Novels by Najaatu

We stood there in her living room, me crying and her holding me, until the buzzer rang with our food delivery.Natalie ordered me to wash my face while she got the food. By the time I came out of the bathroom with puffy eyes and splotchy cheeks, she had everything laid out on her coffee table. Pad thai, spring rolls, and curry that smelled amazing.I wasn’t hungry, but I forced myself to eat. Natalie was right, I needed to keep my strength up.“Marcus wants to meet with you,” Natalie said, spooning curry onto her plate. “He has questions about people in your life. Anyone who might have access to photos of you, anyone with technical skills, anyone who might have a motive.”“When?”“This weekend if you’re free. Saturday maybe?”I nodded, pushing noodles around my plate. “Did you hear back from Ethan? About meeting for coffee?”Natalie’s expression tightened. “Yeah. He said no.”“Of course he did.”“He was actually kind of rude about it. Said he had nothing to say to me and I should stop

I didn’t wait until I got home to call Natalie back. The second I stepped out of the building onto the Fifth Avenue, I hit redial, pressing the phone against my ear hard enough to hurt, but who cares?The street was packed with people rushing home from work, a river of suits and briefcases and exhaustion flowing around me.Pick up, pick up, pick up.“Ivy.” Natalie answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”“Just left work. What did Marcus find? What’s wrong?”“Are you somewhere you can talk? Like actually talk?”My stomach dropped. “Nat, you’re scaring me.”“I know. I’m sorry. But this isn’t a phone conversation. Can you come over?”“Now?”“Yeah. Please. I’ll order food. We can eat while we talk.”I looked at the subway entrance, then in the direction of Queens where my empty apartment waited. I didn’t want to go home, and sit alone with whatever bomb Natalie was about to drop.“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” I said.The subway ride to Natalie’s neighborhood felt endless. My mind

“A few times. Usually just in passing. He’s intense but fair from what I’ve heard. Why, have you met him?”“Briefly. During the interview process.”That was technically true.“He’s single, you know.” Kelly had apparently been listening. “Every woman in this building has a crush on him. Rich, hot, powerful. The holy trinity.”“He’s also our boss,” James pointed out. “Pretty sure there are rules about that.”“Rules are meant to be broken.” Kelly waggled her eyebrows.“I’m not interested,” I said quickly. Too quickly, judging by the way Melissa looked at me.“Fair enough. Workplace romances are messy anyway.”They moved on to other topics, but I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in my stomach. Being here, working in Adrian’s building, knowing he was somewhere in this same tower, it felt dangerous. Like I was playing with fire.I made it through the rest of the day without seeing him. Small miracle. By five o’clock my brain was fried from information overload and I was ready to escape.I

My first day at Rhode Enterprises started with me throwing up in my new bathroom.Nerves, mostly. And the cheap instant coffee I’d tried to choke down for breakfast. I brushed my teeth twice, gargled with mouthwash, and stared at my reflection in the spotty mirror.“You can do this,” I told myself. “It’s just a job. Just work. You’ve done this before.”Except I hadn’t. Not really. Working at my father’s company had been safe, comfortable. Everyone had known me. I’d had my little office, my routine, my place in the hierarchy.This was different. This was starting over from scratch in a building full of strangers who didn’t know about my birthday party or the divorce or any of it.Fresh start, I reminded myself. That’s what you wanted.I put on my most professional outfit, a navy dress and blazer that Natalie had helped me pick out over the weekend. Did my makeup carefully. Pulled my hair back in a sleek ponytail. Looked at myself one more time.Professional. Capable. Definitely not som

“You’re really serious.” “Of course I am!” “No, I mean…” She stood up, walking over to me. “You really didn’t do it.” “I really didn’t do it.” She stared at me for another long moment, searching my face for any sign of deception. Then her eyes filled with tears. “Oh my God, Ivy. Oh my God.” “What?” “If you didn’t do it, then someone set you up. Someone went through all that trouble to destroy your life.” “I know.” “Who would do that? Who hates you that much?” “I don’t know.” It was the question that had been eating at me since the moment those photos appeared. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I can’t think of anyone. I don’t have enemies. I don’t have drama. I’m boring, Nat. I work and come home and have dinner with my husband and watch Netflix. Who would want to ruin that?” Natalie pulled me into a hug, sudden and tight. I nearly collapsed into it, all the tension I’d been holding finally releasing. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered against my hair. “I’m

