Something in his expression sharpened; his grip at my wrist roughened by a fraction, more wolf than gentleman. “That is the best plan I’ve heard in years from a woman who’s about to rise.”
To rise?
His words was a strange kind of comfort.
Heat flooded me so fast I almost swayed when he found my neck again, mouth hot against my skin. I felt the sharp suggestion of his fangs graze the spot where my pulse beat, then heard him curse softly as he pulled back a fraction.
I refused to let the distance stay. I cupped his jaw and dragged him back to me, kissing him like I had been starving for years.
After a moment I pulled away, breathless, only so my hands could find the buttons of his shirt. I worked them loose one by one until the fabric parted, and then I froze.
A long, pale scar cut across his chest, thick and uneven. My brows drew together. There was something disturbingly familiar about it as if I had seen the wound long before I ever saw the mark it left.
“Where did you…”
My words dissolved into a moan as he caught my mouth again, deeper this time, taking advantage of my shock. His tongue slid against mine, slow and deliberate, and my thoughts scattered like papers in a storm.
What happened next was a storm with a center.
Hands, breath, heat. The wall at my back, his body caging mine, the drag of fabric giving way to skin, the scrape of his teeth along my lower lip. A growl caught low in my throat, answered by one in his chest that vibrated through my bones; when he finally moved deeper against me, the sudden stretch tore a gasp from my mouth.
Hours later. I was still sprawled on the bed when he finally rose and crossed to the bathroom. My limbs felt heavy, loose, as if someone had taken me apart and put me back together in a slightly different order.
He did not bother to hide his nakedness. He walked to the shower like the room belonged to him, shoulders relaxed, back a map of muscle and old scars.
For a second it felt like he was deliberately parading that body in front of me, giving me a full, unhurried view.
Heat climbed my face. I scooped the blanket closer and looked away, pretending to study the city lights instead of the curve of his spine.
“Why look away now?” he asked, voice amused and roughened by the night. The mattress dipped as his weight prowled closer. “We already shared something sacred, little wolf.”
I kept my gaze on the window, on the first thin gray of approaching dawn. “There is nothing sacred about this,” I said quietly. “We both know this is only for tonight. Men-werewolf or not-are like that.”
The bed shifted more noticeably as he sat down beside me. I felt the heat of his body even through the blanket.
When I finally let myself look, he was leaning on one hand, bare torso still damp from the shower, eyes fixed on my face with unnerving focus.
“Believe it or not, I’m not ‘like that. And when someone lasts until morning with me, I don’t usually plan on letting her go.”
I glanced back at the window. The sun was already threatening the horizon, soft light trying to creep into the room. I swallowed hard.
“That will not be a problem,” I said. My voice came out softer than I wanted, but I made myself move.
I slid off the bed, dragging the blanket with me like armor. “We don’t need to see each other again. But I appreciate that you kept me company tonight, so… thank you.”
William’s POV
She shut the bathroom door in my face and I smirked.
Cute.
Most she-wolves I’ve tangled with cling after, wanting strokes and sweet promises. Humans too.
But Jessica? She took the heat, took her breath back, and walked off like she owned her skin again. Different. Dangerous in the right ways.
I wrapped a towel low on my hips when a mindlink brushed the edge of my thoughts.
“William…”
I stepped out to the balcony instead of answering. City lights below. Night wind on bare skin. I pulled my phone and hit the other line because I know what Jessica can do with links. A gift like hers picks up whispers she should not hear.
The call clicked alive. “Yes, Aunt.”
The lazy drawl I wear in polite rooms dropped. My voice came out edged and clean.
The sun had caught my shoulder earlier, lit the serpent ink that climbs my collarbone. It always looks like it moves when I breathe.
“Your footage has been archived by the High Council,” Aunt Rose said. “To move anything forward, the Council wants the victim herself. Jessica has to file in person.”
My eyes thinned. “Is that so.”
“Yes, son.”
She’s right. Jessica started the fire tonight. She will finish it if she decides to burn the rest. She has the kind of spine that does not break, only bends to gather force.
