Novels by I.L.Vale

Chapter Twenty-fourKillian's POVBy the time I carried Sophie back upstairs, the panic attack had drained whatever strength she had left. One minute she had been standing in the middle of the foyer struggling to breathe while terror consumed every inch of her face, and the next she had collapsed straight into my arms before her body could hit the floor. Now she lay motionless beneath the blankets while the room settled into an uneasy silence, and despite everything that had happened, Gabriella hadn't left her side for a single second.An hour later, movement finally stirred beneath the sheets. Sophie's brows pulled together first, then her fingers twitched, then slowly, her eyes opened.For several seconds she stared at the ceiling as though trying to gather scattered pieces of reality, but the moment recognition began returning to her face, confusion quickly followed behind it."What happened?"Her voice came out rough and uncertain as she pushed herself upright slowly, but the sec

Chapter Twenty-ThreeGabriella's POV"That thing bit me… how am I still alive?"The words came out barely above a whisper, yet they slammed into the room hard enough to make my stomach twist painfully. Sophie's fingers remained pressed against the bandage around her neck while confusion and fear flickered wildly across her face, and for one terrifying moment I realized there was no version of this conversation that ended well because the truth waiting for her was far too impossible to accept and far too dangerous to ignore."Sophie..."Her eyes snapped to mine immediately. "No." The single word came out sharp enough to cut through the room."Sophie, just listen to me.""No, Gabriella…where the hell am I? And how did I get here?" She shook her head harder this time while backing away against the pillows. "Don't give me that look because I know that look, and that is the exact same look people use before telling someone they have cancer or a terminal disease or that their entire life

Chapter twenty two Gabriella's POV"You should be more afraid of the people you already trust."The stranger's voice followed me through the hallway long after I had walked past him, and that irritated me more than it should have. Maybe it was because of the certainty in his tone, or maybe it was because tonight had already shattered every version of reality I thought I understood.I slowed for a moment, my fingers tightening against my arms as his words echoed through my exhausted mind. Part of me wanted to turn around and demand an explanation, but I didn't have the strength for cryptic warnings from mysterious men who appeared naked in the middle of storms.I had already reached my limit.After a while of trying to put my thoughts together, I made my way back toward Sophie's room. The hallway felt strangely quiet now, almost as though the house itself had finally grown tired after everything that had happened.When I pushed the door open, I immediately stopped…Killian was still

Chapter twenty one Gabriella’s POVThe moment I stepped out of Killian’s room, I finally allowed myself to breathe, but the air still felt too heavy inside my lungs. My chest felt heavy, and the pain coming from my head wasn't helping either.Yet, somehow his words kept replaying louder than everything else. ‘You were a mistake.’ I should hate him for saying it.God knew I wanted to.But what made it worse was the look in his eyes while he said it because beneath all that anger and cruelty, there had been something else there too…something broken.I wrapped my arms tightly around myself while walking back toward Sophie’s room, trying to push away the suffocating ache building inside my chest.But then I heard a scream coming from Sophie's room, that made my heart nearly stop.“Sophie?”Another scream ripped through the hallway, louder this time, followed immediately by crashing sounds inside the room.Fear shot violently through me, and my legs reacted before my head could. By the ti

Chapter twentyKillian’s POV“It was my father.”The words settled heavily between us, and for the first time since Gabriella walked into my room, she looked genuinely shaken.I watched confusion flicker across her face while rain battered violently against the windows behind her, the storm outside somehow matching the chaos clawing through my head.“What?” she whispered.A humorless laugh left me as I dragged one hand through my damp hair, exhaustion and rage mixing into something dangerously unstable inside my chest.“Yes, Gabriella,” I said bitterly. “My father turned yours.”She stared at me silently, and somehow, that silence pissed me off even more, because she still looked at her father like he was a good man… like he wasn’t the reason my family got destroyed.“Do you know what your bastard of a father did to repay him for saving his miserable life?” I asked coldly before stepping closer. “He killed his son and married his wife.”“Stop!”Her voice cracked immediately, but I ign

Chapter nineteenKillian’s POV“I bit her.”The second the words left my mouth, the room went dead silent, not the normal kind of silence either.This one felt heavy, sharp, and penetrating.The healer stared at me for a long second while the lady laid unconscious on the bed behind her, blood staining the sheets beneath her body. Her skin had already started losing color, and every shallow breath she took scraped violently against my nerves.My jaw tightened.Killian it's an Alpha's bite,” the healer mut

