Novels by Uniq Sterling

We reached the city as night settled over the streets. Traffic still moved along the roads, but the atmosphere felt strangely tense, as if the entire city had noticed something was wrong. The Voss headquarters rose above everything else, its glass walls reflecting the lights below while the windows remained bright on almost every level. From the outside, the building looked almost normal, yet the usual flow of people was gone. There were no employees rushing through the entrance or security guards moving between the doors. Doors that should have stood open were sealed, and the familiar security points that once belonged to us now answered to someone else. Even the entrance looked different, stripped of the sense of authority it had always carried. The mastermind had taken the entire structure and turned it into a closed fortress, making the heart of the Voss empire feel like a prison.Damien studied the outer walls with the calm of someone who had walked these halls for years. His e

LilaWe found each other again in a quiet stretch of the lower halls after the worst of the collapse had settled. Dust was still everywhere, and distant sounds of movement reminded us that the danger was not completely over, but Damien seemed focused on something else. His face carried a new clarity, as though a piece of the past had finally fallen into place. He took my hands and asked me to listen without speaking until he finished. His voice stayed low as he began. He told me about the memories that had returned to him. Days from a time when we were both small. A place buried beneath the ground, with plain walls, lights, locked doors, and children who had no idea why they had been taken there. He remembered the questions, the strange rooms, and the fear that followed us everywhere. Most of all, he remembered me. He had known me then, I had known him. We had found each other near a wide window that showed nothing but stone. We had spoken in short, careful sentences because neithe

The photograph stayed in my hand while the quiet of the room pressed around me, something inside my mind shifted, so suddenly that I almost dropped it. A thin crack opened, and let light come through. I saw myself much younger, standing barefoot on grass with the warmth of the sun against my face. I remembered the high windows of the house, the wide garden, and the familiar halls I had once believed were safe. Then I saw a man who visited often and spoke in a steady voice. He never arrived empty handed, sometimes he brought small gifts, and other times he simply sat with me and asked careful questions. Back then, I had trusted him without hesitation. He felt like someone who belonged at the edges of our family, close enough to know our secrets but never close enough to carry the same name. I never questioned why he came so often, I never wondered why he seemed to know so much about us.More days returned, I watched him walk through the halls of the house where I grew up as though h

DamienI found Victoria near a collapsed junction where the air still carried dust from the earlier failures. She was checking a side path when she heard me and turned with her weapon half raised. Relief crossed her face once she saw it was me, we spoke in low voices and shared what little we knew. The children were still missing, Lila had been taken and time was slipping. Victoria pointed to a sealed door she had found while searching for another way out. The lock looked older than the rest of the structure yet the metal still held firm.We forced it open together, behind the door stretched a long narrow room lined with metal cabinets and sealed boxes. This was no ordinary storage space, it was an archive built to last through decades. Rows of files sat in careful order with labels marked years that reached further back than either of us had expected. Victoria moved to one side while I took the other, we began pulling drawers and reading what the pages held.The first records sho

I moved carefully forward until the tight corridor opened up into a small room, faintly lit by a single weak bulb hanging from the ceiling…the atmosphere felt serious in this place. On the far side, sitting quietly, was a man I never thought I would see again. Damien’s father leaned against the stone wall, his clothes torn and stained with dark marks. His face was pale and worn, but when his eyes met mine, they stayed open, filled with a strange mix of recognition and something unspoken.He was badly hurt, each breath seemed to cost him effort. I stopped a few steps away and stared…part of me wanted to turn and keep searching for the children. The history between us carried too many wounds and too much damage. He had stood on the wrong side for too many days…leaving him here felt like the cleaner choice, he watched my face and seemed to read the decision forming…his voice came low. He told me the mastermind had kept him alive for one reason only, he knew where the real evidence sat hi

I opened my eyes to a ceiling I did not know, my head ached and my body rested on a narrow bed that offered no comfort. I sat up slowly and looked around the four walls. No windows and a single door that looked solid enough to hold against anything. The room held almost nothing else…a cabinet against one wall, a small table and a chair…that was all.Rose and Liam were not with me, the empty space where they should have been pressed against my chest until breathing took effort. I stood and walked to the door, the handle did not move…I pushed and then pulled but nothing gave. I called their names and waited, only silence answered. The longing to hear even one small reply rose so strong it left my hands shaking. I needed to know they were safe. I needed to see their faces and feel the weight of them against me again.A speaker set high in the corner crackled to life, the mastermind’s voice filled the room. He spoke in the same calm tone he always used. He told me Damien had escaped the f

