Novel-novel oleh Liliana Pen

QUEEN HELENA’S POV“Zip it for me.”My voice comes out soft—almost tender—as I slip into Merrin’s room, my back bare and exposed to him.It isn’t a request. It never is.It’s a quiet test of his self-control. And with skin this smooth, this close… I know he won’t resist this time.Merrin steps closer behind me. I feel him before he even touches—the heat radiating from his strong body, the quiet control he carries like a second skin, sending my pulse racing.The silk of my nightdress clings softly to my curves, the fabric opens down my back… waiting for his hands. My skin tingles with anticipation, every nerve awake, the thin fabric doing little to hide how much I want to be noticed… even if he doesn’t yet realize just how much.The zipper slides up. Slow. Deliberate. Then his fingers brush my bare skin.A sharp breath slips from me before I could stop it. Unsteady, too warm, my body betraying the tension coiling deep inside me.“Too tight?” he murmurs, his voice low, almost careless,

MARREK’S POV“No! You always say that!”The words rip out of me before I can stop them—too loud, too sharp, too real.Father pauses at the door.Everything goes still.Even the wind outside seems to hold its breath… like the world is waiting to see what he’ll do.“I said I have to go,” he replies, too calm. Always too calm. “It’s important.”My chest tightens until it hurts.“More important than me?” My hands curl into fists, nails digging into my palms. “It’s my birthday.”Four.I’m four today.And he’s leaving.Again.He exhales slowly, dragging a hand through his hair. I’ve seen that before; when he’s tired, when he’s lying, when he’s already halfway gone.“Marrek…”“No!” My voice cracks, and I hate that it does. “You always leave. You always choose something else. You say we’ll be together, but we’re never together!”Behind me, Auntie Zoey clicks her tongue, sharp as a slap.“That’s enough. Since when does a four-year-old talk like an adult?” she snaps, stepping forward.Her eyes

VIOLET’S POV“Again… Come on, Marrek. Just one more step.”My voice trembles, but I force a smile.He wobbles between us.Tiny fingers stretched wide. Legs unsure. Eyes burning with stubborn determination that doesn’t belong to a child.Silvan crouches a few feet away, arms open, steady as stone, but his gaze is anything but calm.“Come to me, son,” he murmurs.Son.The word hits something deep inside my chest—something fragile… something dangerous.Marrek grunts in frustration.His foot lifts.Drops.Lifts again.I stop breathing.“Good,” I whisper, barely holding myself together. “You’re doing so good.”He stumbles forward.One step.Then another.And then—He crashes straight into Silvan.A bright, unrestrained laugh bursts out of him, wild and alive, and something inside me cracks wide open.Silvan catches him easily, lifting him high like he weighs nothing.“That’s my boy.”Marrek squeals, grabbing at his face, his hair—anything he can reach.“Should we go again?” Silvan asks, hi

MERRIN’S POV Rain hammered violently against the palace windows.Like thousands of restless fingers trying to break inside.Like the sky itself wanted to witness what was about to happen.I grabbed Mirella’s throat.Slowly.Not in rage.But in cold, controlled hatred.“Why did you say her name?” I asked.My fingers tightened.Not suddenly.Slowly.Like squeezing a ripe fruit until its skin begins to cry.Mirella’s eyes widened in terror.Her fingers clawed at my wrist.“A… Alpha… I was just joking…” she choked.Behind me, the soft mechanical movement of Emily’s wheelchair broke the silence.Celine stood immediately.“Please, Alpha! Don’t hurt her!” Emily pleaded.“Please, my husband, release her!” Celine added.But I did not move.Something inside my chest was burning.Warm.Alive.Uncomfortable.The bond.Her presence.Always her.I released Mirella suddenly.She collapsed onto the carpet, coughing violently.I turned away from her.Rain kept talking outside.Slow.Relentless.Merci

VIOLET’S POVI remember the first night we arrived at Ironcrest Pack.I remember how small I felt.Not because I was weak.But because I was being weighed.Measured.Judged.Zoey held my hand the entire walk through the gates. The iron crest above the entrance glinted under the moon like a blade catching bloodlight. Tall stone walls loomed over us. Guard towers pierced the sky.No laughter.No warmth.Only watchful eyes.Silvan walked ahead of us, steady, regal, composed, as if he belonged there.He did not.Neither did we.Two elders waited in the courtyard. Gray hair braided tightly. Hard eyes sharpened by decades of suspicion. The air smelled of pine smoke and cold iron.“You request refuge,” the taller elder said, voice flat as stone.Silvan inclined his head, not quite a bow, not quite defiance. “Yes.”“You are Alpha of Luna-light,” the second elder replied slowly. “Why not take them to your own land?”Silvan’s jaw flexed.“It is not safe.”“For whom?” the elder pressed.A beat o

MERRIN’S POVI could not sleep.The bed felt wrong without her warmth.Too wide.Too cold.Too empty.The palace itself felt hollow, like something sacred had been torn out of its chest.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her.Chains biting into her wrists.Chin lifted.Defiant.“I am carrying your child.”The words would not leave me.They crawled under my skin.They echoed through bone.They would not die.I sat up sharply.The mate bond twisted in my chest like a live wire.Rage.Longing.Humiliation.Desire.All of it fused together until breathing felt like swallowing glass.“Why?” I muttered into the dark.Was I not enough?Was Silvan better than me?Did she ever love me?Or was every touch…every kiss…every moan in the dark…A lie?I rose to my feet.If she was to die at dawn, then I would know why she had done it… why she had betrayed me. I would hear the truth from her own lips.Even if it shattered me.The night air sliced like a blade the moment I stepped outside.Cold.St

