Chapter: A meeting with my step motherMIRABELLAA second ticks by.Two.Three.Four.Five.Then Kaden jackknifes out of bed and runs out after Kaius, and I sit there staring at the empty doorway with my fingers pressed to my mouth.“I was drunk,” I hear him say in the hallway, and the words land like a slap.The burn of it moves through me slow, the way shame always does when it’s trying to disguise itself as something smaller. I press my lips together and stare at the ceiling and tell myself it doesn’t matter, that I don’t care, that this was nothing and I knew it was nothing even while it was happening.But he wasn’t drunk. I know he wasn’t drunk. He was entirely, completely sober, and he kissed me anyway, and now he’s standing in a hallway outside my door telling his brother he was drunk because the alternative—admitting he wanted to—is apparently worse than the lie.I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them and listen.“Stay away from her, Kaden.” Kaius’ voice bleeds with barely concealed irritation,
Last Updated: 2026-03-28
Chapter: Maybe I want to be around youMIRABELLA I shove my way through the snickering crowd, down the steps, and across the dock, and then I’m running, my wet clothes plastered cold against my skin, Sophie’s voice trailing after me. “Mirabella, wait!” I don’t stop. I run until I hit the end of the dock and my lungs are burning and I can’t hear the music anymore, and then I pull out my phone with shaking fingers and book a ride without even looking at the price. I stand at the edge of the road with my arms wrapped around myself, dripping, and I don’t look back at the lights of the yacht. The driver doesn’t say a word when I get in, which is the kindest thing anyone has done for me all night. I stare out the window the whole ride back, watching the beach road blur past, and by the time Windsor House comes into view I’ve stopped shaking but I haven’t started feeling anything else yet, which is maybe a mercy. The house is quiet. No lights on downstairs, no sound from any of the upper floors. Cassian must ha
Last Updated: 2026-03-27
Chapter: A shocking presentationMIRABELLA“Let’s just go for a walk or something,” Sophie says, almost pleadingly, and I can hear the fear threaded underneath her voice, careful and deliberate as a stitch meant to hold something together that’s already starting to fray.But the crowd is already moving.It happens gradually and then all at once, people drifting toward the staircase that leads up to the top deck, pulled by some collective, wordless current. I watch them go, Sophie’s hand hovering near my elbow but not quite touching it, and I know I shouldn’t follow.Every reasonable, cautious part of me knows that whatever is up there is exactly what Kaius meant when he leaned close and murmured about gifts, exactly what Sophie has been trying to steer me away from all evening.I follow anyway.“Mirabella, wait—” Sophie’s voice sharpens behind me, but I’m already moving, threading through the crowd with a single-mindedness that surprises even me, past girls in floor-length Valentino and boys in fitted Balenciaga, pas
Last Updated: 2026-03-23
Chapter: A strange giftMIRABELLAZack’s yacht is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life.It rises from the water in tiers, each deck lit up against the darkening sky like something out of a magazine spread. One level has sleek, expensive furniture arranged in careful groupings. Another has a hot tub where people are already crowded in, laughing too loudly. And on the highest deck, students are dancing to music that throbs through the hull and into the soles of my feet even before Sophie and I step aboard.“Sophie,” I say slowly, craning my neck to take it all in. “How much did this thing cost?”“Custom built,” she says, in the tone of someone reciting a fact she finds both impressive and faintly obscene. “Over a hundred million dollars.”My stomach turns over. A hundred million dollars. For a boat. I think about the two-bedroom apartment my mother and I shared for most of my childhood, the way she’d stretch her paycheck to the end of the month, and something sour rises in my throat. This is a floating pa
Last Updated: 2026-03-22
Chapter: An invitationMIRABELLAMy pulse speeds up, a rapid flutter against my ribs that makes it hard to breathe evenly. “Oh.”“I’ve tried to put her off for as long as I could,” Cassian continues, his voice measured but tinged with something that might be weariness. “At least until I was sure you’d settled in. But she’s persistent, and she thinks it’s time she meets you.”I don’t know what to say to that. The words tangle in my throat, refusing to form anything coherent. I don’t even know this woman—don’t know what to expect from her, what kind of person she is, whether she’ll look at me with kindness or resentment. My father’s widow. The phrase feels foreign in my mind, like trying on clothes that don’t quite fit.Cassian seems to read my mind, or maybe the confusion is just that obvious on my face, because he says, “She’s not the worst person, but her marriage with your father wasn’t the best.” There’s something careful in how he phrases it, like he’s editing his words even as they leave his mouth.“Yo
Last Updated: 2026-01-09
Chapter: Your father’s widowMIRABELLAThe next morning, I find Kaius in the driveway leaning against Kaden’s truck.He’s dressed in sneakers, long gym shorts, and a muscle tee that’s open at the sides, revealing strips of tan skin and defined muscle. He looks hotter than any jerk has the right to, and I hate that I notice. A baseball cap is pulled low over his forehead, casting shadows across his face.I glance around, searching for Kieran who’s supposed to take me to school, but he’s nowhere to be found.“Looking for someone?” Kaius asks, his voice carrying that familiar edge of mockery.I shift my backpack on my shoulder, pretending I haven’t heard him. The courtyard stretches empty around us—no sign of the Mercedes, no sign of escape. My stomach sinks as I check my phone. If I don’t leave in the next five minutes, I’ll be late for my first shift at the café, and Belinda made it clear she doesn’t tolerate tardiness.“Get in,” Kaius says, jerking his head toward the truck. “I’ll give you a ride.”I stare at hi
Last Updated: 2026-01-08
Fated To The Wrong Alpha
His hand cups my face, thumb brushing my cheek, and I’m burning so hot I’m surprised his skin doesn’t blister. “We can’t do this,” he growls, but he doesn’t pull away. “I know.” My voice breaks. “But how can this be wrong when it feels so right?” His jaw clenches. “Because you belong to him.” “I belong to you,” I whisper. “The moon goddess doesn’t make mistakes.” For one endless moment, he just stares at me like I’m destroying him.Then his mouth crashes into mine, and the world burns.
