The garden was a silver-drenched graveyard of memories. The scent of blooming jasmine hung heavy in the midnight air, sweet and cloying, a fragrance that had once been the soundtrack to their youth. It was here, under the weeping willow, that they had shared their first kiss; here, where they had promised to defy the stars for one another.
Cassian waited in the deepest shadow of the stone archway, his body a coiled spring of tension. His Alpha aura had expanded, saturating the garden until the very crickets went silent in fear. When the door to the guest wing creaked open, his heart didn't beat—it thundered.
Elena stepped into the moonlight, her movements tentative as she scanned the grass for the wooden soldier Leo had dropped earlier that evening. She looked ethereal, the white light c
