Novels by EstherJ

TANYA'S POVGideon got there four minutes after I called him.He came through the side entrance moving fast without quite running, Max right behind him and Liam bringing up the rear. He stopped at the corridor junction, took in Ginna against the far wall, the extinguisher still in my hand, and the empty building around us. His face did that quick flip through a bunch of emotions before it settled into something steady and alert.Ginna looked at him. Whatever she was feeling after eight years of planning and getting shut out, she kept it locked down. She didn’t step toward him. Just stayed where she was with her hands visible and her eyes on his.“You dropped the projection,” Gideon said.“It wasn’t working,” she answered. “She saw through it in under a minute.”“Three seconds,” I corrected. “The scent was off.”A flicker crossed Ginna’s face. Not hurt exactly, more like someone hearing the last piece of bad news they’d been bracing for. “The scent is the hardest part to fake,” she sai

TANYA'S POVThe binding finished sometime before dawn.I knew because Max woke me at 3 AM when both his hands lit up like emergency flares. Not the soft glow they usually had around the suite. This was sharp and angry, bright enough that the light leaked under my door while I sat in the corridor with my back against the wall and my biology notes open on my lap, pretending I might actually read them. I hadn’t slept.He texted the group at 3:07. It’s done. I felt it lock. She’s bound to work.Six days.I went to my first class anyway. Advanced Pack History with Professor Halloway, same room where I’d blanked on the 1842 Border Treaty question weeks ago because I’d been too busy scanning the back rows for someone who wasn’t even there. The desks still had the same scratches. The projector still hummed too loudly. Everything looked exactly the same, but I felt like a completely different person sitting in it.I took actual notes. Legible ones, margins neat, dates underlined. Whatever happ

GIDEON'S POVLiam took it better than I thought he would.We ended up in the back corner of the athletic complex equipment room because he suggested it, and that told me he already knew this wasn’t the kind of talk you have where people might walk by. I laid the whole thing out for him, no careful buildup as I’d done with Max. Just everything, all at once. He’d been carrying the edges of this mess for two weeks without the middle, and he deserved the middle.He didn’t interrupt once. When I finished, he sat there quietly for maybe thirty seconds, which for Liam is basically a speech. Then he said, “Kenneth is involved.”I blinked. “What?”“The rogue attack patterns,” he said. “The old pack military formations. I’ve been going over the site reports since the second one because the angles kept bugging me.” He leaned forward on the bench. “Those setups are in the Hemisphere estate archives, sure. But they’re also in the Moonstone hockey program’s old strategy files. Coach keeps a copy. U

GIDEON'S POVThe rogue alert came through at 6:15 AM on a Thursday.I’d been awake since five, staring at the ceiling in the suite with that faint golden haze from the ward pressing in from the walls. My brain wouldn’t shut off. It kept turning over the next seven days, like it was looking for an exit that wasn’t there. I had the security board open on my phone when the notification popped up, so I saw it before Liam’s text, before the campus bulletin, before anyone else even knew.Rogue incident confirmed. Research Wing east perimeter, 06:03 AM. No victim. Security patrol intercepted the approach. One rogue sighted, retreated before contact. The site shows evidence of preparation activity. Materials consistent with magical working found. Area cordoned.Research Wing east perimeter. The wall right behind the corridor, Tanya walked every single session. Forty meters from the lab where she worked. I could picture myself standing at the end of that corridor, hand flat on the fire exit do

GIDEON'S POVThe next morning, Seraphine showed up at the suite right at 7 AM. She had her materials, her notebook, and that wired look people get when they’ve stayed up half the night turning a plan over in their head until it finally feels solid enough to start.She set up in the middle of the room like she’d done this a hundred times. Max was already on the couch, hands palm-up on his knees, the way he did now during his sessions. The light in them was low and even, almost calm.Tanya and I hung back near the edges like Seraphine had told us to. We had to be in the space so the ward could read our bond, but not too close or we’d mess with the frequency. So we just stood there and watched.The whole thing took about ninety minutes. I couldn’t follow most of it. Seraphine moved around the room in these deliberate patterns, touching certain spots on the walls and floor. The air slowly turned that same soft golden color it got in the reading room, only thicker this time. Like it was si

TANYA'S POVSeraphine’s notebook had forty-three pages on the dissolution work.She’d put it together over the last ten days, ever since that mess in the library corridor. Pulled stuff from the Southern Crescent archives, the High Witch Council’s public records on banned stuff, and three sources she only called “my father’s private collection, which he does not know I photographed.” Her handwriting was tiny and tight, but somehow still easy to follow. Like she thought in straight lines, even when everything around her was falling apart.We were all in the suite again, the four of us, same as we’d been every day for the last couple of weeks. Seraphine walked us through it step by step, her voice steady but tired.The work had three stages. Preparation first: getting both signatures, setting up the space, tuning herself to the bond’s frequency. That part needed her to be around both of us a lot, for a long time. That’s why Ginna had stayed in my room for eight months. Not just the ancho

