AURORA The past two days had been a rollercoaster of emotions. I couldn’t shake the doctor’s words from my mind. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. The words still echoed in my head every time I tried to breathe.But what haunted me even more was the thought of telling Ethan.Lately, he wasn’t the man I’d married—not that I’d ever truly known him. He’d been distant, secretive, and cold. It was also like he wasn’t the same alpha who had once rescued me from Damian. The bloodstains I kept seeing, the secret late night meetings he refused to explain, the sharpness in his voice when he spoke to others. It all felt like pieces of a puzzle I couldn’t put together.And now, this.I spent those two days pacing in my room, overthinking every word, every way this conversation could go. Would he be angry? Dismissive? Supportive? I had no idea. But I couldn’t avoid it forever.Finally, on the third day, I decided it was time.I chose my clothes carefully. I chose something that was sim
AURORA Three figures, pale and sharp-eyed, stood over me. Before I could even move, they lunged at me. Their teeth sank into my skin, draining me until my body hit the ground. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t fight back. Everything went black.I shot up in bed, gasping. My hand flew to my neck where the bites had been in the dream, but there was nothing there. Just the necklace, warm against my skin.“What…?” I whispered, my heart pounding.The room felt wrong, like something had shifted in the air. I touched the necklace. It was pulsing, like it had its own heartbeat. It wasn’t the first time it had acted strange and given me visions, but this was worse. I had never seen myself actually dead. My body was shaking as I tried to shake it off, but the vision stuck with me. The fear, the weakness. The feeling that someone or something wanted me gone. What kind of creature was that? Was it true that they were eventually coming for me? If that was it, then I needed to find a way to protect my
AURORA It has been a week and each passing day felt like another burden for me to bear. It was so hard for me. Ethan hadn’t stopped apologizing. Flowers, meals, little note and all. Unfortunately he was trying to fix what couldn’t be undone.He looked at me with guilt and hope in his eyes, but I couldn’t bring myself to give him the forgiveness he so clearly wanted. I needed to leave. He tried to bring up the contract to me, but all I said was fuck him and the contract. If I didn’t stay back and have the ‘healthy’ baby he wanted, then he should throw me in his prison. The thought of leaving had been circling in my head for days, growing stronger with every hour. But before I could plan my escape, there was something else I needed to handle.I needed to take care of the pregnancy, and I also needed to find a place to live that will be safe for me. Against the beasts I dreamt of, if it was even going to happen at all. I wondered if it was a bad idea to leave the safety of a palace to
DAMIAN The office felt hot. I had been deep in this all day that I could feel a headache building at the back of my head. Alex’s name stared back at me from the top of the page. I had to investigate him, to get the dirt he had on him so I can finally get her back for him. As deep as I went, I realized that Alex wasn’t just trouble. He was dangerous. I’d spent weeks digging into his shady deals, and the deeper I went, the worse it got. He had too much power, too much influence. I slammed the file shut, letting out a frustrated sigh. There was no one I could trust to continue doing this for me. Wyatt was loyal, sure, but even he couldn’t look into this mess the way I could because he was clueless about tech. And my brothers? Forget it. Levi and Maddox were nothing but leeches, waiting for the right moment to swoop in and steal what wasn’t theirs.A sharp knock on the door broke my thoughts.“What?” I snapped, already irritated.Wyatt stepped in, looking uneasy. “They’re here.”“Who?”
Aurora I was panicking. The entire night I spent pacing back and forth, replaying everything that had happened between Alina and me. The way her eyes had looked so hurt when I didn’t defend her, the way she stormed out with her mother—angry and disappointed. And now, she hadn’t come back. I gave her the night, thinking maybe she just needed some space, but when she didn’t return the next morning, panic surged through me. What did I even expect sending her out? Of course she wouldn’t be back trying to beg me to come back in the palace. That wasn’t the type of person she was. And it was all my damn fault. I couldn’t focus on anything else. I had a meeting scheduled with the new elders I appointed at the Black Water Pack, but my mind was elsewhere—on her. Even as I sluggishly got ready, everything felt out of sync. When I finally made my way into the meeting room, I could tell everyone was already waiting, but I couldn’t muster the energy to care. My thoughts were consumed by Alina.
