The drive to the old Cole property took nearly forty minutes, winding away from the manicured streets of Ridgemont and into a stretch of dense, unfamiliar forest that Lily hadn't known existed so close to home. Ethan drove in silence, jaw set, hands tight on the wheel, and Lily spent the entire ride trying to process everything he'd told her in the space of a single conversation.
Werewolves. Fated mates. An arranged bond to someone named Selena Vane. It was too much to absorb all at once, and yet here she was, sitting in the passenger seat of his car, driving toward a meeting that would apparently decide the direction of both their lives.
"You don't have to do this," Ethan said finally, breaking the silence as the car slowed along a gravel road flanked by towering trees. "I can still tur
