Novel-novel oleh Lara Belle

Six Years Later Lara's POV The morning sun poured through my study window. Papers covered my desk—financial reports, territory agreements, pack business. But my eyes weren’t on them. Through the open window, Luna’s laughter drifted in. She was chasing butterflies in the garden, her curls bouncing with each step, her tiny hands reaching for the sky. Derek’s voice followed, calm and patient. “Gentle, sweetheart. Don’t catch them. Just let them fly.” I smiled, resting a hand on my swollen belly. Six months along now. My son kicked softly against my palm. These children were different. Born from love. Not fear. Not obligation. Love. The door opened. Zander entered, his face serious. He placed an envelope on my desk without a word. I stared at it. Prison letterhead. My throat tightened. “From Andre,” Zander said quietly. I hadn’t heard that name in months. Over the years, letters had arrived—not many, maybe one every few months. Never begging. Never manipul

The sunlight woke me.Not harsh. Not accusing.Soft. Golden.I stretched beneath the sheets. My shoulders didn’t coil with tension. My hands didn’t shake. For the first time in ten years, I woke up without dread.The bed beside me was empty.A flicker of disappointment stirred before I could stop myself.The door opened.Derek walked in carrying a tray—warm bread, honey, tea that smelled of chamomile and mint.“You’re awake.” He set the tray on the side table.I blinked. “Did you just bring me breakfast?”“You need to eat.” His tone was flat, but his eyes… his eyes were soft. “And I wanted to check on you.”“Since when does an Alpha serve breakfast in bed?”The corner of his mouth lifted. “Since his mate forgets to take care of herself.”My breath caught.Mate.The word hung between us. A promise. A danger.For once, I didn’t want to run.---By afternoon, the Moonstone elders filled the courtyard.I stood beside Derek. Their gazes pressed down on me—heavy, powerful.Not judgment this

The receiving room shrank around Andre.He stood between two guards, hands trembling. Up close, he was a ruin—sunken eyes, clothes hanging loose, the wild desperation of a wounded animal.Derek lingered just behind me. Not in front, not shielding—just there. A silent vow: I’m here if you need me.I needed him more than I wanted to admit.Andre’s gaze locked on mine, the same intensity that once made me flinch. Now, it only left me numb.“Lara,” he rasped. “I don’t deserve to be here. I know what I’ve done—what I put you through. But I had to see you. I had to tell you—”“Tell me what?” My voice was steadier than I felt. “That you’re sorry? That it wasn’t what it looked like? That you didn’t mean it?”He flinched. “Yes. All of it. I was blind. Cruel. Wrong—”“For ten years, Andre.” I stepped forward, something unbreakable settling inside me. “Not one mistake. Not one bad choice. A decade of deliberate cruelty.”His face buckled. “I know. God, I know. But I’ve lost everything—the pack,

LARA'S POV Two weeks had passed since the news broke. Two weeks of silence from Andre Castellano. I thought I was done with him. The moment I watched those headlines scroll across the screen—Andre stripped of his title, Tasha arrested by the AFCB, Dylan placed in a foster care—I thought it was over. I thought the chapter was closed, the book slammed shut. I thought I could finally, *finally* breathe without his shadow suffocating me. I was wrong. --- It started with a commotion at the gates. I was in the library when I heard the shouting—raised voices, the sound of guards mobilizing. My first thought was an attack. My second was that the press had found us. I rushed to the window overlooking the estate entrance and froze. Even from a distance, I recognized him. Andre. But not the Andre I remembered. Not the powerful Alpha who'd commanded respect with just his presence, whose aura could silence a room. This man looked... broken. He stood outside the Moonstone gates

Andre's POV The hospital's fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like angry wasps. I'd been pacing the waiting room for three hours, knuckles raw, mind a hurricane of rage and self-loathing. The attack would be all over the supernatural community by morning. Alpha Andre Castellano, losing control, striking his mistress in front of the council. Lucas wouldn't even need to call for a vote now. "Mr. Castellano?" I looked up to see a doctor in scrubs, expression carefully neutral—the professional mask of someone delivering complicated news. "How is she?" "She's stable. The head trauma was minor, but..." He paused, consulting his chart. "There are other factors we need to discuss." "Factors?" My stomach knotted. "She's pregnant, Mr. Castellano. About eight weeks along." The words hit like a physical blow. I staggered backward, gripping the plastic chair. "Are you sure?" "Blood work confirmed it. We're monitoring closely for any complications." Pregnant. After everythin

Lara's POV The AFCB representative stood up. The room went dead silent. "The investigation is complete." My heart pounded. This was it. "Frozen accounts. Missing funds. Unexplained transfers totaling over eight million dollars." He paused. "All trace back to one person: Tasha, Alpha Andre's mistress." The room exploded. Gasps. Whispers. Everyone turned to stare at Tasha. Her smile disappeared. Just like that. "She embezzled pack funds for months," the representative continued. "Luxury purchases. Transfers to other Alphas. Designer shopping. International vacations. Your pack paid for everything." He slid documents across the table. Hard evidence. Undeniable. "Impossible!" Tasha's hands shot up. "Andre must have known! He approved the accounts—he's just as responsible!" I looked at Andre. His face went pale. Then red. Shock, then rage. His jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind from across the room. He'd only found out days ago when the accounts froze. I knew because t

