Novel-novel oleh Nana Aisha

Teresa's POV The surgery started at six in the morning.By six fifteen I had already walked the length of the waiting room four times and memorized every detail of it without meaning to. The arrangement of the chairs. The pattern on the floor. The quality of the light coming through the window at the far end.Timothy was already there when I arrived. Standing near the window with his hands in his pockets and his back partially turned, the way he stood when he was thinking something through and didn't want his face read while he did it.He heard me come in. I knew because his shoulders shifted slightly. But he didn't turn around immediately.We had not spoken since the transfer, so there was nothing comfortable about sharing this room with him. But Kai was in surgery.And that made everything else secondary in a way that required no discussion.I sat down, while Timothy remained at the window, and we waited.An hour passed. Then two. Then three.Somewhere during the fourth hour Timot

Timothy's POV "We are taking him to Dhuran," I said. "Today."Teresa looked up at me from across the bed. Her eyes were still red at the edges from the yard. But her hands were steady and her voice, when she spoke, was the controlled voice of a woman who had learned to function through things that should have stopped her completely."He doesn't travel well," she whispered. "His heart rate destabilizes with stress and unfamiliar environments trigger…""I have a medical transport vehicle. Equipped. Dr. Green can ride with him. You can ride with him." I held her gaze. "He will be monitored every minute of the journey. I will make sure of it."She looked at me for a moment before she nodded once and turned back to Kai.I stepped out and called Carson.Within twenty minutes the calls were made. The pediatric cardiac center in Dhuran had been notified. The department head, a man who understood that a call from my office meant everything stopped and reorganized immediately, had already begu

Teresa's POV "And you are going to stand there and tell me you did this to protect him."I raised my chin.My eyes were burning and my hands were trembling and every part of me wanted to look away from the cold, devastated rage on Timothy's face.But I didn't look away."Yes," I said. "And I would do it again."Timothy looked at me for a long moment. The kind of look that took inventory of everything, every detail, every crack in my composure, every place where the three years I had been carrying this had left visible marks.Then he said, very quietly, "Explain."Just that one word.And something inside me broke open."I didn't know who you were when I signed the contract," I said. "I knew your name. I knew the basic arrangement. A surrogate pregnancy, standard terms, good compensation. I needed the money and the terms were clear and I told myself it was straightforward." My voice was already unsteady and I pressed on before it could fail completely. "I found out who you really were

Timothy's POV I drove for three hours by myself.Carson had offered to come. Had suggested that arriving with support might be advisable given the circumstances. But I had told him to stay in Dhuran. This was not a situation that required witnesses. This was something I needed to do alone, with the DNA report folded in my jacket pocket and three years of carefully maintained control sitting at the very edge of where I could still manage it.The village looked exactly as it had the first time. Quiet, ordinary, completely indifferent to the fact that it had been hiding my son for three years inside one small cottage at the end of a dirt road.I parked at the edge of the road and walked the rest of the way.The cottage door opened before I reached the gate and Teresa stepped out.She saw me and stopped moving entirely.Every trace of colour left her face in a single moment. Her hand came up and found the doorframe beside her, steadying herself against it, and her eyes locked onto mine

Timothy's POV Carson had advised against coming personally.He had said it twice in the car and once more at the edge of the village road, standing beside me with his hands clasped and his expression neutral in the way it became when he disagreed with a decision but had already accepted that the decision was made.I had not responded either time.There were things that photographs could tell you and things that photographs could not. The weight of a moment. The specific quality of a silence. The way a person moved when they thought nobody was watching them and the mask they wore for the world had come completely off.I needed to see the child with my own eyes.We had positioned ourselves behind a dense hedgerow on the far side of the narrow road that ran in front of the cottage. Far enough to be invisible. Close enough that the morning light gave me a clear, unobstructed view of the small front yard and the door that opened onto it.We waited for forty minutes before the door opened.

Teresa's POV I stopped counting the hours somewhere around the second night.Time had collapsed into something smaller and more urgent than hours. It moved in heartbeats instead. Kai's heartbeats, measured on the portable monitor Dr. Green had left on the bedside table, its small screen glowing in the dark while I sat beside my son and watched numbers that should not have been allowed to fluctuate the way they did.Seventy-two. Stable enough to breathe.Sixty-one. My hand would find his wrist automatically.Fifty-four. I would reach for the emergency medication and measure the dose with hands that I forced to stay steady through nothing but will.Three days had passed like this.Master Liu had taught me about the heart long before any medical school had. She had taught me that the heart responded to things science could not always measure. Temperature. Touch. Sound. The specific frequency of a voice that a person trusted completely. I had used everything she taught me, combining it w

