Between Desire and Ruin
Ethan Mathews has just landed the opportunity of a lifetime: assisting the world renowned architect Dante Hart on a city defining project. But what begins as professional admiration soon becomes something far more dangerous. Late nights filled with whispered critiques, shared sketches, and stolen glances spark an undeniable attraction but the world is ready to judge.
Colleagues whisper that Ethan is exploiting Dante, while Dante’s past heartbreak makes him wary of love. When a former partner resurfaces, determined to ruin Dante’s career, Ethan is forced to question whether their passion is worth the risk. A rival firm offers Ethan a tempting position, pushing him to choose between ambition and the man who has become his anchor.
As rumors spiral and city officials threaten to remove Dante from the project, the two must navigate jealousy, sabotage, and the ever present scrutiny of a world that refuses to understand their love.
Can they prove that their bond is built on trust, talent, and true desire, not just convenience and scandal? Or will ambition, fear, and envy tear them apart before their hearts and their masterpiece are complete?
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Chapter: Chapter 43Ethan was in the middle of making tea when the knock came.He froze, kettle humming softly on the cooking gas, heart jumping for reasons he didn’t immediately understand. Dan wasn’t expecting anyone. Neither was he.The knock came again.Ethan turned off the cooking gas and wiped his hands on his jeans, moving slowly toward the door. A strange unease crept up his spine, the kind that came when something unexpected brushed too close to a wound that hadn’t closed yet.When he opened the door, Martin Hart stood in the hallway.Impeccably dressed. Calm. Familiar in a way that made Ethan’s stomach tighten.“Ethan,” Martin said, offering a measured smile. “I hope I’m not intruding.”Ethan blinked. “Martin? How did you…”“I asked around,” Martin said lightly, as if that explained everything. “May I come in?”Ethan hesitated. Every instinct told him to say no. Instead, courtesy won, curiosity or the residual habit of deferring to people like Martin Hart.“Sure,” he said, stepping aside.Marti
Last Updated: 2026-01-29
Chapter: Chapter 42Dante arrived at the firm before sunrise and left long after the lights dimmed. Emails answered in minutes. Meetings stacked back to back. He volunteered for tasks no one else wanted, buried himself in logistics and forecasts and projections until his brain buzzed with numbers instead of memories.Colleagues noticed.“Dante, you look wiped,” someone said in passing.“I’m fine,” he replied automatically.Another asked if he wanted to delegate. He smiled, sharp and polite, and said, “I’ve got it handled.”At the firm, whispers grew more concerned.“He’s not himself.”“He hasn’t taken a day off in weeks.”“Have you seen the circles under his eyes?”Someone suggested postponing a major presentation. Dante shut it down without discussion. He refused to slow down. Slowing down meant feeling.Feeling meant Ethan.The blueprint followed him home one night.He didn’t remember deciding to take it. He just found it unrolled across his dining table, the city lights reflecting off its surface. He
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter 41Days pass with neither reaching out, both too afraid to open old wounds.At the firm, people began to notice.Dante stopped correcting small mistakes. He stopped filling the room with certainty. Meetings ran longer because no one wanted to be the one to interrupt him when he went silent mid-thought, eyes fixed somewhere beyond the glass walls as if listening for a voice only he could hear.The Riverline Project stalled.Deadlines were pushed. Decisions deferred. Momentum once sharp and relentless dulled into hesitation. People whispered in corners, careful to keep their voices low when Dante passed.He noticed. He just didn’t care.On the fourth day, HR asked if he was managing everything alright.Dante smiled and said yes.On the inside, he felt hollowed out.At night, the apartment remained unchanged, like it was holding its breath for Ethan to return. Dante didn’t move Ethan’s things. Didn’t clean up the mug still sitting in the sink. He told himself it was temporary, that touchin
