The truth about my involvement in the serum production came out, and it shattered everything I thought I knew. Cole revealed that I—or rather, an alternate version of me—had been the mastermind behind the entire operation all along. I’d been searching for the brains behind the chaos, suspecting Kieran, suspecting Cole, but I never once considered the possibility that the villain was me. Alphas are missing.
Entire packs are in turmoil. Seth is dead. And all of it leads back to the woman I supposedly am in this world. I’m not her.
I know I’m not her. But that knowledge doesn’t change the reality I’m standing in now. I managed to get rid of Cole by telling him what he wanted to hear—that I’d be deciding soon which Alpha to replace Seth with. It bought me time, but not much.
Jake is investigating. Kieran is investigating. And Harry doesn’t trust me at all. If I don’t play this carefully, the list of people who want my head is long enough to make my survival unlikely.
I told myself I should tell Jake the truth, or at least Kieran, but I know exactly how that would go. They’d either think I’m insane or declare me an enemy. My only hope is to introduce Harry and Emma to one another as soon as possible, get back to my world, and leave this nightmare behind before someone makes me pay for crimes I never committed. Before I could decide what to do next, the decision made itself for me.
—
Jake had been gone too long from the club. I was supposed to be watching Harry, but my mind had drifted to Vivien—to the way her scent thickened when she was near me, to the way she melted into my arms as though she needed me more than air. I hadn’t planned to follow her into that office. But when she left, I couldn’t stop myself.
I told myself it was just instinct. We had barely met, yet she looked at me like she knew me. She spoke about my life with an intimacy that made my skin prickle. I knew I should have been careful.
I knew Harry thought we couldn’t trust her. But the way her body responded to mine, the way her scent sweetened when I touched her—no wolf could fake that. I was convinced she was mine. And then I heard the door open behind us.
I pulled away from her too quickly, adrenaline and frustration warring within me. She stilled, her gaze flicking past me, and I turned to see a young woman standing there—a shifter, judging by her posture, clearly familiar with Vivien. The girl’s eyes moved between us with obvious suspicion, but she held her tongue. Vivien straightened her dress and greeted the girl in a tone I recognized as authority.
“What is it? ”
“Cole requests your presence, Alpha,” the girl said, her tone clipped. My blood ran cold. Cole.
The man I’d heard whispers about since I’d joined this pack, the one connected to the disappearances and the serum. Harry had told me to be careful around both Kieran and Cole, but I hadn’t realized Vivien was so deeply tied to either of them. The way she stiffened at the mention of Cole’s name told me everything I needed to know. “Of course,” Vivien said smoothly, her face unreadable.
She turned to me, and the look in her eyes was a warning. “I’ll handle this. Go back to Harry. ”
I didn’t want to leave.
But her tone allowed no room for argument, and the girl was still standing there, watching. I forced myself to walk out, telling myself I could still keep an eye on the situation. I was already too far in. —
When I finally managed to slip away from the pack gathering and follow the trail back to Cole’s office, I knew I was walking into something I didn’t understand.
The building felt wrong, silent in a way that made my instincts scream. I rounded the corner to Cole’s office and heard voices behind the door—Vivien’s and a man’s. “She bought it,” Cole was saying. “She thinks I’m still the one running this operation, but we both know how this works.
You made a mistake bringing her here. She’s a liability. ”
“Which is exactly why I came to you,” another voice said—familiar, smooth, cold. Kieran.
“I want her gone. Not dead. Gone. ”
My heart stopped.
I pressed myself against the wall, listening. “You know what she knows,” Kieran continued. “That woman managed to live in my home for weeks without me remembering anything about her. I don’t know who she is, or what she wants, but the fact that she keeps showing up around our work is no coincidence.
Get rid of her. Send her somewhere far away. ”
“And if she resists? ” Cole asked.
A pause. Then Kieran’s voice, low and lethal: “Then she resists. But if it comes to that, I’ll handle it personally. ”
I didn’t wait to hear more.
I slipped away, telling myself I needed to warn Vivien, even though I couldn’t tell her how I knew. The pack was split. Trust was a distant memory. And the only thing I could do was keep their secrets to myself.
Harry asked me where I’d been when I returned. I told him I was tracking a lead. He didn’t believe me, but he didn’t push. I couldn’t tell him the truth—not yet.
Something was coming. I could feel it. —
Days passed, and I kept my distance from everyone I knew. I told myself it was for their protection.
The truth was, I was drowning in what I’d overheard, and I didn’t know who to trust anymore. Then Vivien appeared at my door, looking sharper than I’d ever seen her. She was wearing the cold mask I’d heard about, but I’d caught glimpses of what lay beneath it—the vulnerability she tried to hide. “Jake,” she said, as if reading my mind.
“I need your help. ”
I let her in. “What happened? ”
“It’s Harry.
He’s missing. ”
The world seemed to tilt. I grabbed her shoulders, a surge of panic crashing through me. “What do you mean, missing?
”
“He and Emma were supposed to be at a safe house, but they never showed up. Kieran’s men have been searching all night, and no one can find them. I came to you because I need someone I can trust. ”
I stared at her, remembering what I’d overheard in Cole’s office.
