Novel-novel oleh Chithority.

02 Where We Sin in SilenceIvana POVI didn't go home after Selena finished with me.I couldn't.Home meant my mother's eyes, sharp enough to slice through any lie. Home meant questions I didn't know how to answer. Home meant that quiet corner of the pack where pain echoed louder because nothing else lived there.So I limped into the woods instead.Night came quickly, the sky bruising purple, the air damp with rain waiting to fall. My ribs ached with every breath, and my side burned where her boot had landed again and again.Each step sent the same message through my body: you're human. you're soft. you're breakable.I hated that the pack could make me feel like a mistake in my own skin.I hated even more that I still carried hope like a sickness I couldn't cure.The cabin sat deeper in the woods, hidden behind thick branches and climbing vines. It wasn't mine. It wasn't his either. Abandoned years ago, left to rot, and somehow it became ours.A place for secrets.A place for love tha

82 The Heart I Couldn’t Stay Away FromAric’s POVSleep didn’t come.Not even for a moment.I lay awake the entire night, staring at the ceiling as the hours crawled by with a heaviness that pressed into my bones.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Selene’s face the moment she must have seen the broadcast—her expression crumpling, her heart breaking all over again.Did she cry?Was she shaking the way she does when she tries to hold pain inside?Was she staring at the screen in disbelief, wondering if I had chosen someone else?If I had lied to her?If she had been nothing more than a fleeting distraction?Or worse—Was she making up with Damon out of spite?Out of heartbreak?Out of wanting to forget me because I had hurt her in the most public, humiliating way?The thought made something dangerous coil inside my chest.I turned again, restless, suffocating.Not knowing was killing me.I kept replaying the moment my father whispered in my ear during the ball, threatening Selene so ca

Silence had a different texture now. It felt tactical, purposeful — like the quiet before a tide that would sweep everything away. I sat at the kitchen table with a thin lamp casting a pool of yellow over the papers I’d spread out: names, dates, fragments of conversations, an ugly web that traced back in ugly, familiar lines. The ink on the paper looked small and sane, but the things written there were not. They were seeds of war. After last night I had slept maybe two hours in fits, propped in a chair, hand over hand on the phone, calling people I’d kept at arm’s length for years and some I had never had reason to call until now. I’d always run my company like a general: contingency plans, exit strategies, redundancies. This was the same muscle; the stakes were different. This was no longer about quarterly reports or hostile takeovers. This was about my children, and that made the calculations sharper, meaner. I picked up my pen and circled a name I kept returning to: an old priva

Chapter 79: Broken Lyra’s POV Tlooked over at Dax, hoping to find something in his eyes— a flicker of understanding, forgiveness, anything. Bu he turned away, unable to even look at me My heart sank. Then I glanced at Keal and his face was a storm of anger; he turne his gaze from me, too, like I wasn’t worth his attention. Finally, I looked at Ronon. The silence between us spoke volumes. I guess deep down, I still hoped they’d protect me, tha they’d cover for me, because they were m mates. They were supposed to shield me weren’t they? But then I looked at the crowd gathered around us, and the fury in their faces was unmistakable. I knew I was done for. If th Alphas weren’t here, they’d kill me. It was in the eyes of the people. They wanted me dead. Why would my desperation to escape warrant so much hatred? The Guard continued to strip away my clothes, piece by piece, exposing me not just to the cold but to the judgment and wrath of everyone watching. I struggled te hold back the

Ch 48: MMO ConcertJaphet’s POVHiding my smile behind my hand, I asked, “Are you perhaps jealous that another woman knows my codename?”“J-E-A-L-O-U-S?” Ana repeated, dragging the word in a dramatic tone. “Mr. husband, why would I be jealous of you talking to other women? I-I’m just concerned about your identity getting revealed!”I chuckled softly, turning my face to hide how amused I was that she tried to lie. “Oh my bad,” I laughed, letting her think she had me fooled.“Hey, you’re getting it all wrong. I’m just trying to protect you…” she added hastily, her cheeks tinged with pink.“Protect me?” I teased sarcastically, tilting my head to look at her embarrassed expression. She looked so vulnerable and adorable that I couldn’t resist. Closing the distance, I softly pressed my lips against hers in a gentle, teasing peck.Her eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes widened slightly, filled with conflicting emotions. I could see the question in her gaze: Why would he do that now?“Japhet,

