Chapter: Chapter 65: The Price of Keeping Her SafeI stood behind my desk, my boots anchored to the floorboards, listening to the muffled retreat of her footsteps down the hallway, her anger still lingering in the air.'Let her be angry,' I told myself, grinding my back teeth together until my jaw clicked.I reached down with a gloved hand and picked up the half-charred scrap of Eastern cipher, smoothing the scorched edge against the mahogany wood. Beside it, the heavy wax seal of Viktor Varkas stared back at me like a dare.I couldn’t help but kick myself at just how well the pieces fit together.But the quiet didn't last long. The door swung open once again, and Jasper stepped back inside, locking the door behind him.He didn't bother offering a polite knock or dropping his usual sarcastic smirk. He pushed the door shut, tossed his dark wool cloak over the back of the leather armchair, and walked straight up to my desk. His light eyes were sharp, scanning my face with the kind of intense focus he usually reserved for inter
Huling Na-update: 2026-09-18
Chapter: Chapter 64: East Wing Once AgainDominic was staring at me.He was looking dead at me, his fingers crumpled into the edge of the vellum manifest on his desk so hard that his knuckles were bone-white. His silver-gray eyes had gone completely still, the dark pupils wide, tracking every line of my face as if he were trying to memorize it before someone snatched it away.The quiet stretched until my teeth started to clench."Dominic?" I took a step away from the bookshelf, my boots making a quiet scuff against the rug. "What is it? What did you just realize?"Dominic blinked, and just like that, the curtain seemed to drop.The shock vanished from his features, wiped clean away, replaced by a mask. His jaw squared, his shoulders locked tight, and his eyes snapped down to the desk, refusing to look at me again."Nothing," he said flatly.The lie was so obvious and delivered with such dismissive ease that it felt like a slap right across the face."Nothing?" I echoed, taking another stride toward the desk, anger
Huling Na-update: 2026-09-18
Chapter: Chapter 63: The Pride of Rafael Bloodwyn The room smelled of cold ash from the fireplace and parchment. I rounded my massive mahogany desk, shedding my leather hunting gloves, tossing them onto the wood."Alright," I said, turning to face them, my voice flat and tightly controlled as my eyes locked onto Jasper. "Start talking. What happened in the village?"Jasper didn't bother dropping into his usual armchair. Instead, he walked straight up to the desk, reached inside his leather tunic, and tossed two items onto the parchment spread before me with a dull thud."We missed him," Jasper grunted, his tone laced with frustration. "It seems the bastard had a lookout. Kicked out the back window of Old Miller’s loft and dove straight into the river rapids before my trackers could surround the block."I frowned, looking down at the desk.One of the items was a half-charred scrap of parchment covered in a foreign script. The other was a heavy vellum travel manifest bordered in gold leaf, stamped at the bottom with a thick,
Huling Na-update: 2026-09-17
Chapter: Chapter 62: My Cassandra I took a deep breath, relishing the feeling of a hunt.It wasn't as peaceful as one would expect—the scuff of a boot catching frozen brush, the nervous hitch of a young warrior’s breathing, the scent of fresh sweat cutting through the clean mountain frost."Keep your weight on the balls of your feet, Dennis," I murmured, not bothering to look back over my shoulder. "A blind badger could hear you coming from twenty yards out."Behind me, the younger wolf stiffened, his jaw locking tight as he tried to adjust his stride over the pine needles.I had three of them out here with me on the high ridges of the eastern boundary: Dennis, a raw-boned brawler with quick hands from the lower village; Carrick, a steady scout who could track blood across ice but lacked stomach for close-quarters butchery; and Vince, a veteran’s son whose wolf was fast but wildly undisciplined.Sixteen graves were fresh in the frozen earth down in the Blacthorne ceremonial burial grounds. Sixteen of my best
Huling Na-update: 2026-09-17
Chapter: Chapter 61: The Southern PassThe carriage lurched over a deep rut in the road, but neither of us moved.The second the name left my lips, the easy, mocking smirk that Jasper had worn since breakfast vanished like smoke in a draft. His light eyes hardened into narrow slits, the casual slouch in his spine straightening instantly until his broad shoulders squared against the leather bench."What did you just say?" he asked. His voice wasn't playful anymore. It was low, flat, and stripped clean of banter."The Bloodwyn pack," I said, keeping my hands locked together over my knees so he wouldn't see them shaking. "What do you know about them?""I know they’re five hundred miles to the east," Jasper replied, leaning forward until his elbows rested on his knees, his face inches from mine in the dim cabin. "I know that they participated in the great war hundreds of years ago, and they haven't sent an emissary past the neutral ridge in fifty years. But that’s about all I know. Why? What about them?"I swallowe
Huling Na-update: 2026-09-16
Chapter: Chapter 60: Combing the ValleyI woke up the next morning and lay on my bed as the morning light cut pale grey lines across the ceiling, staring at the canopy until my eyes burned. The encounter from yesterday afternoon in the village square was still carved into the front of my brain, and my stomach knotted up just thinking about it. But after twenty minutes of staring at the woodwork, I forced myself to sit up and swing my legs over the mattress. If there’s one thing surviving at the bottom of the heap had taught me, it’s that worrying about things you can't control will only get you killed faster. I couldn't hunt a wolf through the village on my own, and I couldn't undo the fact that he saw my face. So, I simply chose to pack it away in a quiet corner of my mind and move on.Then my eyes wandered toward the bedroom door, and my chest seized up in a completely different way.Dominic's deep voice echoed through my head, bringing a sudden, uninvited warmth straight to the skin beneath my collar. That
Huling Na-update: 2026-09-15
