Novels by Queen Ugo

Aria’s POVI am staring at the tubes when she walks in, her eyes tired but bright. She stops by the desk, leaning over to sign in. Someone tries to get her attention in the front row. The boy from last night. But she ignores him, heading straight for me.“You are in my seat,” she murmurs, angling her head.“Oh!” I blink, my brain scrambling all over the place. I didn’t think we were going to be in the same class. “Sorry.”“It’s fine,” she shakes her head, taking the seat next to me. “You can have it. Consider it payment for not walking into the kitchen and thinking you can save me from harm. Nyra would have done it in a heartbeat. It annoys me.”I narrow my eyes in confusion. “What?”“I saw you at the party yesterday,” Isla chirps. She doesn’t sound angry. “You know you do a shitty job at hiding, right? Your shoes were out in the open, and your smell….” She purses her lips and turns to look at me.Her eyes search my face intently before she shakes her head. “Strange.”I edge towards

Aria’s POVDarius.I tried not to think about him all night, but when I fell asleep, I saw those eyes in my dreams. It was strange, because I was right here, right in the woods beside my window.Twigs snapped underneath my feet as I ran forward, the trees fading into a blur all around me. The scent of the night air teased my nostrils, mixed with something else.Him.He was in the middle of the clearing, but this time, it wasn’t Darius. It was his wolf. Dark like midnight, with a fierce gaze. Dad had warned me that getting them not to shift was the important part in taking them out, that it was almost game over fighting with a wolf.But in that moment, as he approached, his paws hitting the earth, I was so certain he wasn’t going to harm me. And I did the strangest thing.I took a step forward in his direction.We stared at each other for the longest time, but that peace seemed to be fractured when our heads moved to the left, when we heard them coming.“Run,” I whispered, my tone urge

Darius’ POVThe word I have never heard in all my existence courses through me as I bring the rim of my red cup to my lips.Mate.Luca, my beta, angles his head, watching me as I stare at nothing in particular. He has always been able to read me for as long as I can remember.And right now, I feel him trying to do the same thing.I hear her sharp whimper up the stairs, but I don’t look. Instead, I bring the cup to my lips again. I can’t afford to think about her. Not right now.Still, those green eyes are nestled in my subconscious.It makes no sense.Nothing makes sense right now.The door cracks open, and Nyra steps in. Her feet come to an abrupt halt when she takes in the space, her gaze narrowing. “What happened here?”Luca crosses the space to join her, wrapping a hand around her waist and pulling her flush against him. I watch as she melts into his arms, as she turns her face to him, an easy smile lighting up her features immediately.I have never wanted this, even if it is all

Aria’s POVI seem to have suddenly forgotten how to breathe. All I can focus on are those dark eyes gazing intently into mine, the feral snarl of his lips and the damn scent that tingles my senses, threatening to pull me under.I try to swallow, try to say something, but my tongue has decided to remain glued to the roof of my mouth. His words wash through me, but all I can do is shake my head.A gasp escapes my lips when he brings one hand above my head, when his other hand moves down, a finger grazing my chin. I feel the sudden pull, the jolt of electricity coursing through me where his skin meets.He juts my chin up, and a plea almost falls from my lips.But what will I be begging for? For him to let me go? For him to take a tiny step closer, to bridge the space between us?It all ends as soon as it began. One minute, all I can feel is his presence, and the next, I hear the door close quietly. I release a breath, my heart still thudding hard against my chest, as if trying to claw it

Aria’s POVIt is crowded inside, kids laughing so loud that I am overwhelmed with the urge to press my hands against my ears. Red cups hang in the air, sharp eyes scanning the space, the music blasting through the walls.This isn’t my space.It has never been.Still, I push through the slim entrance, the smell of liquor hitting the minute I walk into the large living room, with couches moved aside and sweaty bodies pressed against each other.The Blood Ridge Pack.I have read a lot about them from the Hunters’ library, but it isn’t the same thing as being near them. As being in the same room as them. Their energy…there is something about it that makes me halt in the middle of the space.“Get out of the way,” someone screams. I move just in time before I get run over by a drunk college kid in roller skates. His laughter travels down the hallway with him, and I move in that direction.Searching for something.Anything.The hallway is the same as the living room, seemingly devoid of anyt

