Nobela ni Raji

The walls of the tent felt like they were closing in on me. Ryan whimpered in my arms, tiny fists waving helplessly as he searched for comfort I wasn’t sure I could give. I cradled him closer to my chest, trying to rock him back to sleep. His body was so small, so fragile it terrified me. Every breath he took was a small miracle, a tiny battle fought and won.I brushed a kiss to his forehead, breathing in the soft, sweet scent of him—milk, baby powder, and something uniquely his own. Outside, the camp buzzed with movement. I could hear the warriors sparring again, could hear the council arguing strategies in low, urgent voices. There was no time to rest. No time to feel. But I couldn’t switch it off.Tears pricked my eyes as I pressed my cheek against Ryan’s fine, dark hair. I was supposed to lead them. I was supposed to be strong.

The training field smelled of sweat, dust, and raw determination. I stood at the edge, arms folded loosely across my chest, watching as warriors clashed and fell, got up, and clashed again.The air was thick with grunts and the rhythmic clatter of bodies hitting the ground. Across the open ground, banners of other packs fluttered in the sharp breeze. Wolf packs I hadn’t seen in years—some who had once been enemies, some who had disappeared into the rogue lands—had come back. Answering our call for help.It should have made me feel stronger. Safer. But all I felt was this hollow, gnawing ache.Lucas was across the field, organizing sparring matches, his voice steady and commanding. His presence was a steady rock in t

The council chamber buzzed with a low, tense energy, the kind that seeped into your skin and made your heart pound faster even when you were sitting still. I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the heavy oak table, fingers interlaced tightly. Ariana sat across from me, a thick folder of maps and reports open before her. Her face was calm, but her fingers trembled slightly as she turned a page.No one could blame her. We were planning a war.Around us, the council members—heads of the strongest families and allied packs—were murmuring, exchanging notes, pointing at strategic points on the giant map sprawled across the table.“We need to cut off their supply routes here,” Marcus said, jabbing his finger at a narrow valley south of the Darkpine Forest. “Otherwise, they’ll corner us.”“They’re vampires. They don’t need supplies. They just need blood,” snarled Liam, his voice rough. “They’ll feast on our people if we don’t stop them.”Ariana flinched slightly at that, and my heart twist

I could see the frozen expression on Ariana’s face, as Aurora called me ‘Dada’. I don’t think she was expecting this. Hell, even I wasn’t expecting this. And I don’t even know why she called me ‘Dada’ in the first place.Silence settled over the room after that one word escaped Aurora’s lips.Dada.The weight of it slammed into me harder than any blow I’d ever taken on the battlefield. And for a second—for a long, raw second—I didn’t know what to do.Ariana’s hand was still curled around mine, her fingers trembling slightly. I could feel her gaze on me, searching, waiting. Aurora, blissfully unaware of the way she had just cracked open an entirely new world between us, continued to cling

Do you ever wish to freeze some moments in life? Capture them in a box or pack them in a bag and always keep them with you?I was feeling like that today.In spite of everything that happened—Xavier’s betrayal, the deterioration of my health, the premature birth of Ryan, and the tension of the upcoming war—I was at peace. A rare, still kind of peace.It wasn’t the aching silence of emptiness I’d been carrying with me for so long. It wasn’t the cruel kind of quiet that comes after someone slams the door and never returns. No, this was a tender silence. A comforting one. It didn’t feel like a void anymore.I didn’t think I could ever fill that hole Xavier left behind. I used to believe that no matter how much I tried, no matt

Another irritating beep woke me up. I tried to shut it out and fall back asleep, but it continued to pierce through my head, making it impossible to ignore. I shifted slightly, wanting to find the source and end the noise, but as I attempted to sit up, a warm, firm hand on my right shoulder gently pushed me back down.“You need to rest,” a familiar masculine voice said, quiet and careful.My eyes squinted open, vision still hazy and blurry. “Why?” I mumbled groggily.“You just had surgery,” he replied softly. “You’re not allowed to exert yourself.”Surgery?It hit me like a crashing wave—surgery, the C-section, blood, panic...