Chapter: CHAPTER NINETEENCharlotte arrived at work already tired.Not physically exactly. It was the kind of exhaustion that sat behind her eyes, the lingering pressure from the previous day’s chaos. The investigation. The presentation. The silent drive home.She expected the office to feel tense again. What she didn't expect though, was for the silence to follow her.Conversations paused when she walked past. A few people offered polite smiles that didn’t quite reach their eyes. Others avoided looking at her entirely.Her stomach tightened... something was wrong.She stepped into her office and tried to ignore the unease crawling under her skin. Emails loaded slowly on her screen. Messages stacked up. Most were routine updates from teams still working on damage control.One message stood out.FROM: Compliance DepartmentSUBJECT: Request for Internal Review — UrgentHer fingers hesitated before opening it. A formal notice appeared on the screen. She was being asked to attend a review meeting regarding access
Huling Na-update: 2026-03-12
Chapter: CHAPTER EIGHTEENMonday arrived like a warning bell Charlotte didn’t remember setting.The weekend’s lightness lingered in fragments; grocery bags still unpacked on her kitchen counter, the faint memory of laughing in Nathan’s presence replaying at inconvenient moments. It made getting dressed feel oddly heavier, like she was walking into a room where something had already changed without her permission.She chose something simple. Neutral. Professional. Invisible.By the time she reached the office building, the atmosphere felt… off.Not chaotic nor loud,Just…tight. Like people were speaking softer than usual and typing faster than normal.The receptionist barely looked up when she walked past.Charlotte frowned but said nothing as she headed toward her office.She froze when she noticed Nathan’s door already open.He was rarely early. And when he was, it usually meant trouble.She slipped into her own office, trying to settle into routine of laptop on, emails loading, coffee brewing; but the quiet f
Huling Na-update: 2026-03-12
Chapter: CHAPTER SEVENTEENCharlotte woke slowly, consciousness returning in pieces.First came the faint hum of morning traffic outside her window. Then the heaviness in her limbs; the kind that came from emotional exhaustion more than physical tiredness. Finally, her eyes opened to the sight of her small living room… and the half-eaten birthday cake sitting on the table.Vanilla sponge. Chocolate frosting.A small slice missing from the side where she had attacked it with a fork sometime past midnight.She stared at it for a long moment, unsure whether to laugh or cringe. The candle she’d used;a random leftover from some forgotten event, was melted and leaning sadly to one side.“Happy birthday to me,” she muttered.Her phone lay nearby, screen dark, notifications stacked from friends, classmates, random acquaintances who remembered just late enough to feel guilty about it. She scrolled through messages lazily before dropping the phone back onto the couch.Her stomach growled and so she stood, stretched her s
Huling Na-update: 2026-03-12
Chapter: CHAPTER SIXTEENCharlotte woke up to the sound of her alarm and the strange awareness that today mattered.It took a few seconds for the feeling to fully settle, hovering somewhere between anticipation and dread. Then it clicked.Her birthday.She lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling, letting the realization wash over her without ceremony. No excitement burst through her chest. No immediate smile tugged at her lips. Just a quiet acknowledgment, like checking a box in her mind.Another year.Her phone buzzed beside her almost on cue.Jaina: Happy birthday, star girl I hate that I’m not there. I’ll make it up to you, promise.Charlotte smiled softly, thumbs hovering before she typed back.Charlotte: Thank you. I miss you already. Go be amazing for both of us.She set the phone down and finally pushed herself out of bed. The morning routine felt slower than usual, deliberate. She showered, dressed, moved through her small space with an odd sense of distance, like she was watching herself from
Huling Na-update: 2026-03-12
Chapter: CHAPTER FIFTEENCharlotte knew something was wrong the moment she unlocked her office door.It wasn’t loud or dramatic. Nothing was overturned. Nothing was missing. But there was a shift in the air, subtle and immediate, like walking into a room where a conversation had just ended and no one told you what it was about.She stepped inside fully, letting the door close behind her.And froze.Nathan was sitting in her chair.Not leaning forward. Not rummaging through anything. Just seated there like he belonged, legs crossed at the ankle, posture relaxed to the point of arrogance. His jacket was draped over the back of the chair, sleeves of his shirt rolled neatly to his forearms. One hand rested on her desk, fingers relaxed, the other loosely holding his phone.He looked… comfortable.Charlotte’s brain stalled.For a wild second, she genuinely thought she’d walked into the wrong office. That maybe she’d miscounted the doors or somehow ended up where she didn’t belong. But the framed quote she’d taped t
Huling Na-update: 2026-03-12
Chapter: CHAPTER FOURTEENCharlotte stood in the middle of her room, phone in one hand, towel draped loosely over her shoulders, and a growing sense of dread settling in her chest. Her bed was already littered with discarded options; dresses she’d worn once and hated, dresses she loved but suddenly felt too loud, too soft, too much. Her mirror reflected the chaos back at her with brutal honesty. This wasn’t just a dinner. It was a work dinner. With clients. And with Nathan. The thought alone made her stomach twist in a way she didn’t quite want to examine too closely.She flicked through Pinterest with frantically, typing things like formal work dinner outfit, classy corporate dinner look, what to wear to impress clients without trying too hard. Every image seemed to mock her. The women looked effortless, polished, like they had their lives neatly folded away somewhere. Charlotte checked the time for what felt like the hundredth time. 7:21 p.m. She still had time, but it didn’t feel like it. It never did when
Huling Na-update: 2026-03-12
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