Chapter 111

Chapter 111
For a little while, it almost felt like a family outing-normal and safe.
But that illusion shattered when the twins grew tired, their eyelids drooping as Cassian tucked them gently back into the boat. My arms felt painfully empty when he lifted them from me, and I lingered on the edge of the deck, unwilling to let them go.
“I don’t know how much longer I can stand this,” I admitted, my voice low, raw. “Being away from them. Pretending they don’t exist in my life here. It’s tearing me apart, Cassian.”
He looked at me then, really looked, and his expression carried no armor, no calculation. Only compassion.
“They’re safe,” he said firmly. “They’re loved. And every sacrifice you’ve made has given them that. I know it doesn’t make the distance easier, but they are in the best hands I can give them.”
I nodded, blinking fast against the tears threatening to fall. But why, Cassian? Why are you doing all this for me? You barely knew me before all of this started. Why would you go to so much trouble?”
For a long moment, he didn’t answer. His gaze lingered on the twins, then shifted back to me, his voice quieter than I’d ever heard it.
sister.”
“)
“Because I’m their uncle… and I mean that literally. Ellie, I think that you might be my
The words stole the air from my lungs. I blinked at him, certain I’d misheard. “What?”
He didn’t flinch, didn’t smile as if it were some cruel joke. My father, Alaric and I… we’ve suspected for a while. There are pieces of your past, fragments that match with the family we lost. We’re not certain yet, but… we think you could be her. The sister I thought was gone forever.”
Shock rooted me in place, my heart thundering. “That’s… impossible,” I whispered, though even as I said it, doubt gnawed at me. So much of my past was shadowed in secrets, things I still didn’t understand. Could it be true?
Cassian only placed a steady hand on my shoulder. “I wouldn’t tell you if I didn’t believe it mattered. But whether you are or not, Ellie-you matter to me. To us. That’s reason enough.”
I couldn’t speak. My mind whirled, torn between clinging to disbelief and giving in to the dangerous hope that maybe, just maybe, I belonged to more than the life I’d been forced into.
Nolan POV
The reports piled on my desk like kindling for a fire I couldn’t control. Patrol after patrol, sighting after sighting. Rogues are gathering near the border. Isolated attacks on merchant lines. Growls in the night where no wolf should be.
My gut twisted as I scanned the latest dispatch. This wasn’t scattered trouble. This was organization. Strategy.
War brewing in the shadows.
The timing was suspicious. Was it because of Felicity somehow? Or had word of my fragile state spread that quickly? Both possibilities were humiliating and drove home just how badly I’d managed to mess everything up.
I couldn’t allow anything else to go wrong. I wouldn’t fail my pack. Not again.
But with Felicity gone, I was struggling to hold myself together. I didn’t know who I could trust; I couldn’t lean on anyone. The full force of responsibility was on my shoulders alone, and it was crushing.
The delicate balance I’d barely been holding onto was shattering faster than I could patch it together.
1/2
Chapter 1
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I rubbed a hand over my face, forcing myself to breathe. I couldn’t afford to falter
now-not with enemies closing in from every side.
Not with Ellie still vulnerable.
Whatever was brewing, I would handle it. I had no other choice.
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