LOGINLeonDecember 15, 2025I felt it before I understood it.One moment, I was lying in the hospital bed, staring at the clock on the wall and counting the minutes since Dominic had driven away with Aurora, and the next moment, a cold spike of terror drove straight through the center of my chest. It was not my fear. It was hers. It flooded through the mate bond so violently that my back arched off the mattress, and then, just as suddenly, everything went still, as if her heart had frozen in the middle of a beat."Leon!" Rhaziel howled in my head, louder than he had been since the silver went into us. "Our mate! Something is wrong with our mate!"I was already moving. I tore the tape from my arm and ripped the IV needle out of my vein. The heart monitor screamed in protest as the wires came off my chest, and a sharp pain exploded through my shoulder when I swung my legs over the side of the bed. My vision went white at the edges. I gripped the rail and forced myself to breathe through
Aurora "You did not give me much choice," I said, staying close to the door. "You said everyone dies on Christmas Day.""They will." Rina's voice broke. She pressed a trembling hand over her mouth and shook her head. "I am sorry, Aurora. I know that means nothing to you right now, but I am so sorry. The skates, the messages, the photographs of your son... I did all of it because he told me to. I was the one who sent you the email offering you this job. He asked me to pick you up at the airport. I looked at the mark on your neck that day and pretended I did not know whose it was."My grip on the crutch tightened until my knuckles turned white. I had suspected it, and I had said it out loud to Leon in that tunnel, but hearing her confess it while she sat in front of me crying made my stomach turn."Why?" I asked. "Leon told me your parents were killed by the Black Spots. Why would you help the people who took your family from you?""Because he is my mate," she said simply, and the word
AuroraDecember 15, 2025I pressed the phone against my chest so quickly that the screen went dark against my sweater."Aurora?" Leon's voice was low, and when I looked up, his eyes were already on my face. "Who was that?""Elias," I lied, forcing a smile that felt stiff on my lips. "He wants to know if I approved the edits from the parade."The words had barely left my mouth when another voice slid into my head, warm and amused, as if its owner was lounging somewhere behind my eyes."You are a terrible liar, dear Aurora."I nearly dropped the phone. Of course Rhaziel was awake now that Leon was.I kept my face calm and stared down at Noel, who was still asleep with his tiny fist wrapped around Leon's finger. I did not dare look at Leon because I knew that if I did, he would see everything."Get some rest, son," the Alpha King said as he moved away from the window. He glanced at his phone, and his jaw tightened. "The council is waiting for me. They want to know how a Beta walked out
AuroraDecember 15, 2025I did not care that my leg was screaming inside the cast or that my crutch had clattered to the floor somewhere behind me. All I cared about was the warmth of Leon's body under my arms and the sound of his heartbeat, which was no longer a beep on a screen but something real that I could feel against my cheek."Aurora," Leon groaned, and I realized too late that I was squeezing his injured shoulder.I pulled back immediately, my hands hovering in the air as if I was afraid to touch him again. "I am so sorry! Did I hurt you? Oh God, I hurt you, did I not?"A weak laugh escaped his lips, and even though it ended in a wince, it was the most beautiful sound I had heard in two days. "You could never hurt me," he said softly, reaching for my hand with the arm that was not bandaged. "Come here. Just be gentle with me this time."I let out a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob as I sat down carefully on the edge of the bed. His fingers laced through mine, and
LeonDecember 15, 2025Pain. That was the first thing I felt. It was a silver-laced agony that felt like it was still radiating from the hole in my shoulder.I let out a groan and whimpered as the simple act of breathing sent fresh waves of fire through my chest. I tried to speak to my wolf but I got no response. It was as if he was tucked away in the back of my mind, licking his wounds and refusing to surface.My eyes fluttered open to the dim light above my head, but I could barely see anything at first until I blinked twice.No one needed to tell me that I was in a hospital because I could hear the steady beeping of the monitors beside me.I turned my head sideways, expecting to see Aurora, but she wasn’t there. At first my heart jumped in my chest as I couldn’t help but think that something bad had happened to her or Noel.Then a deep voice sounded on my left side.A voice that belonged to my father and not who I was expecting to be by my side.“Easy, son. Don’t try to move yet,”
Rina December 15, 2025The first thing I felt was the throbbing. It was a rhythmic, agonizing pulse that seemed to beat in time with my heart, radiating from my shoulder where Leon had bitten down to my very fingertips.I woke up with a strangled gasp, my lips quivering as the cold air of the room hit my skin. I tried to move, but a sharp, white-hot bolt of pain shot against the rough mattress. My breath came in shallow hitches, and I could taste the metallic tang of dried blood on my tongue.I didn’t know where I was, neither did I care, and slowly I turned my head to look at my shoulder. It was wrapped in thick, white bandages, but the red stain seeping through the gauze told the story of the damage Leon’s wolf had done. His teeth had sunk deep, like he wanted me paralyzed or dead.I closed my eyes as a single tear slid down my temple. I didn’t want to do any of this. I was supposed to be the Royal Female Beta who was to be a protector, a shield for the Royal Family; instead, I h
AuroraDecember 12, 2025The world was gray and smelled of sulfur and wet earth. I was running, but my legs felt like they were made of cooling lead. Every step I took on the ice left a trail of purple-black rot.I looked down, and I wasn’t wearing skates; my feet were bare, shredded by obsidian s
AuroraI stood on the sidelines with Sasha a moment after the Mean Greens were announced winners. The cheerleaders had come to the center of the arena again to perform. Sasha and I were both wrapped in the team’s thick jackets because even though the dodgeball game had gotten all of us sweaty, it
AuroraDecember 10, 2025My phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I had barely had any sleep last night; after we settled things with Sasha’s father, the families spent the evening bonding. Even when we finally retired to bed, Leon couldn’t keep his hands off me, and we made love throughout the night.I was
Aurora By the time the sun set, the scale of the event had become truly overwhelming. What had been a busy staging area during the day was now a literal sea of people. Thousands upon thousands of citizens of Averne City and foreign visitors lined the banks of the Royal Lake. I moved through the p







