Se connecterSol POV The King never answered me. Not after my joke. Not after my confession. Not even after I openly admitted how close I could have come to becoming exactly like Elias. He just sat there outside the cage looking exhausted, hollowed out by fear and guilt until he barely resembled the man I once admired. A puppet King. A ruler following orders while pretending he still had choices left. Honestly? That made me angrier than the betrayal itself. Why couldn’t he just fight back? Why couldn’t he choose honor over fear? Why couldn’t he act like the man I remembered? The silence dragged on long enough that eventually I stopped caring whether he noticed what I was doing. Slowly, I twisted my wrists. The loosened shackles slid free immediately. Metal fell softly against the floor of the cage. The King inhaled sharply. I ignored him. At this point, it was not like Elias had not already tried repeatedly to kill me. Honestly, I still did not know what to think about my heal
Sol POV One more day passed captive. Or one more hour outside. The thought alone made my stomach twist violently. One more day closer to the babies being born. One more day away from Aella. The bond remained alive, but faint beneath the layers of suppression magic surrounding the prison. Enough for me to know she was safe. Not enough to reach her. Elias had left hours ago, but before disappearing again he reinforced the prison heavily. The shadows coating the walls had thickened, ancient runes burning faintly across the bars of the cell while the air itself felt heavier now. He was afraid. Good. I had also discovered something deeply unfortunate. I could not sun travel underground. Apparently one needed the actual sun for that. Who knew? The irony almost made me laugh. Almost. Instead, I leaned my head back against the cold stone wall and exhaled slowly, chains rattling softly around my wrists. I would get out. I would find Aella. I would get back before the birth.
Aella POVThe connection vanished suddenly.One moment I could see through the glittering darkness attached to Hunter, could feel the cold air of the forest and hear Marcus breathing beside him—And the next—Nothing.The link snapped so violently it felt like losing signal in the middle of a storm.Darkness swallowed everything.The force of it made my head spin instantly.I gasped sharply as dizziness crashed into me, my body swaying hard enough that someone caught me before I could fall completely.“Aella!”Pamela.Her voice sounded distant at first.Too far away.The sanctuary slowly came back into focus around me in fragments.The hospital wing.The glowing lights.The scent of herbs and antiseptic.My body felt heavy.Exhausted.Like I had run for days without stopping.Pamela knelt beside me, visibly panicked while Beatriz rushed toward us from across the room.“What happened?” Marcus’ voice echoed faintly through one of the communication mirrors nearby.I blinked slowly, strug
Aella POVI returned to the sanctuary.Physically.But not completely.Because the glittering darkness remained behind.At first, I did not understand what was happening. I stood inside the castle halls, one hand resting against my stomach while the sanctuary wrapped around me protectively, yet at the same time—I could still see the forest.Still hear Hunter’s footsteps.Still feel the cold wind moving through the trees.The realization came slowly.The iridescent darkness obeyed me the same way Hunter commanded his shadows.No—More intimately than that.It was not simply following orders.It was connected to me.Part of me.The darkness fed me information constantly, emotions and images flowing directly into my mind as though I were physically there beside them.As though I was experiencing everything myself.I inhaled shakily.The power flowing through my heart pulsed softly in response.Dangerous for the world.Safe for me.My essence had been right.Slowly, I attached the glitte
Aella POVThe world around me disappeared after the teenager’s words.The King hit Sol.He took him away.The bond inside my chest pulsed violently, sharp enough to make me stagger slightly as panic clawed through every instinct I had.No.No.Sol was alive.I could still feel him.Faint.Distant.But alive.Which meant there was still time.I turned immediately toward the forest beyond the hospital.Toward the direction the teenager pointed.Toward Sol.And I ran.Or at least—I tried to.Hunter grabbed my arm hard enough to stop me before I took more than two steps.“Aella.”“Let go.”The words left me colder than intended.Hunter didn’t move.“You are not thinking clearly.”“My mate is missing.”“My Alpha is missing,” Hunter snapped back immediately. “And you are pregnant with three children.”The babies shifted violently inside me again, reacting to my emotions, my fear, the growing instability of my power.I tried pulling free.Hunter tightened his grip.Then suddenly—The shadow
Aella POVSol had not returned.At first, I told myself there were reasons.The attack.The chaos outside the sanctuary.The wounded.The children.The pack.Then one day passed.Then two.Then four.Four days inside the sanctuary.Four hours outside.And with every passing moment, the bond between us grew stranger.Not broken.Never broken.But distant.Muted.Like something heavy stood between us.I sat in the nursery when Marcus arrived.Or rather—When he stormed into the sanctuary looking half feral.The castle barely had time to announce his arrival before he burst through the doors covered in dirt, blood, and panic.My entire body tensed instantly.Marcus looked terrified.Not worried.Terrified.My stomach dropped violently.“Where is Sol?”Marcus stopped abruptly in front of me, breathing hard.“We can’t find him.”The room went silent.Queen Alors immediately straightened beside the window while Beatriz froze halfway through organizing medical supplies.“What?” I whispered.
-------SOL ---------------- She was gone. Just like that. Gone. No scream. No body. No blood. Just empty stone where she had been standing seconds before. My knees buckled before I realized I was falling. Linus caught me under the arm, steadying my weight like I weighed nothing. “Sol?” Hi
The Academy was silent, the stone corridors lit only by the flickering glow of ancient torches and modern security beams. At precisely 22:00, the heavy iron doors of the Sovereign Training Chamber groaned open. The air inside was different—colder, pressurized. Linus stood in the center of the mas
The aftermath was a blur of steel and shouting. Within seconds, a phalanx of the Royal Guard had surrounded us, their shields forming a shimmering wall of reinforced silver. Marcus didn't let me stand until we were deep within the stone corridors of the Imperial Wing, his hand a heavy, grounding we
That night, the Silver Tower penthouse was alive with the glow of data and the thrill of a hunt. I had ended the seminar with a final, high-stakes bait. "I’ve given you the rules of the Acting Method," I told the hundreds of faces on the screen. "Now, here is the final challenge for the







