Novels by Queen

KaelThe horn was not a drill.By the time we reached the outer yard, Adrian already had two scouts on their knees in the dirt and a third map pinned under a dagger. Blood marked the eastern line in three places. Not a full assault. Probes. The kind made by people testing how fast Draven answered when rare blood was involved.“How many?” I asked.“Six on the shrine road. Four more in the tree line. They pulled back the moment the horn carried.” Adrian’s eyes flicked once to Liana behind my shoulder, then away. “They weren’t trying to win. They were measuring.”Liana stood close enough that the bond kept pulling at the base of my skull. She had thrown on a dark shirt and training leathers, hair still loose, my scent still under her skin no matter how hard the morning wind tried to cut it. Every wolf in the yard would notice if they came nearer.“Bring the wounded in,” I said. “Burn the tracks. No open pursuit past the ridge. I want them close enough to fear the border, not desperate en

LianaI woke to the bond still in my chest.Not a dream. Not a fever. A second pulse under my own, heavy and aware, tied to the man asleep on his side of the bed like distance could undo what his body had already done. My thighs ached. My wrists carried faint bruises where he had pinned me. Between my legs I was sore and marked in ways no one would have explained.Kael’s scent was everywhere. On my skin. In the sheets. In my lungs when I breathed too deep.I sat up carefully. The room was still dim, castle stone holding the night longer than the estate ever had. For a second I only listened to him breathe and tried to decide whether last night had made me stronger or simply more trapped.His voice came rough from the pillow.“Don’t leave the bed like that.”I looked over. His eyes were open. Silver, then a flash of gold, then forced back.“I’m not running,” I said.“You’re assessing exits. Same thing.”I held his gaze. “You came inside me and now you’re already speaking like a warden.

LianaPOVKael kissed me like he was angry at both of us.There was nothing careful left. One hand tangled in my hair and yanked my head back. The other gripped my thigh and hauled me up until my legs wrapped around his waist. He carried me to the bed and dropped me onto it hard enough that the breath left my lungs. Clothes came off in rough, impatient pulls, fabric tearing, buttons scattering. When he finally got me naked he just stared for a second, chest heaving, eyes pure gold, like the sight of me was actively destroying him.“Last chance,” he said, voice wrecked. “Tell me to stop.”I reached for him instead.He shoved my thighs apart and pushed into me in one deep, brutal thrust. The stretch tore a raw, broken sound from my throat. There was no adjustment. No slow build. He fucked me like something in him had finally snapped deep, hard, punishing strokes that forced the air from my lungs every time he bottomed out. The wet sound of it filled the room. His mouth found my neck.

LianaPOVDraven Castle felt like a mouth closing around me.Stone. Cold air. The weight of his power pressing from every wall. Kael barely spoke during the journey. The moment we crossed into his territory, something in him went quieter and more dangerous. His silence wasn’t calm, it was the kind of silence that came right before something broke.My room was in the family wing.His was directly across the hall.No thin walls. No father. No one left to interrupt. Just the bond pacing between us like an animal that had finally been locked in the same cage as its prey.I lasted forty minutes.Forty minutes of staring at the stone walls, at the door that faced his, at the bandage on my arm that still smelled faintly of my own blood and the power that wouldn’t fully settle. The bond didn’t care that I was exhausted. It pulled, steady, relentless, toward the room across the hall like it had already decided the argument was over.I hated how much of me agreed.This wasn’t the estate. There

LianaPOVThe attack came at dusk.I was still on the training grounds when the first foreign scent hit me, sharp, wrong, and far too close to the estate. My wolf surged so hard my vision flashed gold. A second later Kael was already moving, shoving me behind him as three wolves broke from the tree line.They weren’t from any allied pack.Kael shifted mid-stride. The massive black wolf slammed into the first attacker with bone-cracking force. I barely had time to process it before the second one came at me. Instinct took over. My wolf ripped free, and then something else ripped free with her.Power exploded out of me in a violent, uncontrolled wave. It wasn’t normal shifter strength. It felt older. Heavier. Like something buried in my blood had been waiting for an excuse to surface. The third attacker staggered mid-lunge, ears flattening, but the second one still reached me. Claws tore across my shoulder and down my arm. Pain detonated white-hot. I hit the ground hard, the dual power

LianaPOVDad’s voice cut through the trees before I could move.“Liana!”I grabbed Kael’s shirt off the ground and yanked it over my head. It was still warm. Still smelled like him, dark, sharp, dangerous. My wolf pushed against my ribs like she wanted to drown in it. I hated how much she liked it.Kael was already gone. No sound. No shadow. Just the ghost of his hand on my throat and the bond still pulling like a hook buried under my sternum.Dad stepped into the moonlight and pulled me into a hard hug. His scent hit me, familiar, safe, father, and my wolf recoiled hard. She didn’t want him. She wanted the man who had just walked away.“I heard the howl,” he said, pulling back. His eyes narrowed. “Your eyes are still gold. They shouldn’t be.”Power still buzzed under my skin, faint but wrong. The same charge from the shift. The thing people used to whisper about when they thought I couldn’t hear.“I’m fine,” I said. “It was just rough.”“Late awakenings can be unstable. Especially w