AURORAWhen I woke up, the room was spinning. My head throbbed, and my stomach churned as nausea threatened to overtake me. I groaned, clutching my belly instinctively, my mind racing. I struggled to remember what had happened to me because my brain was too foggy. Too clouded. But when I remembered, my heart's pace immediately picked up. The sedatives. Twice in two days. Panic settled in as I sat up, my body weak and trembling. I pressed a hand to my stomach. I knew that I wanted to abort the baby, knowing that it was still small. But I did not want anything to affect it like this. It was too cruel. I did not know what bad things sedatives did to the baby when the mother is pregnant with it but I knew that it couldn’t be something good.“Are you okay?” I whispered, my voice shaking. I did not know how I was going to get out of this and be able to abort the baby before it was too late for it. I forced myself to stand, my legs unsteady beneath me. The window caught my eye, and I shuff
ETHANThe taste of blood lingered on my tongue, warm and sweet like honey. I leaned back, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, savoring the rush that came with feeding. For a vampire, that was the best feeling in the world and nothing could quite top it. I normally did not bring people to my office, but was starving, and her veins were practically begging for me to feed. My feeding wasn’t just about survival anymore. The hunger had a hold on me, a beast clawing at my insides until I gave in. The woman’s body lay crumpled on the floor, her neck bent at an unnatural angle. Her lifeless eyes stared at nothing. I pushed her away with my foot, disgusted. Not with her, but with myself.I hated this. Every second of it. The hunger wasn’t something I chose. It was a curse, a punishment for sins I’d committed lifetimes ago. I hadn’t asked to become this thing. Half-wolf, half-vampire that was so thirsty with blood that he could not live a normal life. I was not like this when I first tur
AURORA I sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the necklace in my hands as Anton’s words echoed in my head. Everything felt too unreal. My chest ached as I blinked back tears, my voice trembling. We sat there in heavy silence after the revelation. I had not known them all my life, but I couldn’t deny the familiarity I felt when I was sitting down with them there. They were my family.“But why?” I asked, looking up at him. “Why did you leave me? Why didn’t you come back for me you had Evelyn with you all of this time>”Anton’s face softened, and I could see the guilt in his eyes. “Aurora—Lyanna,” he corrected himself gently, “I never wanted to leave you. I fought with everything I had to keep you safe.”“Then why?” My voice broke, and I hated how raw it sounded.He sighed, running a hand through his graying hair. “On our way to safety, after I had gotten the both of you out of the house, we were ambushed by rogues. There were too many of them, and I couldn’t fight them off. They took
AURORAI stared down at the pendant I had brought in frustration, then at the spell book spread open in front of me. The protection spell I’d been trying to cast all day refused to work, no matter how carefully I followed the instructions. It was like there was something missing. The electricity in the air that I had felt when I first came was gone, and now it just felt bland. Like I was reading random words from a book. “Focus,” I muttered under my breath, gripping the small pendant tightly. The words from the book swirled in my head as I tried again.The pendant remained lifeless, stubbornly resisting my efforts. By the time the sun began to set, I was exhausted and defeated. Maybe it was because I was new at this, or maybe I was just terrible at it, but the spell wasn’t happening today. I needed some rest, and then maybe I would call my father to help me with some tips on how to concentrate. With a sigh, I packed up my things, carefully tucking the book back into my satchel. “Tom
ETHANThe anger coursing through me felt like fire. Aurora had crossed yet another line by walking out after I explicitly told her she couldn’t leave. She didn’t understand boundaries, and it made my blood boil in ways no one made it boil. And worse of it all, I could not do anything about it. If it was someone else in her shoes, I would have long drained them and called it a day because no one annoyed me like that and went free. But this was Aurora.I clenched my fists, pacing my office as I tried to rein in my temper. I wanted to punish her, and make her realize the consequences of disobedience. But I couldn’t risk acting on impulse. Not yet. Aurora wasn’t just a rebellious thorn in my side, she was a key to something bigger. Something I couldn’t yet understand.After I was done with breakfast, I finally received the message I’d been waiting for. The witch I’d been trying to contact for years had agreed to meet. She arrived under heavy disguise, her hooded cloak casting shadows over
AURORA The dream came again. It was so vivid and suffocating. I was lying on the cold ground, unable to move, as three vampires hovered over me. Their fangs were exposed, red and shiny right above me and there was nothing I could do. Their snarls filled my ears. I tried to scream, to push them away, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. The first bite came, sharp and deep, and then the second, each one draining me faster than I could comprehend.I bolted upright in bed, my chest heaving as if I’d just run a marathon. Sweat clung to my skin, my heart hammering in my chest. For a moment, I gripped the sheets tightly, grounding myself in reality. I looked around, trying to see anything I could fixate on that would calm my racing heart. “It’s just a dream,” I whispered to the empty room.But it didn’t feel like one. I could feel the weight of the necklace pressed against my collarbone, still warm. It was still giving me these darn glimpses of the future and even though it terrified me knowing
DAMIAN I was pacing the length of my office, my mind filled with chaotic thoughts. Every time I thought of Aurora and of what Ethan had done, of her being trapped in that palace, I felt like my blood was boiling. I needed to get her out of there. I had to. But every option I considered led to dead ends. I could not ask my people to go to war for this. There was too much at stakes. I needed to do this the smart way, but it was like whatever smart way I thought of had too many loopholes. I might actually be stuck. I clenched my fists, trying to shake the helplessness that weighed on me. I hated this feeling. I wanted to act, to fight, to destroy anything standing between me and her, but I couldn’t risk charging in blindly. Not with Ethan being as dangerous as he was. A soft knock broke through my thoughts.“Come in,” I called, trying to sound composed even as my nerves were all over the place.The door opened, and Evelyn strode in, her heels clicking against the polished floor. Her pr
AURORAI stood at the window, my fingers trembling as I clutched the towel tightly around me. Outside, shards of my burner phone glinted on the grass below, the broken a perfect reflection of how I felt inside. Ethan hadn’t hit me. At least not yet, but the look in his eyes had been terrifying. I could not help but think back at what he did to my mother, and what he could do to me. I wondered at that moment how easy it would be for him to kill me and nothing was going to happen. No one could face him, and no one could hurt him. He had stationed himself at a very high place that he was untouchable. It was then I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t stay here. Not anymore.Grabbing my personal phone, I slipped into the bathroom and locked the door. The cold tiles beneath my feet made me shiver, but it was nothing compared to the chill in my chest. I wondered who to call. Who was going to help me, because for all I knew Ethan was downstairs preparing for ways he was going to hurt me.
