NOVAI had enough. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get as far away from this place as possible. Screw that! I could live anywhere else in the world! I didn't need a man by my side! I didn't need… love…My heart clearly thought otherwise. The wave of pain I felt at the mere thought of my loveless life was proof of it. Pathetic. My life couldn't be fucked up that much. My fate couldn't just sentence me to everlasting torment. Where was the end of the storm above me?I kept walking, uncertain of where I was going, until I found myself in the shopping district, right in front of Cassandra's boutique. I gulped. Did she have the answers I was looking for? Was I ready to know everything about my fate...?Chills ran down my spine, but I took a deep breath and walked toward the door. I slowly placed my hand on the door handle and immediately heard Cassandra's voice coming from inside."Come in, Nova. I've been waiting for you," she said, a chuckle lacing her voice.Of course. She told me
NOVAMy heart jumped in my chest. What was it that he wanted to tell me? Did he have any doubts about his bond after all? I was pissed at him for the way he treated me the last time we talked, but still, there was a thing or two I was itching to discuss with him…My hands shivered so badly, I could barely type my reply. "Where do you want to meet?""Come to the packhouse. We'll meet on the south wing's terrace."I smiled nervously. How the hell should I know where that terrace was? No one had ever given me a tour of that place when I lived there…"How about we meet in your office?" I suggested."No. My servant will wait for you at the main entrance at midnight. Don't be late."My eyebrows rose as I read it. What was with all that secrecy? Was he afraid that Alpha Rainier or Gisele would see us? No matter how strange his request was, I agreed.The conspiracy mood must have been contagious because I ended up dressing up in a black top and pants and getting off the taxi a block away from
FELIXI had spent more than an hour trying to calm down Lya. I was sitting on her bed, holding her in my arms. She kept weeping, her hands snaking around me. She seemed so vulnerable and desperate. She kept telling me that Nova hated her. I was listening to her words, but a part of me wished that she would just remain silent.Whenever I heard Lya, I could sense nothing but the truth. Even when I strengthened my senses, I heard no hesitation in her voice. Her eyes were wide open and filled with an intense blend of emotions. I took it as a sign of her honesty, but the more I thought about it, the more questions appeared in my mind. I had always been calculative and reasonable, but now I feared that my entire judgment had been clouded by the power of the mate bond."Fuck!" I bellowed, punching the wall in my office until my hands bled. It was three in the morning, and I knew that I was running out of time. If I didn't find the right solution soon, Nova could die."Felix, stop!" Eric yell
NOVAA young warrior named Dash stared at me through the bars of my cell with an awkward smile on his face. "Would you like something to drink, Ms. Laurent?" he asked for the tenth time.I sighed. "No, thank you. I know that you're trying to be nice because Eric told you to stay by my side, but you don't have to." I was sitting on the stone ground, and my body had already stiffened. The only thing I wanted was to get out of this prison, not get comfortable.The warrior stepped closer to the bars and frowned. "I'm not doing this because I have to, Ms. Laurent..." Then he lowered his head and gave me a guilty glance. "My brother was one of the warriors you saved in the hospital. If it weren't for you, he could have never walked again... just like the former Alpha Heir…"I moved closer to the bars and smiled at him. "I hope that your brother has recovered well.""Oh, yes!" Dash laughed. "Our entire family will be forever grateful..." His final note turned flat as he swept my cell with hi
NOVAThere were more than a dozen of them, and everyone moved toward me. I could see blood from fresh kills still dripping from their claws and fur. They were looking at me with eyes filled with bloodlust. It was obvious that they were the ones who killed the warriors from the Moon Blade Pack. Now they were going to add my body to the pile of bloody corpses.The invisibility spell took a lot of my energy. I needed to plan my fight wisely. I needed to choose between attacking them or defending myself with a shield. Casting both types of spells at a time would only drain me soon…I breathed deeply and observed them approach me. A few of them licked their mouths and teeth, looking at me as if they were going to feast on my flesh. My whole body trembled. There were too many of them, and I didn't know too many spells powerful enough to fight them. Was there even a chance that I would defeat them?One of them was larger than the others. He acted like a leader, gesturing for the rest to come
FELIXFifteen hours earlier"What do you mean you've lost contact with your group?!" I'd been yelling at Moon Blade Pack's Gamma Zane for more than fifteen minutes, and my fury and anxiety only rose. "I fucking sent Nova into the woods, so they could take her somewhere safe! Now your men are nowhere to be found, and Nova can be alone in a highly dangerous territory!""Change your fucking tone, Felix!" Zane snarled. "I've dispatched some of my best recruits to retrieve the one YOU promised to keep safe! Luna Aria is freaking out right now, and YOU are the only one who can find out what the hell happened out there! I suggest you get your men and check the damn situation yourself!" He killed the call, and I smashed my phone against the wall. It might not be the wisest thing to do at that moment, but my emotions were too uncontainable to leave room for reason.My heart painfully pounded against my ribcage, as if it wanted to punish me for the choices I had made in the last few hours. Even
