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Lina

The afternoon sunshine painted patterns across the living room of my Philadelphia villa, chasing away the morning chill.

My daughter, Betty, a whirlwind of pink tulle pirouetted across the sheepskin rug.

“Look Mommy! Look. I’m a bird!” she shouted, arms outstretched.

The memory of Swan Lake, the ballet we’d seen last month, still held her captive. I had bought her the cutest little ballet shoes, and she kept trying to point her toes, sending her stumbling onto the soft sheepskin rug. But every day, she got steadier.

I clapped, smiling. “Beautiful, Sweetie. As graceful as a swan, nearly.” The “nearly” might have been overly generous, given the wobbles, but her face, alight with fierce determination, stole my heart.

The memory of my own mother surfaced, her voice, soft as a summer breeze, using the story of Swan Lake to help me understand my shifter heritage. “Just like the princess, one day you’ll change too. You see, we’re wolves, Lina, who can change whenever we want to.” A pang broke through me. It had been five years since the day I’d lost her and my father, and although I’d built a new life, her loss was most apparent in these beautiful, seemingly everyday moments when it hurt to think she’d never see her granddaughter.

“Mommy, I’s flying,” Betty called out as she threw her arms out wide and twirled.

“Magnificent!” I enthused, my own thoughts drifting. Betty’s joy, her embracing the story and magic, was a gift from my mother, a legacy. I imagined explaining her own shifter abilities using the story of Swan Lake, just as my mother had. The thought both soothed and stung.

I turned my gaze out the picture window. The world outside, with its twenty acres and quiet luxury, felt a million miles removed from the concrete heart of New York. Yet, I’d never taken my hand off the city’s pulse.

From here in Citrus Hill, I monitored Magnus Blackthorn and his company’s dealings. I’d built a network of wellness products, a company called Luna Remedies. We were dedicated to the ethical practice of using herbal and natural remedies. To the major pharma players, including Blackthorn Corp, we weren’t a company worth looking at. But I had built a secret empire underneath. Blackthorn didn’t know the wealth and information I was acquiring. My business was built on grey-market dealings.

Each day, I reminded myself that my journey with Blackthorn wasn’t over. From the rumors my team and I had collected, the consensus was that Magnus had organized the attack of the rogue wolves at our mate ceremony, meaning to do away with the Silvermoon Pack alpha, luna, and its heir in one fell swoop. We hadn’t found proof, but Magnus had snatched control of the Silvermoon Pack after my parents had been killed and believed I was gone. But I was like a vengeful ghost, gathering my strength and biding my time. The past remained alive, and the flames of vengeance still burned within me.

“I’s tired,” Betty said, collapsing on the rug.

“Nap time, Swanling,” I said gently, smoothing her hair.

“No!” she protested.

“But don’t you want to snuggle up and read Swan Lake?”

The magic word!

Betty danced toward the child gate at the bottom of the stairs. I lifted her into my arms, carrying her upstairs. Within minutes of starting the story, she was asleep in her bed.

Ballet really is a godsend.

I secured the safety gate at the top of the stairs, hoping to get a couple of hours of work done before she woke.

I had fled to Philadelphia after the attack, seeking refuge with a close-knit group of university friends. They were both shifters but came from a small, unassuming pack here in Philly. They had little knowledge of the ruthless shifter world I belonged to, and for a time, I’d disappeared from the shifter community, attempting to rebuild my shattered life amidst the ordinary. Accessing my bank accounts had proved impossible, with Magnus Blackthorn exerting his grip over what was left of my parents’ business and resources, and I had to start anew.

Through sheer determination, I’d built my company from the ground up. We had offices in the city of Philadelphia, but I moved my core team here to Citrus Hill a couple of years ago, which gave me much more time with Betty.

Back in the living room, my hand went to the book that opened my team’s secret office. Emily, my employee and friend, had insisted on the bookcase entrance when we’d renovated my villa to house our office. She, along with my trusted assistant, Matthew, were the only two who knew all of my secrets.

I walked into our office, my gaze instantly drawn to the back wall where six huge screens were taken up by Emily’s hacker operations. The monitors displayed a constant stream of data, Em’s code the sole artwork in our otherwise white-walled space. She had an array of cacti on her desk, along with a sea of coffee cups that told me she’d either been hard at work since early morning or had pulled an all-nighter.

