Cara’s POV I pull away from Alaric, but his hand still grips my wrist. “Let me go,” I say to him. “Wait, Cara—,” Alaric starts to say, not letting go. His fingers are squeezing into my skin, and my arm starts to feel uncomfortable. I look up at his face and see the firm stare in his eyes, bu
“You’re right, you can handle that, I’m sure of it.” Ruby shoots me a sweetly supportive smile. “But that sounds like a tough day. Do you want to tell me more?” “I think I was able to show the Pack House my true intentions, and that I’m not just helping them to boost my ego or image. So that’s one
Alaric’s POV I’ve become someone I don’t even recognize. “Today is September 19 -Alaric.” Cara doesn’t respond to my text message. Then I realize: the other times Cara hasn’t responded, it was on account of her husband. When Aylon Auburn blocked my number on Cara’s phone, that wasn’t her own
Cara’s POV “Excellent work!” “Yes, great job as usual!” “We knew we could count on you!” I’m in a pack business meeting with my brothers Eamon and Colin, as well as some of the other Pack BloodyMoon nobles and leadership. Eamon just announced that a deal I’d been hard at work to negotiate
Cara’s POV “But why? Why you leave us, Ruby?” I ask my best friend, deeply saddened by her news. “I hate to do it, Cara. But I must. I must go. For Mia.” Ruby says simply. “For Mia?” I ask, confused. How could Ruby leaving help Mia? Mia loves her Auntie Ruby. I imagine what it will be like t
Ruby’s POV “The Bedfords, all of them, supported Lilia and her attempts to become Pack DarkWood’s Luna,” my best friend Cara’s voice was quiet. Trying to prevent children from hearing our words, my voice quiet too: "Oh, that's so disgusting." Then I casually throw the photo aside and never loo
“You do?” I whisper back, looking behind me, checking that neither Cara nor Mia are around to overhear this discussion. There’s no sign of either of them. Ethan nods. “So, what will you do when you’re in DarkWood? Remember that’s where your science competition will be. What will you do if he is
Cara’s POV It’s the day of Ethan’s science competition, and all of us are eager to see how Ethan fares. There’s a large crowd gathered, well over a hundred people. The competitors are a mixture of children from Packs BloodyMoon and DarkWood. At only six years old, Ethan is by far the youngest ch
Alaric’s POVCara’s words shook me to my core. She wanted to… leave?Until this health scare – or whatever this was – things had been going well for us. Just the other night, I had held her in my arms all night long. Our love felt rekindled. But now – she just wanted to go away and not have that any
Alaric’s POVThe first thing I wanted to do after seeing Cara enter Mia’s room was to get her alone so I could ask what was going on, but with the kids so happy to see her, I couldn’t subtly pull her away without upsetting them.For now, I had to push down on my curiosity and my fear and act like ev
Cara’s POVThe diagnosis was difficult to process, and I spent a lot of time in that small room in the hospital, trying to come to terms with everything.Grayson believed that unless I found my wolf, I would only have a few months left to live. I would of course find a second opinion, but I had no r
Alaric’s POV“Cara was feeling lightheaded again,” Colin said, claiming my attention away from Aidan and his fierce glare. “The nurses offered her a room to rest in for a while. She asked you to please continue to look after the kids and said she would join us again soon.”Of course I would look aft
Colin’s POVTo his credit, Grayson did not as much as flinch at my words steeped heavily in accusation. Instead, he just seemed sad and tired.“I diagnosed her,” he said. “Surely you’ve noticed her weakness?”My stomach dropped. I had, as did my brothers. Though she had collapsed, and the Healers lo
“If I can’t find my wolf,” I said, “How much time do you think I have before the deep sleep?”“With your current symptoms, I would give you three months before the sleep takes you,” he said. “In the sleep state, you could last for up to five years longer before…”Before I died.Facing my own mortali
Cara’s POV“I have been told the date of the car accident,” Grayson said. “You then confirmed with me that at that time, you lost contact with your wolf. Is that correct?”“Yes,” I said, trying to brace myself, but it was difficult when I had no idea what was coming.Or maybe I did, but I was still
Cara’s POVImmediately, I could see the understanding on Richard’s face. He could see this as the forgiveness that it was, and emotion started to overtake him.Mia turned on the bed to look at him. “Hi, Uncle Richard,” she said brightly.So much emotion was caught in his throat that he seemed to str
Cara’s POVA sense of joy flooded through the room at how quickly and how fully Mia had seemed to recover. Almost all at once, she had gone from being bedridden, too sick to get up from bed, to nearly bouncing out of it. It was all we could do to keep her still until all of the Healers could check h