Novel-novel oleh Lili Marques

Three Years Later"Any news?" I asked Frank, growing impatient. "Marco should’ve been back from that warzone by now. I don’t know what he was thinking, diving into that place knowing our men are being killed on the streets every day."The war hadn’t gotten any easier in those years. The Japanese had allied with the 'Ndrangheta, and they’d been trying to take us down ever since, delaying our reclamation of my father’s old territory and turning everything into a living hell.It had been tough years, and even with all our allies, things hadn’t progressed. Men were dying on both sides constantly."He should be arriving any minute now. According to the GPS, the car’s in our territory," Frank finally said, calming me down. "But there’s something wrong with your sister’s flight.""Alessia? What happened now?" I asked, feeling my heart sink and a chill of fear grip my body. I knew all too well how ruthless our enemies were."She never boarded. Our men haven’t reported anything, but they’re no

I watched from a distance as Angela finished getting dressed in our closet, slipping into a dress that hugged her body perfectly. She had finally gained some weight back, and the nights had become calmer. But whenever she woke up from nightmares, I was there, and when I wasn’t, she knew exactly where to find me to make me keep my promise—I’d always make her forget by calling out my name.The past two months had been turbulent with all the twists and turns: Filippo’s father vanishing, the Japanese attacking and encroaching on Cosa Nostra territory, making our efforts to reclaim territories even harder. Nothing was settled yet, but we’d finally found a week of calm to hold Nero and Svetlana’s wedding.The Russians were growing impatient with the wait, especially since their troops were aiding us in the territorial takeover. But everything would be resolved in a few hours.“Everything okay, Angel?” I asked, noticing her taking deep breaths in front of the mirror.“I already told you, you

My plans for going there weren't that at all, for sure—I just wanted to burn off all my energy until I could get back to bed. But Marco had just changed my plans.Without caring about the blood, the dirt, my nightmare, or the brutality of everything there, he picked me up in his arms and gave me an orgasm, seeming insane with jealousy and possessiveness. And I'd loved it."Now it's my turn!" I settled onto his lap, opening the robe and finding his cock hard as rock, ready for me. I braced my feet on the floor and aligned his cock at my entrance, sinking down slowly. "Hummmm...""Fuck, yes!" He growled, landing a slap on my ass that made me bounce on him, swallowing more of his cock. "Ride your man, she-devil."I didn't need another request before placing my hands on his shoulders and starting to rise and fall. His member filled me perfectly; every time I sank down, I felt like I could die from being impaled by him, but when I rose, I felt how empty I was without him.Thinking about it

I woke with a jolt that made me open my eyes quickly, expecting the worst. But the small body next to mine shook again, and before my sleep-clouded mind could process what was happening, her scream echoed through the room, freezing my body.I'd heard that macabre scream many times before—the one that seemed to come from her soul, tearing her insides. But every time I'd heard it, it was from afar, from outside her room in the hospital or from my own room. This was the first time I heard it right beside me."Angel? Wake up, love," I called, already turning on the bedside lamp and grabbing her shoulders. "Wake up, come on, Angela! It's just a nightmare!" Her scream echoed again, and I pulled her body into my arms, finally seeing her eyes open wide with genuine terror. "It was a nightmare—it's over. You're in our home, in my arms; no one can touch you here!"Her eyes darted from side to side as if she were assimilating where she really was, and then her nails dug into my back. Angela buri

I couldn't believe I'd managed it—I'd faced the panic and fear I felt when he touched me. The sensation of being touched by Marco, feeling desired and loved by him, was so much more potent than the fear that had settled inside me.With every affirming word he spoke, every time he called me his she-devil—a nickname only he knew—Marco managed to bring me back to reality, pulling me from my nightmares and painful memories."I thought I'd never feel pleasure again," I murmured with him still over me, lying on the dining room table, naked, as if nothing else mattered. "I thought I wouldn't be able to bear being touched by you again.""I wouldn't give up—no matter how long it took, I'd be right here, waiting for the first chance to be by your side," Marco kissed my shoulder and lifted his torso. "I didn't lie when I said our marriage would be forever—there's no other woman I'd marry; you were the only one who managed to grab the monster."I smiled at his words—it truly felt like a declarati