Tricia’s POVThe Blood Moon hung high above the courtyard, burning crimson across the sky and turning every shadow sharp, every movement dangerous.I stood at the edge of the circle, feeling the pulse of the pack. The tension was thick enough to choke. I could sense Blake struggling against the poison that gnawed at him like a living thing. His claws scraped against the stone beneath him, teeth bared, and even from where I stood I could feel the poison tearing through him.Tristan moved with a confidence I hated. Every motion was precise, controlled, like he had done this a thousand times before. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t falter. The smirk on his face told me he believed victory was already his.The pack watched.And I could feel their fear.Their loyalty wavered, their instincts screaming at them to choose the stronger wolf.The bond between Blake and me strained, stretched tight like a rope pulled over jagged stone. I felt every pulse of his pain. Every twitch of his wolf as it fo

BlakeThe moment Tristan announced his claim, every instinct inside me ignited like wildfire, My wolf roared, claws pushing beneath my skin, teeth aching to tear into him.But the poison fought back.It twisted through my veins, gnawing at my strength with brutal precision. My vision blurred for a heartbeat, and I stumbled forward, nearly collapsing in the middle of the courtyard.Only the bond kept me upright.Tricia’s hand pressed firmly against me, steady and unyielding. The connection between us tightened, anchoring me when my body threatened to give out.Around us, the pack erupted in murmurs—shock, fear, and disbelief rippling through the courtyard.The elders also stared openly now, unable to hide their astonishment. An Alpha faltering before the pack during a Blood Moon was unheard of. An Alpha weakened by poison while standing beside his mate was even worse.Tristan stepped closer.Confidence radiated from him like heat from a flame. Every step he took sent another wave of f

Tricia’s POVThe moment the strange words left my mouth, the courtyard fell into a silence so deep that even the wind moving across the estate seemed to pause.I don’t understand what I just said.The sound of the language still echoed faintly in my ears, but it didn’t belong to any voice I recognized, the syllables carried a rhythm that felt older, by the time the final word faded from my lips, I realized I never chose the language at all.It simply arrived.My hand was still pressed against Blake’s chest when I noticed the change around us.The wolves filling the courtyard moments ago were no longer standing the way they were before. One by one, their heads began to lower. None of them seemed aware of why they were doing that, their bodies responded to the command naturally..Confusion tightened in my chest.I never told them to do anything. I only whispered those strange words without even understanding what they meant.“Blake,” I said quietly, the uncertainty in my voice impossi

Blake’s POVThe tremor hits first as a subtle vibration beneath my feet. The stone of the Blackwood estate feels alive, and instinct tells me this is not an ordinary quake.The Blood Moon.It should not be rising tonight. Every instinct inside me knows that the sky is breaking the natural order that governs the packs. The elders track the moon with obsessive precision because the timing has always been sacred, yet the vibration spreading through the walls of the estate tells me the moon is climbing into the sky far earlier than it should.Tristan moved toward the stairway, and the moment he pushed the archive door open the red light spilling down from the upper levels confirms it.The Blood Moon has begun its ascent.The courtyard turned into chaos instantly. Wolves screamed, stumbled and ran in confusion. By the time Tristan and I reached the upper corridor, the panic among the pack had already begun spreading.The elders arrived moments later.They rush across the courtyard toward

Tricia’s pov The moment Tristan’s blade left my skin, pain exploded through my neck—sharp and violent, like fire tearing through dry wood. A breath rips from my lungs before I could stop it. This is nothing compared to the first cut. That one felt like poison spreading into my blood slowly, deliberate and cruel. This is different. This feels forced. Driven deeper. My knees weaken, but I refuse to fall. Tristan is still watching, and I will not give him the satisfaction of seeing me collapse. Blake moves first. The instant my blood hits the air, fury ignites in his eyes. The bond between us snapped tight as his wolf surged forward with the same violent instinct that nearly tore Tristan apart in the council hall. “Blake,” I managed, though the word came out uneven. The burning began to spread. At first, I expected the same sickness as before—the slow drag into darkness, the weakness that followed the poison’s path through my veins. But this time— Something was

Blake’s POVThe bond between us does not speak in words, yet when fear moves through it, I feel it instantly.I was in the training courtyard with several warriors when it hits—sharp and sudden, like a blade sliding between my ribs. It’s not mine , not the anger that had followed me since Tristan returned.This is hers.Cold. Suffocating.My body reacted before my mind caught up.I turned toward the main building without saying a word. The warriors nearby fell silent the moment they saw my expression. They knew something was wrong, they just didn't know what.Tricia was in danger.The poison inside my veins flares as I move through the corridor, but the pain barely registers because the only thing that matters, was finding her, the bond pulls at me, feeding fragments into my chest.Lower floors.Stone walls.The old archives beneath the western wing.The moment the realization hits me, I break into a run.Servants stepped out of my path. No one speaks. No one dares. Every wolf in thi