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter 40The apartment was too quiet. Dante noticed it the moment he stepped inside, like the silence had weight to it—thick, pressing against his ears. He dropped his keys into the bowl by the door and waited for the familiar sound of footsteps that never came.“Ethan?” he called, even though he already knew.The lights were off except for the faint glow from the city bleeding in through the windows. Dante stood there longer than necessary, his briefcase slipping from his grip and landing with a dull thud on the floor. He didn’t move to pick it up.Only then did he see it.A note. Placed carefully on the table.Dante’s chest tightened as he crossed the room and picked it up.I’m staying with Dan for a few days. I need space to think. I’m not running, I just don’t know how to breathe there right now.Dante sank into the chair, the paper crumpling slightly in his fist.A few days.It shouldn’t have felt like a sentence. But it did.The apartment, once shared, now felt like a museum of half-liv
Last Updated: 2026-01-26
Chapter: Chapter 39The firm felt different after that night. Dante noticed it the moment he stepped off the elevator the next morning. Conversations stalled when he passed. Eyes dropped too quickly. Phones were suddenly very interesting. The Riverline Project floor buzzed with a nervous energy that prickled under his skin, and he knew that if he followed the thread far enough, it would lead back to Ethan.Ethan hadn’t answered his text from the night before. That alone twisted something ugly in Dante’s chest. By noon, Dante had had enough.He found Ethan in one of the smaller conference rooms, standing by the window with his arms crossed, staring out at the city. His jacket was still on. His bag sat at his feet, unopened.“You’re avoiding me,” Dante said, closing the door behind him.Ethan didn’t turn. “I’m working.”“Bullshit.”Ethan laughed softly, but there was no humor in it. “Is that how we’re doing this now? You, barging in and deciding what’s true?”Dante’s patience snapped tighter. “You didn’
Last Updated: 2026-01-26
Chapter: Chapter 38Ethan contemplates leaving the firm entirely, believing Dante would face less backlash and challenges without him. He drafts a resignation letter. His name sat at the top, centered and formal, followed by words that looked neat and reasonable and completely untrue.I am resigning from my position as your protege.He stared at the blinking cursor. Re-read the sentence again and again, each time slower than before, as if pace might change meaning. He rubbed a hand over his face and leaned back in the chair, joints creaking in protest. He hadn’t meant to stay this late. Again. But then again, he hadn’t meant for any of this to happen.He’d told himself the same thing every night for the past two weeks: I’ll just think about it. I won’t do anything yet.And yet here he was, resignation drafted, cursor blinking patiently at the bottom of the page, waiting for a signature.The backlash had been brutal. Public scrutiny, internal politics, anonymous emails that pretended to be about account
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
Alpha's Obsession: The Veilblood Omega
Born into the ruthless Ironclaw Dominion, Eyrix was the only Omega in a dynasty of brutal Alpha heirs—beaten, humiliated, and branded defective. Eyrix fled the Ironclaw Dominion pack, never knowing his blood carried the power to make Alphas kneel. His escape leads him straight into the territory of the outlaw Blackfang Riders, where he is captured by their merciless Alpha leader, Ryder Blackfang, a wolf who despises Omegas. Ryder wants a pet. What he gets is a living weapon.
When Ironclaw assassins invade Blackfang pack, Eyrix’s hidden Veilblood power awakens—an ancient Omega force that strips Alphas of their dominance and turns their wolves into trembling servants. His scent becomes addictive, his blood burns Alpha skin, and suddenly every pack wants him. Ryder’s desire twists into a dangerous obsession: Eyrix is no longer just his captive—he is his fate.
But Ryder is not the only Alpha drawn to Eyrix. Lucien Silverhowl, the cold and calculating leader of the secretive Silverhowl Covenant, known for hunting and controlling the Veilblood Omegas. Lucien knows the truth of the Eyrix Veilblood line.
Alpha Ryder wants to cage Eyrix for love. Alpha Lucien wants to use him to overthrow the Alpha order itself. Caught between two rival Alpha kings, Eyrix must decide who to trust—before his family returns to claim the Omega they bred to end them all.
Hunted by his brutal family, torn between two deadly Alphas, and haunted by a bloodline meant to end Alpha rule forever, Eyrix must decide: will he be owned, will he be used… or will he rise and make every Alpha bow?
