MasukKael was raised on one unshakable belief: fated mates were a weakness. Stories of alphas losing their minds, their control, and eventually their lives over mates had been passed down like cautionary tales. His great-grandfather had been one of them, brought to ruin by the unbearable loss of his mate. Kael’s grandfather had made sure that never happened again, enforcing strict laws which prioritized strength over sentiment. The pack thrived under that discipline. No one bonded. No one lost themselves. Kael believed in those laws. He wanted to believe. But wanting and doing weren’t exactly the same thing. Now, standing face to face with his fated mate, he was at a crossroads. Accepting them could fracture everything he was taught to protect. Rejecting them might break something in him that he would never be able to fix. Either way, the consequences were inevitable and permanent. Max never asked for much out of life. Just to finish her endless list of chores quickly so she could go to school, where the world felt wide and full of things to learn. Existing quietly had always been her way, keeping her head down, staying out of trouble, and doing her best to be invisible. But nothing about her life was simple.The most popular boy in school suddenly seemed interested in her for reasons she couldn’t understand. He was good looking, admired by all and magnetic, while she was awkward, quiet and unimportant. Soon, Max would find out that she wasn’t so small after all, and her life, every strange, shadowed part of it, was just one piece in a much bigger puzzle. And Kael? He wasn’t just the school’s golden boy. He was the beginning of everything.
Lihat lebih banyakThe pack house was quiet in the gray light of early morning, the kind of quiet that felt heavy, and expectant. Maxine had been in the lower dungeon for two days now, stone walls damp with centuries of secrets, iron bars that smelled faintly of old blood and wolfsbane. They’d bound her wrists again, though the rope felt almost unnecessary; she hadn’t fought, hadn’t spoken, hadn’t even cried out when the cell door clanged shut. She’d simply sat on the cold floor, knees drawn to her chest, staring at the small barred window high above where the first pale fingers of dawn were beginning to creep in. She didn’t know what they’d done to Kael. And everytime she tried to ask the guards they just averted their eyes and remain tight lipped. Being apart from Kael hurt worse than any chain.Meanwhile, upstairs, in the heir’s suite, rooms Kael had once called his own before exile, he woke slowly, head pounding like someone had driven spikes behind his eyes. The sheets were tangled around his legs,
MAXINE Everything is a blur of gray shadows and the sound of my own blood rushing in my ears. The Memory-Weaver’s voice is a swarm of insects, biting at the air, unpicking the threads of Kael’s soul right in front of me. I lock my fingers together so tight the bones ache, my whole body vibrating with a terror I can’t let out.Across the courtyard, Kael was like a trapped storm. He isn't a man anymore; He threw his entire weight against the enforcers, his muscles cording like steel cables, his fury blazed with a golden light that seemed to defy the sedative in his blood. Every cell in me screams to run to him. To throw myself between his beautiful, broken mind and the cold cruelty of his father.But I’m anchored. One girl against a pack of monsters. A flicker of candlelight in a hurricane. My body knows it. My fear knows it. And my voice, that cursed, broken cage, betrays me again. I open my mouth, desperate to scream his name, to tell him to hold on, to promise I’ll find him in the
The air in the courtyard was electric, a storm front moving in. Kael ignored Lillian’s poisonous words as if she were nothing more than a ghost. His entire world had narrowed down to the small, trembling girl at his side. He tried to lunge for her, but his knees buckled, the ground rushing up to meet him before the enforcers caught his arms.“Max—” he choked out.Roderick simply flicked his hand casually, sending two more enforcers to tear them apart.“Get your filthy hands off her!” Kael thundered. The sound didn't come from his throat; it came from his soul, cracking through the silence of the courtyard like a mountain splitting in half.The pack flinched as one. Even the older wolves, seasoned by decades of violence, felt a primal shiver. They hadn't known Kael was capable of such raw, devastating rage. Despite the heavy sludge of wolfsbane and the paralyzing agents screaming through his veins, his muscles corded with a strength that shouldn't have been possible. He nearly thr
Max climbed into the van without a word or a glance at the others. No one had to tell her. She simply moved, small, and determined, sundress still damp at the hem, straight to where they’d laid Kael across the bench seat. She slid in beside him, lifted his head with careful hands, and settled it in her lap as though the rest of the world had ceased to exist.His breathing was shallow, ragged at the edges. Every few seconds his lips moved, forming her name in a soft, broken whisper.“Max…”Then, fainter:“Run… hide… I’ll find you… later…”Even drugged, even half-gone, he was still trying to save her.She didn’t answer. She only cradled his face closer, fingers threading through his hair, thumb brushing the bruise blooming along his jaw. Tears slipped down her cheeks in silent tracks, dripping onto his shirt, darkening the fabric in small, perfect circles.The van doors closed. The engine growled awake. Tires bit gravel, then asphalt, carrying them away from the boardwalk, the melting s
The date had been a dream, a fragile, silver-tipped miracle that felt like the first page of a different life. They walked down the creaking stairs together, her hand steady in his, and stepped out into the salt-damp evening. The air was cool and clean, carrying the low murmur of waves and the fain
Simone Velariz stood motionless behind the counter long after the bell had stilled and the last echo of boots on gravel had faded into the night. He lifted the coffee cup with the slow reverence of someone who had learned to savor small, mortal things, because eternity had taught him how quickly ev
The train hissed to a stop at last, metal screaming softly as it settled into the platform. After endless hours packed into the carriage, Kael guided Max out with a protective hand at her back, his eyes already scanning the unfamiliar station. The town was wrong in the way only new places were, too
Ginny’s fury rolled through the empty house like choking smoke. She stopped just inside the doorway, taking in the chaos with widening, disbelieving eyes. They had assumed Max had failed to call, because she was still buried under chores, too slow, and too overwhelmed to keep up.But this? This was
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