I woke up before him. Kade was still sitting up against the headboard, head dropped to one side, completely out. I had never seen him sleep before. He looked different. Younger somehow, and less guarded, all the careful composure he carried around just gone. I watched him for a moment and then looked away because it felt like seeing something private. The morning light was coming through the curtain. Outside I could hear the pack grounds starting up, voices somewhere distant, the ordinary sounds of the day beginning. Everything that had happened yesterday was still waiting. Kade stirred a few minutes later. He was alert quickly, the way people are when they are used to needing to be. He looked at the room, then at me, and something moved through his expression that he did not quite manage to close off in time. Morning, I said. He cleared his throat. Morning. He did not make a move to leave immediately, which I noticed. He sat there for another moment, looking at the window, and

After my mother left the room to let Kade know she was on pack grounds, I went back to my room, sat on the edge of my bed and did not move for a while.My mind was going in too many directions. My mother sitting in that chair. The notebook. The things she had said and the things we had not gotten to yet. The apology she had given me and how I did not quite know what to do with it.I heard footsteps in the corridor and then a knock at the door.It was Kade.He was not in Alpha mode. That was the first thing I noticed. He was not carrying a report or coming to brief me on something. He was just standing in the doorway looking at me the way he sometimes did when he thought I was not paying attention."Derek has your mother settled in a room," he said. "Jake has the notebook. We will go through it in the morning.""Okay," I said.He stayed in the doorway. "Are you alright."I thought about giving him the easy answer. I did not."I do not know yet," I said. "Ask me tomorrow."He nodded and

I closed the door and stood with my back against it. She was still sitting in the chair. She had not moved. She was watching me with an expression that was careful and open at the same time, like she was trying not to push but also could not quite hide how much this moment meant to her. I did not know where to start. There were too many things and they had been sitting in me for too long and they all wanted to come out at once, which meant none of them did. So I said the first thing that came out. How long have you been here, I said. Three days, she said. I got in through the eastern side. There is a section of the old fence that was easy to get through quietly. The observer, I said. Near the eastern fence tonight. She nodded. I saw her there this afternoon. I moved before she could get close. I pushed off the door and sat on the edge of the bed across from her. I looked at her properly for the first time. She looked like someone I half remembered and half had to learn, which

Kade did not call a full alert. He just pulled four of his most trusted wolves and told them to go through the grounds quietly. Check every building, every corner, every space that someone could use to stay out of sight. He told them to be discreet about it.While they searched I sat with Lena in the small meeting room.I asked her everything she knew. She answered honestly and without making it more than it was. Her mother and mine had been in touch for a long time, passing messages carefully, never through anything that could be traced. Lena had known about my mother since she was a girl but had been told not to ask too many questions. Her mother had said it was for safety and Lena had accepted that.What did your mother tell you before you left, I asked.That the Arden were getting ready to move, Lena said. That it would happen soon. And that you needed to be prepared for something specific. She did not tell me what.Did she say anything else.Lena thought about it. She said your m

The girl at the gate was younger than I expected. She was dusty from travel and clearly had not slept properly in a while, but she was not scared. She was watching everything around her with steady eyes, taking it all in without giving much away. She looked at me when I came through the gate. You are Della, she said. Yes, I said. And you are. Lena. She said it quickly, then added, I was followed. The last part of the journey. I knew and I let them do it. Kade moved forward slightly. Why. My mother asked me to, she said. She needed time to move somewhere. Having them watch me bought her that time. I looked at her. Her mother. My mother and yours have been in contact for a while, Lena said. I do not know everything. She told me what I needed to get here and not much more than that. My father had followed us through the gate. He stopped when she said that and just looked at her. Lena noticed but did not say anything about it. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small c

Jake found us still in the guest room about an hour later. He knocked and came in without waiting, which meant what he had to say could not sit. He looked at all three of us and then settled on Kade. The team found a trail, he said. She was not taken. She was moving. On foot, off the main roads, heading west. Heading west, Kade said. Toward us, Jake said. Nobody spoke for a second. Jake said the team had worked out roughly when she started moving and it was before the archive break-in at Northern Ridge. Before her location was even at risk. She had already been on her way before any of us knew her name. Someone warned her, I said. Jake looked at me. That is what it looks like. I thought about the letter on the desk. The symbol pressed into the wax. The name at the bottom that only my mother had ever used. She has been in contact with the cousin, I said. My mother. She warned her to move before anyone else even knew to look for her. Kade was quiet for a moment. Then he said,