LOGINViolet Moonlight washed over me and Derek. Tears glittered in his eyes, raw and desperate, stabbing straight into my chest.A powerful Alpha, and he was crying for me."I love you, Violet. I'll love you forever."The words slammed into the softest part of me. I felt the truth in them, saw the pain and hunger in his gaze. Just the two of us beneath a sputtering streetlight, buried under the weight of everything we'd been through."Violet, believe it or not," he held me tight, voice shaking, "that photo is fake. I swear I never took anything like that with Liriel. As for the bracelet... I did wear it once, but I lost it a long time ago."I wanted to push him away. Stay cold. But his scent wrapped around me and my body betrayed my mind. Is this what a fated mate does? My head says be careful. My skin aches for him."Violet, everything between us is real. The mark, my promises, my love for you and the kids. All of it."My neck still throbbed. Derek's fingers brushed the spot, gentle."T
DerekLiriel had to have done something to Violet.I needed the truth before I could fix this. The second I left the mall, I went straight to Liriel."What the hell did you say to Violet?" I advanced on her, rage burning through me.She flinched under the weight of my Alpha presence, took a few steps back, but kept that smug smile. "I just told her the truth.""What truth?" My temper snapped tight."I told her she was a toy for when you wanted a thrill. That I'm your real wife." She held my gaze, unblinking. "I showed her our photos. Proof we're a couple."One thing hit me like a hammer: photos? We've never taken a photo together."What pictures?" I clamped her wrist. "Talk.""Ow! Derek, you're hurting me!" She twisted and whined.I was done with games.I flicked two fingers. My guards pinned her, pulled her phone, and handed it over.Her eyes went wide. She shrieked, high and sharp. "Let me go! What are you doing? Don't touch my stuff!"I ignored her and opened the gallery. The fir
Violet At seven, we rolled our bags out of the motel. I took a route no one we knew would use.The station was crowded, thick with goodbye. I bought three tickets. An hour to go. We found a corner. I got them snacks and drinks."Mom, are you sure?" Leon asked, voice too old for five. "You don't seem happy."I flinched. I didn't expect him to read me this easily."Just tired." I ruffled his hair. "Once we get there, I'll be okay."The speakers crackled: "Now boarding the coach to North City. Please prepare your tickets.""That's us." I stood and grabbed the luggage. "Let's go, kiddos."We headed for the gate. My heart pounded. Almost free. Almost done with this nightmare.Then a ring of men in black suits stepped in front of us."Ms. Ward, please wait. Mr. Ward would like a word."The one who spoke—I knew that face. Robert Wayne. My father's "assistant."My blood went cold."I don't want to see him." I moved in front of my kids. "Leave us alone.""Ms. Ward, he's been waiting," Robert
VioletThe moment I was thrown out of Derek's house, it felt like my heart was sliced apart by a thousand knives.Fooled again. Left again.I hated my own gullibility. Hated that I'd opened up to him. Hated that I'd dragged my kids through the same pain of being abandoned. Last night's sweetness was just a dream. Daylight is cruel.Liriel's voice still rings in my ears: "He just wanted a thrill. I'm the real wife."That photo was damning. How could I deny it? Maybe I never should've believed a single soft word from him. Never should've let my guard down.Why would the man who said he loved me yesterday—who marked me—won't even pick up my calls today? Why does Liriel get to stand there like the lady of the house while I look like some unwanted intruder?"Mom, why are we leaving?" Theodora whispers. "Didn't Derek say he'd protect us?"My chest seizes. I force a smile. "Baby, we're moving somewhere new.""He said he'd always be here," Leon says, voice small but heavy. "So he's a liar,
Derek On the way home I kept calling. No answer. Each failed call cranked the panic higher.I burst through the door and my heart stopped.Empty. Everything that smelled like them—gone. The little decorations she'd tucked into corners. The kids' backpacks, their toys. Even her favorite herbal tea had vanished.The house was still beautiful. It had no pulse. No warmth. A shell."Violet!" I shouted into the silence, voice breaking, echoes bouncing off marble and glass. "Leon! Theodora!"Silence answered.She was gone. Because of Liriel. Because I hadn't shut it down fast enough.No thinking. Keys, door, engine. I drove to her shop like a prayer on wheels—let her be there. Let this be a misunderstanding.When I got there, the floor dropped out.Lights off. Through the glass—nothing. Equipment hauled out. Decorations stripped. The wall of customer photos ripped clean, bare paint staring back like a wound.It was a body without a soul.She hadn't just left my house. She'd walked away fro
DerekThe moon was too bright tonight. Silver poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows and shattered across the dark wood desk in cold shards. I sat behind a mountain of files and didn't see a damn thing.Since Violet came back, the world had color again.It felt like dawn after a five-year night. Like finding water in a desert. Every ounce of pain and longing I'd been choking on burned off the second she returned. I wanted to be glued to her every minute, to make up for every lost second.I closed my eyes and last night roared back. Her warmth in my arms. The way she trembled when I marked her. The tears in her eyes when she said she still loved me. Every piece of it kicked my heart into a sprint.What was she doing now? Piping a new batch of sweets? Listening to the kids tell stories from school?Thinking of those two little ones melted me. Leon—sharp and steady. Theodora—bright and exuberant. My blood. The proof of what we were. Starting tomorrow I could hold them as their fath
JaxonAdjusting my cufflinks in the hallway outside the media conference room, trying to get this interview over with as quickly as possible, I watch as my assistant Liza approaches.She’s clutching her tablet with that look she gets when she thinks she needs to sell me on something.“I really thin
Jaxon The afternoon air is thick with the metallic scent of sweat and cut grass.I run through the practice drill, my arm snapping forward and launching a tight spiral thirty yards down the field.The ball rockets through the air, landing right in the corner of the end zone, where my receiver wou
Natalie “You are gonna poke a hole in his face if you keep staring at him like that.” Freda’s voice slams me from behind, and I turn around, hand on my heart.“Jesus Christ, you scared me.”Standing in the doorway, my best-friend-slash-roommate holds grocery bags in one hand and a gym bag slung ov
NatalieDominant in the field. A fiend with the spirals. Unstoppable.The words glow on my laptop screen, stark against a high-resolution photo of Jaxon Wolfgang. I should be focusing on the next article, the one hyping him as the greatest comeback story in the league at the age of nineteen, but my