Elena’s POVA few days had passed since the war happened, and since we didn’t really gather any destruction, it was quick and easy to clear things up and go back to our usual lives.The boy who helped us bring him down, our enemy, was also trying to gather his life back.Before going back to the pack, he and his sister wanted to speak to us one last time, so we gathered in the guest living room.“Thank you, your highnesses, for not going back on your word. Thank you for protecting us,” the sister said softly.I smiled. “You don’t have to thank us. You also played your part, and it is one of the reasons why we had so much success without losing too much. I just hope you guys are able to find peace in your new lives.”She gave a small smile. Although I could tell that she had a lot going on in her mind. Perhaps, she was still trying to get used to her new freedom.“Have you been able to gather any of your people so far?” Horace asked. “Yes, but just a few. After we sent the word out, s

Horace’s POVThe worst was now over, but it didn’t mean we could rest. We still had a lot to do.The doctors and nurses came in, carrying out the injured people one by one. The lifeless were also taken out, and although none of them were my men, I couldn’t help but feel a slight tightness in my chest.Most of those people were just unfortunate to have been tagged with the wrong person, and they paid for that with their lives.I sighed deeply, turning to my wife and taking her hand in mine. “It's over, Elena. We can finally breathe again.”She drew in a deep breath, staring at the scene in front of us. “Yes, it’s over. And it’s left our children with a bit more maturity than they had yesterday. One has had her first proper fight, and the other has crossed the line he can never come back from.”I nodded gently. “A line he must get used to because, clearly, whether he likes it or not, he must fight. Even when he tries to avoid it, bastards will come from nowhere with little to no reason

Elena’s POVAs soon as I heard the loud scream, I quickly turned my head towards where it had come from. It was Lila, but the scream had nothing to do with her. Instead, she was looking in a particular direction, so I turned my head towards it, and to my horror, the animal who started all of this had a dagger aimed directly at my son.“Ethan,” I shouted, my heart skipping so quickly for a few seconds. The man was so close, and I was sure that it was certainly going to hit him. But just like we all heard the scream, it seemed to have alerted him on time also, and before the man could pierce the top of his head, he jumped, using his claws to scratch against the man’s face fiercely. This disoriented him, causing the dagger to fall from his hand and his body to the ground.Just then, Horace ran towards my son, ready to help, only to see that the work had already been done.He paused in his steps, staring at Ethan with a surprised but proud look in his eyes.But that wasn’t the time to

Horace’s POVThe doors burst open, and sure enough, Elena was right with her sign. They were the ones— strange men dressed in sacks.However, to their horror, the smiles they had on their faces had wiped off the moment they walked in, as they weren’t expecting what we had prepared.Every single person in that room was a warrior. Even my young daughter, who decided to stay back for the fight against my wish, seemed ready for them. I made sure my best fighters were ready to take them on.With them was the boy who exposed their whole plans.Beside him was a girl who looked a bit like him… certainly had to be the sister he spoke about.They still hadn’t discovered that the boy had betrayed them, which was a good thing.The man let out a smirk, stepping closer to the middle.I mirrored his movement until we were a few meters apart.“Who the hell are you and what do you want?” I asked sternly.He paused, running his eyes over the scene in front of him. He was still in disbelief.“Alpha, w

Ethan’s POV“I was never witness to people from the beginning. I don’t even know who they are,” he said softly.All the bravado he had from the beginning had completely washed off, and all I saw was a little boy in distress, trying to protect whatever little peace he had left.This left me and my father more confused about the whole matter.“So how did you end up with them?” I asked gently.He gave a small, sad smile. “It all started one day when we noticed strange men around our pack. My father, being a global heart, decided to welcome them without suspecting anything. However, we never knew this act of kindness would lead to the destruction of our family and pack.”He paused, sobbing lightly.“One day, while we were having a small pack celebration for a milestone, a loud noise came out of nowhere, and before we could understand what was happening, we noticed this strange man attacking us from different angles. At first, even as a young child, I didn’t want to believe what was happen

Horace’s POV“Your highness, he’s coming towards you. He’s alone,” Dave voiced into the walkie-talkie.I moved forward, Ethan behind me as we prepared to block the boy. “So what are we going to do when we get him, Father?”“Well, for starters, we have to question him. Hopefully, he cracks and tells us what his people are planning. I really don’t want casualties. I want to downplay this war as much as I can.”We heard footsteps and quickly paused, hiding ourselves from view. We didn’t need to wait long because a moment later, a young boy walked past us, not knowing that we were right behind.“Don’t move,” I said, coming out of the shadows. Ethan quickly moved forward, blocking him in case he tried to run.The boy looked between us, shocked and terrified, but I could tell that he was trying to stand his ground.“Who… who are you? What do you want for me?”“I think that question is meant for you.”He squinted his brows. “What do you mean? I don’t want any trouble, okay. Just don’t bother