Novel-novel oleh Lady Jenna

Annalise POV Judy’s words were still ringing in my ears long after her hand left my cheek. “.. Who the hell do you think you are?. Disrupting the peace of two kingdoms,” she’d spat, her voice sounded like acid and venom. “Since when did you grow so close to Prince Nathan that he would dare try to pick a fight with Alaric for your head? Wait..” Her lips slowly curled into a sneer sharp enough to draw blood. “Don’t tell me.. Did you whore yourself to Nathan? Did you?” I slowly shook my head in a bid to say No but the slap came before I could even make the first sign with my fingers. The sting bloomed hard across my skin, hot, painful and humiliating. My hand had twitched, mid-air, caught between defiance and defense.. but Maren hadn’t yet translated, hadn’t yet explained. Judy’s palm had been quicker. “When did you get so brave as to speak back at me? Since when did that rubbish play start?” she hissed as she spoke to me, venom dripping with each word. Then her fingers

Alarics Pov ‘The annoying girl returns’ Zorrack sighed. Blood clung to me like a second skin. Sticky. Metallic. I could feel it drying on my knuckles, I could smell it sharp and thick in the air. The courtyard was quiet, breaths of the onlookers trembling like strings pulled too tight. And yet I smiled. Not for them. Not for the body cooling on the stone behind me. For her. Laura Danell. Her hand was small in mine, soft, unblemished, a direct contrast to the gore painting on my skin. I bowed over it, let my lips brush the back. My smile sharpened as her familiar perfume cut through the stench of death. When I straightened, for one flickering moment, I felt something unusual. Something I couldn’t place. And then my eyes lifted.. Like it was looking for something or someone but there was nothing there. The space was empty, except for Maren darting across the courtyard, her skirt swishing, her movements frantic, as though she’d just seen the devil step out of

Annalise POV The door slammed shut behind us with a loud bang that echoed through the chambers. I was still trembling, though I forced my hands into neat, steady motions when Maren turned to face me, her eyes wide with worry. I lifted my fingers, deliberately slow, and carefully polite. “You can leave us.” Her brows pinched, but I added another sign, sharper this time. “Now.” The faintest sigh left her lips. She glanced at him.. he was a looming shadow across the room, his shoulders were tense, his jaw was set like a hard stone.. and then her gaze fell back at me. I tilted my chin, an almost-smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. My hand flicked once more “Go. Before he decides to skin you alive too.” Maren’s eyes widened, in a horrified way before she pressed her lips together in a bid to stifle a laugh she didn’t dare let slip. She ducked into a cute curtsy and hurried out of the room, the door clicking shut behind her. That left just me. And him. I turned back s

Alaric’s POV “Annalise.” Her name coldly ripped out of my mouth before I could leash it.. it sounded low, sharp, and edged with something too primal to pass for an ordinary speech. It wasn’t just her name I called. It was a warning. A claim. A snarl wrapped in sweet syllables. She flinched at the sound of my voice, I clearly saw how her shoulders stiffened as her wide eyes whipped to my direction . And that’s when I saw it properly.. The wolf’s hands. On her. Nathan’s hands. On my wife.. Steady on her waist like he had the fucking right to keep her standing next to him. His body was too close, his face was tilted toward hers like he was trying to stare into her soul, his expression was annoying and unbearably soft. Like she belonged in his grip. Like she was some sort of fragile crystal. She was.. but she’s my fragile crystal to break and play with not his. Zorrack went feral instantly. ‘We outta.. Rip him apart. Tear his throat, gut him alive , scatter tho

Annalise’s POV I woke up late. Wait I actually woke up late.. Not “oops, it’s ten minutes past dawn” kinda late. No, it was the kind of late where the sun was already high enough to blatantly accuse me of laziness and the rest of the palace was probably halfway through plotting three wars, signing treaties, and deciding what shade of blood-red suited the drapes in the ballroom. And me? I was still tangled in my sheets, suspiciously… rested. I blinked up at the high ceiling, and narrowed my eyes. Rested was not my default setting. Between headaches, fear, and being yanked into a marriage with a man who could snap a mountain in half with his jawline alone, sleep wasn’t exactly my loyal companion. So why was I well-rested? My brain supplied one answer.. poison. I had been poisoned.. Or maybe that ridiculous lycan’s presence had lulled me into unconsciousness against my better judgment. Which, honestly, was worse than poison. Because at least poison you could detec

Alaric’s POV Sleep had never come easy for me. Not with Zorrack pacing in my skull, snarling for blood or conquest or whatever it was that he was craving for, and certainly not with a woman curled on my bed like a fragile little porcelain doll who might shatter if I breathed too close. But when my eyes cracked open after gods-know-how-long of pretending to sleep, there she was. Annalise. “Annalise” I whispered. The girl the raccoons of SilverClaw thought they could throw at me as some substitute bride. The mute little Beta’s daughter who everyone underestimated. She wasn’t Dahlia. She wasn’t the schemer they thought would keep me in line. No. She was different.. and every damned second I spent near her was starting to gnaw at me in ways I didn’t like. In ways that infuriated me down to my bone marrows.. Her face, soft in the glow of the half-dimmed lantern, looked peaceful. Too peaceful. After what had happened downstairs.. after almost being crushed under that chandelier