Liana pov At first, I didn’t answer. I wasn’t ready for anyone to see me like this—blood on the floor, my body trembling, my mind spiraling between too many things I couldn’t name. Was I In paIn? Was I heartbroken? Was I still burning with the shameful desIre that had haunted me in the garden? I didn’t know. So I stayed silent. Pressed my hand harder against the wound. Pretended whoever knocked would go away. But then I heard it. “Lina?” The voice slid straight through my chest. Maxwell. My breath caught. No, not hIm. He was the last person I wanted to face In this state. “Are you there?” His tone was urgent, low, like he already feared the answer. “I heard a loud noise. Matteo stormed out in a rush. Are you… are you okay?” My body froze. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing he’d just leave. I wasn’t ready for intervention. Not from him. The silence stretched. I thought maybe he had gone, but then the floor creaked outsIde the door. He hadn’t moved. He was waiting.

Ana’s POVHappiness isn’t loud.It doesn’t arrive like a storm or crash into your life demanding to be noticed. It doesn’t shake everything around it until you’re forced to acknowledge that something has changed.It’s quieter than that. Softer.It settles into the spaces that once felt empty, into moments that used to feel heavy, into silence that once carried tension and now simply… exists.And somehow, that makes it more real.Life had changed.Not suddenly. Not in a way that erased everything we had been through, but slowly, steadily—in a way that didn’t demand attention, yet stayed long enough to become permanent.The house no longer felt unfamiliar. It wasn’t something I was still adjusting to.It felt like home.Not because of the walls or the space or the quiet that surrounded it, but because of what existed inside it now.Us.Our child slept peacefully in the room down the hall, her soft breathing grounding everything, reminding me in the simplest way that some things had surv

Japhet’s POVThere was a time when I believed love had to be overwhelming to be real—loud, consuming, something that took over everything until nothing was left untouched, nothing left unchanged. It was something that demanded, claimed, and held so tightly that losing it was never an option.That was the only version I understood.The only version I knew how to give.And it had nearly destroyed everything.Now, standing in front of her—in a space that no longer felt like a cage, in a moment that carried no weight of control or fear or expectation—I realized something I had never allowed myself to see before.Love didn’t have to take.It didn’t have to break.It didn’t have to force itself into someone’s life just to exist.It could wait.It could learn.It could change.Ana stood a few steps away, the evening light soft around her, the quiet of the house settled in a way that no longer felt unfamiliar. It wasn’t something we were still adjusting to—it had become ours in its own slow,

Ana’s POVSome losses don’t fully happen.They almost do. They linger at the edge, close enough to feel, close enough to leave a mark without ever completely taking form. And somehow, that makes them heavier—because you see them, you understand them, and you realize just how easily everything could have slipped away while you were too lost to notice.I had lived in that space for too long—that thin, fragile line between holding on and losing everything.And now, standing here, watching him… watching us, I felt it again.Not as fear, but as awareness.Our child looked impossibly small in his arms. Too small, sometimes it seemed, for a world like ours—like something so fragile shouldn’t exist in hands that had once known only control, violence, and destruction.And yet, there he was.Holding her.Carefully.Not with confidence, not with the instinctive certainty of someone used to possessing what he touched, but with caution—like he wasn’t entirely sure how to do it, like he was afraid

Ana’s POVPeace is a strange thing when you’ve lived too long in chaos.It doesn’t arrive loudly or announce itself, and it doesn’t force you to notice it. It simply settles—quietly, almost carefully—like it isn’t entirely sure it’s allowed to stay.For the longest time, I didn’t trust it.I didn’t trust the silence that stretched through the house without breaking into something sharp. I didn’t trust the absence of tension, the lack of conflict, the way everything existed without the constant push and pull I had grown used to—the kind that demanded reaction, demanded emotion, demanded something to happen.Now, nothing was happening.And somehow, that felt unfamiliar.Japhet and I lived in the same space again—not as captor and captive, not as enemies, not even as something clearly defined. Just two people under the same roof, moving around each other without colliding, without forcing interaction, without turning every moment into something heavy.There were no fights, no raised voic