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Chapter: Chapter 11The first tremor hit Eyrix like a knife under the ribs. He staggered, breath catching, fingers digging into the stone ledge of the window. Heat flared through his veins, sudden and violent, nothing like the soft cycles Ironclaw had drugged into obedience. “No,” Eyrix whispered, even as his knees weakened. His scent spilled into the air, commanding and the stronghold shuddered with the response.Below, wolves snarled. Alphas froze mid stride, eyes blown wide, throats working as if they couldn’t draw enough air. A chorus of instinct rippled outward, dominance bowing, hunger rising, confusion tearing through discipline like paper.Ryder felt it like a punch to the chest.Every muscle in him locked. His wolf slammed against its mental cage, howling, demanding. The scent hit him hardest—because it wasn’t submission. It was a summons.“Lock it down,” Ryder roared, voice carrying through stone and steel. “Now!”Guards moved instantly, slamming gates, sealing corridors. Drums sounded a warn
Last Updated: 2026-01-29
Chapter: Chapter 10Blackfang filtered into the hall in ones and twos commanders, healers, senior Alphas. They moved quietly, eyes darting to Eyrix and away again. The pack felt off-balance, instincts rattled by something they could not name.An older Alpha, gray at the temples, broke the silence. “Our wolves felt it,” he said carefully. “When he spoke. When he screamed.”Eyrix looked at him. The Alpha stiffened but held his ground.“Felt what?” Eyrix asked.The Alpha hesitated, then bowed his head not deeply, but recognition.A murmur rippled through the hall.Ryder clenched his jaw. “Enough.”The Alpha straightened immediately, obedience snapping back into place. The pack still followed Ryder. That fact anchored him, but only barely.Eyrix exhaled slowly. “They’re afraid of me.”“They’re shaken,” Ryder corrected. “So am I.”Eyrix’s eyes flicked back to him. “You shouldn’t be.”Ryder gave a humorless laugh. “That’s easy to say when my wolf didn’t just kneel without being told.”Eyrix’s breath caught. “I
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter 9At dawn an Ironclaw Alpha burst through the forest, faster than anything Eyrix had seen. He moved with brutal intent, armor scorched, eyes wild, scent thick with dominance and old blood. Before Ryder could turn, before Eyrix could raise a hand, iron-hard fingers closed around Eyrix’s throat.Eyrix’s back slammed into a broken pillar, stone cracking beneath the force. The Alpha lifted him effortlessly, boots leaving the ground.“There you are,” the Alpha snarled, breathing hot against Eyrix’s face. His lips peeled back in a smile full of teeth. “Veilblood filth.”Veilblood. Eyrix’s breath stuttered. Memories tore free. Chains soaked in blood. A child screaming as elders argued in the shadows. A name spoken only in whispers. Power sealed behind ritual, pain and silence.Veilblood.The Ironclaw Alpha tightened his grip. “You should have been drowned at birth.”Eyrix screamed.It tore out of him raw and vast, layered with a resonance that shook the bones of the earth itself. The air exp
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter 8The promise settled deep, terrifying and intoxicating. Eyrix looked out over the bloodstained stones, over the people who had bled for him, and understood that freedom came with a cost he could no longer escape.As dawn crept pale over the horizon, Eyrix stood on the wall, the cold stone biting into his palms. Smoke drifted upward, carrying the night away in slow, gray ribbons. He felt changed, stretched thin between who he had been and who Ironclaw had tried to make him.Ryder joined him without a word.“I’m afraid,” Eyrix admitted.Ryder nodded. “So am I.”They stood together as the sun rose, knowing fear no longer meant surrender, and that the war for Eyrix’s freedom had only just begun.For the first time, the future did not feel like a cage. It felt like a battlefield he had chosen, and that choice, fragile and fierce, was finally his.He squared his shoulders, met Ryder’s steady gaze, and accepted the truth settling into his bones: whatever came next, he would face it standing,
Last Updated: 2026-01-26
Chapter: Chapter 7The Blackfang hall felt smaller than it had moments before, the air packed tight with Alpha presence, layered scents pressing against his skin until his vision blurred at the edges.Silence followed, thick and suffocating, broken only by the crackle of torches and the slow, uneven drag of Eyrix’s breath.“Ironclaw assassins,” one scout muttered before he disappeared around the corner. They crossed the ravine at dusk.”The words hit Eyrix harder than any blow. Ironclaw. His family. His blood.His chest seized, panic clawing up his throat.He staggered back a step, his heel catching on the uneven stone. A low growl rippled through the room as several Blackfang Alphas reacted, instincts flaring at the sudden spike of distress. “Easy,” Ryder murmured, “I can’t,” Eyrix whispered. His voice shook. “They’ll kill me. They won’t stop until I’m back in chains.”Ryder’s jaw tightened, a muscle jumping beneath scarred skin. “Not here,” he said. “Not while you’re under my control.”Eyrix laughed
Last Updated: 2026-01-26
Chapter: Chapter 6The doors to the Riders’ hall were taller than Eyrix remembered from the last time he had been dragged through the compound.Steel and glass framed the massive entrance, Blackfang’s sigil an open-jawed wolf skull—etched deep into the surface. Inside, the pack’s elite were already gathered. The Blackfang Riders. Ryder’s enforcers. His killers. His most loyal Alphas.Eyrix felt them before he saw them.Dozens of dominant wolves in one place made the air heavy, thick with power and barely restrained violence. His wolf pressed tight against his ribs, uneasy beneath the collar’s dampening hum. Even with it suppressing him, something leaked through. Ryder’s hand closed around the back of his neck, not gentle.Possessive.“Don’t look down,” Ryder murmured as they stepped inside. “They’ll smell weakness.”Eyrix lifted his chin. “They already smell me.”The room went quiet.One by one, heads turned.Eyrix felt it like a physical force—the moment his scent reached them. Several Riders stiffe
Last Updated: 2026-01-24
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