SERENA'S POVThe guard positioned in front of me might as well be carved out of granite—stone-faced, unflinching, and somehow immune to every ounce of white-hot fury I throw at him. His massive frame blocks my way completely, arms crossed over his chest like living barriers."Move," I say through clenched teeth, my voice dangerously low, vibrating with barely contained rage. The corridor's fluorescent lights cast harsh shadows across his impassive face.He doesn't blink. Doesn't even acknowledge that I've spoken. His eyes—dark and cold as a winter midnight—stare straight ahead, looking through me as if I'm nothing but air."I said, move." Each word drops like a stone between us, heavy with threat and desperation. My hands curl into tight fists at my sides, nails digging crescents into my palms.Still nothing. Not a muscle twitches in his face. The library is too quiet, unnaturally so, as if the world is holding its breath. The air feels too still, too thick with tension. It feels lik
SERENA'S POV The air feels too still, unnaturally suspended in time and space.The library—usually quiet, yes, but never like this—has taken on a heavy, oppressive silence. A silence that presses against my eardrums and weighs on my shoulders like an invisible burden. My pulse is slowing to an ominous crawl, my breath shaky and uneven, and I finally notice the subtle environmental changes that my anger has triggered: the way the floorboards creaked earlier under invisible pressure, the faint hum of old wiring now fallen silent, the way dust motes have stopped swirling in the golden streams of late afternoon light that slice through the tall windows. It's not just quiet in here.It's frozen. Suspended in amber. Time itself seems to hesitate.Because of me. Because of what I am. What I've become.Cassidy leans in close, her warm breath tickling my ear, her voice a hushed whisper brushing just beneath the oppressive silence. "Serena," she murmurs, her eyes darting nervously to the human
SERENA'S POVCassie and Luna are staring at me with an unsettling intensity, their expressions frozen somewhere between concern and alarm. It's as though they've just witnessed something shift in my face—something subtle yet profoundly disturbing that I can't see myself."What did you hear?" Luna asks carefully, her amber eyes scanning the space around me methodically, as if she might spot something invisible lurking in the air between us. Her fingers twitch at her sides, ready to summon her power if needed.Cassie leans closer, the scent of her jasmine perfume momentarily overwhelming my senses. "Serena. Talk to us," she urges, her voice low but firm, deliberately calm in a way that makes my skin prickle. "Your eyes just... glazed over for a second."I shake my head, forcing my lips into what I hope resembles a reassuring smile. The muscles in my face feel stiff, uncooperative. "It's nothing. I think... I'm just tired. Stressed. You know how it is with finals and everything." The lie
SERENA'S POVThe whispers have stopped abruptly, leaving behind a vacuum of sound that feels more threatening than the voices themselves.But the air still trembles with unease, the silence pressing against my skin like invisible fingers searching for weakness. I can feel the weight of it—the kind of oppressive stillness that sinks into your bones and settles there, making you feel like you're the only thing left alive in a world that's suddenly forgotten how to breathe. The quiet has substance, a presence that fills my lungs with each desperate inhale.The hallway stretches before me, unnaturally... still. No footsteps echoing against marble. No distant chatter of students. No subtle humming of electricity through the walls. Just an eerie stillness, like time itself has forgotten to move forward, caught between one moment and the next in perpetual suspension.I blink rapidly, my pulse quickening to a frantic rhythm as I spin around in place, eyes darting to every corner, every shadow
1. He Is Not Worth ItSerena's POV "You have no freaking idea how disgusting you sound right now."" Oh really? Why don't you tell me? You disgusting human filth." His voice hits me back with strong disdain etched in it and this increases the fury in my mind. I'm going so crazy right now. I step towards him and stand directly in front of him. "I don't get you. Is it because of how rich your father is you lift yourself so high you begin to bully and mistreat others anyhow you think? Yet, you have no idea that you are just living off your father's riches. You are nothing more than a bum as far as I can tell. You have achieved nothing and you are just taking your father's heritage as an advantage to bring others down just because they didn't have the kind of opportunity you have." I reply with some more fury and I can realize that the argument between us is already catching the attention of various other students in the hallway. A large number of them are behind him, cheering and sup
Damon's POV LATER THAT NIGHT... I swerve the vehicle through the night on the road, speeding through and glancing at intervals at the dashboard to check the time to ensure that we are not late." Yo man, the way you handled that Serena girl was wild. I mean, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it throughout the day. You were harsh, man. I mean, you couldn't even cut the little girl some slack." Brian, one of my friends in the passenger seat beside me, says out loud, and this forces me to chuckle as I glance at the side view mirror of the car, trying to figure out if there are any cops nearby."Bro didn't even consider that she was a person with a soul and could easily get hurt. I felt the blast of the insult you rained upon her, man; it was epic." Ryan, another of my friends speaks up from the backseat, but all I just do is chuckle as I brush my fingers against my chin, still moving my hand through the steering wheel on the road. I am trying to keep my focus intact and not a
