Novel-novel oleh Celestina

"Oh God, wrong room. I'm so sorry!"She spun around fast."Wait." Dante's voice stopped her cold.She turned slowly. He crossed to her, completely unbothered, and wiped the corner of her lip with his thumb."Next time knock." His eyes held hers a second too long.She nodded and walked out fast.Dante turned back to me. We moved inside and dropped onto the bed, breathless.His hands moved across my body with a gentleness that made my eyes sting. He whispered things to me that I couldn't quite hear but felt anyway and afterward, we just lay there talking about nothing and everything.He told me about traveling and places he'd lived. He told me about the things that scared him. He didn't tell me much, but what he did tell me felt real. Honest."What happens after tonight?" I asked him as the sun started coming up."What do you want to happen?" he asked back."I don't know. I feel like I'm missing something. Like there's a piece of the puzzle I can't see.""There is," he said. "But you're

The Night With DantePoint of View: Sienna"And we have a lot to discuss before the night is over."He said it as a promise, not a threat. Whatever was coming next was something I should want.I stood in the middle of his suite, my heart still racing from the revelation that he'd been watching me. That he'd orchestrated meeting me at the club. That none of it was a coincidence."What do you want to discuss?" I asked carefully.He walked toward me slowly, and instead of looking predatory, he just looked tired. He was carrying something heavy, and I could see it weighing on him."First, I want to know why you really agreed to this auction," he said, gesturing around the suite. "And don't tell me it's just about money. Everyone who comes here says it's about money, but there's always something else. Something deeper."I thought about lying. I thought about giving him the surface answer and nothing more, but something about the way he was looking at me made lying feel pointless."My mother

THE CLUBI went to the hospital first thing in the morning.My mother was awake when I walked into her room. She looked smaller than I remembered, like the hospital bed was swallowing her whole. Her face lit up when she saw me."Sienna, baby, where have you been? I've been trying to reach you for days.""I know, I'm sorry," I said, walking over to hug her carefully. She felt so thin. "I'm here now.""The doctor said I need surgery. It's going to cost so much money, and I don't know how we're going to—"I pulled out an envelope with thirty-two thousand dollars in cash.Her face went pale."Where did you get this?" she asked, her voice shaking."I got a job," I lied. "It pays really well. It's temporary, but it's enough to cover the surgery and everything else you need.”She counted the money with trembling hands, tears streaming down her face."Sienna, this is too much. Where are you working? What kind of job pays this much?"I couldn't tell her the truth. I couldn't watch the disappoi

KAELThe first man to bid on me was the one in the expensive suit.His name was Kael. I learned that when the woman with the clipboard handed me a folder with his information. Age thirty-six. CEO of a tech company. Wealthy and private. No previous auction history."He's new," the woman said, which meant nothing to me. "Be professional, be safe, and remember you're in control. If anything makes you uncomfortable, use the panic button."I nodded, even though I didn't feel in control of anything.The suite they took me to was colder somehow. All glass and steel and minimalist furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. Everything was expensive, but nothing was warm. It felt like a hotel room designed by someone who'd never actually lived anywhere.Kael was standing by the window when I arrived, looking out at the city lights. He didn't turn around immediately. He just stood there, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders tense.When he finally turned to face me, his ice-blu

THE AUCTIONThe room went quiet when the four men walked in.I noticed it immediately the way the other women stopped talking, the way their heads turned. These weren't ordinary rich guys. There was something different about them. Something that made the air feel charged.I was standing in a small alcove backstage, away from the main floor. A woman with a clipboard had positioned me there, told me to wait.Through the curtain, I could see the main auction floor. Expensive lighting, sleek modern furniture, the beautiful women scattered around like pieces on a chessboard.The four men stood together, and I couldn't look away.The first one was in a business suit. Tailored, expensive, perfect. He had ice-blue eyes and sharp features like he was carved from stone. Something about him made me think of danger dressed up as money. He looked cold. Untouchable.The second one was older, maybe in his forties. Rugged in a way the first man wasn't. He wore a dark button-up shirt and jeans, like

HEARTBREAKThe sheets were still warm when he pulled away.I lay there, breathing heavy, my body still flushed from what we'd just done. My chest was tight in that good way. I was thinking about how much I loved him, about maybe asking him to stay the night instead of rushing off like he always did. Then he got out of bed without looking at me. I watched him stand there naked for a second, his back to me. He looked tense, like something was weighing on him. I'd noticed it the past few days the way he was distant, the way he didn't kiss me the same way anymore. But I thought sex would fix it. Sex always fixed things between us.He pulled on his jeans without saying anything."Hey," I said, sitting up and wrapping the sheet around myself. "You okay?"He didn't answer. He just grabbed his shirt from the floor and started putting it on."We're done," he said finally, still not looking at me.I froze. The words didn't make sense."What? What do you mean we're done?""Exactly what I said.

