Novel-novel oleh Asmodeus

JULIAN’S POV,I hadn’t even reached the stairs before I saw Elena and Lauren on the footpath.I couldn't make out what was happening from the distance I was at, but all of a sudden, I saw Elena turning back to Lauren and her hand flying across Lauren’s face. The sound of the slap burst through the stillness like a firecracker, and for a moment, I just stood on the top of the staircase.It was impossible for me to believe that woman was my Elena. Ever since I'd known her, she had been soft and ladylike and had always carried herself with grace and dignity. There wasn't any grace or dignity in slapping others. What happened to my Luna in just a few days?As I started climbing down the stairs, I blamed the Alpha President for turning my wife into a monster. She wasn't capable of so much hatred; he was the one corrupting her thoughts with his venomous nature. Taking her away from him was the only way I could have protected her from becoming a true monster like him.“Don't worry, Elena, I'

ELENA'S POV,“Lucy is Julian’s daughter,” she declared, intending to hurt me, and sadly, it worked just like she wanted.I felt betrayed because I had been truthful with my feelings for him. I never cheated on him when we were together, didn't even think about any other man. Even when he was absent, I still loved him faithfully. I let myself have feelings towards Ryan only after serving Julian the divorce papers. And even then we didn't share any intimate moments together.“I wanted to tell you for so long, but Julian feared it wouldn't be good for his reputation,” she said and if it wasn't for Ryan standing next to me, I would have returned to Molly's grave to slap Julian again. “He promised to love her the same way he loved Molly. And he did. He played with her, read her stories, and even stayed with her in the hospital when she fell ill.”The world beneath my foot tilted and I found myself looking for balance. Thankfully, Ryan was behind me and took me in his arms before my knees c

ELENA’S POV,Ryan walked me out of the cemetery, leaving Julian behind when he started tearing up.I knew Ryan feared that seeing Julian in tears might melt my heart once again, but I was done with Julian and his schemes. I could finally see the truth behind his acts and how he used my concerns and care for him to manipulate me further.Looking back, I could see a pattern that I had overlooked before, and there was no one else to blame for that but me. I wasn't sure if I even deserved the love and affection of those around me—especially Ryan—after the things I've done to sabotage my own life.With every step we climbed down the stairs, I was reminded of a past event and how he moved me like a puppet. I was mad at myself for letting it go on for that long, even after the death of my angel, I didn't pull out the string attaching us—the mate bond.In the right circumstance, it was our strongest weapon, but for me, it proved to be my biggest weakness. And now, when the issue had reached t

ELENA’S POV,I couldn’t look at Julian.How could anyone look at him, knowing the things he said? How can he say such things without a second thought? Did Molly mean nothing to him more than a name holder? Did he ever love our daughter the way I loved her? Was any of the care and love he showed towards her real?I was disgusted by him, and cursed myself for giving him a second chance, even when my heart was telling me not to, from the very beginning. I was an idiot for believing that seeing Molly's grave could change him. I hated myself for having that hope somewhere deep in my heart.I forgot that humans have the ability to change and do better, but not monsters like him. If he ever loved our daughter, those words wouldn't have come out of his mouth, even when he was grieving. No parent in their right mind can speak like that.“How could you say that?” I demanded, through my trembling lips. “How can you even think that?”I screamed the last question, taking two steps towards him, an

ELENA'S POV,“It has nothing to do with you. I just want to meet my daughter. I have the right to see her.”The way Julian said that made me angrier than I already was with him. Suddenly, he remembered he had a daughter and wanted to meet her. Where was this fatherly love when she died in a hospital bed? Where was he when she asked for him right after waking up from a coma?There were so many things I wanted to tell him, to scream at him for being a heartless monster, but I knew it wasn't the right place or the time. There were many people around, watching us, and I knew he wouldn't think twice before declaring me crazy if that served his purpose.“W-why?” I managed to ask when I sensed the tension between him and Ryan rising. “Why do you want to meet her, now?”“Because she's my daughter,” he tried to sound obvious, but I heard the shadow of something else under his breath. “I deserve to know where she's resting. I have that right as her dad.”I would have laughed if I weren't so cru

RYAN'S POV,I watched her from a distance, feeling proud of the growth she had shown over the last few weeks.My feelings for her weren't out of pity; they were true and meaningful. Elena neither deserved my pity nor did she need it. What she needed was love, support, and someone who wouldn’t look away when the truth got uncomfortable.Julian was exactly that person. He was trying to hide what happened with their daughter, and I could see the pain it was causing Elena. She was in disbelief when he tried to downplay Molly's death, and that made me a little jealous. Because the look of disbelief meant she still had hopes for him, and hope often leads back to reconnection.’He is not worthy of your love, time, hopes, or thoughts,’ I mumbled to myself when tears rolled down her face. ’I will take care of you, Elena, as long as I live.’She stood in the center of the small council, like a burning flame that refused to die out. She spoke of her pain without flinching, of her loss without be

