LOGINI was probably in my hundredth cookie when I suddenly felt a presence behind me. I knew it wasn’t Naomi because my friend had gone upstairs to get her phone.
“How are you slim like a runway model when you eat like a pig?”
The cookie fell to the floor instantly from my tottering hand, and my heart erratically went over the fence.
What was Adam doing here?
What did he want? Why was he right behind me? And where was Naomi now that I needed her?
I was stiff, rimrod straight on the high kitchen stool, whilst my pulse jumped haphazardly when Adam suddenly started trailing his finger down my arm.
I inhaled sharply the next minute, when he bit my ear lobe, when he slid his hand around my waist, when his kooky breathing slammed into my hearing neurons.
How could someone be so brash? How could someone be so entitled? Did he think he could have his way with me because he was hot, because I was a mere statistic to him?
He must be out of his mind!
I jumped out of my stool without giving him any warning, a smile flashing across my lips a second later, when I heard him gasp harshly. I wish he had fallen to the ground.
Willfully stilling my nervous nerves, I turned around to face him, swallowing down saliva as I took in the fine imagery of his chest which was bare of any clothing. He was only wearing beach shorts.
Damn! Adam was so hot!
Clearing my throat, I awkwardly picked a cookie from the white plate on the counter, pretending it was normal that he was hitting on me.
“What do you think that you are doing,
Adam?” I asked, biting down on the cookie which I knew might get stuck in my throat—my nerves were jumping. Even though Adam had never raised his hand on me, had never joined the bullying gang, he was still a culprit for enjoying my misery. And there’s the fact that he had been the one to kickstart today’s episode of bullying with just a question.
“What do you think I am doing? Don’t you want it? Isn’t that why you wore such an outfit? To bask in the attention of the opposite sex…” Adam stated coldly, perusing my frame. I was still wearing the bikini. I felt naked under the unabashed scrutiny.
“No, that’s not true. I didn’t know you all were coming. Shouldn’t the school still be in session? Why are you people here?” I asked him, mentally slapping myself for mustering up a boldness that I didn't know I had.
If someone had told me that I would be talking with Adam this way— standing in the kitchen, a tray of cookies between us—I wouldn't have believed it, not in a million years.
Seeing as Adam’s gaze had never left me or rather my boobs since we stood opposite each other, I would say Naomi was right. Wardrobe malfunction had contributed to my bullying for so long.
“Well, the principal had told us to go home for playing around with you. Isn’t that so cruel, huh?” Adam queried, his countenance still aloof.
Yet, I scoffed, before I could stop myself.
And then, realizing the misstep, I shut my eyes out of habit, expecting a knock for exhibiting such rude behavior in front of the Prince .
But I heard him laughing—a rich timbre that sent tingles down my spine.
When he stopped, I wanted him to continue. It was the first time I had heard him laugh. It was beautiful.
“You have really grown wings. I don’t know if that is a good idea or a bad one.” He muttered slowly, as he stepped into my space.
His sudden closeness made me a nervous wreck and a mushy fellow at the same time. And when he placed his index finger on my belly and began to trace invisible lines around it, his head dipping low as if he wanted to kiss me, when his eyes met mine in a heart racing melody, I became flabby.
“…But I would let it slide because I want to kiss you so badly. I want to know the taste of my playtoy’s lips.” He whispered smoothly, bringing my attention to his well shaped lips.
God, I was curious too.
For a second, I was tempted to know what the feeling was like, kissing the son of our high and mighty lycan king, even though I knew it was a forbidden territory for me. If Claire should find out…I am dead.
“What do you think?”
His gaze kept dropping to my lips intermittently.
But I was silent.
Foolish me just stared at his lips and kept imagining how those seemingly red entities would feel on mine.
I was beginning to think that letting Adam have my first kiss might not be a bad idea after all.
That’s what his closeness did to me. It got rid of my common senses and reduced the weight of his numerous sins against me.
