LOGIN~AURORA~Lady Elowen's fingers closed around my arm tightly.Before I could even look back at Cassian one last time, she yanked me forward and shoved me hard into the waiting black car. My shoulder hit the seat, and for a second the world spun. I scrambled upright just as the door slammed shut, sealing me inside with the two people who had spent years making my life a living nightmare.My heart was racing so fast I felt lightheaded. One hand flew protectively to my stomach as the car drove forward. The baby. Cassian's baby. Our baby. The only thing that still made any of this bearable. I was terrified, terrified of what they would do once we reached Varkas territory, terrified that the stress and the rough handling might hurt the tiny life I was carrying. But I had no choice. If I hadn't gone with them, Cassian and Zerath would have died right there on those stones in front of me. I had seen how close they were to falling. I had seen the blood. I had heard Cassian's roar when the
~AURORA~The pain of the bond snapping felt like something driven straight through the center of my chest.It was sharp, sudden, and so complete that my knees nearly gave out. For one terrible second I couldn't breathe. The old thread that had tied me to Vincent—damaged, neglected, already dying, tore all the way through, and the emptiness it left behind was worse than I expected. A sound escaped me before I could stop it, small and broken.Then Cassian's arms closed around me.He pulled me against his chest so tightly I could feel the heat of him through the blood and dirt on his clothes, feel the hard beat of his heart under my cheek. The pain didn't vanish, but it changed. It became something I could survive. His scent, his warmth, the fierce way he held me as if he could physically keep me from falling apart, those things filled the space the rejection had torn open. I clung to him, fingers fisting in his shirt, and the worst of it passed.When I lifted my head, Vincent was sta
~CASSIAN~"She's my mate," Vincent snarled, already half-shifted, bones cracking as fur appeared across his skin. "I'm not letting her go. Not to you. Not to anyone."Was he a fucking lunatic? Why did he think he had a say? I didn't care if he was her mate, I didn't care if she had a thousand mates. She would still be mine. She would still be returning home with me.The courtyard had suddenly become an arena, and somehow, they were all fighting for my wife. All for different, selfish reasons. Varkas guards prepared themselves. Seraphina and her parents watched with hungry attention.Most of my men were back home. I didn't think things would reach to this point. Clearly, I'd made a huge mistake. But that would not stop me from fighting for her. Aurora stood a few steps behind me, one hand still pressed to her stomach, and that single small gesture was all it took.I didn't answer him with words.Vincent completed the change in seconds. The massive grey wolf that rose in his place wa
~AURORA~Cassian didn't look away from me once. He kept on moving forward until he was standing right there in front of me. Even with Vincent standing only a few feet away, even with the courtyard still packed with the aftermath of his arrival, his eyes stayed locked on mine as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough, stripped of every careful mask he had worn for so long."I love you."My breath caught. For a moment I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but stare at him as the truth of what he had just said settled over me.Did he really? Did I hear him correctly? Did Cassian just tell me he loved me in front all of these people without a care in the world? My heart ached but this time, in a good way. "I love you, Aurora." He practically shouted it now. Like he was making sure everyone truly heard it this time. "I did everything for you," he continued, stepping closer until there was almost no space left between u
~SERAPHINA~"We need to move, now!" I shouted at my parents. "Cassian knows where Aurora is and he's going to find her."My mother stiffened, "where is she? Who has been hiding her?" I rolled my eyes, "Vincent."My father narrowed his eyes, "why would someone like Vincent help Aurora to hide from us?" I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he's stupid. Or maybe he lost it after I ended things with him.""This is outrageous!" My mother hissed. "That girl keeps getting away from us. We never should have let her marry that Reaper Lord. She should have stayed here with us. Now she thinks she's suddenly important. And she keeps finding people to help her. She’s very sneaky.”"Let's hurry." I snap. "I do not want to miss the show. Cassian will not be expecting us. I've already alerted the council. They will meet us there as well."I made sure that the council was informed. They needed to get rid of Aurora once and for all. I didn’t want her near Cassian any longer. He was my husband and as long
~SERAPHINA~Something was wrong.I noticed it the moment I stepped into the main corridor. The estate, usually filled with loud servants, guards, and the constant movement of people attending to the new order of things, felt unnervingly still. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that settled right before something broke. I paused, listening. No footsteps belonging to Cassian. No sharp, dry commentary from Zerath drifting from nearby rooms. The two of them were simply. . .gone.And that never meant anything good.Whenever Cassian and his brother disappeared together without explanation, it was because they were doing something important. Something they did not want the council—or me, to know about. My stomach tightened with a sharp, familiar suspicion. There was only one person who could pull Cassian's attention so completely that he would abandon the carefully constructed image of our marriage and vanish with his brother.Aurora.Of course, it was her. Even when she wasn't here, she was st
~AURORA~The hall seemed to spin. Whispers all around us, but they faded into a distant sound. Seraphina and Vincent. . .betrothed? How had I never known? All those years pining, suffering in silence, and they'd been promised to each other? I felt like a fool. He wasn't just someone I'd develope
~Aurora~The cellar smelled of damp stone and fresh blood.I knelt on the cold floor, arms raw from the earlier whippings, tasting iron where my lip had split."The prophecy demands a Varkas daughter," Lady Elowen, my stepmother had hissed earlier this evening, shoving me forward in the great hall
~CASSIAN~I couldn't believe my eyes.It was her, the girl I had glimpsed earlier while entering the Kingdom. I couldn't get her out of my head. And now she stood before me as my bride?A dark amusement formed in my chest. Had she truly tried to run away to escape marrying me? This was the Varka
~AURORA~I'd tried to run away. Tried to escape before the Moon Reaper could force me back to his Kingdom where I would stay as his wife.But the guards had found me. They couldn't whip me as punishment, not today, not when I was being offered as the sacrificial bride. They needed my groom to beli