Mine and Matthew’s desks were minimalist, with clean surfaces hosting laptops and organized piles of paperwork. The whole space was brightened by the concealed skylight, the only window so as to help keep our space secret.

“Lina, we’ve found something,” Matthew said in way of greeting. He was wearing slacks and a pale blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up to reveal strong, ink-stained forearms. Matt was tall, with kind sky-blue eyes, but his usually comforting tone was a little strained.

“Is this about the Ashford Pack?” I asked.

Magnus’s Blackthorn Corporation was finalizing a deal with Evervine Industry, a human company, replacing the distribution network they had with the Ashford Pack. My team and I had debated leaking this information to the Ashford Pack to sabotage Magnus but had held back. We weren’t ready to take Magnus down.

Matthew frowned, shaking his head. “Emily.”

My stomach clenched. Ordinarily, Matthew was the talker. The fact that he was turning to Em for help set off alarm bells—a fact further reinforced when Em left her keyboard.

“Have a seat,” she said, coming over. She had on her usual work attire—a band T-shirt paired with black jeans, a suit jacket, and dark hair swept back into a long braid.

“Okay,” I took a seat. My eyebrows shot up as she passed me the mug she held. Clearly, they’d been waiting for me. She’d made me my favorite almond milk chai. I set it down on my desk, narrowing my eyes. “Just spit it out,” I demanded.

“Your mother’s alive,” Matthew blurted out.

“Christ, Matthew!” Emily exclaimed. “I thought we were going to lead into that or—”

“What?” I demanded, the word sounding torn from my throat. Shock crashed over me, an electric wave of disbelief that sent my heart skyrocketing. I gripped the arms of my desk chair, my knuckles whitening. Hope fought with grief. “How do you know? Are you sure?” The questions spilled out in a frantic rush, desperate for clarity as my pulse thudded in my ears, thrumming with the urgency of unresolved pain.

Matthew’s eyes were wide as he said, “We’ve seen her on Blackthorn security footage. “She’s alive, Lina.” His words were steady and sure, cutting through the fog of shock that enveloped me.

With his assurance, the world around me shifted, tilting off its axis. My mother, who’d always been my rock, whose absence made me ache every single day—was alive. The astounding realization filled me until I felt lit up—my mom—was still with me.

Now it started. The avalanche of words flew from Matthew in a way that was far more natural. “Remember the USB drives we planted in Blackthorn Corporation through Rufus at Hardwire?”

Hardwire was one of the tech companies Matthew oversaw to manage our tech infrastructure. Rufus was the head of the team and was a good mate with Matt. He’d had a contract setting up tech infrastructure across a number of Blackthorn Corporate offices and planted a bunch of malware in their network to monitor their communications there.

I nodded, expectation tightening my chest.

Emily slumped into her huge swivel chair in front of the wall of monitors. With a few quick jabs of the keyboard, she said, “Here. With our bugs planted, we were able to download the surveillance footage, too. We’re not sure which building she’s in yet because of the way the footage is stored centrally, but with time, I’ll figure it out.”

It was a fuzzy image, but sure enough, my mother, Miriam Silvermoon, was framed on the screen. I blinked at the grainy video of her pacing across a small, spartan room. A few seconds later, she sat down on the single bed. I expected to feel like I’d break, but instead, a blaze of fury roared through me. I wanted to destroy something—preferably someone he loved.

At the thought, Stephen came into my thoughts. And with him, a dozen feelings fluttered through me. When I’d escaped that day of the attack, I’d kept picturing the way Stephen had shielded me from the rogue wolves. Then, six weeks later, when I’d still been reeling from my parents’ deaths, I’d been rocked to my very core when I discovered I was pregnant with Stephen’s child.

She’s not his. She’s mine.

For a long time now, I’d seen Betty as only mine. I was the one raising her. I was all she needed. Stephen knew nothing of her existence, and I was damn well going to keep it that way.

Yet still, I couldn’t deny that Stephen had always been with me. It was impossible for him not to be when every time Betty’s earthy scent washed over me, it seemed like a whisper of Stephen’s own. The thought of seeing him again had my stomach clenching and my heart fluttering.

But I quashed the thought.

“I need to get my mom,” I stated firmly, my voice cutting through the quiet of our office, my gaze hovering on my mom’s picture.

