opened onto a world

ttering like scattered ice. Furniture that p

my one suitcase suddenly feeling

aid, already walking away

ought, but kept

ueak against marble so polished I could see my own re

e said it. He was already unbuttoning his jacket, already somewhere

" I mu

cond. Then kept walking

old apartment. The bed alone looked like it had n

nd let myself breathe for

one b

e you did not just marry

cracked and a little des

I saw it on the pack registry ten minutes ago. Elara Voss-D

I said. "It's n

hat magically disappeared from your uncle

eyes. "That

of us understood what it meant to be born into packs that saw us as currency instead of p

trust anyone. Not his Beta, not his own cousins. There are rumors his last three advis

's just d

lpha with that much money needed a nobody like you specifically. Rich, powe

that flash of something raw and afraid before he buried it. I ha

reful," I s

ll report - decor, wardrobe, and whether he'

d it felt a little

too quiet. I wandered out of my roo

see more of the place I was

window at the end. I passed a room that looked untouched - a nursery-sized space, em

htened witho

I s

ight spilling from a lap

one he told me

round right then. Ever

n't l

st to be helpful. Just to prove I wasn't the reckless little

ndow. Dozens of folders, most locked,

ept

center of the screen - like someone had be

T MOON

se stu

it. I knew that with to

ked it

- dozens of them, and my stomach dro

ren't s

e pictur

ent - me leaving my pack's house last week, my face caught mid-laugh, mid

linked at the top of an open document, like

und resonance detected at

, the flo

un a

screen behind me - and for the first time since I'd met him, I watched every trace o