Kael’s POVThe chandeliers shimmered above us like a thousand quiet stars, their light spilling over the marble hall in molten gold and silver. Music drifted through the air, slow, romantic, laced with that aching sweetness that tugs at forgotten memories and makes even the fiercest warriors feel young again.My estate had never looked so alive. Every corridor, every balcony, every garden overflowed with laughter and the heady scent of blooming roses.Diana said I’d gone overboard.She wasn’t wrong.But when she’d looked at me this morning, eyes bright with disbelief as she stepped into her gown, her veil catching the morning sunlight like threads of molten glass, I would have burned the world itself just to see her smile like that again.Now, as I led her through the dance floor, her hand resting in mine, the other brushing over her growing belly, I couldn’t stop laughing at myself.If anyone had told me years ago that Kael Draven—the half-breed Alpha, grandson of the most feared bein

Diana’s POVThe scent of fried chicken and buttery spaghetti filled the air, warm, sweet, comforting when I came down the stairs. Veronica was already setting the table, humming off-key. Before I reached the last step, she dropped the napkin she was folding and rushed toward me, her apron fluttering like a white flag behind her.“Careful, ma’am!” she gasped, steadying my arm as if I might collapse. “You shouldn’t be walking down the stairs alone!”I sighed, a small laugh escaping me. “Veronica, I’m pregnant, not dying. I don’t even feel heavy yet. You’ve got to stop treating me like porcelain.”Her eyes widened in mock offense. “Ah, but you are porcelain! Sir Kael’s porcelain doll! If anything happens to you, that man will skin me alive and roast me over the fire!”I chuckled. “You’re too dramatic.”“Dramatic? You think this is a drama?” she teased. “I’ve never seen Sir Kael act like this before. The way he watches you… it’s like a mother guarding her child.”I rolled my eyes, though

Kael’s POVMorning sunlight bled through the curtains, slow and searing, like light leaking from an open wound.I stood before the mirror, staring at the stranger in my reflection: red-rimmed eyes, a clenched jaw, my usual black shirt hanging off me like armor that no longer fit. The color felt foreign today, almost mocking; a funeral shroud for something still breathing.I told myself today would be different.Today, I would take Diana to the airport.Even if she wouldn’t meet my eyes, even if her words came sharp with hate, I would still drive her there. I would still watch her walk away, because loving her meant accepting the ache that came with it.I slipped on my watch. My phone buzzed: three new messages.All from her mother. None from her.SHE’S LEAVING TODAY.HER FLIGHT’S AT NOON.KAEL, PLEASE… TAKE CARE OF HER, EVEN IF SHE WON’T LET YOU.She didn’t have to ask. I already had.For weeks, I’d slipped money through her mother’s hands, making sure Diana and our unborn child had e

Sovereign’s POVThe ache in my bladder was relentless, a petty humiliation when death itself was stalking me.By the goddess, what a ridiculous thing to worry about when one’s life hangs by a thread.I’d already relieved myself six times this morning, each time praying it would wash away the dread coiled in my gut.Thirty minutes before the flight, I couldn’t hold it any longer. I slipped into one of the airport restrooms, my face hidden beneath a dark cap, shoulders hunched like a beggar’s. No one could recognize me, not when my name still burned on the new Justice’s wanted list.Humans. Always too curious. Too self-righteous.They poke their noses into everything they don’t understand. That’s why I wanted supernaturals in power, to keep order where chaos breeds. But Kael ruined it all. He handed the reins back to the humans, and now the country rots under their trembling hands.The tiled air reeked faintly of detergent and jet fuel. Somewhere beyond the door, a child laughed; high,

Diana’s POVThe morning light filtered through my window, trembling like a breath held too long. It painted the letter in my hands; SAMUEL MERRITT UNIVERSITY, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, in quiet gold.I’d read the words so many times they’d lost meaning, yet seeing my name beneath “WE ARE PLEASED TO INFORM YOU…” still sent a shiver through me.A month ago, I wouldn’t have believed in joy again. Fire was all I remembered; Eva’s soft smile swallowed by collapsing walls of Ashmoor, Kael’s blood hot against my palms, and the air thick with smoke and endings.But now there was this letter.A letter I had chosen for myself.Sovereign had wanted Harvard for me. He’d arranged everything, of course, but I had torn that letter in half. I didn’t want a future written by his manipulative hands. I wanted a success I could claim as mine.So when Samuel Merritt’s envelope came, I told myself it was a sign — a fragile promise that maybe the goddess hadn’t turned her face from me completely.“Have you told

Diana’s POVGeorge voice when I and Eva was coming in replayed in my head amid the Chaos and fire:“Diana, stop!” George’s arm had barred my way, his face streaked with ash. “Kael’s saving lives, you can't go to him.”But my Wolf kept whimpering in my head; Kael would not die alone. If the Sovereign wanted his life, he’d have to carve mine out beside it.I shoved past George and ran inside. And immediately I came inside and saw Lucien standing over Kael, gun gleaming in his hand.Something inside me broke. And I had only one question in my mind; is this trap the life George claimed Kael was saving?Even now that I and Kael layed here weakly not offering any help to Eva who was fighting Lucien on behalf of us, I felt like I'm the cause of all this. Eva and Kael are Suffering because of my wicked father, If I hadn't been in their lives maybe they wouldn't have to face this fate.Lucien spun Eva pushing her through the door, “Run you moron!” Lucien screamed at her.Eva ran back hitting L