เข้าสู่ระบบThe 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
Violetta held the medical reports like they were made of glass.Careful.Reverent.As if one careless fold might shatter the miracle written across the page.Positive.Six weeks.Healthy.The words blurred again when tears filled her eyes.Even now, sitting in the backseat of the cab, city building
The house stayed quiet long after they stopped talking.Not the heavy, suffocating silence from before.This one was softer.Warmer.Fragile.Like something sacred had settled between them.Violetta rested against Draven’s chest on the couch, her legs tucked under her, his arm wrapped around her sh
The next morning felt unreal.Like the world had been wrapped in cotton.Muted. Heavy. Distant.Violetta barely slept.Every time she closed her eyes, Mara’s voice echoed in her head.He doesn’t protect people. He uses them until they break.Then Draven’s face would follow.Blood on his knuckles.M
The war didn’t announce itself with sirens.It arrived with headlines.Violetta woke to her phone vibrating nonstop on the bedside table. Messages stacked over each other—missed calls, notifications, links she hadn’t opened yet but already felt in her bones.Draven was already awake.She knew becaus