NOVA I needed to process the facts... Asriel was a lycan, and not just any lycan—he was the Lycan King. He had Maren, and, as I assumed, many witches like her, by her side. Well, I shouldn't be surprised. I saw a glimpse of his warlock power at the club, and I knew that he could have killed that girl nearly effortlessly. Moreover, someone as egocentric as Maren called him Master... That fact alone forced me to wonder if Asriel wasn't capable of wiping out at least half of the Earth with a snap of his fingers. From what I knew, the leader of the lycans was the one responsible for the constant killings on the Crimson Mountain Pack's borders. That meant that he was merciless and brutal… I had seen how he fought against all those lycans—he ripped their bodies to shreds. Then he walked over to me and caused me pain as if it was nothing. Thinking about it filled me with all kinds of anxieties. He said he had a reason to cut me. What kind of sick reason could that be?! Furthermore, why did
FELIXMy team continued the search until sundown. I walked around the entire forest and scanned every inch of the cave, but found no signs or traces of Nova. The only thing my warriors discovered were a few extinguished furnaces filled with ashes and bone parts. I guess we now knew what happened to the bodies that left their blood all over the forest. I sensed the remains of different smells, but there was no magnolia scent among them. When I became certain that there I felt nothing indicating that Nova's body had been burned there, I collapsed to my knees, thanking the Goddess for leaving me the thin ounce of hope. But as time went on, keeping my grasp on that hope became harder and harder. Finally, we had to terminate the search and go back to Scarletville. It was the only rational decision I could make. Nonetheless, it didn't make my choice any less painful."You need to consider the possibility that Nova is already dead." Eric had become my cruelest voice of reason. "You said it y
NOVA One year later "You should have stayed in the packhouse, Luna Nova. You're pregnant. Alpha will kill me." Holden repeated those words for the fifth time while we were on our way to the Sky Town's construction site. I didn't break the promise I gave Felix—I wasn't driving, Holden was. "I'm fine. You're forgetting that I'm a witch with healing powers. I can feel when there's something wrong with the baby or me. And I go where I'm needed," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "You're going to get me killed," he grunted, and I chuckled. Felix had been overprotective since he learned that I was pregnant two weeks ago. He had been freaking out ever since. I wasn't gravely ill, for Goddess's sake! Furthermore, I felt stronger than ever, and it was a perfect day for my magic to work. With the help of Harriet and Sadako, we created a replacement for the ancient talisman used to fill the jades. Now the witches I hired were using it to enhance their own magic and strengthen the grou
FELIXMate. That one word rang in my head, building the sweetest, most enticing sensation I had ever felt in my life. There was something pure and raw about it. It was this certainly—this absolute certainty—that I was looking at the one destined for me, the one whom I would love and worship for the rest of my days. It felt nothing like that fake fascination I felt for Lya. If I had known what it should have felt like, I would've never even touched her. Goddess made me wait for too long, testing me. Now I prayed that even if I had failed miserably before, Nova would give me a chance to prove that I was worthy of having her as my mate.She inhaled sharply and smiled at me. Her emeralds sparkled in the light of the moon. She was perfection—strong, beautiful, and caring. I wanted her to become my Luna, even tonight."S-so... what now?" She laughed nervously, and I could feel her trembling in my arms.I leaned over and softly kissed her lips. "Well, we can wait for our dinner or skip the r
NOVAA week passed since Felix carried me out of the mine, and the cheering crowd of warriors announced that the battle had come to an end. I had spent that week in the hospital, as had many others. I should have been the one healing them, but currently, I wasn't even able to heal myself.The ritual had taken a greater toll on me than I initially expected. All the rocks that had fallen on my body didn't help either. For the first time in my life, I had to be taken care of, and there was one person who immediately applied for the job—Felix. He had been here, by my bed, from the moment he had carried me into the hospital. He had been severely injured himself, but he refused to lie down. He said that he would heal while sitting by my side, and I seriously didn't know how I felt about it.I knew that all those things that he did—everything that hurt me—weren't entirely his fault. But even before he was under the fake mate-bond spell, he pushed me away. Besides, the fact that he spent the