“Good,” I said. “Thanks, Aunt Rose. I am ending the call.”
“Wait,” she said. “Does this girl know she dealt with the Dark Spirit Healer herself?”
I let the silence roll, then the corner of my mouth curved up. “If she knew, she would have never climbed into my bed. She’d bolt. She’d think she was cursed.”
Aunt Rose chuckled. “So you’re enjoying this game.”
“I am.” I cut the line.
I went back inside and frowned. The bathroom was open. Steam fading. Empty. The dresses I had set out were scattered like somebody lost a fight with a wardrobe.
The truth was simpler. She slipped.
Jessica was gone.
I shook my head and walked into the bathroom, dropping the towel. Hot water still ghosted the glass. I leaned a palm on the counter and grinned at my reflection.
“Alright, little wolf,” I said. “You want to play.”
I could taste her in the air. Moonlight and crushed gardenia, the trace of LunaSkin twisted with her own scent.
Under it, something rarer. The soft bite of mirrorstone magic. She carried it like a second heartbeat.
I cracked the window and pulled a breath deep. There it was. A thin ribbon of her trail running out the door, into the hall, down past the service stair where most wolves would not look. Smart girl. I like smart more than pretty.
She happens to be both.
Johan’s POV
I got Suzette into emergency and handed her off. I hated waiting halls. Kain hit my mindlink. “Alpha, the Gamma investigators confirmed the surveillance Jessica submitted. Authentic. The High Council archivists logged it. A case opens if Jessica files in person.”
My hand balled into fists, claws peeking from my fingertips.
So it was real?
I couldn’t help but recall Jessica ten years ago. Ash on her skin. Blood in her hair. Eyes glassy and still trying to trust me.
I wanted to find her now, catch her scent, hear her heartbeat and know it was strong. I hated that I wanted that.
There was no hiding from it now. Suzette crossed a line you do not cross. My wolf paced, ears flat, teeth on edge.
“Listen up,” I told Kain. “Transfer the cliffside villa to Jessica. Title in her name. When the deed is ready, bring it to me yourself.”
Kain hesitated over the link. “That place is worth a hundred million. Ms. Nina lives there.”
“Do it.”
I cut the link and sat with a sigh, catching my head.
The villa used to be the future I drew in my head. Jessica’s garden. Our den. If a signature and a house could pay back a fraction of what she lost, then fine. It was a start.
Lydia sobbed on the bench across from me.
I remembered her voice in those clips. Rage crawled up my spine hot enough to blister.
She slid closer, still crying. “Alpha, why are they taking so long? Can you push the head healer? Are they even treating my daughter?”
I shook her hand off. She gasped like I had slapped her. “Maybe worry about the video where you let that whipping happen.”
Her face went chalk white. Her knees wobbled. “Alpha, those recordings are fabricated. We never”
“The High Council does not archive lies. You and Suzette put Jessica in the ground and left her there.”
My voice came out cold. It made her shake.
I stood to get space from both of them. From all of it.
But Lydia clutched my sleeve. “Alpha, do not leave us. Suzette is hanging by a thread. Do you want to see her in chains because Jessica is vengeful?”
I looked down at her fingers and peeled them off slowly. “If you want to shield your daughter, you had better start figuring out how to carry the blame.”
The doors opened. A healer pushed Suzette out on a gurney. She was pale, lashes damp, breath shallow. Her wolf-scent was thin and sour.
Lydia rushed the bed. “Healer, how is my daughter?”
The chief healer bowed. “Luna Suzette’s constitution is compromised. Her wolf core is unstable. Strong emotion can spike her pulse and crash her temperature. Keep her calm. Keep her out of pack conflict.”
Lydia wailed. “My poor girl.”
I stepped in. “Use the best tonics. Call moonwell specialists. Whatever it costs. Keep her alive.”
“Understood, Alpha. We will do everything we can.”
They moved her to a private room.
Two hours crawled. Suzette finally blinked awake. She stared at the ceiling like she did not know where she was.
Then she saw me and remembered.
“Johan, did I pass out again? What did the healer say? Am I dying?”
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