Novel-novel oleh Tai Lux

MaeraThe cold comes first, a hard edge that steals heat from my bones. I keep moving because stopping feels like surrender, and surrender is what they wanted when they cut me loose at the pack boundary. My feet drag. The cloak they threw over me is soaked and heavy; the ropes chafe where they rubbed my wrists. Every step sends a pulse of pain through the lash lines along my belly.On the third night the rogues find me.I hear them before I see them …low voices, the scrape of leather, the muted clink of metal, like rain on a roof. Torchlight threads through the trees, slow and hungry. They move like a thing that has learned how to look for weakness. My throat tightens. I flatten myself against a mound of roots, hair stuck damp to my forehead, and try to make myself as small as the soil.“Look,” one of them says, and his voice is a hook. “A pretty scrap left by the pack. Could fetch a coin.”“Or two,” another says. Their laughter is loose. It tastes like the inside of a wound.I hold m

MaeraThe stone bites my knees. The hall smells of smoke and boiled stew and the sharp copper of fear. The guards press me down; their grip is steady. Around us the pack watches, faces a blur. No one meets mine.A man steps forward with the whip. Silver is braided through the leather and it flashes in the lamplight. Someone near the back hisses the word cursed, and it spreads like flame. Cursed. Witch. Traitor. The sound scrapes deeper than the rope at my wrists.“Let the pack see the truth,” Kael says. He stands above me like a winter cloud. His voice is calm and final.The whip comes down.The first lash burns across my stomach. Heat blooms so bright it knocks the air out of me. I see stars. Pain knives through muscle and bone, sharp and honest. A metallic tang sits on my tongue. I cough, taste iron and cold, and a tear slips from the corner of my eye.They strike again. Each hit narrows the world to leather and silver and the hands that wield it. I force my eyes toward the crowd, h

MaeraKael’s voice cuts the hall clean. “Where is her family? Before I give my final verdict, let them step forward.”Cold licks my knees where they press into the stone. The guards hold my shoulders like clamps. I turn, searching the rows of faces, desperate for the one place that should still be mine.I find them in the torchlight. My father’s shoulders are square, jaw locked. My mother twists her apron strings until they bite her fingers. Liora stands beside the boy who claimed her an hour ago, her braid neat, her eyes wide. His hand sits firm at her waist, already protective, already claiming. Banners hang still. Smoke threads the air. The hall doors yawn open to the night, letting in the cold breath of the forest. Torches spit and pop. Far off, festival drums thud like a pulse. The baker still dusted with flour stands near the midwife; both keep their eyes on the dais, pretending not to see me kneeling.“Father,” I call. My voice shakes, but it carries. “Mother. Liora.”My father

Maera"What is going on here?" I barked as soon as I entered the serving room. Today is the full moon event, a ceremony where packs find their fated mate. It's also the day I turned 18, an age I am supposed to find my own mate too."How did she get in?" one of the three servers near the prep table says. A platter sits between them, steam curling off roasted meat. One girl holds a tiny vial. The room smells of rosemary and something sharp that does not belong. "Did you not lock the door?"The second blinks. The third step toward me. "You will keep your mouth shut and take this to your Alpha," she says. "Or we kill you right now and leave before anyone notices."My wolf presses up under my skin. Not ours, she whispers. Poison. "I am not serving that," I say. "I saw you. I am calling the guards."I pivot. Fingers clamp my arms. A hand covers my mouth. The vial clicks against porcelain. I kick back and catch a shin. Trays rattle. The door shoves open.Two guards step in, black uniforms ne