It had been more than a year since Caspian confessed his feelings to me, and life was finally finding a sense of normalcy. Derek was safe, though he remained permanently in hiding. The Salvatores had not only survived the disaster but had emerged stronger than before. The PR team had worked wonders in reshaping their image, and those who had attempted to bring them down for their own gain were now behind bars. The money laundering case was no longer casting shadows over their name, it was a thing of the past. The FBI cleared their name from any involvement in the money laundering—the world saw them as victims of their dad's actions. The business was doing good; Caspian joined the company, while on the other side, our relationship got pretty strong. We found a balance that allowed us to grow separately as well, because I moved into an apartment with my mom, helping her build a new life for herself. Meanwhile, Caspian remained at the mansion with his brothers. They asked me to stay,

I was always good at fixing things, maybe because I was broken from the inside and knew I couldn't be fixed. I became a lawyer to help my family, to help my brothers. I thought if I knew the ways of law and legal system, I could use it to my advantage, to protect them in any way needed. Yet, it had been more than a month and I was still fighting a battle with no end in sight. I gave up on too many things in my life, thinking I never deserved them. There was always a reason to hold myself back from being truly happy, about something or with someone. There were these little voices in my head that would make me question everything. For years, they had been silent, but ever since I learned the truth about Dad's involvement in the money laundering, they came back. ‘How could you let yourself be happy when your brothers are in trouble?’‘How could you be that selfish?’I couldn't rub my love for Kat on my brothers' faces, especially when most of them wanted her, too. It was not fair to

The sky was cloudless, the bright light of the moon covered the Salvatore property. We just had dinner, and it wasn't like the regular Salvatore family dinner. It hasn't been so ever since we returned to the mansion. Lucas was in Chicago, meeting with some of the investors whereas Caspian had himself locked in his room. Mom was back in Texas, and the twins went to their grandparents (mother's parents). We were all scattered, and the frustration over the situation was torturing us. The news about the Salvatores reached my dad in London and he had been calling and texting me constantly. He wanted me to leave them and come back to London. I almost laughed when he suggested that, but I controlled myself and told him that I would pay a visit soon.He wasn't satisfied with the answer, so I reminded him that I was an adult and he couldn't force me to leave. That shut him up for the moment, and I hung up the phone soon after. He had been texting me ever since, apologizing and asking me if

The Salvatore mansion didn't feel like home anymore. As I walked through the mansion once again, I felt the same way I did the first time—cold and out of place. The strange environment loomed around me, and with each step I took inside, I sensed a profound emptiness, the lingering ghosts of everything that had happened. Perhaps we changed while we were in the safe house, or maybe it was the mansion that had endured too much destruction in a very short period of time. The mansion was still recovering from the nightmares, and the gloom was maybe its way of narrating the pain. Not long ago secrets had been unraveled, trusts were shattered between the family members, and blood was spilled in the very entrance hall I was standing inside. In just a month, it was just a house again—not a home like it used to be. The brothers felt the changes, too; it was apparent on their faces. They could hear the silence everywhere inside the house, and the winds of winter that seemed to fill every c

Caspian barely slept in a week and it was showing. None of us really got any sleep, but it was a little different with Caspian. The lack of sleep wasn't the only reason for the permanent exhaustion in his eyes like us, it was the weight of everything he was letting press down on him—crushing him, consuming his thoughts. It had been a whole week since the news about Derek's involvement in the money laundering was aired all across the country. Everything had only gotten worse after that. The Salvatore name was plastered across every news outlet—big or small. Everyone had their own take on the case, be it the editors of the Washington Post or The New York Times, anchors from CNN or Fox News, and even the social media influencers who were reporting the controversy in the hope of getting views and likes.In no time it became one of the biggest scandals in recent times. And Caspian being the oldest, took it all upon himself. Although we knew it was the politicians and businessmen whose

The main purpose of us getting a safe house was to be safe, but the FBI made it feel anything but safe for us. The air inside the house felt suffocating to me, thick with an unspoken fear that we all felt, but none of us dared to voice. In the last three days, the FBI has visited us five times. The first day they took statements from us and collected evidence—the standard protocol—nothing more than that. We thought it was all, but Caspian warned us that it was just the beginning, and just like he said, they came back once again. This time they took our individual statements and cross-examined us. Since we were already prepared with our answers, nothing felt out of the ordinary. However, I noticed the way some of the officers were looking at us. They knew we were hiding something, but they had no proof. Caspian made sure that everything in the house was how it was supposed to be after Derek left. It was their sixth visit that day. The FBI agents sat across from us in the living ro

