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.
Silence settled over the chamber like a suffocating fog. It pressed against my ears. Against my chest. Against the fragile edges of my resolve.Freda did not answer my question. She didn’t even look at me again.She simply turned, heels clicking softly against the stone, and walked away as though none of this concerned her—my pain, my impending death, the corruption festering at the heart of this palace.The door responded to her presence instantly, parting without touch, without sound, opening as though it recognized her authority.I watched it with a dull, aching focus. The mechanism fascinated me in a distant, desperate way. It wasn’t just a door. It was a system. A spell. A gate woven into the very bones of this place.It meant escape might be possible.If I survived long enough to attempt it. If the stake didn’t finish dismantling me first.The queen remained where she was, studying me with open, predatory amusement.“Why do you care so much about Freda,” she asked lazily, “when
SAGEVoices dragged me out of the dark. They scraped across my consciousness like nails on stone, pulling me upward from a depth that had almost become merciful.Pain greeted me before sight did.It lived everywhere—sharp, throbbing, gnawing—but it burned brightest in my chest, radiating outward from the place where the stake remained lodged beneath my heart. Every breath felt like it dragged glass through my lungs. Every heartbeat seemed to grind the wood deeper into flesh, as though my body itself were conspiring against me.I had felt worse before. But not like this. This pain was layered—physical agony braided with black magic, corrosive and invasive, eating at my magic, destabilizing my core. I could feel the corruption crawling through my veins like a slow-moving poison, unraveling me thread by thread.I had hidden most of it from Darius. From Adam.Opening the mind path earlier had been a calculated risk, and I had refused to let my suffering become the trigger that sent them
ADAMSilence filled Peter’s living room hut like smoke that had nowhere to escape.It wasn’t the comfortable quiet of safety or rest. It was heavy. Loaded. Expectant. As though the walls themselves were holding their breath.Sage’s mind link remained open. Her presence lingered in my head like the fading echo of a scream—trembling with stubborn defiance. Even after the last of her message had faded, the emotional residue remained: pain folded into courage, heartbreak braided with resolve, fear sharpened into purpose. She had let us hear everything. Every word the queen spat. Every confession soaked in cruelty. Every revelation that peeled back layers of deception and rot.My jaw clenched until my teeth ached. I could still hear it—the queen’s voice slipping through Sage’s mind, dripping with pride as she admitted to murder, manipulation, decay. The deaths at the borders. The vampires unleashed like weapons. The magical beast sent to slaughter during the hunt. Every drop of blood spil
SAGEDarius knocked at my mind like someone afraid to break glass.I felt him before I answered. The brush of his presence, layered with urgency. I opened the door to him slowly, letting him in, and in the same breath, I reached outward—touching his thoughts, his awareness, the thread that linked him to Adam.And I knew. He was with Adam.Adam had felt my distress. Adam had come for me.The knowledge warmed me. A tear burned at the corner of my eye. I refused to let it fall.Not now. Not here.Not in front of people who had driven a wooden stake into my body with surgical precision because they already knew what I was—half Ancient—and exactly how to destabilize me.They had planned this. And they had been right.The stake pulsed beneath my ribs, humming with dark enchantments that scrambled my magic, turning my power into static instead of flame. Strength bled out of me in slow, humiliating increments. Every breath felt thinner than the last.Still, I did not tell Darius that the Que
ADAMI had been mid-sentence when the pain struck.Not the ordinary echo of the mate bond—no, this was different. This was raw. Immediate. Sharp with betrayal and blood. Sharp with death.It felt like someone had driven a blade through my chest.My voice cut off without warning. The words I had been saying to Feliq dissolved into air.He looked at me, brows knitting slightly, waiting for me to continue listing the warriors available for deployment—but I could no longer focus on him, on the council hall, on the cluster of elders and ancients watching the room with wary patience.The world narrowed. Heat flooded my ribs. And beneath it—Sage.Not her voice. Not her presence. Her pain. Shock. Something wet and burning, like life slipping through fingers.My jaw clenched. I tasted copper. What has happened to my mate?!“Adam?” one of my brothers muttered.I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out.My gaze snapped to Darius. He had to confirm… I wanted to be sure that my… I couldn’
SAGEI turned back too late.The walls shut behind me with a soft, final click, feeling like a bad verdict. My heart jumped into my throat.The darkness thickened instantly, swelling outward like a living thing. It wasn’t ordinary shadow. It pressed closer, denser, heavy with a presence that seemed aware of me. It felt like fingers reaching through the air, brushing at my skin, curling around my limbs, grazing my breath.I shivered. Unease crawled down my spine. Maybe I should have listened to El.This felt wrong. Not natural darkness. Not absence of light. Black magic. The kind that left residue. The kind that lingered long after the spellcaster had left the room.My chest tightened as I exhaled slowly. There had to be an incantation. Some mechanism to lift the spell. A trigger. A failsafe. Something.This had to be a barrier—to keep prying eyes out. Even her children, perhaps. Even her allies. Even those who believed they were close to her. The queen was careful. Paranoid. Always te