FELIXHalf an hour earlierThe opening of a large tunnel leading to the jade mine was right in front of Asriel and me. We were wearing only pants to quicken the shift when necessary. We had killed the ten warriors guarding the entrance, and now there was finally no one standing in our way. We knew that Eric and Nova were inside and that, most likely, Maren was there as well. We informed our warriors where we were going, but we couldn't wait. Nova's life was at stake.We stormed into the dimly lit tunnel and rushed forward until we reached the point where it split into two sides. Asriel cursed, looking at the two nearly identical tunnels. "Where now?"I stood in the middle, closed my eyes, and drew a deep breath through my nose. "Left," I said.Asriel raised one eyebrow. "How do you know that?""I sensed a faint smell of magnolias. It's coming from the left side," I explained.Asriel frowned. "I don't smell anything."I smirked. "It's understandable. You cannot possibly know Nova's sce
NOVAThe last thing I remembered was Eric raising his fist and the pain on the back of my head that followed. When I opened my eyes, I was staring at the uneven wall, spiked with purple stones. The jade mine. I was lying in the center of another magic circle. I guess Eric had no time to prepare another cage, pair of cuffs, or chain for me. I gritted my teeth as I tried to stand up. My head still hurt, and I needed a moment before I balanced my unstable body.I looked around. The place where I was appeared to be the dead end of a mining corridor. This area had been carefully hollowed out, and the massive beams, formed in a very solid construction, enhanced the walls. A long line of cables went through the top of the wooden structure, supplying the row of weakly glowing light bulbs with electricity. There was only one exit, leading to a dark tunnel in front of me... I cursed under my breath. Even with my magic unrestrained by the circle, my chances to escape this place were practically
FELIXNova. She filled every corner of my mind as we were getting closer to the Crimson Mountain Pack's territory. I prayed that she was alive and unharmed, and once the darkest what-ifs flooded my mind, the rage followed. I was going to kill every fucker that caused her pain.Our combined armies were a little over a hundred people. The enemy had numerical superiority, but I dare say that the best warriors in our Werewolf Kingdom were on our side. Now, we could only hope that they weren't able to create too many jades fueled by magic. Otherwise, their numbers could truly cause a huge problem…It was fortunate that Tyrion made significant changes to the royal council, filling it with wise and open-minded men. There were no votes against the Moon Blade Pack engaging in our conflict, and they were all more than willing to hear the entire story, starting from the deal with Hecate. They all agreed that this matter had to be solved urgently, and so the alliance had been made.I wish I had m
NOVAAt the cost of several more witches' lives, another stone was created. Eric consumed it just as he did with the one filled by Cassandra. Tears couldn't stop falling down my cheeks. There were tears of pain—the pain of those who died—and anger. Once the ashes covered more than half the floor in the audience hall, Eric finally ordered, "Let's end this for today. I'm bored."And just like that, the hall was emptied, and I was brought back to my cell. The real reason why the witch-killing had ended was anything but the fact that Eric got bored. Aside from Maren and me, he could no longer sense the true, powerful magic within the remaining witches. I also heard him tell Einer that they would have to hunt for witches outside of the Crimson Mountain Pack's territory. They were prepared to exterminate the entire witch race just to gain more power.Someone had to stop them, but even with my full magic restored, I was no all-mighty superhero. I needed an army to fight with me, and I knew o
NOVA Ten minutes later, my cage had been brought to the hall and put down at Eric's feet. He clearly loved looking down on me. Asshole. Lya, on the other hand, wasn't fond of the way Eric's eyes landed on me ninety percent of the time, even if she did everything she could to draw his attention to her. The room filled with witches and warriors. Maren strode through the hall, offering me a dark grin. She then stopped beside Eric and Einer. "Unfortunately, we don't have a talisman that would make filling the jades much easier. We will use the strongest witches as vessels. They will drink the essence and use their bodies to transform the core's magic and then place it in the stone," she explained, looking at the gathered witches. One of the witches stepped forward. "B-but the essence... wouldn't it be poisonous?" Maren chuckled. "That was why I said that only the strong witches could do this." The one who asked nodded and stepped back. Then Maren added with a cold smirk, "However, I ne
NOVAThe smell of blood was ever-present. It was all over me, and I wasn't even allowed to wash it off. It sickened me, but nearly everyone seemed unbothered by it. A few minutes later, just like that, I was transported back to my cell. My whole body ached, and I started to develop claustrophobia from being locked in this freaking cage. The only good thing about being in this prison was that I was left alone and unguarded. That gave me the time I needed to slowly free myself from all the restraints.It took me a while, but I finally shifted to a sitting-kneeling position and straightened my back and neck a little. The amount of struggle it took was ridiculous, but I needed to find a more comfortable way to meditate and gather my magic. With the single crack on my cuffs, my senses could reach beyond the part of the corridor I saw. That way, my instincts would warn me of danger long before I'd see or hear it. I took a deep breath and looked at the metal, unwanted bracelets on my wrists.