Chapter thirteen Serena’s POVThe morning no longer felt like morning in the Draven house, it felt like a carefully staged battlefield where every smile was sharpened into a weapon and every silence was just another threat waiting to be spoken aloud, and I sat there watching Octavia’s command ripple through the room like she owned not just the house but the air we were breathing when she finally spoke my name again.“Serena,” Octavia said calmly, setting her napkin down as though she was about to assign executions instead of breakfast instructions, “you were meant to go with Paulo today, yes?”“Yes,” I answered, already feeling the plan I had carefully built in my head start to crack at the edges, because today was supposed to be leverage, strategy, movement, not… this circus.“Grace will take your place,” she continued without looking at me, as though my schedule was something that could be casually erased, and I felt my jaw tighten because nothing about that woman ever felt like a

Chapter twelveSerena’s povAcross the table, Octavia took another bite, then another, and judging by the fact that she wasn't making a face or reaching for holy water, I assumed that counted as a compliment. It was probably the closest thing the woman offered to praise without a signed contract and written notice, and I would take it.The woman dabbed her lips with a napkin before settling back into her chair, and the look she gave me next felt strangely calculating, almost as though she was moving pieces around a chessboard only she could see."At least one young woman in this house understands where a woman's value begins."Ah.

Chapter elevenSerena's POVI was setting a table for a circus family, and honestly, I deserved a medal for it. There was a pig, a junior pig, an upcoming stripper, a drug addict pretending to be a nun, an anti-prodigal son with anger issues the size of a continent, and then there was the mysterious queen mother herself; Octavia Draven. If patience was truly a virtue, then by now I should have qualified for sainthood. Unfortunately, I preferred champagne to halos, and revenge to forgiveness.Lord knows how I managed to finish the dish after the melodrama that took place in the kitchen earlier. Between Lucien standing entirely too close, my heart forgetting its job description, and that blonde menace appearing in his shirt looking like she had spent the night exactly where I feared she had, the entire morning felt like a badly written soap opera. The worst part wasn't even seeing her. The worst part was the fact that I cared enough to be annoyed.Which was ridiculous.Why do you care,

Chapter tenLucien's pov She was a fucking mess, and somehow that only made her more dangerous. Standing there with flour dusting her cheeks and irritation practically dripping from every word that left her mouth, Serena looked nothing like the polished woman my father paraded around in public, yet I couldn't stop looking at herWe were standing far too close for my own good, close enough to see the tiny crease between her brows whenever she got annoyed, close enough to notice the way her lips parted whenever she was about to argue, and close enough to kiss her if either one of us made a stupid decision."Babe!"Fuck.The voice cut through the tension like a knife. Serena reacted before I did, her head snapping toward the doorway while surprise flashed across her face before she quickly buried it. I followed her gaze and immediately felt a headache forming. Chantel, of course it had to be Chantel. The woman stormed into the kitchen like she owned the place, her heels clicking furiou

Chapter nineSerena's POVThe nightmare found me again, which honestly wasn't surprising because it always did. It didn't matter how soft the mattress was, how expensive the sheets felt against my skin, or how large Cassian's mansion happened to be, sleep always dragged me back to the same place; flashing lights, greedy eyes, fake smiles and men with enough money to buy the world but not enough decency to deserve any part of it. The memories chased me through the darkness until I finally jerked awake, my chest rising sharply as I struggled to catch my breath while sweat clung to my skin.For a moment, I simply sat there, then looked beside me, and as always, Cassian was still asleep.The pig slept like a newborn baby while everyone around him suffered.I stared at him for a few seconds longer before rolling my eyes and climbing out of bed. If I stayed in that room any longer, I might actually commit a crime before breakfast.The cold water from the bathroom sink helped clear my though

Chapter eightSerena's pov I had barely gotten out of the bathroom when Cassian walked into the room. The scent of his cologne arrived before he did, making my stomach tighten immediately. I ignored him and headed straight for the closet, pretending he wasn't there, pretending the image of him with another woman wasn't still playing repeatedly inside my head. Unfortunately, Cassian had never been a man who understood boundaries. The moment I reached for my nightdress, I felt him behind me, his hands settling on my waist as his lips brushed the side of my neck."I'm not in the mood for this, Cassian," I said firmly, pulling away before he could continue. My voice was calm, but every nerve in my body felt stretched thin, and the last thing I wanted was his hands on me after what I had seen.His expression darkened slightly as he watched me move away. "Why? We're engaged, Serena. How long are you going to keep starving me?"A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. If only he knew.