AURORA I sat in my office, staring blankly at the papers scattered across my desk. The anger in my chest was still simmering, but it wasn’t as explosive as it had been earlier. I knew I’d crossed the line. That much was clear. I should not have done that. I would never hurt a woman that way. Thankfully, she was just exhausted that was why she collapsed not because I caused some damage to her. I hated that I did that to her. The door burst open, and I looked up to see Kiara storming in, followed closely by Sarah. Both of them looked furious, their footsteps echoing loudly in the room. I knew I was about to be chastised, and I did not want to be. I was tired and already felt guilty enough.“What the hell were you thinking?” Kiara snapped, slamming her hands down on my desk.I leaned back in my chair, letting out a long sigh. “Kiara, not now.”“No, now, Ethan,” Sarah chimed in, her voice sharp. “What you did was unacceptable. Do you even realize how bad it was? Do you care?”“I lost my
DAMIANThe air in my pack had been different lately. It was calmer, quieter, and for once, under my control. With my stepbrothers dead and their meddling finally over, I could breathe. I was finally free to lead without anyone undermining me, free to make decisions that were mine alone. The elders had learned to respect me because they knew that I was going to be the end to them if they tried to disrespect me. But even for the fear they had for me, the elders weren’t shy about reminding me. “The pack needs an heir,” they’d said, their voices dripping with expectation. They did not try to force me into procreating with anyone yet. I knew they wanted me to take a breeder from the pack, but I did not want to have a bastard. If not with my mate, I refused to have a baby.Also, there were other alternatives that I was planning to venture into. But I knew I was going to wait for Aurora for how ever long it took. I hadn’t told anyone yet, but I’d decided that I wasn’t going to rush into any
AURORAWhen I woke up, everything felt wrong. My body ached, and my head was foggy. I blinked against the sunlight streaming through the windows, I realized I was back in my room. A drip hung above me, the faint sting of the IV in my arm confused me. What had happened to me? I knew that I had went to sleep after my surgery? Had something gone wrong?Obviously something had gone wrong. Immediately, panic gripped me. I forced my eyes open this time, and the soft sound of sniffling caught my attention. I turned my head slowly to see the doctor who’d handled my abortion standing near the bed, adjusting the drip. Her hands shook violently, and her eyes were red from crying.I wondered for a second what could be making her act this way. Did she find out that I was dying? Even if I was, I was not sure it guaranteed that type of reaction from her. “Doctor?” I croaked, my throat dry. “Are you okay?”She sniffled again, refusing to meet my gaze. Instead, she finished adjusting the drip, mutter
AURORAThe date was set. I had been counting down to this day for a while, and it had finally arrived. It was the most dreadful day of my life. I stared at the calendar pinned on the wall of my room, the small red circle around today’s date glaring back at me. I’d scheduled the abortion in secret, not telling Ethan or anyone else. It was my body, my decision. I couldn’t risk letting him know. Not after everything I’d learned about him.I had planned that I was going to get through it alone and I had scheduled for the doctor to let it be a private event. As long as no one asked about the abortion, she promised she was going to keep her mouth shut. And I believed her. I glanced at the burner phone on the bedside table. It buzzed softly with a message, and my heart sank when I realized who was messaging me. Damian: How are you feeling?At first, I ignored it. I didn’t want to talk to him. I had distanced myself away from everyone in the family. I did not have another friend because I d