Nobela ni Grace Kara

The soft ligh of the full moon bathed the gardens in silver light as I stood by the fountain, my fingers trailing through the cool water. six months. Six months had passed since the final battle, since we'd driven Cassandra into exile and brought peace to Shadowfang. Sometimes it still felt surreal, like a dream I might wake from at any moment.I touched the silver necklace at my throat, the one that had belonged to my mother, then Adelne. Though the pain of losing my sister would never fully fade, I'd learned to carry it differently now. The weight of it had transformed from a burden into a reminder of why we fought so hard for peace."There you are." Roman's deep voice came from behind me. Even now, after all these months together, his presence still sent a shiver down my spine.I turned to face him, drinking in the sight of him. He'd foregone his usual battle-ready attire for something softer, a simple black shirt that clung to his muscled chest and dark pants. His dark hair was

"It's beautiful." I breathed, leaning against him as we stood among the moonlit flowers. "Stay with me." Roman said suddenly, turning to face me. His eyes were intense, vulnnerable in a way I rarely saw. "Not as my healer, not because of duty or prophecy. Stay because you want to. Because this— us, it's real." My heart thundered in my chest. "Roman..." "I know I fucked up." he continued, his voice raw with emotion. "I know I hurt you, and I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make that right. But Belle," he cupped my face in his hands, his calloused thumbs gently stroking my cheeks "I can't imagine my life without you in it anymore. These past few days, watching you lie there so still... it nearly broke me." Tears pricked at my eyes as memories flooded back, Adeline's sweet face, the anger and pain that had consumed me after her death, the way I'd lashed out at Roman. But I also remembered his patience, his gradual transformation from the cold Alpha to the man who h

My eyelids felt heavy as consciousness slowly returned, like wading through a. thick fog. The familiar scent of herbs and healing balms filled my nostrils, mixed with something else— something distinctly masculine and comforting that made my heart flutter. Roman. I blinked several times, adjusting to the soft candlelight that illuminated the infirmary. My body ached, but it wasn't the sharp, devastating pain I remembered from channeling my Lunar Soul powers. This was more like the dull throb of healing muscles, a reminder that I was still alive. "Hey there little healer." Roman's deep voice came from beside me, rough with exhaustion but warm with affection. I turned my head to find him sitting in a chair next to my bed, his large hand enveloping mine. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his usually neat hair was disheveled as if he'd been running his fingers through it repeatedly. His clothes were wrinkled, suggesting he hadn't changed in days. "You look terrible," I managed to

The sight of him hurt, bloodied and struggling, triggered something deep and primal inside me. Heat surged through my chest, different from the destructive power I had felt earlier. This was something new....something pure. Without thinking, I raised my trembling hands and reached toward him. Light. Bright and blinding. It flowed from my fingertips, enveloping Roman in a golden glow. He froze for a moment, his head snapping toward me in shock, but I couldn't stop. The light wrapped around him, seeping into his body, and as I watched, his wounds began to knit themselves together. The gashes on his face closed, the blood disappearing as if it had never been there. Roman’s eyes blazed with renewed strength, and he let out a roar— half-wolf, half-man— as he turned back to Cassandra. "NO!!!!" Cassandra shrieked, her voice high and panicked. She lunged at me, her movements wild and desperate, but Roman was faster. He intercepted her mid-leap, his massive jaws closing around

MIRABELLE ---------I collapsed to my knees as Lucien's body disintegrated, the power draining from me like blood from a mortal wound. My entire body trembled, my hands shaking violently as I tried to steady them. The taste of copper filled my mouth, sharp and metallic, but satisfaction coursed through my veins like a balm to my soul. Adeline had been avenged.The weight of her death, the endless nights of guilt and grief, lifted from my shoulders— if only slightly.But the cost was high. I could barely breathe, barely think, as the energy I had summoned to end Lucien left me hollow. The wind carried the acrid scent of blood and ash, the battlefield around me littered with bodies of rogues and allies alike. It was chaos, pure and unrelenting, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the spot where Lucien had stood moments before. There was nothing left of him now— just ash swirling in the cold air."Belle!"Roman’s voice cut through the din, sharp and commanding, but tinged w

Through the mayhem, I caught glimpses of my pack fighting with everything they had. Elijah, my Beta, was a blur of motion, his massive gray wolf ripping through rogues with deadly precision. Fenrir, the once-mistrusted rogue who'd proven his loyalty time and time again, stood guard over the infirmary entrance where Belle worked. His hulking form was a wall of muscle and fur, and any rogue foolish enough to approach him was quickly dispatched. I spun, dodging the snapping jaws of a rogue before sinking my teeth into his throat. His gurgled scream was cut short as I tore him apart, my wolf howling in triumph. But there was no time to revel in the kill. More were coming. "ROMAN!!" Cassandra's voice cut through the carnage like a blade. I turned, my eyes narrowing as I spotted her atop a pile of bodies, her silver hair matted with blood, her eyes wild with hatred. She was in her human form, her slender frame deceptively fragile-looking as she surveyed the battlefield with a cruel smi