Ana’s POVFreedom feels strange when you’ve forgotten what to do with it.For days—maybe longer, I stopped counting—I moved through this place without anyone stopping me, without doors closing behind me, without footsteps trailing close enough to remind me that every movement was being watched, controlled, measured.I could leave. That was the truth.The gate wasn’t locked. The guards didn’t block my path. No one stood there waiting to drag me back inside if I took one step too far.And yet, I hadn’t left.Not because I couldn’t, but because something inside me wasn’t ready to make that choice yet.That realization unsettled me more than anything else. For so long, everything had been about survival—enduring, waiting for the moment I could finally break free. And now that the moment was here, now that nothing physical was holding me back, I found myself hesitating.Not out of fear. Not out of weakness.But because things had changed.He had changed.Not in a way that erased what he ha

Japhet’s POVI used to believe that if something mattered, you took it—no waiting, no hesitation, no standing at a distance hoping it would come to you on its own. You claimed it, held it, and made sure it stayed exactly where you wanted it to be.That was how I built everything I had. It was how I survived, how I became the man people didn’t question—the man who didn’t ask, the man who didn’t lose.But none of that worked here. None of it applied to her.For the first time, I understood that taking something didn’t mean keeping it. Sometimes, it meant destroying it.So I stopped taking, and I started learning something I had never needed before—how to earn.It didn’t come naturally. There was no instinct guiding me, no clear path, no certainty that what I was doing would matter, or reach her, or even be noticed. But I did it anyway, not because I expected something in return, but because it was the only way forward that didn’t repeat the same mistakes.The first time was simple—too s

Selene's POVMy throat tightened. My vision pulsed at the edges. For a moment, just one devastating moment, I felt fourteen again.Standing in a political banquet hall filled with my father's enemies.Every face turned toward me with contempt.Every voice whispering blame.Every accusation directed at my existence rather than my actions.But this time...I was not a girl.And I refused, absolutely refused, to fold.I lifted my chin, letting the weight of the cameras, the murmuring crowd, the sneering Queen settle like dust around me."You can spew whatever lies you like, Your Majesty," I said, voice steady as carved stone, "but we both know the truth."The courtyard stilled.Flashbulbs paused mid-burst.Even the guards stiffened.Ivana froze mid-sob, hand still dramatically pressed to her chest."You want to entertain the world?" I continued. "Fine. But let us not forget that you destroyed your son's marriage long before anyone else came into the picture."A crack split through her pe

Selene's POVThe second I stepped out of the palace gates, urgency pushed me harder than fear ever could. The guards shouted after me, my name, my title, commands, but their voices were nothing more than distant echoes bouncing off stone. I did not look back. I could not. There was no time to waste on rules meant to cage me.The driver must have sensed the danger radiating from me, because the moment I shouted for him to bring the car around, he reacted instantly. The vehicle rolled forward in a rush, the tyres barely meeting the gravel before he accelerated toward me.I yanked the door open and flung myself into the back seat."Take me to the courthouse," I said, breathless."Yes, Your Highness."He didn't hesitate. The car lunged forward, swallowing the road in powerful strides. The city blurred past the windows, the wind howling against the frame as though urging us on.Good.Let it howl.Every second mattered.James's life hung in the balance. A DNA test. An HLA match. A father ne

Selene's POVI walked back to my room slowly, every step heavy, as though grief itself had wrapped chains around my ankles. The palace corridors felt longer than usual, darker somehow, the walls echoing with the residue of Rachel's screams. Each footstep landed with a hollow thud, and my heart matched the rhythm, slow, anxious, waiting for news that refused to come.Inside my room, I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the wall until the floral patterns in the wallpaper blurred into meaningless swirls. My hands rested limply in my lap. My mind felt suspended between dread and helplessness, both tightening around me like invisible cords.Time passed.Minutes. Hours.Enough for the sunlight to crawl across the floor, shifting from bright gold to a muted, fading amber. Enough for the weight in my chest to deepen until breathing required effort.Each second sharpened the fear inside me.A knock at my door jolted me upright, my pulse kicking painfully. For a moment, I simply stared at

