Novel-novel oleh Jiajnr

BORN INTO A FAMILY OF LIARSI was not eavesdropping.That is important. I need that on record.I was walking past my grandfather’s study on my way to the kitchen because I had developed an unhealthy dependence on late-night tea, and the hallway lights were dim, and the door was half open, and voices were raised.Raised voices in this house were rare.So I slowed down.That was all.I slowed down.“Matteo, this is getting dangerous,” my grandmother said. Her voice was low but tight, like a thread pulled too far. “She is getting attached.”I stopped.My fingers curled around the edge of the wall, my body already reacting before my brain caught up. I leaned back just enough to stay hidden, my heartbeat turning loud in my ears.Attached to who.“To him,” Matteo replied. “That was inevitable.”“You said we would tell her.”“I said we would tell her when the time was right.”There was a pause. A heavy one.“She calls him her brother,” my grandmother said quietly. “She trusts him.”My sto

BEFORE THE STORM HITSI woke up before the knock this time. I woke up because my chest felt too full, like my lungs had forgotten how much air they were supposed to take in.I lay there staring at the ceiling, counting the cracks I had memorized during the days I refused to leave this room. There were seven long ones and one that curved oddly to the left. I used to trace them with my eyes until my thoughts slowed enough for sleep.This morning, they didn’t help.The dream still clung to me. Not images exactly, more like impressions. A forest that wasn’t Silvercrest. Trees that leaned inward. A moon that felt closer than it should have been. And the feeling of standing on four legs without knowing how I knew that was wrong.I pressed my palm to my chest.My wolf stirred, not fully awake, not asleep either. It felt like she was listening to something I couldn’t hear.A knock came, gentle.“Emily,” Grandma’s voice called through the door. “Are you awake?”“Yes,” I answered quickly

DREAMINGThe dreams followed me into the morning.Not in a dramatic, cinematic way. They clung instead, like a smell on clothes that refused to leave even after washing.I woke up staring at the ceiling, my chest rising too fast, my hands curled into the sheets like I had been holding onto something and lost it.I stayed still for a while, enjoying the quiet.No shouting. No alarms. No sudden rush of pack noise outside my window.Just birds. Wind. The distant sound of the pack members laughing somewhere far away.This was what normal looked like.I swallowed and pushed myself up slowly, bracing for the dizziness that had become familiar these past few days. It came, but weaker this time. That felt like progress, even if it was the kind no one clapped for.I rubbed my face and muttered, “You’re awake. That’s good.”My wolf shifted faintly inside me, as if informing me of her presence not still not being active.That alone steadied me.I pulled on a sweater and padded out of my r

HALLUCINATINGIt wasn’t Damien.At this point, I think I hallucinated Damien and Bella. Damien was not just nowhere to be found, no-one spoke about his name or the rogues which attacked the other time, and for someone, ‘cough’, ‘cough’ who said that he’d always come for me? He seems to have never existed.So, I think I hallucinated it, but the goddess forbid that I mention this and get a new sticker on my weirdness, but, here’s the thing, I did not wake up one morning and decide I was feeling better.It happened in pieces, like crumbs leading me out of my room.At first, I only cracked the door open. Just enough to listen. The mansion had its own sounds, soft footsteps, murmured conversations, the distant clink of cups. Life moving without me. That part stung, but it also reminded me that the world had not ended just because I stopped showing up.The second day, I stepped into the hallway.Barefoot. Slow. Careful, like the floor might remember who I was and reject me.No one was t

IS THAT DAMIEN?I do not leave my room, not even when the sun rises and spills light through the curtains. Not when the house shifts with morning sounds. Not when footsteps pass my door again and again.I stay exactly where I am.The floor is cold beneath me, but I do not move to the bed. Moving would mean choosing something, and I am very tired of everything. I want to fade into the abyss. I miss my parents. And bella. No-one would talk about her, my days have been monotone with Daniel and Elio being the constant in my life.Elio has tried to get me out of my room but I feel like he’s forcing a sibling relationship which is not yet there.A knock at the door sounds softly.“Emily?” Grandma’s voice floats through the door. “Breakfast is ready.”I say nothing.Silence stretches.Then another knock, slightly firmer this time. “You do not have to come down. I can bring it to you.”I press my forehead against my knees and stare at the expensive marbling.I am not hungry. Or maybe I

DISAPPEARING I locked my door.Not dramatically shut it like I wanted someone to notice. I closed it slowly, carefully, then turned the key and stood there with my hand still on the knob, listening.Nothing.No footsteps. No voices. No knocking.Good.I slid down until my back hit the door and sat there on the floor like my legs had simply decided to give up on me. The room felt too quiet, but also safer that way, like silence was a blanket I could hide under.My breathing was wrong. Too shallow. Too fast. I pressed my palm flat against my chest, counting like I had learned to do years ago.One. Two. Three.It did not help.My wolf was not pacing anymore. She was not watching. She was not tense.She was gone.That scared me more than anything that had happened on the training field.I stared at my hands. They were steady now, like nothing had happened, like I had not stood in the middle of the training ring earlier while the ground tilted and voices overlapped and someone shoute