Kael’s POV

The healer’s words echoed in my skull long after we’d left the hospital. Twins. A boy and a girl. My children.

I had imagined this moment a thousand times,what it would be like to see my pup for the first time, to feel the weight of responsibility, to know my bloodline would continue,but I hadn’t imagined this. Not twins. Not two perfect heartbeats thundering in unison, each carrying a piece of me and of Aria.

Even now, the image clung to me: the screen glowing in the dim light, the tiny bodies moving, the sound of their hearts like a war drum beating against my chest. For a...