My entire body surged with a wave of desire and tension at the realization that it was her there—my wife, who I was kissing after more than a month without being able to touch her.I tossed the other gun onto the table and grabbed her waist, pulling her against me, urgently needing more of her—whatever she wanted to give, I'd accept, because being without her, without even being able to stand by her side, had been my personal hell."Let's go before we take a bullet ourselves," I heard Nero joke as footsteps echoed around us, fading away.Then I followed her ass, sinking my fingers into the flesh even over the fabric, and placed her on the table. A moan escaped her lips, and her hands grabbed my suit, desperately trying to rid me of it.I helped her rip off the suit and shirt in seconds before pulling her by the waist, sliding my fingers up her back until I found the zipper of her jumpsuit. My lips left hers only to strip her clothes, yanking them from her body until she was left in ju

CailanAbby calmed down after we talked and us both guaranteed to settle everything for her mother, she trusted our words quickly, and this helped us to leave her in the morning.We needed to confront the vampires and, as their security would be enhanced, we need to keep our concentration even higher."Thinking about her too?" Kai asked beside me, he was driving the car that would take us to the colony of today’s attack."It’s hard not to think about her, but I’m grateful that Abby calmed down after our conversation.""She’ll be fine, Koda’s taking care of them and they’re safe. As for her mother, I just hope she doesn’t get worse, Abby was devastated yesterday and I can’t bear to see her like that again.""We gotta get her here as fast as we can, put her in the best hospital and make sure she’s okay, or Abby won’t settle down.""Don’t even tell me, just remembering her words about leaving makes my blood boil and a bitter taste take my mouth.""We’re gonna make it, we’re gonna fix it

KaiWe were fucked! Completely fucked! Any longer and we would have forgotten everything that mattered, the whole world around us, Abby’s virginity, the place where we were, and taken her right there in the clearing."Fuck! What were we thinking?" I growled putting all my frustration in the words.Kissing her like that had only left my desire even greater. I was ready to freak out, my whole body was screaming for her telling me to get out of there and go after her, give Denny to Maya and consume our bond at once."I know, it was a good thing our little brother yelled, bringing us back to reality or we would have done something crazy." And amazingly, I agreed with Cailan without arguing. "We have to think before we do something crazy like take the virginity out of our mate in public.""We have to take it to the hut on the top of the mountain, it’s the only way. It won’t take long for the red moon to arrive and then we’ll be screwed.""It’ll be impossible to control ourselves. You’ve se

AbbyMy hand was on Kai’s skin, the muscular body had just returned to being human again, the warm skin seemed to burn and his heart was racing beneath my hand.The two men were completely naked in front of me, I had seen other naked men in life, but none in the flesh, and so close to me.When they turned into wolves their clothes were completely destroyed by the change, not even the panties were left. Now I stood before two men completely naked.I wanted to understand what they were saying as we were born to each other, and that they both belonged to me as I belonged to them. But with Kai’s eyes focused on mine and Cailan’s breath blowing down my neck, I couldn’t form any logical thinking.My whole body shivered even with the heat of the sun above us, my heart was beating against my chest almost as if was going to jump out, all that proximity moved my body in a way that only they could.Cailan’s hand touched my waist, sliding down my belly pulling a sigh from me. While Kai, right in

CailanSeeing those wolves surrounding Abby and knowing there was no smell of us on her made me crazy. She should have been carrying the mark of our teeth on her skin, should have been declared our mate and be carrying the smell of her males on her skin after having claimed."What were you doing out here?" I questioned still trying to process all of them sniffing the pure and delicious smell, with the human touch and mate of it."Maya told me you were here and as the day is beautiful I decided to take a walk with Denny." Then she looked at my brother and back at me, with a thoughtful expression. " I’m sorry I didn’t ask if I could go out with him, I didn’t know if we could come here either, I just...""No, you don’t have to apologize!" I hurried to say, before she confused everything one more time. " You’re more than welcome, you can go anywhere in the reserve. And the sun is good for Denny, he loves it.""Just do not leave without warning us, here is a quiet and peaceful place, but m

