로그인The prison doors closed behind them with a heavy clang. And just like that— Violetta’s strength gave out. It didn’t happen all at once. No dramatic collapse. No scream. Just… a quiet unraveling. Her steps slowed. Her breathing turned uneven. The cold control she had held together inside that prison began to crack, piece by piece. Draven noticed immediately. Of course he did. His hand tightened at her waist, steadying her before she could stumble. “Violetta.” Her name came softer this time. Not a command. A warning. A plea. She didn’t answer. Didn’t look at him. Didn’t even seem to hear him. Because everything she had just held back— every word, every truth, every shattered illusion— came crashing down all at once. “They never loved me.” The words came out hollow. Like she was saying them for the first time out loud… and hearing the truth of them echo back. Draven’s chest tightened violently. “Don’t—” “They never loved me,” she repeated, her voice breaking t
Her mother’s face crumpled.“Violetta, of course I did—”“Don’t lie to me.”The prison went still.Violetta stepped closer.Tears streamed silently down her face now, but her voice had gone eerily steady.“Not now. Not after everything. Not when I was put in a cage like an animal because of you.”Her mother started sobbing harder.But Violetta didn’t stop.“Did you ever love me,” she repeated, “or did you only love what I could do for you?”That question broke something.Not in Violetta.In her mother.Because for one split second—one horrible, honest split second—silence answered for her.And that silence was enough.Violetta’s face went completely blank.Draven saw it and instantly knew—this was worse than tears.Worse than screaming.This was the kind of pain that turned a person quiet because something essential inside them had finally died.Her mother reached for the bars desperately.“Violetta, please—”“No.”Violetta took a step back.Then another.And when she looked at her
The silence after Violetta’s words felt unbearable.Cold.Heavy.Suffocating.She stood in the middle of the prison corridor with Draven’s warmth at her back and betrayal staring at her from behind iron bars.Her mother cried. Her father looked down. Claudia’s lips were pressed into a thin, bitter line. Liam looked like he still thought he could talk his way out of this.And Violetta—Violetta felt nothing and everything all at once.Her chest hurt. Her throat burned. Her hands were trembling so badly she had to curl them into fists to hide it.“Explain it,” she said quietly.Her voice was calm now.Too calm.“Explain to me why my own family decided I was worth selling.”Her father was the first to break.His fingers tightened around the bars as he lifted his bloodshot eyes to her.“You changed after marrying into the Blackwood family.”Violetta frowned.“What?”“You changed,” he repeated, voice rough with something ugly. “You stopped being ours.”For a second, Violetta thought she ha
Morning came too softly for the kind of night they had survived.For a few long, disoriented seconds, Violetta didn’t know where she was.Warmth surrounded her.Heavy. Steady. Male.And then—the memory of the night before slammed into her all at once.The auction. The cage. The blood. The screams. Draven.Her breath hitched, and she stiffened instantly.She was in his arms.One of Draven’s large hands rested at her waist beneath the blanket, his body wrapped around hers from behind like even in sleep, he had refused to let the world take her again.His face was buried in her hair. His breathing deep. Even.And despite herself…Violetta stayed still for one more second.Because there was something dangerously comforting about this.Too familiar. Too intimate. Too easy to slip back into.That was what made it terrifying.So carefully, slowly, she moved away from him.The second the warmth left his arms, Draven’s body tensed.His eyes opened instantly.Sharp. Alert. Wolf.Then t
Violetta didn’t let the babies leave her arms for nearly an hour.Even when the healer checked them.Even when the nanny softly offered to take one so she could rest.Even when her own body swayed from exhaustion.She clung to them like the world would steal them again if she loosened her grip for even a second.Draven watched every second of it.And when Elara finally fell asleep against Violetta’s chest while Kael quieted in the nanny’s arms after a feeding, he stepped forward carefully.“Violetta.”His voice was low.Gentle.So gentle it almost hurt.She looked up at him with swollen eyes and tear-streaked cheeks.Draven’s chest tightened painfully.God.She looked destroyed.Beautiful. Fragile. Shattered.And his.Still his.His gaze dropped to the bruises on her collarbone, to the scrape along her shoulder, to the dried blood on her knee.His wolf surged violently.He wanted to kill someone again.He wanted to tear apart every person who had looked at her wrong, touched her wro
Violetta didn’t let the babies leave her arms for nearly an hour.Even when the healer checked them.Even when the nanny softly offered to take one so she could rest.Even when her own body swayed from exhaustion.She clung to them like the world would steal them again if she loosened her grip for even a second.Draven watched every second of it.And when Elara finally fell asleep against Violetta’s chest while Kael quieted in the nanny’s arms after a feeding, he stepped forward carefully.“Violetta.”His voice was low.Gentle.So gentle it almost hurt.She looked up at him with swollen eyes and tear-streaked cheeks.Draven’s chest tightened painfully.God.She looked destroyed.Beautiful. Fragile. Shattered.And his.Still his.His gaze dropped to the bruises on her collarbone, to the scrape along her shoulder, to the dried blood on her knee.His wolf surged violently.He wanted to kill someone again.He wanted to tear apart every person who had looked at her wrong, touched her wro
The apartment lights were off when Draven arrived.He didn’t knock.He stood outside her door for a full minute, staring at the cold metal surface like it was a battlefield he didn’t know how to enter.Inside, Violetta sat on the floor beside the couch, back against the wall, phone discarded somewh
The forest did not calm him. It bent around him. Branches snapped beneath the weight of his body as he tore through the trees, the earth trembling with each stride. The poison burned through his veins like molten iron. It wasn’t weakening him. It was provoking him. His beast wanted blood. Not
Selene did not believe in revenge that shouted. She believed in revenge that smiled. After Draven humiliated her in the mansion, after Violetta claimed authority in boardrooms that were never meant for her, Selene did not scream or throw things this time. She sat in silence for three days. Watc
The moment Liam stepped out of King Enterprises, his expression shifted. The softness dissolved. The regret vanished. The mask fell. Inside his car, he slammed the door harder than necessary. “She’s changed,” he muttered, jaw tight. Not softened. Not broken. Not waiting. Changed. An







