He called me his ruin. Then he made me one. 

Alpha Shiloh's rejection wasn’t just a scar—it was a betrayal. He left me shattered. Broken. And I had to rebuild myself in silence. 
I almost forgot the way his touch once burned like salvation.  

Now he’s back.  

Not to beg forgiveness. To bargain. A deadly mission, he says. He promises freedom.

But then presence ignites my wolf into a frenzy. She thrashes, desperate to claim him again. But I remember the coldness in his eyes when he exiled me. The way the pack turned their backs as I crawled into the wilderness, half-dead and wholly broken. Hate simmers hotter than desire.

Yet here I am, bargaining with the devil who shattered me. Every moment we share is a lie. He doesn’t know about the shadows I’ve fed, the truth I’ve buried.  

Or the child.  

One whisper of its existence, and the pack will paint the forest with my blood. 

But the closer we get to completing his mission, the harder it is to hide… from him, or from the part of me that still craves him.  

Freedom has a price.  

So does vengeance.  

And I’m not sure which will destroy me first.

Heart in my throat, I moved between Shiloh's wolf and Irving . If it had been any other time in my life, I wouldn't have blinked an eye as I watched Shiloh shed Irving  to pieces, but in a situation I never saw coming, Irving  was all that stood between me and Maeve's wrath.


I could feel Irving 's power behind me. No wolf. Only human. I glared behind me, and he was smiling happily.


My stomach turned, and I focused on Shiloh. "Irving  crossed my path in the woods. We had a conversation, and then we heard Cam's screams."


Maeve snarled, but I ignored her and kept my eyes on Shiloh. If he killed Irving , any progress they made would be shredded. Ignoring the violence cresting off him, I placed my hand under his chin. The touch soothed him, and he sat.


"So another alpha has come to your aid," Maeve growled. "Should I expect Asher to be at your beck and call next?"


Chapter 59 - 9