Rhea Nyx was supposed to have her forever. A mate bond. A pack. A future. But forever shattered the day he walked away, leaving her broken, pregnant, and alone in a sterile hospital room that didn’t care if she lived or died.

Now, she’s just surviving. Barely. Until a little girl with too-big eyes and too much hope drags her into something like a second chance. Rhea doesn't believe in second chances. Not anymore.

But when the people she's grown to protect are threatened, Rhea does what wolves do best—she fights back. Hard. And just when she thinks she's got nothing left to lose, she meets him. Her second chance mate.

Only… he’s not just a man. He’s a hybrid. A set toy. Built in a lab, owned by monsters, trained to obey. And yet—he looks at her like she’s the only real thing in the world.

Now Rhea has to make a choice. Burn it all down, or become the very thing that could break her mate.

This is a story about found family, the soft ache of grief, the sharp edge of survival—and the kind of love that doesn’t ask for permission.

The first shot clipped the rearview mirror. The second shattered the back window.


Kol dove behind the crates, dragging Mick down with him. Tiger yelled something, but it was already drowned beneath the noise. Leaves tore loose in the wind of passing bullets. The van door cracked wide open—


Now, Nyx purred. *Let me out. Let me show them.


My skin pulsed. My spine bent. Bones snapped and reshaped in a rush of white heat.


My scream twisted into something feral.


And when it was done, I was no longer standing on two legs.


I hit the forest floor with four paws and a growl that rippled through the dirt like thunder.


For one precious moment—everything stilled.


Faster than their eyes could track. Faster than they could scream.


The first one was hiding behind a boulder—gun raised, breath held. I lunged from the underbrush and caught him in the throat. Blood sprayed against bark. He didn't scream. Just gurgled, then dropped.


Just tore through the brush like a shadow given flesh and fangs.


I leapt from a fallen log, landed behind him, and sank my teeth into his leg. He fell. Hard. My claws raked down his spine, and the scream he let out shook the birds from the trees.


Pretty, Nyx cooed. Let's make them scream more.


Retreating. Splitting. Radio chatter buzzed in the distance—orders to regroup, redirect fire.


I was wind and bone. Teeth and purpose.


I hunted them down one by one, tearing through body armor like it was paper. My fur slicked with blood. My paws silent on the earth.


I caught the barrel in my jaws and snapped it in two before I ended him.


Another raised a blade—I knocked him into a tree hard enough to crack bark.


Somewhere, faintly, I heard Tiger shouting.


Because in this moment, I wasn't Rhea Nyx.


Chapter 68 - 68