Brooks:
I slammed the door to the study harder than I meant to.
Papers rattled on the desk, a framed photo tipped over, and still, it didn’t feel like enough. My fists ached from clenching, my jaw hurt from how tight I was grinding my teeth.
She went to Stella.
Mira f*****g went to Stella.
Behind my back. Behind Forest’s. Behind Hattie’s.
Every step I’d taken to protect my mate, every wall I’d tried to build around her, just crumbled under Mira’s whispering tongue and a convenient report of "pack safety."
She could cloak it in duty all she wanted. I knew better.
I knew Mira.
She didn’t do this to protect us. She did it to divide us. To sow doubt. To crack something sacred.
And she almost succeeded.
If I hadn’t walked in when I did—seen the fire in Hattie’s eyes, the way she stoo