Selene’s POVFor one suspended heartbeat, I could only stare at Diana.Her hair was dishevelled.Her cheeks flushed.Her chest rose and fell violently as though she had sprinted across the palace grounds without stopping once.Panic radiated from her in sharp, frantic waves, rattling through the room like loose windows during a storm. It slid beneath my skin before I could even process her words fully.Something was wrong.Terribly wrong.And the fear in her eyes told me this was not one of the palace’s usual inconveniences.I stepped toward her immediately.“Diana, what emergency?”She swallowed hard, pressing a trembling hand against her chest as though willing her heartbeat to steady.“Rachel,” she gasped. “She’s in the great room crying, screaming… she says her son is sick. Very sick. And she’s demanding you come. Usually Queen Ivana would handle things like this but… she isn’t here.”Of course.Of course the moment Ivana disappeared, chaos would come clawing at the palace gates,

Selene’s POVDamon didn’t speak.He didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t react, not even when the reporter on the screen stumbled as another explosion of shouting erupted behind her. He watched with the stillness of a man who had suddenly discovered cracks forming in the ceiling above his head, each one widening, each one threatening collapse.His world, the one he clung to, the one he sacrificed me for, was splintering in real time.Then his phone vibrated sharply against the nightstand.Damon tore his gaze away from the television, glanced at the screen, and the tension in his face deepened into something colder. Harder.“Emergency meeting,” he muttered. “Court session. Now.”The resignation in his voice felt heavy.Familiar.Exhausting.I said nothing.What could I possibly say?He pushed himself to his feet, shoulders bowed beneath a weight no crown had ever prepared him to carry.He dragged a hand through his hair, an old habit I had almost forgotten he possessed, and for one brief

Selene’s POVMorning crept into the room like an uninvited witness, slow, steady, unapologetic.Soft sunlight slipped through the gaps in the curtains in thin golden slants, warming the sheets I had barely slept on. Warm air pooled across the room, carrying with it distant sounds from the courtyard: guards changing shifts, the soft murmur of palace staff beginning their day, the faint ringing of bells somewhere deeper within the castle grounds.And for one small, fragile moment, I let myself pretend.Pretend that I had slept peacefully.Pretend that my chest did not ache beneath the weight of a thousand unspoken truths.Pretend that Aric’s arms had not been around me only hours ago, breathing life back into parts of me that had long been starved.Pretend that my life was not fracturing, cleanly and mercilessly, in three different directions at once.But then I rolled over.And reality struck with a violence that felt almost physical.Damon sat at the edge of the bed, hunched forward,

Ronon’s POVElsa was hiding something from us. I could tell. She thought it would be better for us not to know, like she was shielding us from some truth that could break us. I prayed—deeply—that whatever she was holding back wasn’t something too awful, something that would shatter what little we had left.“I just need the spirits to give us a sign,” Keal murmured, his voice thick with grief as tears rolled down his cheeks.That was all we really wanted—a sign. A clear path. We needed something solid, something real to hold onto in this dark, suffocating fog.Elsa’s face remained calm as she replied, “I’ve already told you—the spirits say to form an alliance with the West. They are pointing west.”Seaside.But I shook my head, frustration edging into my voice. “Not for the war, Elsa. I need a direction to find Lyra.”She lowered her head, sadness flickering across her expression. “I don’t have that kind of magic, Alpha. I only know what the spirits choose to share with me. But I’ll te

