Doubts as it should...As I reached my bedroom, I slammed the door shut and paced across the room, my mind racing. **Fabian.** They were getting closer to him, but I had been careful—too careful to let them find a direct link to me. Still, if they did, everything I had built would crumble.I couldn’t let that happen.I needed to get to Fabian first. If I could control the narrative, change a lot of the things happening **before** they caught him, I could turn this whole situation around. But I would need help. I couldn’t afford any mistakes.As I sat down **quietly**, thinking of what I could possibly do, I heard my phone ring, and I quickly reached for it.“Well, speak of the devil,” I said, looking at the telephone number boldly displayed on the screen."Fabian," I hissed, my voice dripping with venom, "well, it's about time you called. We need to talk."His breathing was a bit hitched and somewhat unusual, but I didn't pay much attention to it since I had better things to think abo
The search...."Simeon?? What are you doing here?" I asked, looking at the tiny figure that had now come out of the shadows. His face was buried in his chest as he avoided looking me in the eye. I stared at him as he remained silent for a while. Even though I wanted to dismiss his behavior, I just couldn't brush it off, especially since we weren't in our own house. If he could sneak into this library without anyone knowing, then only the goddess knows where else these children could go without being caught. My concern wasn't that he was wandering around—children like to explore—but this place held too many secrets and hidden messages that could potentially harm my children's innocence. I couldn't let this go so easily."Simeon, I asked you a question. What are you doing here?" I asked again, my voice firmer as I urged him to look at me. He did, but quickly dropped his gaze once he saw how tense my expression was."M...mommy, I...the thing is, I...""Can't you speak anymore? Simeon, I
Tied......"If one of the maids touches anything, I'll have their heads," Veronica spat. "No one but me has permission to enter this library. Well, at least except for Lucas and Simon, but still, they barely come in here, so I more or less have full authority over this place."I could feel the heat of her anger radiating from the other side of the shelf. She was so close now that I could hear her breathing."Let’s go. We’ll search the rooms later. I need to find those papers before anyone notices they’re missing."I waited until I was sure the sound of their footsteps had faded into the distance before daring to move. My heart was still racing, but I couldn't afford to linger any longer. I had to get these documents out of here—and fast.I slipped out of the library, carefully closing the door behind me. As I moved through the halls, my mind raced. Veronica’s schemes were deeper than I had realized, and I still wasn’t sure of the full extent of her plans. How she even got alerted abou
Work together...The ceremony ended with applause, but it felt hollow to me. As the crowd began to disperse, I moved to leave the hall, eager to be anywhere but here. Before I could slip away, Lucas caught up to me.“We need to talk,” he said quietly, his expression serious.I didn’t respond at first, just nodded, leading him down a quieter hallway away from the prying eyes of the court. When we reached an empty room, I turned to face him.“What is it?” I asked, folding my arms.“We can’t keep avoiding this,” he said, his eyes searching mine. “I know you’re doing this for the children, but we need to work together if we’re going to make things easier for them as time passes. We have a lot of enemies, and trust me, they’re not going to sit idly by after today.”“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I scoffed as I murmured under my breath. Lucas and Simon were so focused on the external enemies they had, while the biggest one, however, resided in this house with us. He looked at me as if c
Who are you???**Veronica's POV**They had gone ahead with their stupid plans, and I honestly wasn't as affected as I had expected to feel. Since the meeting with the elders concluded, preparations were casually being made for the marriage ritual between Lucas, Simon, and Ashley. The idea obviously wasn't pleasant to me, but there was really nothing I could do, especially given the fact that Lucas and Simon were on board with it. At the end of the day, the elders can only suggest something alongside its consequences, but the final say always comes from none other than both Lucas and Simon. While the ceremony went on downstairs, I remained in my room, reflecting on what steps to take next. On one hand, there were the missing papers that contained my signed agreements with a couple of individuals I had interacted with in the past to give out the mansion's secrets. I had gone into the library and couldn't find some of them where I had carefully placed them. At that moment, I wasn't thin
Intoxicating scents!!!! "I’m not your enemy, Veronica. In fact, I really don’t want to be. But you have to understand—" "I understand perfectly," I cut her off, my voice rising. "You’ve charmed everyone with your little act, pretending to be so kind, so humble, but I see right through you." The cooks stood awkwardly by, unsure of what to do, their eyes darting between us. I could sense their fear of getting caught in the middle of this power struggle, and that only fueled my anger more. They had already chosen to follow her orders over mine. My own authority was slipping, and I could feel it slipping faster with every moment she remained in the mansion. Ashley took a step back, exhaling softly. "I’m not here to argue with you. If you want to eat something else and not the lunch order I made, fine. I’m not going to make this a bigger issue than it needs to be." She glanced at the cooks. "Just make sure to let me know next time if she has given an order for lunch so that we can e