My heart squeezed at the thought of her being there all these years. Suddenly, I saw her walking through Central Park with me, a steaming cup of coffee in hand as she listened attentively. We used to do a coffee catch-up every few weeks, even when I’d been at Harvard. There hadn’t been a month in which I hadn’t had her comforting, loving presence in my life until she was just…gone. To think of all those moments Magnus had stolen from me had my burning hatred toward him soaring higher.

“We agreed we’re not ready to attack Blackthorn Corporation yet,” Emily cautioned.

I nodded. “I know, but I can reposition myself in New York and Blackthorn until we are,” I said confidently, already formulating a wild plan.

My mother’s alive.

My heart hurried with relief and hope for the first time in years.

“There is a banquet on at Blackthorn Villa, hosted by Magnus himself,” Matthew said.

An image of Blackthorn Villa flashed through my head, its grand hall decorated in white linen and dozens of bouquets of flowers. Then, the totem-marked wolves attacking, my father’s wolf fighting, and my mom on the floor, blood seeping through her pale dress.

“That’s tomorrow!” Emily exclaimed, looking skeptical. “You don’t have to go so soon. There’ll be other events.”

I shook my head, squeezing my hands into fists. “I can’t wait now that I know he has her.” My gaze crept back to the monitor, every ache that I’d been feeling since losing my mom resurfacing, leaving me feeling more fragile than I had in a long time. But I did what I always did—I focused on covering the rising tide of emotion with the fire of vengeance, always flickering within me.

“I can’t let this opportunity slip away. I need to go tomorrow,” I said, feeling a newfound urgency ignite.

Matthew nodded, his expression a mixture of determination and concern. “We’ve got your back. We’ll figure this out.”

As my heart raced with anxious excitement, a sliver of doubt crept in. “Will you two be okay with Betty while I’m gone?”

“Of course,” Emily replied, her voice steady and reassuring. “She’s used to spending a night or two with us. It’ll be fine.”

Em was right. Every few weeks, when I had a big client meeting, I left her with them. Both Emily and Matthew had rooms here in the villa. They had apartments in Philadelphia, too, but split their time between the city and here.

“You can count on us,” Matthew reassured me, watching me with his kind, blue stare and looking as if he wanted to say more.

I smiled. “I know I can. Thank you both,” I said, picking up my chai tea to prevent Matt from hugging me. If he did, I didn’t think I’d be able to hold myself together.

But I knew Betty was in the best of hands. My two colleagues and best friends were pros at grey-market dealings and running my business empire but also at feeding time, bedtime, and everything else in between.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm the fluttering in my chest. Before I could overthink it, we fell to concocting a plan.

After an afternoon of planning, I had a harder job to do. I sat with Betty on the living room floor, surrounded by her colorful toys. She looked up at me, her big blue eyes so like mine and my mom’s that I felt again how important it was to go to New York and save the woman who meant the world to me and who I wanted my own daughter to have the chance to know.

“Sweetheart, I need to talk to you about something important,” I said softly, brushing a black strand away from her forehead. The light kiss I planted there felt more significant than I intended, tinged with a gentle sadness. This was the first time I’d be leaving her for an extended period.

“Tomorrow, I’m going to go away for a little while,” I explained carefully. “But you’re going to stay here with Auntie Em and Uncle Matt. I know you’ll be a good girl for them, won’t you?”

Her brow knitted in confusion, and my heart squeezed. She nodded slowly. “How long, Mommy?”

“I’m not sure, but I promise to call you whenever I can,” I reassured her, hoping to soften my sudden absence. “And when I come back, we’ll do something special!”

Her bright blue eyes lit up, and she shrieked, “We go see Swan Lake!”

I laughed, instantly promising, “Yes, we can go see Swan Lake again when I get back.”

As she wrapped her tiny arms around me, I let out a shaky breath. I kept seeing the way my mom had pushed me out of those doors at Blackthorn Villa, risking her life for mine. If there was a chance that I could bring her back and share the precious life I’d built for Betty with her, it was worth the risk I was taking.

Later, when Betty was fast asleep in bed, I packed for tomorrow’s trip. I planned to drive to New York early tomorrow morning, then check into a hotel and dress for the evening.