AbbyI had a long conversation with Oli, but nothing I said served, there was nothing important in what I had observed. But I knew that after the attack that devastated two colonies they would need good information, big thing and I was not helping.I ended up waking up earlier than I expected, the whole house was silent, but I could have sworn I’d heard someone call my name. I opened the door of Denny’s room imagining that it could only have been him, but the boy was sleeping soundly.Then the voice sounded again, coming from my back and I left the boy’s room looking for someone, but there was no one there. Only when I was called again did I realize that it was Kai who was speaking my name.But why would he be dreaming about me? It didn’t make any sense that wonderful man was dreaming about me, I didn’t even come close to the blonde he was the other day. His brother kissing me was surprising, now that the two of them were attracted to me would be the end of the world.I went into Den

KaiMy brother was right when he said it was very difficult and painful to have her so close, touching my body, surrendering to my gaze and not being able to just take her in my arms and take her straight to my room.I was in pure agony there, fighting everything inside me not to make a mistake and trying to hold on to the idea of conquering her before revealing more about us.But just because I couldn’t explain to her how a cut had become a simple scratch, I got even angrier, I wanted to be able to tell the whole truth and not leave any secrets between us.I told the truth when I said nothing would happen to her while she was in our territory, I would give my life if I had to. But what she didn’t know is that we wouldn’t let her leave our territory without us. She was ours and that meant that we belonged to her too!"And how was it there? The two colonies what happened?" Cailan asked after she ran out, clearly running away from us."It was perfect, we won! There is no vampire left in

And that’s what we did, Kalina created a circle calling him to be in our presence.I tried to insist that Quanah stay outside to protect Karl, but he refused and stood by me. He was still afraid of what had happened in the last days and I couldn’t even blame him for it. "Well, well, you again." the man appeared before us, the same as always, the black overcoat and the combat boots in the same color, but this time he looked younger, the hair had been cut. "What do you want now?" "Let it be known that we are the new ladies of the underworld. Hades is dead." he looked at each of us, as if he didn’t believe. "We need to talk about Nikolai." "I was afraid it would happen one day, just didn’t think it would be four ladies." he snorted, coming out of character right and showing his real side. "You don’t think just because you’ve become underworld commanders you can bring whoever wants to live, do you?" Well I wouldn’t deny that I thought of it, but it would be too easy and nothing with a

I couldn’t believe I was finally holding my son in my arms, Karl was beautiful, he had a lot of his father’s especially golden eyes, but the hair was mine at least. I couldn’t say how happy I was, I knew I should be surprised and go after Hera asking everything she had done, how time had passed only for my son and why, which led her to accept to help me.But they were questions for another time, because I was tired of the confrontation with Hades, tired of all the problems and emotions I lived on the last day and especially tired of gods, for now I just wanted to stay with my family without thinking about problems. "When do you think you’ll get tired and give it to me?" Quanah questioned, complaining about what seemed like the fifth time.He hadn’t left my side since childbirth, everyone congratulated us and left, one by one until he left us alone. And Quanah stood there beside me, drooling on our enchanted boy with the small, fragile being in my arms. "Probably in about fifteen ye

I ran to her, tearing her inert body from the arms of the unknown man and my heart broke when I saw her state. So helpless, fragile, it hurt me not to see her beautiful eyes, her smile, or even her cheeks getting flushed by something silly. "She lost a lot of blood, she needs to go to the hospital!" Kalina spoke above all the buzz around us. "No, she needs to lie down and let me do the rest!" Hera ordered and knowing who she was I did not do otherwise. "Let’s get this baby born!" "You can’t! It’s not time!" I protested at the idea of bringing our son to life, him wasn’t nine months yet. "It will be. Now take her inside." she was categorical, leaving no room for discussion and this time I could only trust. I took Bridget inside, hoping it wasn’t a complete mistake to bring a crazy goddess there. One that obviously knew what was going on with Bridget and her biological father, but claims they couldn’t interfere. "Bri felt something before she blacked out, she spoke of the baby."