Kieran wanted her gone. He said she was a liability. I couldn’t tell her that—not yet. But somewhere deep in my gut, I knew something was wrong.
“Why would William Kieran want his own brother’s mate to disappear? ” I asked carefully. Vivien’s eyes flickered with something I couldn’t read before she looked away. “I don’t know.
But I intend to find out. ”
She turned to leave, but I caught her wrist. “Not alone. Harry is my family too.
I’m coming with you. ”
—
We searched through the night, following any trail we could find. By dawn, we’d discovered nothing. But the more time I spent with her, the more I realized I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her.
She was everything I shouldn’t have wanted—cold, calculating, dangerous. She was trouble, and I was falling for her anyway. I just hoped Harry was still alive, because losing him would break something in me that could never heal. —
We finally found Harry and Emma hiding in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the city.
They’d been forced to flee when Kieran’s men ambushed them, but they’d escaped with their lives. Relief crashed through me so hard that I nearly doubled over, and Vivien insisted they come back to our estate until things settled down. I agreed. But as I watched them settle in, I couldn’t still the feeling that something was wrong—something that had nothing to do with the attack and everything to do with the secrets lingering between us all.
Then Cole arrived, walking through the front door like he owned the place. He had news. “We found the one responsible for the serum network,” he said, his voice rich with satisfaction. “It wasn’t who we thought.
”
I stepped forward. “Who? ”
Cole glanced at Vivien and smiled in a way I didn’t like. “Your mother,” he said, looking directly at her.
“Genevieve. ”
The blood drained from Vivien’s face, and I knew very little of her family had ever been good news. “I’m afraid we have proof of her involvement,” Cole continued. “She’s been running the network from the shadows for years.
She’s the one who hired Phil to carry out the attacks. And she’s admitted to having tried to poison you more than once when you were a child. ”
Vivien’s composure shattered then. She turned to us, her eyes wild with pain.
“I thought I knew her. I thought she was just heartless. I didn’t realize she’d been the one pulling all the strings. ”
I wanted to reach for her, but I couldn’t move.
Because for the first time since I’d met her, she looked genuinely defeated. —
Genevieve’s arrest sent shockwaves through the pack. Vivien withdrew from us all, shutting herself away in her room. Harry came to find me, worried.
“She blames herself,” he said. “When really, none of this was ever her fault. ”
I nodded, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the truth of what happened next would change everything between us. And I was right.
—
A month later, Vivien revealed the next piece of the puzzle: Phil was still out there, and she was willing to risk her own life to bring him down. She’d tracked him to an abandoned chemical plant on the outskirts of the territory. “If we don’t stop now, he’ll keep building the serum until no one’s safe,” she said, looking at me with those fierce, determined eyes. “I’ve seen what he’s capable of.
I’ve seen what it does to our kind. ”
“Then we go together,” I said. “No,” she replied. “I go alone.
Phil is my mess. I’m the only one who can talk to him. ”
—
She went anyway. I stayed behind against my will, watching her walk out the door.
I wanted to believe in her, but every instinct I had told me to follow. I didn’t. And I’ve regretted it every day since. —
The fight with Phil was brutal.
I arrived at the plant too late. By the time I found her, she was bleeding, trembling. But she’d won. Phil was dead, and the serum was destroyed.
“We did it,” she whispered. “He’s gone. ”
I caught her as she collapsed in my arms. “Don’t talk.
Just focus on me. ”
Her eyes fluttered open, and I saw something there—fear, hope, love. “Jake,” she breathed. “There’s something I need to tell you.
”
“Whatever it is, it can wait. ”
“No. ” She grabbed my wrist with more strength than I expected. “It can’t.
”
—
The next day, in the pack’s infirmary, she told me the truth. “I’m pregnant. And the father is Kieran, not you. ”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
I took a step back, trying to process what she was saying. “You’re his? ”
“Not by choice. It’s complicated.
” She looked away. “I know I have no right to ask anything of you. But I’m asking—please don’t tell anyone. Not Harry.
Not the pack. This child doesn’t belong to anyone but me. ”
A thousand questions raced through my mind—questions about us, about her feelings, about what happened between her and Kieran. But all I could say was, “Why?
”
She finally met my gaze. “Because I couldn’t bear to lose you. And I knew that if people found out about this pregnancy, everything would change. ”
I stood there, torn between everything I felt for her and the truth she’d just flung at my feet.
Ultimately, I did what she asked. I kept her secret. And for the sake of that secret, I kept my distance—which made it harder and harder each day to remember why I’d ever trusted her in the first place. —
Six months later, Vivien gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
She named her Rose. I stood in the doorway of the nursery, watching her hold their daughter for the first time. She looked at my face, and her eyes didn’t waver. “I meant what I said,” I told her.
“This child doesn’t change anything between us. I’m still here. I’ll always be here. ”
She blinked, a tear sliding down her cheek.
“Even after everything? ”
“Especially after everything. ”
—
For a long time, I believed that was the start of a new beginning. But our story was far from over.
The past wasn’t done with us yet, and the worst was still to come.