IZZY'S POV,When I got home that evening, I was exhausted to my bones, more exhausted than I’d realized earlier. And all I wanted was to jump on my bed and fall asleep.The exhaustion wasn't due to the work or due to the little encounter with Tyler at work, though that was very draining, but from everything that had been happening in my life lately. I was responsible for most of them in one way or another, but that doesn't mean I couldn't complain. The castle, the fireworks, the feeling of being seen, really seen by someone for the first time, was all I wanted, and then on the other hand, I was ready to burn it to the ground.'Don't overthink, you're making the right decision,' I told myself as I unlocked the door to my apartment, bracing myself for more loneliness to force me into the well of overthinking. However, that's not what happened because as soon as I was inside, I heard, “Elizabeth Mary Winters, where the hell have you been for the last few days?”I blinked, stunned for a

IZZY'S POV, “I guess you didn't know, we're acquiring this company.” He had a proud look in his eyes when he announced it, not just to me but also to those around us. I glanced around the room and felt embarrassed by all the eyes focused on me. I wanted to run away, knowing well that it was going to lead to another round of gossip about my life. They barely moved away from the wedding drama; now, thanks to Tyler, they had another topic. I sighed and focused on the man in front of me. His eyes were sparkling, and the way he was leaning against the wall made it look like he already owned the company. I took a deep breath before speaking. “What do you mean by that?” His smile only deepened when I was done with my question. “We are in the early stages of negotiation, but it's pretty much a done deal.” “Why would Mr. McKelly sell the company all of a sudden?” I mumbled, trying to think about the conversations that occurred around the office, in the past few days. “I didn't even

IZZY'S POV,I was back at my desk, leaving the Castle and the magical life I had to live for the past two days behind. However, my mind never came back with me to the corporate life of Austin. It was still wrapped around the scent of roses and old stone walls that I fell in love with. I was still in front of that giant fireplace, wrapped in a blanket while it rained outside. Jasper was with me, kissing me on the neck while reading me one of his favorite French romances. We were both naked—it was his idea—to get in the head of the characters. It was a stupid idea, but when he started stripping, I couldn't help myself either. So, while he translated the story for me, I played with him. It was my way of connecting with the eighteen-year-old maid, the naive girl who fell in love with her master, the duke, thrice his age. “Everyone around warned him that she was going to poison him one day for his riches, but he was so in love with her that he never listened to them,” he read, and that

JASPER'S POV, I never knew Elizabeth was so outspoken and wild. I always thought of her as a timid little girl who was a little bit opinionated, but I had never known her other side. She hid it well, and now I couldn't help but feel like learning everything else about her. She is what I always wanted, yet this distance between us didn't seem to disappear. At times, looking at her I couldn't shake the feeling that her affection for me wasn't true, making it seem as though she wasn't in love with me. Yet, other times, I could only see love in her beautiful eyes, leaving me both confused and uncertain. Despite the mixed signals, the only thing I was certain of was my feelings for her. I knew that my love for her was genuine and unwavering, and it would remain so till the very end. With each passing day, my feelings for her were only growing stronger. Initially, I thought it was Daniel's words that got to me because he wasn't happy about me dating her. We talked before I left for

IZZY'S POV,I felt Jasper's hands on my hips, and his warning sent chills down my spine. Weirdly enough, that made me want him even more. On one hand, I didn't want to feel those emotions because I knew it was going to end soon, and quite badly, while on the other, I wanted to surrender myself to him. “I am going to have you now!”He turned me on my back and soon he was inside me, connecting us together once again. I was so perfectly filled that it began to hurt, but not physically. Instead, I could feel Jasper in my chest, buried somewhere under my ribs. He felt like a cluster of nerves that throb with each stroke. He moved slowly in the beginning, and that only emphasized the pain. I felt every inch of him, erupting fire inside my body, and the pleasure of it chased the pain that his words had left in their wake. He was grinding into me and it felt like a weird combination of pleasure and pain. When he started pumping faster, pinning my hands above my hand, tears sprang to

IZZY'S POV, “I... I love you, Izzy.” The words echoed in my head as I woke up the next day, feeling thoroughly exhausted. My body was loose like every single muscle and tendon had been reduced to the finest thread. I was sore, too; just shifting my hips sent sparks of electricity flying throughout my body. I also realized that I was pressed up against Jasper, the same way we did that day. His muscular arms were draped against my small frame, securing me in place. I wasn't sure how we ended up in that position, but I wasn't complaining about it because it felt nice. Waking up dad after day, on an empty bed reminded me of the betrayal. I yawned because, once again, parts of what happened after the time we spent in the backseat of his SUV were a blur to me. I clearly remembered that we went for a hike, got wet in the heavy rain, got hot in the truck, and did the deeds two times in a row—the first time he was on the top, while on the second, I rode him. After that, everything was