When Denah made me come back home, horrified that I was bleeding through my eyes and nose, but I knew what was going on, it was Bridget and she was dying! "I need to go after her! How can this fucking connection not be working? Because I can sense what’s happening to her, but I can’t locate her!" The healers were there, as were the ancestors, who tried at all costs to medicate me or to calm me down, but I couldn’t do it, couldn’t calm down, not when I felt Bridget increasingly weak and bleeding even more."Because she is not in this plan!" Irma, a former healer said. For a second the air lacked me and the floor seemed to no longer exist. My world would end if someday Bri was no longer here. I loved that woman with all my strength, with every atom in my body and until the day of my last breath that would not change. "No, that’s not true! I can still feel what’s happening to her, Bridget is weak, but she’s not gone!" "Quanah, she didn’t mean it that way. She’s not dead, she’s on a

The place where Hades was hidden wasn’t exactly on earth, it was between our world and the underworld, according to Will and Kalina there was only one way to access this part of the universe, traveling by magic. "Just make sure we’re not going to hell." Brooke insisted once again, she was terrified that we might end up in hell, after all we all believed it was where Hades lived. "No Brooke, we are not going to hell. Only souls, demons and gods are allowed in that place and we are nothing like that." "Nikolai knew what he was doing, it is safe there, Hades believes to be protected and hidden, there are not many people who know this place and after the spell you cast on him something strange was happening." Spell? I swore nothing had happened to him after Alice started going against us. "Alice’s spell worked, didn’t it? The hate she was feeling for him killing Peta made her words more powerful than ours?" "Yes, Alice wished he would be trapped in agony and nightmares, and that’s h

I was dissatisfied with having to stay away from Bridget once again, I understood her need to protect her friend, but I still wanted her to stay where I could keep an eye on her. I snorted around the office again, my restlessness had increased since I felt a sadness coming from her, it killed me not knowing what had happened to her feel that way, I had called more than once, but had no answer, no one was answering the fucking phone and that was just to make me more anxious. This time I could only contain my impulses and trust that she would be safe, Bri was powerful and could take care of herself. I just had to trust it and keep my negative thoughts locked away. "Quanah!" Denah’s voice took me out of my thoughts. "You have to do something about, or I will!" "What did he do now?" I said feeling the irritation overflow inside me. Peta was not being easy to deal with, since he had returned he was unbearable, impulsive, making decisions without asking or at least caring about others

Before the weekend, I’d already furnished the entire house for the kids. Call it impulsive, but I’d bought beds, wardrobes, toys—everything they’d need in our home.I couldn’t sleep Friday night, and by Saturday, I was up with the roosters, running around, wanting everything to be perfect.“You’ve checked everything at least a million times,” Marcos said, kissing my hair and pulling me out of the car. “It’s going to be fine, love.”Yes, I had faith it would. With him by my side, everything would work out, and with the kids, it would be perfect.“Good morning!” I exclaimed, seeing the kids waiting for us. Rick held Lisa in his arms, Rafa stood beside him, and Clarice was there too, sporting a wide smile.“Good morning, Emy!” Lisa was the only one who answered. Rick was quieter, and Rafa still seemed wary.“Ready to see your future home?” Marcos asked, joining me.“Yesss!” Lisa shouted, leaping from her brother’s arms. I opened mine as she ran toward us. “Do I get a doll?”“Yes, sweethe

