Novels by Rukky B

Osborne's POV We reached Silver Crest just before dawn, and for the first time in my life, the gates looked like the mouth of a trap.The same stone walls. The same guards bowing as I passed. But every face seemed to hide a door I couldn't see behind. My father had known about the Moonbinders. My mother had vanished because of a secret. And somewhere in my own council, a member of the First Circle was nodding politely at my orders.I had inherited a pack I could no longer trust.I couldn't accuse everyone. Without proof, I would only split the pack in half and hand the Circle the chaos it wanted. I needed evidence."Your father's private archive," Kade said quietly. "Not the official one.""Behind the east library."We went alone.The room had been sealed since my father's death. Dust lay thick on the shelves, and the air smelled of old paper and cold ash. Behind a false panel, we found rows of boxes tied with black ribbon.Inside were letters. Hundreds of them, written to and from t

Aina's POV Osborne walked out of the temple without a word.I watched his back disappear through the broken doors, Kade following close behind. A part of me wanted to go after him. A bigger part couldn't move. My mother's hand was still wrapped around mine, and I couldn't let go of it yet.I had imagined this moment so many times.In some versions, she ran to me and held me until I couldn't breathe, and the words poured out of her. In others, I asked why she had left, and she wept and said sorry, and the hurt melted away like frost in the sun.I had never imagined this. Cold stone. Broken doors. Blood on the floor, and my mother whispering a warning about the one man who had never made me feel small.I pulled my hand free. It was harder than I expected."Why did you leave?"Elara Wilfred sat down on the step as if her legs had finally given up. Up close, she looked even more fragile. Gray in her hair. A scar that ran down her jaw like a crack in porcelain."Someone found out what I w

Osborne's POV *One of his ancestors.*The words rang in my head long after Aina's mother stopped speaking.My first instinct was to reject them. My family had ruled Silver Crest for generations. We buried our dead with honor. We did not murder people to keep them apart.My second instinct was to demand proof. Names, dates, a witness. Something I could hold in my hands and test.But I said nothing. Aina was looking at me, pale and unreadable, and I couldn't find my voice.I reached for Varg instead. He always had an answer, even if it was a snarl.Nothing.*Varg.*Silence. Not the peaceful hush the temple had given me. This was the silence of a man who had gone into a room and locked the door.For eleven years, Varg had fought me for every inch of control. He had clawed at my mind, burned through my sleep, and driven me to the edge of every battle. I had wished him quiet a thousand times.Now he was quiet, and I was terrified.*Varg. Answer me.*I felt along the walls of our shared mi

Aina's POV The doors slammed shut, and the howling rushed in to fill the silence.It came through the stone, through the floor, through my ribs. My mother's thin arm lay across my hands, and for one strange moment I couldn't tell which was louder, the wolves or my own heartbeat.She was real. Warm. Breathing. She smelled of smoke and pine, and she was leaning on me as if I were the only solid thing left in the world.I wanted to hold her until my arms ached. I wanted to scream until the roof came down. I wanted to ask why I had grown up believing she was gone, why she had let me believe it, and why not one person had ever told me different.I opened my mouth.Her hands closed on my shoulders. Her grip was shockingly strong for someone so frail."Whatever happens," she said, low and fast, "do not let Osborne complete the bond with you."I froze.Osborne? The man who had stood before the council and refused to send me away? The man who had put every secret he owned into my hands withou

Osborne's POV We left Silver Crest at dusk, four of us and no one else.Aina walked beside me with the papers pressed to her chest. She had told me about the voice in her head, her words quick and breathless, and I hadn't told her what to do about it. I had only said we would go. She had nodded. It was such a small thing, but it steadied me more than any plan.Kade took the front. Mara kept close to Aina, her fingers glowing faintly with healer's light.The forest changed within the first mile.No owls. No wind in the branches. Not even the tiny scratch of mice in the leaves. The trees stood so still they looked painted, and every step we took sounded far too loud."Forests aren't this quiet," Kade muttered."Something is keeping them silent," Mara said.I felt it on my skin, a heavy hush, like a held breath. Every shadow between the trunks looked like a hunter. My hands wanted to turn into claws. I kept them open at my sides.*Varg. Is it danger?*He took a long time to answer. When

Aina's POV I don't remember walking from the garden. One moment I was holding Seraphina's list, and the next I was standing outside Osborne's study with my hand on the door.I didn't knock.He was at the window with a scrap of old paper in his fingers. When he turned, his face stopped me for half a breath. He looked like a man who hadn't slept either."Aina."I held up the list. "Your family's name is circled."He didn't reach for it. He didn't ask where I had gotten it. He only went very still, the way a wolf does when it hears something far away."Tell me about your father," I said. My voice shook, and I hated that it did. "Did he know my mother? Did your family know what I was? Did the Cliffs have anything to do with my marriage to Dylan?"I waited for the smooth answer. The careful half-truth. Dylan had always kept one ready."I'll tell you everything I know," Osborne said. "It isn't much. Some of it will hurt."Then he did. He didn't soften it or dress it up.His father had kept