The past will always be there” Eli said, standing up and brushing the dirt from his hands. “But it doesn’t have to own you. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, Maya. Don’t waste it looking back.”That night, as I lay beside Ben in the small room we shared, Eli’s words echoed in my mind. I stared up at the ceiling, watching the shadows dance in the dim light of the lantern, my thoughts a tangled mess.Ben shifted beside me, his arm brushing against mine. “You okay??” he asked, his voice quiet in the darkness.I turned to face him, my heart heavy but full of something I hadn’t felt in a long time—hope. “Yeah,” I whispered. “I think I’m starting to be.”He smiled, his hand finding mine under the covers. “Eli’s a smart guy.”I laughed softly. “Yeah he is.”We lay there in silence for a while, the warmth of his hand grounding me, making me feel like maybe, just maybe, things could be okay.“You ever think about the future?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.Ben was quiet fo

I glanced at him, wiping sweat from my brow. “Yeah. It’s peaceful.”He gave a small nod, his focus still on the soil. “Peace is hard to come by these days. Harder to hold onto.”I knew what he was getting at, but I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Not yet.Eli didn’t push, but after a few more moments of silence, he added, “You’re still carrying it, you know. The weight of everything that happened before.”I clenched my jaw, my hands pausing in the dirt. “I don’t have a choice.”“There’s always a choice,” Eli said quietly. “The past can burn you if you let it. But the future is what you make of it.”I stared at him, the words sinking in like stones dropped into a still pond. I wanted to argue, to tell him he didn’t understand, that he couldn’t possibly know the kind of guilt I carried. But then I remembered what he had told me that night by the fire—. that he had been part of Project Inferno, that he had helped design the weapon that burned the world.If anyone un

The mornings at Eli’s farm were quiet, the kind of quiet that felt almost sacred in a world like ours. No distant gunfire, no grim-faced survivors shouting orders, no smoke curling from the ruins of a settlement. just the soft rustle of wind through the crops, the occasional lowing of a cow in the distance, and the steady rhythm of our footsteps as we worked the land. The air smelled of earth and life. It was a stark contrast to the acrid tang of burning metal and ash that had seemed to cling to me for years.Here, the only smells were simple ones: the sweetness of hay, the faint iron tang of soil on my hands, and sometimes the sharp, almost medicinal scent of the herbs Eli kept hanging in the barn. It had been weeks since Ben and I arrived, stumbling through the farm’s weathered gates with nothing but the clothes on our backs and the weight of our pasts. I hadn’t planned to stay. I wasn’t even sure what had driven me to keep walking after the settlement fell apart. The idea of s

As we ate in the flickering firelight, I couldn't help but marvel at how normal it all felt. Almost like the world hadn't ended, like we were just travelers stopping at a kind stranger's house for the night. But as the evening wore on, I noticed a change in Eli's demeanor. He became quieter, more thoughtful, his gaze lingering on us in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "You two've been through a lot," he said finally, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over us. It wasn't a question. "We've seen our share," Ben replied carefully, his spoon pausing halfway to his mouth. Eli nodded, leaning back in his creaking chair. "I've seen a lot too. More than I'd like, truth be told." He paused, seeming to wrestle with something internal. "I wasn't always a farmer, you know. Before The Burning, I worked for them. The government. I was part of something... something I'm not proud of." My heart stuttered in my chest, and I felt Ben go still beside me. We'd

As we got closer, the outline of a small farmstead came into view. It was nestled against the edge of a narrow stream— miraculously still running —and surrounded by a patch of what looked like actual crops. Corn, maybe, or something that used to be corn before the world ended. The sight of growing things, of life persisting despite everything, made my throat tight with emotion."Look at that" I whispered, almost afraid to speak too loudly and break whatever spell was keeping this place alive. "Actual plants. Growing. How is this possible??"Ben shot me a cautious look, ever the pragmatist. "Could be a trap. You know how some groups operate. Make something look too good to be true, wait for desperate people to come running.""It could be," I admitted, remembering all too well the stories we'd heard about such things. "But I don't think we have much choice. We need water, and this place looks like it has it. Besides, if it were raiders, they'd probably have worse security. This place

The wasteland stretched out before us, endless and desolate, a s ea of cracked earth and skeletal trees marking the landscape as a constant reminder of the world we had lost. Despite the harshness of it all, there was something oddly freeing about being out here, away from the settlement and the ghosts of the past that haunted its walls. Out here, it was just Ben and me, two souls trying to carve out something new in the ruins of what had been.Our footsteps crunched against the dry dirt as we walked, the horizon shimmering with heat in the distance. The sun hung high and merciless in the cloudless sky, and the only sound was the wind cutting across the plains, whipping at the tattered edges of our clothes. My muscles screamed with each step, my throat parched and raw, but there was a strange kind of peace in the rhythm of walking. One foot in front of the other. Keep moving. That was the only way to survive in this broken world.I glanced over at Ben, studying his profile as he wa