SAGEI woke up craving blood.The awareness slid into me before my eyes opened, before my breath even found rhythm. It sat on my tongue first—metallic, sharp, a taste that wasn't there and yet was. My mouth watered in a way that had nothing to do with hunger as I knew it. Not bread. Not fruit. Not even meat.Blood.The word pulsed through me, unwelcome and undeniable.I lay there staring into the dark, my sheets twisted around my legs, my skin damp as if I'd been dragged out of deep water. My heart thudded hard enough to bruise from the inside. I swallowed, once, twice, trying to scrape the sensation away, but it clung—thirsty, insistent, alive.The nightmare unraveled itself in pieces when I blinked. Naked fellows, bodies pale and wrong, their mouths red, lunging hands, tearing teeth. I'd woken just before they reached me, a scream trapped behind my teeth.I told myself it was only that—the dream, the panic, my mind playing tricks in the hours before dawn.But the thirst didn't fad
ADAMCan two people's lips taste the same?The question stalked me all the way back to my quarters, pacing my thoughts with the same relentless rhythm as my boots against stone. The night air should have cooled me, cleared my head. Instead, it sharpened everything—memory, sensation, doubt.Maya's lips had tasted like rain and iron. Like something wild caught between fear and defiance. I remembered the way she used to smile before she kissed me, like she already knew the outcome and was daring fate to interfere.Dora's had been different. Softer. Warmer. A quiet promise layered beneath the fire. Kissing Dora had felt like coming home to a place I hadn't known I'd been searching for. There had been grief there too, always grief, as if she carried endings in her bones.And Sage.Sage's lips tasted like both.The realization made me slow my steps, my chest tightening as the royal gates loomed ahead. Stone and iron parted for me, familiar and unyielding, but my thoughts refused to fall in
SAGEThe kiss shouldn't have happened.That was my first thought—not shock, not anger, but a sharp, clinical recognition that something had gone off-script. Adam's mouth was suddenly on mine, warm and insistent, and for a single suspended second my body froze while my mind scrambled to catch up.My eyes stayed open. I watched his close instead.There was something almost reverent in the way his lashes brushed his cheeks, the way his brow eased as though this—this—was a relief he hadn't known he was holding his breath for. The cave's low light caught on the sharp lines of his face, softened them, made him look dangerously human.Then his lips moved.Slow. Certain. Like he already knew the shape of my mouth.The breath left me in a quiet, traitorous sound.No. Absolutely not.Except my body disagreed.Heat unfurled low in my belly, startling in its speed, and when his tongue brushed my lower lip, coaxing, my resolve slipped just enough for a moan to escape me. Soft. Embarrassingly hon
ADAMShe was powerful.The thought struck me with the weight of inevitability, settling deep in my chest as I watched Sage stand there, her brow drawn tight after the priest's words. The faint rumble of the waters had not yet stilled. It lingered, vibrating through the chamber like an aftershock, as if the cave itself was reluctant to forget her presence.Powerful wasn't even the right word. She had made the waters move.My fingers curled slowly at my sides. That wasn't supposed to happen. Not without a trial. Not without a child stepping forward to be measured by fate and blood and bone. And yet the pool had stirred the moment she crossed the threshold, answering her like an old friend—or a subject recognizing its sovereign.Just like Dora.The memory rose unbidden, sharp and unwelcome. Six years ago, this same chamber. The same low hum. My wolf stirred. I told you. She is one and the same."No," I thought back immediately, almost violently. "That's not possible."It couldn't be. D
SAGEThe doctor's voice droned on like running water over stone—smooth, practiced, endlessly reverent."The goddess watches over this place," he was saying, hands gesturing toward the carvings as though they might rise and bow. "Every ritual, every trial, every drop of blood spilled here has been seen. Recorded."I nodded when nodding was expected. Tilted my head when he paused, as if inviting awe.Inside, I was bored.Not the restless kind of boredom that made you fidget or sigh. No—this was sharper, edged with irritation. I had heard variations of this sermon in a dozen places, spoken by men who believed reverence was the same as understanding. The goddess, the trials, the sacred balance. Always the same words. Always the same worship dressed up as wisdom.What occupied me far more than the doctor's monologue was the priest. His eyes had not left me.Not openly—not enough for the others to call him out—but enough. Too often. Too intent. His gaze didn't slide away when mine brushed
ADAMShe stopped.Not abruptly, not startled—but with a measured stillness that made the night lean closer, as if the world itself had paused to watch what would happen next.I halted too, my grip tightening unconsciously around her hand.For a breath, I simply stared at her.At the angle of her face as she turned slightly toward me. At the way moonlight softened the sharpness of her cheekbones. At her hair—dark, glossy, falling in a way that didn't quite sit right in my mind, as though some instinct deep inside me was whispering that this wasn't its true shade. Her eyes troubled me more. Too vivid. Too deliberate. As if she'd chosen them rather than been born with them.And yet none of that mattered. Because the feelings didn't stop.They hadn't stopped since the moment I'd been waiting in her living room, restless, irritated with myself, when she had walked in wearing that casual confidence like a second skin. They hadn't stopped when she teased me, slow and deliberate, her voice







