Ellie POV


    Cassian didn''t waste time with pleasantries.


    He stood in the sitting room of the Silver Fang packhouse, hands sped behind his back, his posture rigid in a way I recognized immediately. This wasn''t the Cassian


    who teased the boys or argued politics over breakfast.


    This was the enforcer. The strategist. The man who had kept me alive when everything else was falling apart.


    Rae sat beside him, her expression tight, eyes sharp as they tracked every movement in the room.


    Nn lingered near the doorway, deliberately casual but coiled beneath the surface.


    I could feel his attention on me like a living thing, steady and protective, even as he pretended to examine a crack in the stone wall.


    "What''s wrong?" I asked quietly.


    Cassian met my gaze. "We caught ire.”


    The wordsnded heavier than I expected.


    "Caught?" Nn repeated, his voice t.


    "At the border," Cassian confirmed. "She was trying to leave Moonstone."


    The room seemed to tilt slightly.


    Rae leaned forward. "She was running. Back to Pine Ridge. To Kieran."


    My first instinct was disbelief-not because I doubted Rae, but because part of me


    still wanted to believe ire had been... misguided. Misled. That she''d truly thought she was helping.


    "She said Nn was manipting me," I murmured. "That Kieran was the right choice. That I''d be safer with him."


    Nn''s jaw tightened.


    "And you believed her?" Cassian asked gently.


    I shook my head. "No."


    Rae studied me carefully. "She believed it, though. Or convinced herself she did."


    Cassian nodded, "She insisted her intentions were good. imed she was trying to ''save'' you."


    "From me," Nn said quietly.


    Silence followed. It was the truth that none of us wanted to fully examine, not now, in light of everything else that was happening.


    I turned toward him. "That''s not your fault. We''ve talked about this."


    He met my eyes then, something dark and conflicted moving beneath the surface.


    "It never stops, Ellie. Even now. Even with everything in the open. They keep trying to rewrite you-rewrite us."


    +25 Bonus


    Cassian cleared his throat. "I let her go."


    That snapped Nn''s attention back immediately. "You what?"


    "She''s gone," Cassian said steadily. "Banished from Moonstone. She won''t be a problem again."


    Rae shot him a look but didn''t contradict him.


    I could see that Nn wanted to argue, wanted to demand that Cassian exin himself. The tension in his shoulders, the tick of his jaw made that clear. But he refrained. Let out a slow, deliberate breath and rolled his


    shoulders back.


    Nn''s voice dropped. "And Kieran?"


    Cassian''s expression hardened. "He''s still meeting with anyone he thinks might weaken you. Which means he''s getting desperate."


    The word sent a chill down my spine.


    Desperate people did reckless things.


    After Cassian and Rae left, the packhouse felt too quiet.


    The boys were asleep upstairs, their soft breaths drifting faintly through the open


    hall. I stood at the window, watching the lights of the city flicker beyond the grounds, each one a reminder of how many eyes were on us


    now.


    Nn came up behind me without a sound, his presence warm and familiar. He


    didn''t touch me at first-just stood close enough that I could feel him.


    "You''re thinking too loudly," he said softly.


    I huffed a weakugh. "You''ve always said that."


    He rested his hands on my hips, careful, grounding. "Talk to me."


    “I keep wondering how much of this is my fault,” I admitted. “If I hadn''t disappeared.


    If I hadn''t been so afraid


    “Stop,” he said immediately.


    I turned in his arms. "Nn-"


    "You protected our children," he said firmly, "You protected yourself. That was never wrong."


    "I protected them from you. I didn''t even give you a chance. Everyone who knows the truth about what happened with me and the boys thinks you''re some kind of a monster and it''s all my fault."


    He pulled me back against his chest, his arms wrapping around my waist firmly. I let myself met back into him. The contact helped to ease the storm of guilt and fear that was roiling inside of me.


    "You did what you thought was necessary. I gave you every reason to distrust me, Ellie. And we both know that you were right."


    +25 Bonus


    His words startled me, I looked up at him, our eyes meeting. He didn''t exin, just held me a little closer.


    The answer came to me in the silence. Felicity.


    She had still been here when the boys were born. If I had brought them home to


    Silver Fang right away, Felicity would have been waiting. She tried to kill them when she poisoned me. There was no reason to think she wouldn''t have tried again.


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