Mag-log inElara stood in the middle of the kitchen, staring down at herself like she had just woken up in someone else’s body. A dress. Shoes. Her hair done. In the middle of the freaking night!What was wrong with her?She pressed her lips together, resisting the urge to tap—no, slam—her forehead against the cabinet beside her. Of all the things she could’ve thrown on, she’d chosen a dress. She’d even blended her lip balm like an idiot who expected company.What was worse was that he was staring at her now. First surprised, now pleased with himself.The moment he let her go, she made a small strangled sound of a whale dying, turned around, and sprinted back to her room like the kitchen had caught fire. She had really just run to her room to wear her undergarments, but when she returned, she had put on her glasses and a too-big hoodie over the dress. Somehow this made things worse—like she’d tried to dress up and then tried harder not to.There was nothing more she wanted to do than take o
Elara didn’t see him for a week.The first few days, she barely left the suite. She paced, binge-watched everything she could find, vented into pillows, then painstakingly put them back before the housekeeper came. She cried until her eyes were raw, laughed until her stomach ached at stupid videos from her childhood. She stayed in like she was in house arrest.By the third day, guilt over missed university lectures won over her fear. She stepped out, expecting him to be waiting in some corner, ready to jump her—but he wasn’t.Not once. Not a shadow, not a glance. His warning had made it seem he was going to keep her locked up forever.The thought shocked her. Even if he had tried to lock her up, why was she staying there obediently when she had the key?On the fourth day, feeling a little daring, she left after ten, lighter in step but cautious. That’s when the receptionist called her."Ms. Vey." She asked carefully, "Your roommate is asking why you are not back yet."Elara came bac
Sitting on the huge table by the floor-to-ceiling windows, with the city glittering beneath them like a pile of scattered diamonds, Elara wondered how she had gotten here.The steak on his plate bled softly under the knife, each cut precise and practiced. The food in front of her—dishes she couldn’t even pronounce—sat untouched.Elara’s gaze flicked between the plates and the man eating so calmly, as if this strange dinner were the most natural part of his life.She swallowed. “What… can I help you with?”Kaelen finally lifted his eyes to her, raising his glass. “Is the food not to your liking, Miss Vey?”“No… the food is fine.” Her voice steadied, even as his cold eyes dropped to her untouched plate. “I’m more interested in why I’m at this table.”He swirled his drink slowly, staring at her. Then he took a measured sip… and smiled.No—he sneered.“To eat. You’re here to eat.”A chill snaked down her spine.She stood abruptly, grabbing her bag. “Then I’ll excuse myself for the evening
The ride was quiet except for the low hum of the tires against the road. Elara scrolled frantically through Damian Diuskbane's followers until a familiar name made her hand stop mid-motion. Luke.His profile looked so... juvenile that she felt offended.The latest post from some hours ago—cigar smoke slightly blurring his Spiderman mask. Her eyes zeroed in on the ring. A wolf head crafted in silver, she had seen on his hands yesterday.She stared at the timestamp, waiting for the screen to glitch, for something to make sense. But there he was: Luke, alive, smirking at the camera as if death had never found him.Her stomach tightened. She had seen his body. The blood, the stillness, that murderer—it wasn’t something she could've imagined so vividly.“So...?” Sally asked, glancing at her from the wheel. "You are okay with Lily going to the Harkon Pack?"Elara snapped her head to her, "Why wouldn't I be? Lily would never get an opportunity like this again."Luna Selene's brother was the A
She lay slumped on her childhood bed, staring emptily. The paper trembled faintly between her fingers. Elara read the notice again — line by line, as if the words might change if she just gave them enough chances.Evacuation effective immediately… breach of common order and dignity… relocation required for the preservation of order. Every sentence felt rinsed clean of sympathy.Her other hand found her neck — the bandage beneath her collarbone still rough against her skin. The bruise pulsed faintly under her touch. Luna Selene had done a number on, though she knew her neck would have snapped if she were holding back.Behind her, Sally rose, brittle with disbelief. “This is absurd. How could they— how could she—I mean, I get it that she felt slighted, but isn't it too much?”Lily smacked her forehead like she couldn't make sense of the situation, “The Luna is supposed to protect us. We are a part of a pack, for God's sake!”"Exile for a year? Even adulterers get less around here!""Exa
With all the glass containers in the wide space, Luna Selene's walk-in closet could pass for a private gallery. Duskbane Estate itself was a collector's heaven, but this chamber felt curated to seduce the eye. Every wall was lined with velvet panels, gilded drawers, and glass domes housing pieces seen in magazines, auctioned at ridiculous prices.It was beauty displayed like power — and Luna Selene Harkon possessed both in excess. Sitting before a golden vanity, in her slate-gray evening gown, she seemed to be asserting the fact. She lifted a pair of earrings — platinum vines with teardrop rubies — and tilted her head as she fastened one, her eyes in a trance of her own reflection as her finger traced her neck, descending to her bare shoulder in awe.Behind her, Elara lingered in the doorway, her mind still warring over whether what she saw yesterday was a dream or something her dazed mind made up.“Come here.” Elara startled at the whisper.Luna’s aquamarine eyes met hers in the mir