Weeks settled over Ashbourne territory in a steady rhythm. Serena rose each morning before the sun fully cleared the hills, slowly becoming accustomed to the quiet routine that had replaced the uncertainty of her old life. The early sickness had eased enough that she could walk the short path to the training grounds without stopping, though some mornings she still moved carefully when her body reminded her to slow down. Rhea met her there with the same quiet patience as she had shown on the first day. There was no pressure to prove herself and no expectation that she should suddenly become the warrior everyone believed she could be. They worked on balance and breathing more than strength, focusing on control and listening to her body. Every movement was considered carefully because Serena was no longer training only for herself. There were two small lives growing inside her, and she had begun to understand that protecting them also meant learning to protect herself.After training,

Three days after Lady Victoria’s warning the pressure only grew heavier…Damien left a council meeting early and walked toward the village bakery. He told himself he needed air but the truth was simpler, he needed answers that none of the reports could give.Mrs. Willow was wiping down the counter when he entered. The shop was quiet between the morning and midday crowds. She looked up and studied his face for a long moment before she spoke.“I wondered when one of you would come.” Damien stood near the door. “I need to know how she was treated after that night.”Mrs. Willow set the cloth aside, her voice stayed steady. “They mocked her every day. Customers, neighbors and young women who used to smile at her. They said she was a fool for believing the three of you. They laughed about the wolfless orphan who thought she could become Luna.”Damien’s hands curled at his sides. “She never answered them,” Mrs. Willow continued. “Not once, I asked her why…she said she did not want the troubl

The three of them returned to the cottage at dusk, no one had lived there since the night Serena left. Dust covered the windowsills, the small garden she once tended had already begun to wither. Damien pushed the door open and stepped inside first, Kieran and Lucien followed.Everywhere smelled of old wood and the faint trace of the soap she used to use. Everything remained in place, as if she had only stepped out for a short walk and planned to return.Damien walked into the main room. On the table sat the music box he had given her years ago, the lid was closed…beside it lay the leather journal from Kieran, its pages still marked with her careful handwriting. Lucien’s carved wooden wolf rested on the shelf above the fireplace, one ear slightly chipped from a fall she had never mentioned.Kieran picked up the journal and opened it, a pressed flower fell from between the pages. He stared at the simple sketches she had made of the three of them during quiet evenings they barely remembe

Elena found Damien in the strategy room just after midday…map covered the long table, markers showed the latest scout reports from the northern roads. Damien stood over them with both hands braced on the wood, his attention fixed on the empty spaces between the marked trails.She closed the door behind her and waited until he looked up. “You missed the morning council,” she said. “My father noticed, he asked if something was wrong.”Damien straightened. “Nothing is wrong.”Elena walked closer and rested her fingers on the edge of one map. “The alliance between our packs depends on clear focus, people are beginning to talk about how often your thoughts seem elsewhere.”He met her eyes. “The border needs watching, that is all.”“Is it?” Her voice stayed calm. “Because the name I keep hearing in the halls is not about borders…it is about a girl who left weeks ago.”Damien said nothing.Elena stepped back. “I will handle the next meeting with the southern Alphas, you should remember what

Two weeks had passed since the night they walked to Serena’s cottage and found it empty.Damien sat alone in his office after midnight, the lamp on his desk burned low. Reports waited in neat stacks, but he had not touched them for hours. He opened the bottom drawer without thinking…his fingers closed around a small object wrapped in soft cloth then he unwrapped it slowly.The bracelet lay in his palm, simple silver. One link had broken years ago during a training match…Serena had taken it from him that same evening. She returned it the next morning, the link repaired so carefully that the break no longer showed, she never asked for thanks, she only smiled and said it was nothing.Damien held the bracelet in his hand; the metal felt cool on his skin. He thought about how she used to watch him quietly from the edge of the training field. He was used to her being there, like the air around him…always present but easy to ignore.Now the office felt bigger than it should…the empty space

The next morning, Celeste brought Serena to the training grounds behind the manor.Wooden posts stood in neat rows… young warriors practiced under the eye of an older instructor while the air smelled of dust and sweat. Serena wore simple training clothes that felt strange after years of bakery aprons and worn dresses.Celeste stayed close. “We start slow, your body is already carrying two lives. We will not risk them.”Serena nodded. She still woke each morning expecting to find the cottage in Blackwood around her. Instead, she opened her eyes to soft sheets and the quiet presence of people who called her their daughter.The instructor, a woman named Rhea, handed her a light practice blade. “Show me your stance.”Serena tried. Her feet felt uncertain, the first swing pulled at her stomach, and a wave of nausea rose. She lowered the blade and took a slow breath.Rhea watched without judgment. “Again. Smaller movements.”They worked for a short time only. When Serena’s face lost color C