***
My brother’s mistake started a war. My surrender ended it. When Kaz Ryker, the most feared Alpha in the realm, spares my dying pack, the price isn’t gold or territory—it’s me. As his wife. His prize. His to claim. I tell myself I can survive this. That I can marry a monster and keep my heart intact. What I don’t expect, is for the mate bond to snap into place with the wrong man. He’s not the man I’m supposed to marry. He’s the one I’m fated to love. And he’s determined to deny it. But my body doesn’t care what he wants. And neither does fate. Trapped between two powerful wolves and a destiny I never asked for, I’m about to learn that some bonds can’t be denied. Even if they burn us all to ash.
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Chapter: Just this onceTESSAIt’s been five days since I found out Ezra is my mate.It takes seven days for a female to go into heat after finding her mate, which means I have two more days before biology takes over and my body stops being mine — and I haven’t seen Ezra once since the night he pressed me against the wall and told me he wants nothing to do with me.The palace is enormous, but not so enormous that you avoid someone for five full days by accident. He’s making sure of it, and the knowledge that he’s going out of his way hurts more than I want to admit.The bruises from the other night have almost faded — almost. There’s still a faint shadow at my wrist where the drunk man grabbed me, and sometimes I’ll catch it in certain light and the memory comes back all at once, the cold stone against my spine, the tuneless whistling, the slow clink of a belt, and then Kaz’s hand closing around the back of that man’s neck like a vice. The heart. The sound it made.I keep trying to reconcile the two versions
Last Updated: 2026-01-21
Chapter: Stay away from meTESSA I’m still reeling from the realization when the sharp scrape of Kaz’s chair cuts through the fog in my head. “Ezra.” Kaz crosses the room in three long strides and claps the other man on the shoulder with an ease that speaks volumes about their history. “Didn’t expect you back until tomorrow.” “Finished early.” I hate that two words are enough to unravel me. He doesn’t acknowledge the greeting beyond those two clipped words. His eyes are already back on me, locked there with an intensity that makes breathing feel like something I have to think about. I press my nails into my palms, grounding myself in the sting. Don’t think. “This is Tessa Thorne,” Kaz says, turning slightly toward me. “My bride-to-be.” Bride-to-be. The words land like a slap, and I watch Ezra’s face carefully for any crack in the surface—anger, surprise, the faintest flicker of recognition that mirrors even a fraction of what’s tearing through me right now. There’s nothing. Not a seam, not a tremor.
Last Updated: 2026-01-21
Chapter: The wrong mateTESSA The car door closes behind me with a finality that feels like a coffin being closed, and Marcus is still standing there when I turn to look through the tinted glass — his face is pale, hands hanging uselessly at his sides, watching me be taken away with the helpless stillness of a man who already knows there’s no fixing this. I press my palm flat against the window before I can stop myself. He doesn’t move. The engine hums and the car pulls away, and I watch him shrink in the darkened glass until the road bends and swallows him whole. I face forward and don’t cry, because crying would mean accepting this is real, and I’m not quite ready for that yet. Kaz Ryker sits on the other side of the backseat, one arm resting along the window ledge, gaze fixed ahead. He hasn’t looked at me once since we left. The silence between us isn’t empty — it has weight and shape, pressing into my ribs like a third presence consuming all the remaining air. Hours pass before he speaks. “You shou
Last Updated: 2026-01-21
Chapter: A war and a treatyTESSA Less than twenty-four hours ago, my entire life went to complete shit, and now the Alpha of the most powerful pack in the realm is in the next room deciding whether or not I’ll live to see tomorrow. This all started with an unfortunate accident. My brother killed one of the members of his pack. It’d been a moment of chaos and bad timing and goddess knows what else — but dead is dead, and Kaz Ryker doesn’t care about intentions when one of his own stops breathing. A response came within hours, delivered by a single rider who didn’t wait for an answer: Send us the killer’s head, or we come for you all. My father refused. Marcus is his only son, his heir, the one thing in this world he loves more than his own life. There was never a world in which he’d hand him over. So Kaz Ryker came for us instead. He’s the Alpha who has never lost a battle, never shown mercy, never left anyone standing. They say he doesn’t fight like anything you’ve seen before, and they’re right, becaus
Last Updated: 2026-01-21
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