Ronon’s POVThe room was swallowed by a heavy, suffocating silence. My heart sank as the truth settled in.Lyra was out there—exposed, vulnerable—lost in a state that made her a target for any predator, any Alpha. And we had no idea where she was… or how to reach her.Yet somehow, she had tried to reach us.And something was keeping her away.The silence after Elsa’s words pressed down on my chest like a weight. Her gaze carried a sorrowful understanding, as if she could see through all the bitterness and regret we carried… all the damage we had done to Lyra.Keal suddenly surged to his feet and slammed his fist into the wall. The crack echoed through the room as his knuckles split open, blood staining the surface. I felt the anguish radiating from him—it mirrored my own.“I’m sorry,” Elsa said softly.But her words brought no comfort.They only made everything worse.I forced a breath into my lungs, steadying myself enough to ask the question clawing at my mind.“So… is she being car

Ronon’s POV“I’m sorry, Keal,” I murmured, desperation clawing at my voice. “I swear, I’ll do whatever it takes to make things right.”He looked at me, his face streaked with tears, his eyes hollowed by sorrow and anger. “You can’t bring her back, Ronon,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “You can’t… you can’t fix it. Don’t you see that?” He buried his head in his hands, the weight of grief pressing down on him until his shoulders slumped forward, defeated.“We took everything from her,” he continued, his words choked with guilt. “She had nothing, Ronon—no money, no security, no one. We stole it all. Nikolay was right to keep her from us… he saw what we were, what we’d do to her.” His voice cracked, and he wept openly, raw and broken.“Please, Keal,” I urged, grasping for anything that might bridge the chasm between us. “I know you felt it too. She’s out there somewhere, and we can find her. I’ve been praying, and I believe… I believe fate will help us.”At that, he let out a bitter, h

Lucian's POVThe memories twisted inside me, vivid and merciless. I thought of the day Maxwell and I came home and made her wear those damp, uncomfortable clothes because we refused to let her use our things.The cold - heartedness of it sickened me now, yet she had never complained. She just bore it all, quietly, with a strength we didn't deserve to witness. And even after everything, she had opened her heart to us.She allowed herself to love us, to see something good in us when we gave her every reason not to.I clenched my fists, feeling the fire of anger and guilt burn within me. How could we have allowed people like Bianca, Stasia, and Gregory to treat her with such contempt?We favored the pack, protected their pettyfeelings over the well-being of the one who was supposed to be our mate, our equal.And now, we were paying for it. This mess was ours, a twisted reflection of everything we'd allowed and encouraged.The image of Timothy and Tasha flashed in my mind, and I felt a w

Ronon’s POVLiving without Lyra felt like drowning in darkness. Every day was an empty, colourless stretch, filled with nothing but sorrow. There was no joy left in my life, no light, no purpose. I spent most nights with a bottle in hand, numbing myself until I felt nothing at all. But even that brought no relief—it only deepened the void she left behind.Dax hadn’t given up, though. He clung to hope like it was the last shred of light in a world swallowed by shadows. He showed her photo to everyone he met, asking, pleading for any sign of her. He offered rewards, desperate promises, anything to find her again. But the days passed, and there was no news. His eyes looked more hollow with each passing day.And Keal… he was barely a man anymore. I saw the emptiness in his eyes, a haunting vacancy that mirrored my own. At first, he’d lash out, his anger finding no other place to go. Bianca and her child bore the brunt of his rage, but even he realised that hurting others wouldn’t bring Ly

Lyra’s POVThe car came to an abrupt stop, and Keith pulled away, stepping out quickly and rounding the vehicle to open my door. He lifted me out with ease, holding me as if I weighed nothing, his arms steady and unyielding. I clung to him, my body pressed against his as he carried me into the mansion.“All male workers—leave the premises immediately!” he called out, his voice echoing through the grand halls. The urgency in his tone left no room for argument, and as we moved deeper into the house, I felt the space around us empty, leaving only the two of us alone in our need.He laid me gently on the bed, and I couldn’t tear my dress off fast enough, the fabric ripping under my hands, desperate to feel his skin against mine. The ache inside me was unbearable, like a burning hunger that wouldn’t be sated. Keith’s touch was the only thing that grounded me, the only thing that eased the frantic beat of my heart.He touched my forehead, his fingers gentle, his gaze full of concern even in