Please bear with the narrative. đŹ I love writing strong female leads đȘ, but we also have to be realisticâNatalie is still human for now. đ§ââïžâš We canât expect her to take on supernatural beings just yet (and honestly, whereâs the fun if everything happens too fast?) đ Thank you all for your understanding and continued support! đđ
Natalie I wanted to run. God, I wanted to run. But my legs wouldnât move. Not from injuryâjust shock. I was frozen, locked in place by the sheer brutality of what Iâd just witnessed. This wasnât fantasy. This wasnât some stylised vampire movie where danger was choreographed and neatly resolved. This was blood. Real blood. Pain, loyalty, violenceâunfiltered and up close. And the wolves? They werenât just fighting. They were protecting me. Even as they bled for it. Eli staggered back from Willis, mouth stained red, his pale skin torn open and steaming under the moonlight. His breath came in ragged pulls. Around him, the battlefield was slipping awayâone of his followers lay unconscious in a crumpled heap. Another crawled backward with a shattered leg. A third limped in circles, his face mangled, one eye gone. Only Eli still stood, barely. Then he looked right at me and hissed the words that chilled my blood: âThis isnât over.â With that, he gave a sharp, guttural commandâand
NatalieâAlpha Carsonâs message to Lord Orlov,â Willis said coldly. âTell him to back off, Eli.âI froze.Carson was the one pulling strings tonight? The reason I was still breathing?The Strigoi leaderâEliâbared his teeth in a snarl. âUntil the parchment is verified, sheâs still ours.âWillis didnât budge. âShe remains untouchable until then. Eli, listen closelyâtell your parasite of a lord heâs already crossed pack territory twice. A third time... and we will respond.âEli growled, low and venomous. The sound scraped at my spine like claws on bone.âOh, but Lord Balshov strolls in and out,â he spat. âPicks her up like some prized pet. I donât see you stopping him.âThe accusation dripped with venomâhe was trying to call out the wolves for playing favorites.Willis didnât flinch. âLord Balshov doesnât feed on tributes, and he isnât turning her. Thereâs a contract in place to prevent exactly that. Even he knows when to step back.âThen his voice dropped to a threat wrapped in steel. â
NatalieNight had fallen by the time I reached my building, the lamplight casting long, uneasy shadows. I was almost at the entrance when I felt themâfigures closing in.They surrounded me like a slow-moving trap, grinning like they already owned the ending.âPeace,â one of them said, and the knot in my stomach instantly tightened. Phi Umbra.My blood ran cold.I knew what that meantâStrigoi loyalists.Their house on campus had always made my skin crawl, even before I knew the truth. I tried to steady my breath, reminding myself of what Adrian told me: most of them were human.But the second I caught the gleam in their eyes under the moonlight, that hope shattered. There was nothing human about those eyes. They were too sharp, too glassyâlike the eyes of something pretending to be alive.Suddenly, every clichĂ© from every vampire movie felt less like fiction and more like a confession.Maybe they had created the films. A mocking inside joke to turn the truth into campy horror, so the w
NatalieAfter leaving the library, I wandered into the garden and dropped onto a bench, letting the quiet settle around me. I missed Lisa. After everything that happened at Blackgate Village, I couldnât shake the question: were we still friends?Iâd tried calling her a few times, but each time Grant answered. He wasnât exactly rudeâbut the warmth Iâd once counted on was gone. Faded. I knew why.Iâd brought Adrian to Blackgate. And whatever ancient grudge existed between vampires and werewolves, I was now tangled in it.But I wasnât picking sides. That wasnât fairânot when I hadnât even been given a choice in any of this.Still, I pulled out my phone and dialed the number again, hoping this time, she would answer.âHey,â came Lisaâs voice, soft and warm, right on the first ring.Relief washed over me. âThought you werenât speaking to me,â I said, trying to sound light, but my voice cracked a little.She chuckled. âThatâs impossible, Nat.âHer laugh loosened something in my chest.âIâll
NatalieIt had been two days since Iâd heard from Adrian.When he dropped me off on campus Monday morning, he mentioned a short trip. Nothing serious. No details. I didnât expect a long goodbye, but I hadnât expected total silence either.For someone who usually craved solitude, I was starting to unravel in the quiet. It wasnât just lonelinessâit was what the silence left room for.My mind kept circling back to everything Iâd learned, everything I was still trying to accept. Vampires. Werewolves. Tributes. Bloodlines.Reality had twisted itself into something unrecognizable, and I wasnât ready for any of it.Now I sat alone in my overpriced campus apartmentâonce a generous gift from Uncle Mike, now just a velvet-lined cage. A controlled space for a girl whose future had already been bartered away.I was angry. Noâfurious.My father had known. He hadnât warned me, hadnât prepared me. He left it all to Uncle Mike, like that was a kindness. But now it made perfect sense. He wasnât planni
AdrianâThereâs nothing inherently magical about Brian offering himself up,â I said, tone even, deliberate. âYou know that.âDimitri didnât move, but I felt his posture stiffenâold defensiveness coiling in his muscles.âThe purpose of the tribute system has always been clear: end the bloodline through the male heir and revoke the familyâs access to Strigoi privileges. Thatâs it. Nothing more.âI leaned forward slightly.âIn Brianâs caseâheâs gone. No sons. No heir to continue the line. And frankly? Nicole and Natalie want nothing more to do with your protection. Theyâre ready to walk.âDimitriâs lip curled, but I pressed on.âYouâve already lost this one. Cut your losses. Find new tributes. Youâre wasting your energy trying to cling to whatâs slipping through your claws.âI let the next line hang like a dagger.âThe mating season is approaching, and your list is growing thin. Too many women failed transformation this year.âDimitriâs eyes narrowedâthen widened, just a bit.âMaybe itâs