Serena's POVOh, bless me, moon goddess. I have never felt so high and elevated in my life before. Everywhere feels so light-weighted. It feels as though the clouds have surrounded me. In fact. I feel like I am elevating. I can't feel the ground on my feet anymore. I am jumping crazily and screaming my lungs out, allowing the beat of the music to get deep into my senses, moving my body to its own volition without control. I place my hand on my waist and begin to twist crazily, allowing my hair to fall roughly all over my face. I am not in control of myself right now. Oh goodness me, Cassidy was right. I needed this. This alcohol is the strongest thing I have ever tasted in my life. Why hadn't I been constrained enough to think of this whenever I needed to vent off? I feel so happy. I can't even begin to describe it. I feel like all the burdens in my life have been lifted. I feel so free and alive in ways I have never felt before. Hell no. I don't think this is the last time I'm
Damon's POV "oh yes please take me. Please take me I beg you." My beast is growling. Her voice is echoing extremely loud in my ears I am slowly losing control of myself. I shake my head and clench my fists tight against the bedspread.What the hell am I doing? This is my fucking enemy we are talking about. I'm supposed to be giving a punch. I'm supposed to be stabbing her straight in the heart and committing the act that should have been done right from the day she was born, but goddess, I can't stop myself. I can't help it. Her voice. It's so smooth and so silk and so soft it is evaporating my senses and making me not think rightly the way I should. I find myself gazing at her magnificent perfectly white silk pale skin. I have already managed to take off her shirt and her bra and looking at those enticing tits of hers is making my wolf scream with all the desire in my body. This cannot be possible. How the hell can she be my mate? I find myself growling as I bury my face in ben
SERENA'S POVThe whispers have stopped abruptly, leaving behind a vacuum of sound that feels more threatening than the voices themselves.But the air still trembles with unease, the silence pressing against my skin like invisible fingers searching for weakness. I can feel the weight of it—the kind of oppressive stillness that sinks into your bones and settles there, making you feel like you're the only thing left alive in a world that's suddenly forgotten how to breathe. The quiet has substance, a presence that fills my lungs with each desperate inhale.The hallway stretches before me, unnaturally... still. No footsteps echoing against marble. No distant chatter of students. No subtle humming of electricity through the walls. Just an eerie stillness, like time itself has forgotten to move forward, caught between one moment and the next in perpetual suspension.I blink rapidly, my pulse quickening to a frantic rhythm as I spin around in place, eyes darting to every corner, every shadow
SERENA'S POVCassie and Luna are staring at me with an unsettling intensity, their expressions frozen somewhere between concern and alarm. It's as though they've just witnessed something shift in my face—something subtle yet profoundly disturbing that I can't see myself."What did you hear?" Luna asks carefully, her amber eyes scanning the space around me methodically, as if she might spot something invisible lurking in the air between us. Her fingers twitch at her sides, ready to summon her power if needed.Cassie leans closer, the scent of her jasmine perfume momentarily overwhelming my senses. "Serena. Talk to us," she urges, her voice low but firm, deliberately calm in a way that makes my skin prickle. "Your eyes just... glazed over for a second."I shake my head, forcing my lips into what I hope resembles a reassuring smile. The muscles in my face feel stiff, uncooperative. "It's nothing. I think... I'm just tired. Stressed. You know how it is with finals and everything." The lie
SERENA'S POV The air feels too still, unnaturally suspended in time and space.The library—usually quiet, yes, but never like this—has taken on a heavy, oppressive silence. A silence that presses against my eardrums and weighs on my shoulders like an invisible burden. My pulse is slowing to an ominous crawl, my breath shaky and uneven, and I finally notice the subtle environmental changes that my anger has triggered: the way the floorboards creaked earlier under invisible pressure, the faint hum of old wiring now fallen silent, the way dust motes have stopped swirling in the golden streams of late afternoon light that slice through the tall windows. It's not just quiet in here.It's frozen. Suspended in amber. Time itself seems to hesitate.Because of me. Because of what I am. What I've become.Cassidy leans in close, her warm breath tickling my ear, her voice a hushed whisper brushing just beneath the oppressive silence. "Serena," she murmurs, her eyes darting nervously to the human