Natalie’s apartment building was nicer than mine, not even close. There was a doorman in the lobby, an elevator that actually worked, and hallways that smelled like expensive candles instead of old cooking and mildew. Her place was on the eighth floor, a one bedroom with actual rooms instead of one sad space pretending to be everything. I stood outside her door for a full minute before I knocked, trying to steady my breathing and to prepare myself for whatever version of Natalie I was about to get. The disappointed one from the phone call, the broken one from the party, or maybe, hopefully, the real one, my best friend who knew me better than anyone. I knocked quite a few times before the door opened. Natalie stood there in her yoga pants and a crop top, her blonde hair up in a messy bun. She looked perfect, like she always did. Not a single sign that the last two days had affected her at all. “Hey,” she said, stepping back to let me in. “Hey.” I walked into her apartment

Sophie’s POV The black dress felt like armor. I’d chosen it carefully, it was elegant but not expensive, modest but not mousy, the kind of thing that would help me blend into the background at Richard’s funeral. But as I zipped it up and stared at my reflection in the hotel bathroom mirror, I knew that blending in was impossible.Camille had seen Ethan. By now, the entire pack probably knew.“Mama, do I have to wear the tie?” Ethan appeared in the doorway, tugging at the navy blue tie I’d insisted on. He looked so grown up in his little suit, so heartbreakingly handsome with his grey eyes serious and his dark hair combed back.He looked like a Steele.“Yes, baby. Just for today.” I crouched down, adjusting the tie and smoothing his collar. “Remember what we talked about? We’re going to say goodbye to my stepfather. There will be lots of people there, and some of them might want to talk to us. Just be polite and stay close to me, okay?”“Will that mean lady be there? The one from the

Sophie’s POV Central Park in October was breathtaking. The leaves were turning, painting the trees in shades of gold and crimson, and the air had that crisp quality that I’d forgotten existed in California’s endless summer. We walked along the paths, Ethan running ahead to examine every interesting rock and leaf, and for a moment, I let myself pretend we were just tourists. Just a mother and son on vacation, with no complicated past and no terrifying future.My wolf wasn’t fooled. She was on high alert, sensing the pack boundaries we were crossing, the territorial markers that saturated the air. We were in the heart of Steele territory now, and every instinct I had was screaming at me that we were exposed, vulnerable.That he might be near.“Mama, look!” Ethan had found a hot dog cart and was staring at it with the intensity of someone who’d discovered buried treasure. “Can we get one? Please?”I laughed despite myself. “Yes, we can get one.”The vendor was human—I could tell by the

Sophie’s POV The plane descended through grey clouds, and my Soso stirred uneasily in my chest. She could sense it as we were entering Steele pack territory. Even at thirty thousand feet, the change in the air was palpable and thick with the scent of established power and old dominance.I had forgotten how suffocating it felt to be in another Alpha’s domain.“Mama, look! I can see the buildings!” Ethan pressed his face against the window, his breath fogging the glass. His excitement was pure, untainted by the dread coiling in my stomach like a living thing.He had no idea what we were flying into.I had spent the entire flight trying to prepare him, to find words that would explain without explaining too much. Your grandmother can be… difficult. The people we’re going to see, they’re complicated. Just stay close to me, okay?But how did I explain that we were walking into a pack that had cast us out? That his father didn’t know he existed? That every instinct in my body was screaming

Sophie’s POVThe words punched the air from my lungs. Soso whimpered, wanting to tell our pup the truth, to howl our grief and rage and longing to the Moon Goddess who gave us a fated mate we couldn’t have.“Lots of people have grey eyes,” I said, taking the magazine and setting it aside with hands that shook. “Come on, let’s get you dinner. I promised we’d try that new taco place, remember?”I’d gotten good at deflecting over the years, at building walls around the truth and at pretending the bond didn’t still sing in my blood, calling me back to a mate who’d rejected everything we could have been.The taco place was cheerful and loud, and Ethan chattered about his day while I nodded and smiled and tried not to think about grey eyes and broken bonds. But my dear Soso was restless, pacing beneath my skin like she could sense something coming.I saw a letter immediately we git home waiting for me. Cream-colored, with a return address that made my wolf snarl and my human heart stutter.

Sophie’s POVTell me you don’t feel it, Sophie. Tell me the bond means nothing to you.”I jolted awake, my heart hammering against my ribs like a caged animal. His voice still echoed in my ears, rough and demanding, even as the afternoon light streaming through my studio windows dragged me back to reality. My cheek was stuck to my forearm, a fabric swatch pressed into my skin leaving little indentations, and my body hummed with a heat that had nothing to do with the Los Angeles sunshine.“Mama? I’m hungry.”I sucked in a sharp breath, my wolf stirring restlessly beneath my skin as I straight“ened too quickly. Ethan stood in the doorway, his small hands gripping the frame, and those grey eyes—those damn grey eyes that were a mirror of his father’s—watched me with concern that no six-year-old should have to feel.“I’m fine, sweetheart,” I managed to say, my voice rough from sleep and dreams I had no business having. Dreams that felt more like memories of my fated mate, the one bond I sh