Chapter 1: The Woman He Left Standing
Caleb’s thumb locked the phone screen before Valentina could read the rest.
The two words stayed anyway.
Triune alert.
Cold air pressed against her wet cheeks. Heat pressed at her back from the open pack house doors, bringing coffee gone stale, polished stone, perfume, fear sweat, and the hunger of wolves who had just witnessed a woman lose her place. Above the portico, one security camera adjusted with a soft mechanical click. The Council would have this from every angle. Duke’s betrayal. Isabela’s hand on her belly. Valentina between old law and the red blink of surveillance.
Kase Marshall watched her as if the room behind her could wait.
“Did you see enough?” he asked.
His voice did not soften. He did not reach. Both things mattered.
“I saw
