[Ava's POV]
The Hunter’s impending arrival was no longer a threat whispered on the wind; it was a seismic tremor in the very foundations of the Den, a vibration that resonated through the newly solidified, terrifyingly intimate matrix of their bond. The air in the sealed ledger room grew thin, every breath tasting of ozone and cold dread.
But the cataclysm of Ava’s mother’s photograph had shattered the last intact wall of her old reality, and through that breach now poured not just light, but the scorching, annihilating radiation of a final, absolute truth.
Lucien stood apart from them, his broad back a wall of tense muscle, his head bowed not in submission, but under the crushing weight of a revelation he had carried alone for years. The Alpha rage that usually simmered beneath his sk
