ログインHey loves, First off, I want to say a huge thank you for all the love and support y’all have shown to this series, it honestly means the world to me, and I don’t take it for granted. 💖 I also want to apologize for the late update. I’ve been completely buried preparing for my exams, which has kept me from writing. I’ll be finishing my exams on the 20th next month, so the next update will be coming after that. Thank you for being patient with me, and for sticking around. Your support keeps me going, and I can’t wait to share what’s next with you all. Much love! ❤️
AURELIAN The forest was too quiet. I realized it only when I sheathed my sword at my hip and turned from the lake, the cold water still clinging to my palms. The camp should’ve been stirring by now—early chatter, someone cursing over burnt porridge, boots crunching over pine needles as soldiers prepared for drills. Instead, silence pressed between the trees like a held breath. A thin unease crawled along the back of my neck. I took a step toward the path and the forest air shifted. Birds burst from the branches overhead in a sudden, frantic flurry, wings beating against the sky as if fleeing something unseen. My hand fell to the hilt of my sword. ‘Aurelian,’ Vethros murmured, too low, too calm. ‘You feel it too.’ The earth seemed to pulse beneath my boots. The air thickened, carrying the faintest tremor—like the breath of something massive moving between the pines. Then— A scream. High, sharp, human. I froze. Another scream followed, deeper this time, then shouts—
AURELIANI couldn’t sleep.Perhaps I drifted for a breath, or slipped into one of his cursed trances, but when my eyes snapped open the world was still dark and the cold had crept into the seams of my tent. My pulse hammered as though I had run miles.And my trousers were wet.A bitter curse tore from me as I tore the blankets aside. “Vethros, you twisted, sick—”My hands trembled as I scrubbed at my face. Sweat clung to my skin; the muscles in my thighs still pulled tight, strung like wire from the dream he had forced into me. Vael’s mouth—Vael’s voice—Vael’s heat sliding over me like a memory that should have been buried deep beneath ruin.Except it wasn’t Vael.Not even close.“Curse you,” I muttered, grabbing the edge of the cot as the disgust rolled up my spine. “Curse you, Vethros.”‘Aurelian.’His voice wasn’t loud—it never had to be—but it curled into the space behind my ear like a cold breath. My shoulders locked. A tremor rippled through my fingers.“You did this to me,” I h
AURELIANThe smoke followed us like guilt.It clung to the horses’ manes, to the folds of my cloak, to every breath that tried to feel clean. The village had burned hours ago, yet I could still smell it—charred grain, wet ash, something sweeter underneath that I didn’t want to name.We rode slowly through the wreck, boots crunching over what used to be walls. The men spoke in low voices, collecting what could still be used—swords, flour, anything the flames hadn’t turned to shadow. One of them laughed when he found a dozen of wine half-buried in soot. The sound scraped something raw inside me.Before, I would have laughed too. I would have called it justice—the beasts burned Eldoria first, they started this, they deserved to lose something. But now, watching a man drag a blood-stained blanket from the rubble, I couldn’t tell what part of this still felt like victory.If I hadn’t seen what I’ve seen… if I hadn’t been his captive, felt the pulse of what lives beneath their skin, maybe I
VAELThe first sign that something was wrong was how my breath kept catching in my chest, like my own ribs were reluctant to move. A sharp, dragging pull low in my sternum that didn’t stop, didn’t ease, only tightened whenever I tried to ignore it. I spent two nights convincing myself it was fatigue. A third telling myself it was stress. By the fourth, I knew I was lying.It was him.Aurelian’s presence had begun to thrum along the bond again, faint at first like a distant vibration under the skin, then growing bolder, pressing into me as if some part of him—his fear, his stubborn heartbeat—was brushing against my own. I shouldn’t want it. I should hate how much I noticed it. But every time it flickered, I found myself turning my head toward the west without meaning to.The council hall was suffocating under torchlight, too hot, too bright, wolves whispering in tight groups like flies around a wound. Their voices blurred into each other, carried by nerves they were too proud to admit
AURELIANThe sun had begun to feel too kind. It filtered through the cracks in the tent and painted soft gold over the ground, warming what little snow clung stubbornly to the grass. Every morning it rose over the camp like mercy, touching the ragged edges of human tents, the smoke curling from fires, the soft murmur of laughter. The world looked alive again, but inside me everything still felt winter.Days had passed since I woke in their care, and still I couldn’t stop listening for the sound of chains. Sometimes I’d reach for them by instinct, expecting cold metal, and find only my skin, bare and unmarked. It left me more uneasy than comforted.My people moved around me as though I were something fragile—half a memory, half a hope. They smiled too easily when I passed, eyes shining, voices lowering to whispers of the prince. They treated me like someone saved, not someone still lost.Vethros’s voice came and went like breath, never loud enough to drown the noise around me, but alwa
AURELIANThe first sound that reached me was breathing.Not mine but someone else’s.For one dizzy second, I thought it was Vael beside me again. The weight, the heat, the hand that always seemed to anchor me even when I wanted to tear it off. My pulse jumped hard enough to make my ribs ache. I reached for the chain that should’ve been around my neck and found nothing.No chain.No polished floor.No scent of smoke or him.My eyes opened to dim gold light and rough fabric hanging close around me. The ceiling sagged slightly, patched in places. The air smelled of earth, smoke, and pine.A tent.The realization came slow, as if my body didn’t want to believe it. I lay still for a long moment, waiting for the illusion to break— for the tent to dissolve into black stone and teeth and his voice. But it didn’t.My hand curled in the blanket. It was coarse, not silk or fur. My heart was hammering so hard it hurt to breathe.I pushed myself upright. Pain answered from everywhere—ribs, wrists,







