Dani’s breath trembled out of her.
“You’re sending me back into hell,” she whispered.
“We are sending you home,” Lavinia corrected softly. “For the first time.”
The wordhomefelt like glass in her throat.
Dani bowed her head, unable to trust her voice. When she finally stepped out of the chamber, she walked as if the world had shifted beneath her feet.
Because it had.
She had sworn to herself she would never return to Alaska.
She had sworn she would never see Arthur Wells again.
She had sworn she would keep Aurelia’s parentage buried forever.
And now…
In one week, she would be walking straight back into the land she’d fled, carrying the secret that would shatter all their lives.
She pressed a trembling hand to her stomach.
“Auri,” she whispered into the empty hallway, “what have I done?”
She didn’t know whether she meant ten years ago or right now.
Chapter 2 - Arthur
The axe bit into the frozen log with a crack that echoed through the trees.
Arthur wrenched it free, breath misting in the cold air. The clearing around him was already ringed with neatly stacked wood, but he kept going, muscles flexing, shoulders tight. As long as his hands were busy, his thoughts couldn’t drag him back to the same dark circles they’d been grinding through for weeks.
The northern woods stretched in all directions, stark and bare. Birch and pine reached skeletal fingers up into a pale sky, the light thin and winter-weak even though it was only late autumn. Snow had not yet fully settled, but frost clung to the roots of the trees and thickened up the distant mountains, hidden behind a bank of clouds.
He preferred being out here. Away from the compound, away from the constant pressure of eyes, of questions, of responsibilities. Out here, there was only the weight of the axe in his hands and the sting of cold air in his lungs.
Chop.
Breathe.
Chop.
“You know,” a voice drawled from behind him, “we have this fantastic thing these days calledindoor heating.”
Arthur didn’t turn. “You volunteering to help, or just here to bother me?”
Chase stepped into the clearing, hands tucked in his coat pockets, dark hair falling into his eyes. His younger brother was broader than he’d been a year ago, muscle layered over his once-lean frame, but there was still something boyish in the way he carried himself. That easy, restless energy.
“Maybe a bit of both,” Chase said, “I’ve been looking for you for an hour.”
Arthur slammed the axe down again. The log cracked cleanly in two. “You found me.”
“Barely. You’re halfway up the mountains if you go much further.” Chase squinted at him. “Training ended ages ago. You’re supposed to be there.”
“I wasn’t needed.”
“You’re Alpha,” Chase pointed out. “You’re always needed.”