Sage’s POVThe morning of the celebration arrived bright and clear, sunlight streaming through my bedroom window as I woke earlier than necessary, nervous energy already buzzing through my chest despite hours still remaining before evening festivities would begin.My mother appeared at my door shortly after breakfast, carrying the green dress carefully draped over her arm, her expression carrying the same suspicious excitement she had displayed the night before. “I thought we could get ready together,” she said. “Like we should have done for so many occasions over these past years.”The sentiment brought a lump to my throat, understanding the deeper meaning behind her words, all the birthdays and celebrations we had missed properly sharing together while grief and blame kept us distant from each other. “I would like that,” I said softly.We spent the afternoon together, my mother helping style my hair, both of us laughing over shared memories, some happy, some bittersweet but all genu

Sage’s POV The weeks following the tribunal settled into something I hadn’t experienced in longer than I could properly remember, actual routine. I returned to my old shifts at the clinic, working under Redhollow’s newly appointed head healer, a steady, older wolf named Petra who had transferred from a neighboring pack territory to help stabilize things after Jasmine’s departure.“You have good hands for this work,” Petra told me one afternoon, watching me carefully clean and dress a young pup’s scraped knee. “Ever considered formal training? Becoming a healer yourself?”The question caught me off guard, something I had never seriously considered given how much of my adult life had been consumed by grief and blame rather than genuine thought about my own future. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’ve mostly just helped where I could, restocking supplies, basic care. I’ve never thought about it as something more permanent.”“Think about it,” Petra said simply. “This pack needs steady hands

Sage’s POVThe days following the formal challenge passed in a strange, unfamiliar rhythm, one where I woke each morning without an immediate crisis demanding my attention, without a threatening message waiting on my phone, without some fresh betrayal unraveling everything I thought I understood.It felt almost disorienting, this quiet.My father moved out of the house nearly a week after Diane’s defeat, not permanently, but temporarily, giving my mother the space she had asked for while she decided what she wanted to do with their marriage. He rented a small place near the pack’s northern edge, close enough that I could visit him easily, though our conversations remained careful, still tender with unresolved hurt.“I don’t expect you to forgive me quickly,” he told me one afternoon, as we sat on the narrow porch of his temporary home, watching pack children play in the field beyond. “I don’t even know if I’ve fully forgiven myself yet.”“I’m trying,” I said honestly. “It’s hard, know

Sage’s POVThe moment the elder’s words faded, Diane moved.She was faster than her calm exterior suggested, closing the distance between herself and Ethan in a blur of motion that sent gasps rippling through the watching crowd. Ethan barely managed to sidestep her first strike, twisting away just in time to avoid what would have been a devastating blow to his ribs.I stood pressed against the crowd’s edge, my heart hammering so violently I could barely breathe, watching as Ethan and his own mother circled each other within the marked boundaries of the challenge circle, both of them assessing, calculating, searching for any opening.“She trained him,” Marcus said quietly beside me, his eyes never leaving the fight. “Years ago, before his father died. She knows every technique he’s likely to use.”The realization sent fresh terror through me. Diane wasn’t simply older and presumably weaker than her son. She had shaped his fighting style from childhood, understood his instincts and tend

Sage’s POVThe photograph blurred in front of my eyes, my hands shaking so violently I nearly dropped the phone. My mother, pale and frightened, standing in our own kitchen with two strangers looming behind her.Ethan grabbed the phone gently from my hands, his jaw tightening as he studied the image. “This proves nothing except that she’s willing to terrify an innocent woman to get what she wants,” he said, though his voice carried none of its usual steadiness.“It proves she has her,” I said, my voice cracking. “It proves this is real.”Diane watched us from across the hall, her expression carrying no urgency at all, as though she had all the time in the world to let this threat sink in fully before demanding an answer. “The choice is simple, Ethan. Step down and this ends peacefully. Refuse and I can’t promise what my associates might do while waiting for further instructions.”Marcus pushed closer, keeping his voice low. “I can get a team moving toward Sage’s parents’ house right n

Sage’s POVThe hall filled with frightened murmurs as more figures rose from their seats, nearly a dozen pack members now standing scattered throughout the crowd, their faces set with the same unsettling calm Diane wore so easily. I recognized several of them immediately, an elderly healer who had treated me as a child, a young father who ran the pack’s small general store, a woman who taught the youngest pups their first lessons in pack history.None of them looked like villains. That was the most terrifying part.“You see,” Diane said, her voice carrying easily across the stunned silence, “loyalty isn’t always built through fear or manipulation, Ethan. Sometimes it’s built through genuine conviction, through wolves who’ve watched this pack stagnate under leadership too sentimental to make necessary changes.”“Get away from them,” Ethan said quietly to me, positioning himself between me and the nearest of Diane’s supporters, though his eyes never left his mother’s face. “This ends no