasn't soft or cautious. It was the kind of kiss that demanded more. Her lips pressed back against mine, but then she broke away, looking toward Linc. He was already behind her, his hands resting on her sides, his fingers dragging in slow, deliberate patterns on her growing belly. She looked caught between us, her breaths uneven as her eyes darted back to me. She was about to panic."You need us both, don't you? Just… just let it happen." My lips brushed hers again, desperate to pull her back to me.Her att
Declan’s breathing finally evened out, his tiny body curling against me in complete trust. I placed him back in his crib, smoothing the blanket over him as gently as I could. The nursery quieted again, leaving just the soft hum of the baby monitor in the corner.I turned to CeCe, still sitting on the floor near the crib. Her hands rested in her lap, and her focus stayed on Declan. “He’s fine now. You should go back to your room and get some sleep.”She hesitated, biting her lip. “Helena’s in there… busy.”I raised a brow. “Busy?”She shifted awkwardly. “With her boyfriend. I don’t really want to walk in on that.”I crossed my arms, leaning back against the edge of the crib. “Are they being safe?”“As best they can,” she admitted, looking at her hands. “The healers won’t exactly help with that kind of thing. It’s… hard to get what we need.”“That’s just the old traditions still lingering,” I explained. “The healers were scared of the old alpha and stuck to whatever rules kept them out
LINC - Her skin was soft and smooth beneath my hands as I traced the curves of her body. I felt the goosebumps rise on her skin as I kissed her neck. The way she responded to my touch left no doubt. She wanted me as much as I wanted her. We fit together perfectly. My fingers slid over her back, savoring the warmth radiating from her. She leaned into me, her breath feathering against my neck as I pulled her closer. Her hands roamed, exploring me in ways that made everything else dissolve into nothingness. The sound of her heartbeat thrummed against my chest, grounding me in the moment, in her. My mouth moved over her skin, tasting every inch. She arched under me, her body soft and eager. I pulled back just enough to look at her, but the shadows covered her face. "I need you," I murmured, letting my lips find hers again. The kiss built into something that made us feel endless. Like our bodies could melt together and become one. My body moved against hers as I growled against her
LILA - The knock startled me. My body stiffened as I clung to the remnants of composure, the ache in my chest almost unbearable. Cast turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a towel. I watched him wrap it around himself and head for the door. He seemed far too calm for this. "I've got it," he said, glancing back briefly.I didn't respond. The nausea still twisted in my stomach, and the bond with Linc burned at the edges of my mind, an unwelcome intrusion that wouldn't stop.Cast opened the door, sticking his head out just enough to block whoever it was from seeing inside. "I just finished showering, and Lila's getting cleaned up now. She threw up all over both of us," he explained, his voice casual like it wasn't a blatant lie. "I'll be out in a minute."I froze, heat flushing through me. Not from embarrassment but from pure fury.Before I could think twice, I grabbed a towel and stepped out of the shower, forcing down the bile rising in my throat. The lie was too much, and
CAST -The night stretched endlessly, each tick of the clock reminding me I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Tessa had adjusted my meds earlier in the week, upping the dosage just enough to screw with me. It wasn't the first night I'd spent like this, wide awake while the rest of the pack slept. It was starting to wear me thin.Kat, on the other hand, was out cold. Her body rested against mine, curled into my chest like she couldn't get close enough. The warmth of her breath skimmed my skin, steady and soft, the kind of rhythm that should've been calming. I trailed my hand over her back, tracing idle patterns out of habit more than intent.The room we were in wasn't really ours. It belonged to Lila, and she had Declan here, then briefly to me when I didn't have anywhere else to go. Now it was just "the extra," a placeholder no one had claimed outright. Yet, it was starting to feel like ours. Our stuff was scattered across the dresser and floor, the bed smelled like her shampoo, an
LINC - The road stretched ahead, cutting through familiar territory and leading us toward the human city. My eyes darted to the rearview mirror more often than I wanted to admit. Cast and Kat sat in the backseat, wrapped up in their own little bubble.Cast had her pulled against him, whispering something that made her shoulders shake with quiet laughter. Their heads tilted together, foreheads brushing occasionally, like they couldn't bear the thought of any distance.I told myself to be happy for them. They deserved it, after everything. But no matter how hard I tried, the sight made something twist inside me.Lila sat beside me, her hand resting lightly in mine, but it might as well have been someone else's hand for all the connection I felt. Her grip barely registered, her fingers slack against mine. She wasn't even pretending to care about the passing scenery. Her eyes stayed fixed on the window, distant and unfocused.I could feel the anxiety radiating from her, though she tried
LILA - Linc returned hours later without anything other than more exhaustion and cuts and bruises all over his body. He'd tracked over the entire property inch by inch and could not find Pheobe's scent anywhere else but in the nursery. It was unnerving, to say the least. The house felt different tonight. I moved down the hallway, trying to settle my breathing, trying to put the pieces together. Phoebe's scent, that unmistakable presence, was still here, still staining everything with questions. And I had to get to the bottom of it before it shattered the fragile ground Linc and I were walking on.The girl who smelled like Phoebe had been with Declan earlier, changing his diaper. Feeding him, burping him, and her hands all over him all day. She'd been in that nursery all afternoon. She'd never left, according to multiple people. I walked into the room where we'd confined her. I wouldn't allow them to keep her in the cold basement. She looked up, startled, and I could see her anxiet
LINC - Phoebe's scent hit me hard, sharper, and more potent than ever before. It nearly dropped me where I stood, my wolf surging to the surface in chaotic waves. It rooted itself in my instincts and refused to let go. My entire body reacted violently, muscles tensing as my wolf clawed for control. I wanted to fight it, to reject every maddening urge it awakened, but the instincts were overwhelming. All I could think about was the need to hunt, to claim, to dominate. I hated all of it.The basement air carried the acrid tang of lingering shifts. The full moon always left its mark, draining energy from our bodies and our minds. I didn't want Lila away from me during the shift, but the plan had been the safest for everyone. She'd stayed upstairs with Declan while Cast and I had been confined below, locked in the reinforced cells to ensure no one else bore the brunt of our transformations.As my limbs ached from the shift, the exhaustion was intense. Knowing Declan was safe upstairs h
CAST - The morning of the full moon was chaotic. Lila was a mess, and it wasn't just her—it was everything. She was overwhelmed, emotional, and I could tell the energy from the twins was making everything worse. Her emotions bounced all over the place, and it was impossible to know what would set her off or calm her down. Linc and I spent most of the day in and out of the bedroom, trying to comfort her. She couldn't settle, and every time she reached a moment of peace, something seemed to bring the turmoil back.I knew why she was on edge, and so did Linc. The full moon brought too much baggage, especially after what happened with Jaed. Her need to protect Declan overrode everything else. She didn't want to leave him alone, not with the energy vibrating between all of us. Finally, when it was getting too late to keep waffling, she pulled me aside, her gaze distant as she looked toward Declan's room."I can't go. Wady is great, but I can't leave him." Her hand rested over her stomach.