EmilyMarcos tossed the question into the air as Henrique stared at us, back and forth, seeming incredulous that this was actually happening.“I don’t understand. What do you mean by that?”He genuinely couldn’t believe what we were asking. I imagined his hope over the past year had been so crushed that he could barely fathom this was possible.“We’re asking if you want to be adopted by us, Henrique. You and your siblings, together with us.”His gaze shifted to his siblings, who were still spying on us, thinking they were hidden.“Is this for real? Are you serious about adopting all three of us?”I couldn’t hold back a smile, nodding to confirm, which caught the attention of the younger ones, who ran toward us.“I think your siblings can help you understand faster.” Lisa jumped into her older brother’s lap, and Rafa stood beside him, looking wary.I was starting to get a sense of how this adjustment might go—Rafa and Henrique already had trust issues, while Lisa was blissfully unaware

EmilyI was stunned by the little girl’s words and gripped Marcos’ hand.“Who told you that?”“People already know,” she said, her words slightly muffled but sounding so grown-up, even lifting her chubby little chin. “Take my brother.”“Oh!” I exclaimed, surprised. This little girl was smarter and bolder than anyone I’d ever met.The other children stayed where they were, some pausing their play to notice us, but none approached.“And why not you?” Marcos asked, crouching down to her level.“I’m a baby, I can stay here. He can’t.” Her way of speaking was so adorable I almost missed what she was saying.“And where is he?”“There.” She pointed to the field where kids were playing soccer. “The one in black.” It wasn’t very clear since more than one boy was wearing black.Marcos and I hadn’t discussed age. In my mind, we were adopting a young child, not a teenager, but I couldn’t deny my curiosity was piqued.Another child appeared, a boy with the same curly hair and honey-colored eyes, b

EmilyThree years had passed since Marcos and I got together—three long years married. Don’t get me wrong, I love that man, even if some days I wanted to pull my hair out from how much he could irritate me. Marcos knew how to push all my buttons, the good ones and the bad.But I loved knowing there were far more moments of happiness, love, and understanding.In our first year of marriage, we lived in the cabin. Everyone knew how much we needed privacy. We thought about buying a house in town, but for the time being, the cabin was perfect. It was peaceful, the right size for just the two of us, and on weekends we hosted family and friends.But after the accident Joshua went through and he moved here permanently, Bianca needed our help, so we moved back to Marcos’ house.It was heartbreaking to see the once lively and spirited young man now resenting everything around him after being discharged from service. Joshua still felt like a burden to everyone trying to help. Six months later, w

EmilyAs soon as I parked haphazardly at the park entrance, I jumped out of the truck, carefully lifting the hem of my dress to avoid catching it, and ran to one of the small gazebos I knew was still there, in the same spot.Time hadn’t changed that place. Despite the fresh paint, it was still the same gazebo where I’d sat with Marcos countless times on summer nights.A pair of high-heeled sandals glowed under the light in the center of the gazebo. They were beautiful, delicate, and perfect, in a pearlescent shade that matched the dress flawlessly.Beneath them was another note from Marcos, this time carefully cut into a heart shape.“In this place, years ago, I confessed I could never go back after kissing your lips. It was a one-way road—I had no doubts about that. Even today, every time my lips touch yours, Emily, it feels like the first time.I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, your lips were made to be kissed by mine (I bet you’re rolling your eyes now). But the truth is, eve

Emily - Five months laterMy life in São Fernando seemed to be on the right track. It wasn’t a bed of roses, but I was finally happy.I was thrilled with the arrival of the two babies. We had just thrown a baby shower for Helen and Bete, and I was grateful to see Helen growing more excited. They were eight months along, almost ready to give birth, and my brother still hadn’t budged. He spent the week in São Paulo and came home on weekends.Even so, he kept pretending he didn’t know his own wife, only sneaking into her room when she was asleep to be near her—a prime example of an idiot. I couldn’t wait for him to see what he was doing and regret it. Fernando needed to snap out of it before it was too late.Sara was increasingly confident about her case against her ex-husband. Despite his refusal to sign the divorce papers, all the evidence she and my brother had gathered left us no doubt she’d win custody of Fábio and be free of that jerk.She’d even started saving money to buy a small