That night, I tossed and turned, finding it hard to sleep as I went over the plan. Early in the morning, I looked in on Betty, both relieved and disappointed she wasn’t awake. Part of me knew it would be easier for Em and Matt if I was already gone, but the other part already missed her and wanted to soak up every last moment. I settled on planting a light kiss on her forehead before quietly leaving.

Matthew had already brought one of the cars round to the front. The SUV was exactly what I’d planned to take. It wasn’t too conspicuous or one that wouldn’t make Magnus ask too many questions.

As I reached the living room, the bookcase door opened, and Matthew came out. “Tell her I want New York pizza when she comes back!” Emily called out.

“Noted,” I called into Em’s lair with a smile, knowing that was her version of goodbye.

Both Em and Matt had lived in New York in the past, too, and I knew they would launch into the ordinary argument later about which pizzeria was the best now that the topic had been brought up.

I stifled the pang at the thought of leaving them and my little Swanling.

Outside, I thought I’d successfully avoided falling apart, but just before I opened the car door, Matthew pulled me into a hug. Emily wasn’t good at the touchy-feely shit, as she liked to say, hence staying in the office.

“Lina, we’re only a call away if you need to talk about anything,” Matt assured me as he hugged me. “You’re not alone, okay?”

I felt those cracks in my chest again, the ones I’d been trying so hard to shore up. I nodded. “I know. Thanks, Matt.” Both he and Em knew everything about my past with Stephen, too, and I knew from the look in his kind eyes that Matt was referring to the heartache he knew I was about to walk into once again. I had entrusted them both with my daughter as well as all the secrets of my heart. They weren’t just my friends; they were my family.

With my mind sharpened by purpose, I settled in for the drive to New York. It was a four-hour journey, and I only stopped once for coffee and gas. As I crossed the Hudson, the skyscrapers of Manhattan were dazzling in the afternoon sunshine, and it finally hit me—I was home.

I spent the afternoon getting ready in my hotel room before driving out to the Hamptons. When I arrived at the opulent Blackthorn Villa, trepidation, along with the sea breeze, washed over me.

I moved past the throng of other shifters, my heart pounding with every breath, and grateful that with my lavender evening gown, strappy heels, and my long glossy locks, I blended into the throng.

In a moment, I was walking into the hall, the very one where I thought until yesterday both my parents had died. My gaze strayed to the polished floor where my father had fallen—the wood shiny as if the attack had never happened.

I shook my head, forcing my thoughts away from the past. I had to be here. Now. I took in a deep breath of salty air as I stepped through the open door onto the terrace, where more party guests mingled. Familiar faces of the shifter elite filled the terrace, their laughter mingling with the clinking of glasses.

I felt his presence before I saw him—that unmistakable frisson of energy that had once arrested me on a dark, downtown street. My skin prickled with awareness, and this time, as I inhaled, the definite scent of spice and earthiness infiltrated my lungs.

Stephen.

He was there, standing on the terrace, exuding confidence. I could hardly breathe as I caught sight of him. My heart fluttered against my will, both thrilling and terrifying. My wolf surged up, instantly awake at his scent, too.

He strode toward me. The one stolen night we’d shared before reality intervened waltzed unbidden through my thoughts. The ache of an unfulfilled connection resonated through me, reminding me of a moment when I had thought he was the solution to all my problems.

Forcing my breath to steady, I felt the weight of my plans pressing against my chest and forced a calm over my body. My revenge was in motion, and I wouldn’t allow Stephen to get in the way. And I sure as hell wouldn’t allow him to stop me from saving my mother. Tonight marked the beginning of a dangerous dance, one that required all my attention.

“Hello, Darlin’,” he greeted, his voice a low rumble.

The greeting could have been used by any host welcoming his visitor, but the way Stephen uttered ‘Darlin’ drew my thoughts back to the memory of our bodies intertwined, and a shiver of memory, heat, and wanting rushed through me. “You in a hurry, Darlin’?” he’d asked as I’d bucked my hips up to meet him, telling him I needed him with a deep longing that I’d only ever experienced once in my life.

His bright green eyes seemed imbued with the same intensity they’d had in that moment.

“Stephen,” I said, plastering on a strained smile. The tumultuous emotions within me threatened to spill over, but I couldn’t show he’d gotten under my skin. So instead, I said, “It’s been too long.”

He studied me for a moment, his gaze searing into mine like he was searching for all the secrets I had to hide.