Tools...My mother leaned in slightly, her eyes narrowing as if to emphasize the gravity of the moment."The plan is simple," she began, her voice low yet sharp. "First, you must rebuild your alliances. The elders, as misguided as they may be, still hold considerable influence. If we can sway just a few of them, their opinions of Ashley will falter. But this time, you’ll have to be more strategic. Play their game. They need to regret the decision they made and see you as someone who is indispensable to the Kingdom again."I nodded, absorbing her words, but the bitterness still lingered. "And how am I supposed to do that? Ashley’s already got them wrapped around her little finger. Worst of all, she has provided the heir they desperately needed all this time, and two of them at that. How am I possibly supposed to compete with that? Mom, this will be nearly impossible.""Which is exactly why we need to turn the tables. Left to me, I would have suggested you kill those children." I gasped
She was a what???As the car sped across the empty and silent road, I could feel Lyon's gaze on me, so I looked out the window to avoid him for a while. This was the confirmation I needed: he definitely had an attraction to me. I couldn’t yet fully tell how loyal he would be, so I planned to make him fall deeper for me, ensuring he would be an effective pawn in helping me achieve my desires.Still avoiding his gaze or looking in his direction, I slowly unbuttoned a few buttons on my shirt, revealing a hint of cleavage. It wasn’t much, but just enough to make it visible—subtle, yet glaring enough to create attraction. The idea was to slowly bring him to a point where he’d be desperate to do anything just to have me. I would keep this up until I no longer needed him.I heard him clear his throat, which made me more persistent. I could tell he was struggling to remain composed, so I decided to make things even harder for him. I opened the shirt a bit more with my hand, moving it up and d
The end of the tunnel !!!**Ashley's POV**As I stood by the side, watching my arch-nemesis being taken away, I honestly couldn’t tell what I was feeling at that point. Although this moment had been a highly anticipated one for me, it just didn’t feel right somehow. As soon as the guard announced that her banishment was to begin, I could feel my wolf’s countenance instantly change. I remained motionless where I stood, watching the whole thing unfold. Nobody moved until she was finally out of sight, with the men trailing behind her as she went on her way. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was getting, although a wave of relief washed over me. All this while, I had wanted her downfall—to see her get the punishment she truly deserved. But now that it had happened, I surprisingly didn’t feel as excited as I thought I’d be.“Are you feeling alright?” I heard Simon ask as he placed a hand on my shoulder, and I nodded.“Yeah, I… I just—”“It’s fine, you don’t have to say anything. I can underst
Outplayed....**Veronica’s POV**Right after informing me of the success of the plan, Drago had actually requested that I come over to see things for myself, and as I drove to the arranged meeting point, I couldn’t contain the mix of emotions I felt. It was a strange blend of excitement, adrenaline, and anxiety. Drago had assured me everything had gone according to plan, but amidst the excitement, I couldn’t shake off the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something didn’t feel right.As I approached the hideout, my phone buzzed again. This time, it was a voice message from Drago.“Greetings, your Highness. I just wanted to let you know that these kids have been crying ever since they were brought here. I don't know what happened exactly, but when I went out to find something for them to eat, one of my men apparently shot one of them, and now he's dead. I'm really sorry, your Highness.” The moment the voice note ended, I had to slam on the brakes because the shock hit me harder
Love and war !!!We made our way back to the mansion quietly, sneaking in before anyone noticed our absence. Even as we slipped back into our normal roles, something between us had changed—strengthened. There was a deeper understanding now, a silent promise that we would stand by each other no matter what came next.What came next was the reckoning we had been preparing for.Later that day, Simon and I gathered in his study with the sole aim of finalizing our next steps regarding Veronica. We knew time was running out. With Fabian already in our custody, Veronica was bound to make a move sooner rather than later. Her desperation would push her into action, and we needed to be ready.“She’s going to crack soon,” Simon said, his voice filled with certainty. “Especially now that we’ve got Fabian. There’s no way she can keep up this facade much longer.”I nodded in agreement. “We just need to keep the pressure on her. Fabian already gave us some leads—now it’s only a matter of time before