SERENA'S POVThe guard positioned in front of me might as well be carved out of granite—stone-faced, unflinching, and somehow immune to every ounce of white-hot fury I throw at him. His massive frame blocks my way completely, arms crossed over his chest like living barriers."Move," I say through clenched teeth, my voice dangerously low, vibrating with barely contained rage. The corridor's fluorescent lights cast harsh shadows across his impassive face.He doesn't blink. Doesn't even acknowledge that I've spoken. His eyes—dark and cold as a winter midnight—stare straight ahead, looking through me as if I'm nothing but air."I said, move." Each word drops like a stone between us, heavy with threat and desperation. My hands curl into tight fists at my sides, nails digging crescents into my palms.Still nothing. Not a muscle twitches in his face. The library is too quiet, unnaturally so, as if the world is holding its breath. The air feels too still, too thick with tension. It feels lik
SERENA'S POVI count seconds. Minutes. Hours, maybe. The ticking clock on the wall becomes my only focus as I've stopped listening to the lecture entirely. My fingers tap relentlessly against the polished wooden desk—an impatient, staccato rhythm that's driving Cassidy crazy beside me, though she's too polite to say much beyond the occasional sigh and pointed glance. My eyes flick nervously from the analog clock to the window, where I spot one of the black-suited shadows stationed across the sun-drenched courtyard. Another bodyguard, stiff as a statue, lurks near the gym entrance, his eyes constantly scanning the perimeter. Yet another one positions himself strategically behind the library, almost blending into the shadows of the building. All of them here for me—watchful, vigilant, suffocating.I grit my teeth until my jaw aches. The realization sits heavy in my chest: I'm a prisoner in my own school, surrounded by walls both visible and invisible."Serena," Cassidy whispers, her war
SERENA'S POVI'm surrounded.Not by enemies, not by anything dangerous—well, not in the usual sense of supernatural threats that have become my unwelcome norm. Instead, I'm surrounded by four armed boarding guards stationed strategically throughout the school hallway as if I'm a high-profile political target under imminent threat of assassination. Their vigilant eyes scan everyone who walks by with clinical precision, their postures rigid as steel beams, their expressions ice-cold and perpetually alert, betraying nothing but absolute focus on their singular mission: keeping me "safe."And I am absolutely fuming.I clutch my notebooks to my chest with white-knuckled fingers, trying desperately to breathe past the tightness constricting my throat like an invisible hand. The weight of so many watchful gazes—both the guards' and the curious students'—presses down on me, making the hallway feel smaller with each passing second. I look at the guards again, scattered along the corridor like
The forest is unnaturally still, as if the very air has frozen in anticipation of some unspeakable event.Thick, serpentine mist coils around the gnarled roots of ancient trees as Isabella moves deeper into the woods at the far end of the city, her long dark gown trailing like spilled ink over the carpet of dead leaves. The fabric whispers against the forest floor, a sound too delicate for the malevolence that radiates from her slender form. Shadows crowd her from every angle, pressing against her skin like curious spectators, but she doesn't flinch. Not tonight. The searing pain in her chest is too consuming, drowning out all lesser fears.She grits her teeth, jaw muscles flexing visibly beneath her pale skin, each step sharp with fury and frustration that pulses from her like a beacon. The forest itself seems to shy away from her presence, branches curling back as she passes.Her mind, restless and raw, replays the moment again and again in vivid, excruciating detail—Serena suspende
SERENA'S POVI'm falling.There's no wind, no gravity—just this endless, sickening drop into a black pit that stretches forever beneath me. My arms flail wildly, desperate fingers grasping at empty air, seeking something, anything to halt my descent. But there's nothing. Just darkness so complete it seems to devour even the concept of light.I scream.No sound comes out. My vocal cords strain against the silence, but the void swallows every vibration before it can form into something real.I twist my body, neck craning painfully as I search frantically for a ledge, a crack, a single handhold in this endless darkness. Still nothing. Just me and the hungry void, its maw opened wide to consume me whole. Panic squeezes my lungs with iron bands, my chest burning with a helplessness so profound it feels like drowning on dry land. Then—A light.Far off, warm and pulsing like a heartbeat. Golden threads of hope in an ocean of despair. I reach for it with everything I have, muscles straining
The dust has barely settled, hanging suspended in beams of fractured light that pierce through the collapsed sections of ceiling.The building is a shell of what it was—walls cracked and splintered like brittle bones, furniture reduced to unrecognizable ruins, and the air heavy with the acrid sting of scorched magic that burns the nostrils with every breath. Ancient power lingers, a toxic residue clinging to every surface. But Frederick's eyes aren't on the wreckage surrounding them. They're locked on Serena—his daughter, his blood—with an intensity that could burn through steel.She lies still, her body cradled in Luna's arms like something precious and broken beyond repair. Her skin is ghostly pale against the dark fabric of Luna's clothes, her chest rising and falling in uneven rhythms. Luna kneels beside them, her slender hands hovering just above Serena's face, fingertips trembling with concentration. Her lips move in silent incantations—ancient words passed down through generati