Blade’s pov Ayana appeared in the doorway before I had said a single word to the doctors, and I knew immediately that something was wrong. She never walked into a room I was in without permission, not unless it mattered.I watched her cross the office, her robe dragging slightly against the floor, her eyes locked on Hazel the entire time. She didn't stop until she reached my side."A word," she said quietly. "Now."I glanced at Hazel, still frozen by the wall with the doctor's needle hovering near her arm. "This isn't the time.""It's exactly the time." Ayana's voice left no room for argument.I stepped away from the desk and walked toward the window with her, far enough that the doctors and Hazel wouldn't hear us. Ayana kept her back to the room, her voice dropping even lower."She's a witch," she said.I almost laughed. "You're mistaken.""I am never mistaken about this." Her eyes were sharp, certain, the same way they had been every single time she had warned my family about somet

Hazel’s povThe bath was warm, but I barely felt it. Two women had led me out of the dark room the moment Blade walked away, their hands gentle in a way that confused me more than it comforted me. They didn't speak much. One of them washed the dried blood from my hands, my father's blood and I sat there because I didn't have the strength to stop her.I kept waiting for someone to explain what was happening. Nobody did.After the bath, they gave me a plain dress and led me to a small room with a bed and a tray of food waiting on a table. I stared at the food for a long time before I finally forced myself to eat a few bites. My stomach turned with every swallow, but I made myself finish it anyway. I needed my strength. I needed to be ready for whatever came next."Where is my brother," I asked one of the women when she came back to collect the tray. "Please, just tell me if he's safe."She glanced at the door before answering, like she was afraid someone might be listening. "He's fine,"

Blade's pov“Take a look at this.” He handed the documents to me.Hazel's name was on top of the papers, I stared at it for a long moment before I let myself believe it."Say that again," I said. The doctor blinked twice. "Alpha blade?""The name," I said. "Say the name."He looked down at his own documents like he needed to check it wasn't a mistake. "Hazel Creed," he said. "She came in this morning with a young boy. My assistant ran the standard scan on every new arrival, like you asked us to do months ago. Her numbers came back so high the machine flagged it twice. We thought it was broken." I let my warm spit settle in my chest."Are you certain that this is not a different woman with the same name?" I said."I have her photo right here." He held out his phone, and I made myself look.It was her. The same face I had just watched crumble under my hand less than an hour ago. The same woman I had thrown into the dark room myself, the one I had planned to kill the moment I finished qu

Blade's pov“I wasn’t joking when I said I would wipe out your entire generation,” I said, keeping the gun pointed directly at her.She was hyperventilating now, her whole body trembling. She covered her mouth with both hands, desperately trying to stop herself from screaming.I watched her for a moment before making a small gesture toward one of my men.He immediately stepped forward. “Show her where the next bullet is going if she doesn’t confess,” I ordered.He pulled out his phone and turned the screen toward her. The moment she saw the video, all the color drained from her face. Her younger brother was on the screen, he was sitting on his knees, terrified, with several guns pointed directly at his head.Her eyes widened in horror, and she stared at the screen as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing.I had no intention of killing that innocent boy. He had nothing to do with any of this. But she didn't need to know that, I needed her scared enough to finally tell me the

Hazel's Pov The men dragged me out of the car and started pulling me toward another vehicle. I fought against them with everything I had, twisting and struggling to free myself from their grip.“Ian! Dad!” I screamed, my voice breaking as I looked back at them.One of the men grabbed Dad and pulled him out of the car while another went straight for Ian. He lifted Ian over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. “Hazel!” Ian cried.They dragged me to the other car and threw me into the trunk. My body hit the hard surface, and before I could even sit up, the trunk slammed shut, leaving me trapped in complete darkness.A few minutes later, I felt the car start moving. I curled myself into a corner, tears running freely down my cheeks as Ian's cries echoed in my head. I should have known better, there was no way I could return to Western Sun without him finding out.The Lycan King owned almost the entire continent. There was nowhere I could hide from him for long. I had spent years tryin

Hazel's PovHave you ever felt so helpless that you were forced to return to a place you had sworn never to see again? That was exactly how I felt at that moment.I had spent eight years running away from that world, convincing myself that I would never go back no matter what happened. I had built a life away from them and had done everything I could to forget about my past. But now, all of that was about to change.“Your brother is going to die if the surgery isn’t done,” the doctor said. “It is the only thing that can save him.”I sat across from him, crying so hard that I could barely breathe. My tears kept falling, but they weren’t going to change anything. Crying wasn’t going to save Ian. It wasn’t going to pay for his surgery.I wiped my face with trembling hands, desperately trying to think of something I could do. “I would advise you to keep trying to reach your mother,” the doctor said. “You might be lucky.”I almost laughed at that, but I didn’t have the strength. My mother