The hatch **Lucas's POV**Right after the whole thing with Ashley presenting ample evidence against Veronica, although it was hard for us, Simon and I just had to keep to ourselves. Well, at least until we had finally achieved what we wanted, which was actually pretty close to our reach at that point. I never liked Veronica from the start, but this was something I could never see myself believing she committed. It now makes me wonder if she really was the one who killed Mortica as well.As I sat on my bed thinking about all these things, I could feel a knot forming in my head, and I ruffled my hair as I tried relieving myself of the headache. As it stands now, we currently have all the top perpetrators in our custody back at the torture house, and the one person we needed to find is that slimy Fabian. Just as I had mentioned to Ashley a while back, we needed to keep things on the low so that we would easily be able to use Veronica to get to him. After all, the reports we had been get
Surprise, surprise!!!“Yes, yes, that’s right! She seemed very secretive about the whole thing, like she didn’t want anyone to know we’d left or where we went.”“I see,” I responded, finally removing my claws from his thigh. Lyon gasped in relief, but the moment Simon turned his glare toward him, he silenced himself.Simon and I exchanged a knowing look.“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Simon asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.“Bet,” I replied, a hint of realization dawning on me.Together, we turned our gazes back toward Lyon, who flinched in fear under our combined scrutiny.Simon crossed his arms, his jaw tightening as he addressed Lyon again. “You better hope for your sake that what you’ve said checks out. If we find out you’ve withheld anything, even the smallest detail, you’ll regret ever stepping foot in this mansion.”“I swear, Your Highness, that’s all I know! I told you everything!” Lyon pleaded, desperation evident in his voice.I took a step forward, looming ov
Feel the heat....I stepped forward, towering over him. “You thought you could hide in the shadows, Fabian, but your time is up. We’ve heard everything.”His face paled, and he stammered, “I-I can explain! It wasn’t my idea—Veronica pushed me into this! I was just trying to survive!”“You’ll have plenty of time to explain,” I said coldly. “Take him away.”Fabian’s eyes darted to the exit, but before he could make any sudden moves, our men swiftly blocked the way. He was trapped. The fear in his eyes deepened as he realized there was no escape.Simon crossed his arms. “Let’s make this simple. You come quietly without receiving any beatings, or we drag you out of here with no less than 20 slaps already landed on you.”Fabian hesitated for a moment, but when he saw that resistance was futile, he slumped in defeat. “Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll go.”As we escorted him out of the building, Simon leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Now that we have him, it’s only a matter of time before Vero
A little bit more....The next morning I woke up feeling extremely refreshed and light. For over 6 years I had been wrongly accused and tagged for committing crimes that I knew absolutely nothing about. Even though I did make it a point to act like I didn't care about it, the accusations definitely followed me around like a serious plague all through. Well at least till last night.As soon as I woke up, the first thing that came to mind was everything that had played out the previous night between myself and both Lucas and Simon, and a smile soon appeared on my face “Finally! I'm free” I exclaimed, as I excitedly got out of bed. I went straight into my bathroom to freshen up, and as I went about doing my usual morning routine, I couldn't help but to hum a song happily whilst carrying out every activity I did. “Oh, good morning my queen, you seem happy this morning,” Yasmine greeted warmly, as she peeked into the bathroom where I was busy brushing my teeth. I spat out the mouthwash
Let the real games begin!!!!I took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts. “Because Amira has been helping me gather evidence. We have proof of her dealings with corrupt members of the court and her plans to undermine the council. I’ve been working with Rita to piece everything together, and we’re ready to present it to you.”There was a moment of silence as the two of them processed my words. Lucas finally leaned back in his chair, his expression thoughtful.“If what you’re saying is true, then why didn’t you come to us sooner?” he asked.“As if,” I scoffed. If I had come to them any sooner, they would have dismissed me as quickly as possible. Not to mention the fact that going without concrete evidence could have endangered the little I had managed to gather over that space of time.“If I had come any sooner, would you two have given me a listening ear? That is exactly the question you should be asking right now, not the one you just mentioned. Given that every attempt I made to reve
Look back...This wasn’t just an attack on Amira—it was a trap for me. Veronica had suspected something, and now she was using Amira to bait me into revealing myself.I took a deep breath, forcing myself to remain calm. I couldn’t act rashly. If I made the wrong move now, everything we had worked for could be undone. But Amira—she had risked everything for me. I couldn’t just leave her to face this alone.As Veronica presented her so-called “evidence”—a series of forged letters implicating Amira in a conspiracy—my mind raced. I had to think quickly, but I couldn’t act openly in front of the council. I needed to find a way to turn this situation to my advantage.Then, an idea struck me. I stood up slowly, the eyes of the council and Veronica now on me.“Queen Veronica,” I began, my voice steady, “these accusations are indeed serious. But I must question why this alleged plot has only now come to light. Every one of us knows that this lady in question happens to be your most trusted han