Chapter thirty eightSophie's povThe moment I stepped inside the diner, the noise hit me all at once. Students occupied nearly every booth, waitresses moved between crowded tables carrying trays balanced on one hand, and conversations blended into a constant hum that filled every corner of the room. Under normal circumstances, I probably would've turned around and left. My head was already crowded enough without adding another hundred voices to it, but the second I spotted Tom sitting near the window with three chemistry books spread across the table and enough notes to prepare for a college lecture, a laugh almost escaped me despite everything weighing on my mind."Please tell me you didn't spend your afternoon preparing for this."Tom glanced up immediately, and the grin that appeared on his face carried the kind of easy warmth that always made people comfortable around him."Depends.""Depends on what?""Whether making color-coded study guides counts as preparing."I stared at th

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN SOPHIE’S POVAdrian dragged the suspect list closer before uncapping his pen, and the movement alone was enough to catch my attention because for somebody who had spent the better part of the afternoon avoiding questions, he suddenly looked remarkably interested in answering them. The photographs remained scattered between us, the science-wing discovery still hanging over the table like a storm cloud. Neither of us knew how to approach, yet for the first time since we'd sat down, some of the tension eased from his shoulders."Fine," he said, tapping the paper once. "Let's pretend you're useful and do this properly."The insult should have annoyed me. Instead, it felt suspiciously close to normal, and after spending the entire day watching him act like a stranger, I found myself ridiculously relieved by it."That's a strange way to thank the person carrying this investigation."His head lifted immediately. "Carrying?""Absolutely."The confidence behind my answer

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXSOPHIE'S POVSomething was wrong with Adrian.The realization had been bothering me since this afternoon, and the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that I wasn't imagining things. Yesterday he had been distant, and acting practically a stranger. Every text I'd sent had gone unanswered, every conversation felt forced, and every time our eyes met, it was like he was deliberately holding himself back from saying something. The frustrating part was that Adrian wasn't good at hiding things. He was loud, dramatic, and annoyingly honest whenever he felt strongly about something, which meant whatever was happening now had to be serious.By the time the last class ended, my patience had completely disappeared.The football field was alive with movement when I arrived. Players sprinted across the grass while Coach shouted instructions from the sidelines, and somewhere in the middle of all that chaos was the person responsible for ruining my mood. Adrian

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVESOPHIE'S POVThe third class of the day had ended almost fifteen minutes ago, yet I was still standing outside the senior locker room staring at my phone like it had personally offended me. Three unanswered texts sat on the screen, and every time I looked at them the irritation grew because Adrian wasn't the type to ignore people. He was the type to annoy people, argue with people, and somehow insert himself into situations that had absolutely nothing to do with him, which made his silence feel far more unsettling than it should have.Students streamed through the hallway while I waited, and with every passing minute my annoyance slowly mixed with concern. This week had been messy enough already, and the memory of Daniel's confession kept finding ways to sneak back into my thoughts no matter how hard I tried pushing it away. Nothing made sense anymore; Daniel loved me, Adrian was avoiding me. The fake relationship was over. The stalker was still out there. Some

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURADRIAN’S POVThe field didn’t care what was happening inside my head, it only demanded movement, impact, repetition, like pain could be trained out through discipline, so I kept running drills until my lungs burned and my thoughts finally started to blur at the edges, but even then her face stayed, refusing to dissolve no matter how hard I tried to outrun it.Sophie.Every pass, every strike, every forced breath only dragged her back into focus, not softer, not easier, just clearer in a way that made it harder to pretend I didn’t care as much as I kept telling myself I didn’t.“Get out,” I muttered under my breath, like she could hear me from wherever she was, like distance meant anything to memory.But she didn’t leave.She never did.The sound of footsteps on the turf cut through my focus before I even turned, and I already knew who it was because Daniel had a presence that didn’t ask for permission, it just arrived and expected the world to adjust around it.I s

SOPHIE’S POVThe second I shut my door, the sound felt too final, like I had sealed myself inside the consequences of everything I had been avoiding all day, and before I could even think about breathing properly, my phone was already in my hand because silence suddenly felt like something I couldn’t survive alone in.Zara picked up on the first ring.“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately, too fast to be casual, like she had been waiting for something to go wrong all day and I had finally confirmed it for her.That question should have been simple, but it wasn’t, because nothing about me felt simple anymore.“Everything,” I said quietly, sliding down onto my bed like my body had given up trying to hold itself together. “I’m a terrible person.”There was a pause on the other end, then Zara sighed like she was already mentally preparing herself.“I know you have a billion thoughts in your head,” she said slowly, “but what actually happened?”The words came out before I could stop them.