LOGINI scented her before the door opened, her copper-honey fragrance cutting through the miasma of blood and fear. Ares surged forward, anticipation coursing through our veins like lightning. Our Queen had returned. Our mate had come back to us after rejecting what we were. My fingers tightened around the heated metal rod as I turned to face the doorway, Julian's whimpers fading to white noise behind me. There she stood, framed in torchlight, her face unreadable as she took in the scene before he
I cried out as Lukas stretched me, my body opening to his with a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. He filled me completely, my inner walls clenching around him as if trying to keep him inside forever. My head fell back against the pillow, copper hair spread beneath me as I moaned his name, my voice breaking on the syllable. I needed more… harder, faster, deeper… my body and mind consumed by a hunger I’d never experienced before.“More,” I gasped, my nails digging into his shoulders as he held himself above me, his ice-blue eyes dark with need. “Please, Lukas, I need more.”He nodded, the movement barely perceptible before he began to move. His pace was perfect, each thrust hitting that spot inside me that sent sparks of pleasure racing up my spine. My back arched, my body rising to meet his with desperate urgency. I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist, trying to pull him deeper, to take all of him at once.
I froze the moment her scent changed, a new note of sweetness breaking through her familiar fragrance of copper and pine. My nostrils flared, lungs filling with the intoxicating aroma that set my blood boiling in my veins.Heat.My mate’s first heat.Ares surged forward with such force that I nearly staggered, his golden presence flooding my consciousness with a single, overwhelming demand: claim, mate, breed.Amelia doubled over, her breath catching in a pained gasp that echoed in my ears like thunder. Her copper hair fell forward, hiding her face, but I didn’t need to see her expression to know what was happening. Every instinct in my body screamed with recognition.“You need to go,” I managed, the words emerging as nearly a growl. My eyes remained fixed on Amelia, on the curve of her back as she fought through the first wave of her heat.“My King?” Nico’s voice, questioning from somewhere behind m
I paced the length of Lukas’s office, markers clutched in my white-knuckled grip, the whiteboard behind me covered in theories, locations, and question marks. A week. We had exactly one week before the second blood moon, and the Voice remained as elusive as shadow. My head throbbed with lack of sleep, with the constant presence of Sera’s whispers at the edges of my consciousness. Despite everything we’d tried, every search party, every interrogation, every threat, Sam and Sera Redwood remained hidden, their followers multiplying while we stood still.My jaw ached from clenching it, my shoulders tight with tension no amount of pacing could release. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, frustration bubbling beneath my skin like poison.“I literally have no idea where else to look,” I said, turning to face the men who’d watched my increasingly desperate performance for the past hour. Lukas sat in his chair, posture perfectly controlled though I caught the tightness around his eyes,
Amelia froze beside me, her hand in mine suddenly cold as ice, her breathing shallow and quick. The rogues’ words hung in the air between us, Sera’s message echoing off the stone walls of the throne room. ‘You are Amala Luna Velasco, and your hands will be stained with the blood of the King.’ The same words that had haunted Amelia since Sera first invaded her mind, now spoken in perfect unison by eight drugged followers of the Voice. I squeezed her hand, hoping to anchor her to reality, to remind her she wasn’t alone in this battle.“It’s not real,” I whispered, my voice pitched low enough that only she could hear. “They’re just mouths for Sera’s voice, nothing more.”She nodded, the movement barely perceptible, but I felt the slight tension in her shoulders ease. Her eyes remained fixed on the rogues, emerald green and full of a determination that never failed to
I woke with a jolt, heart hammering against my ribs, the phantom echo of Sera’s voice still slithering through my thoughts. ‘You are Amala Luna Velasco, and your hands will be stained with the blood of the King.’ The words had followed me into sleep, twisted my dreams into nightmares, and now greeted me in the grey light of dawn. My sheets were damp with sweat, Lukas’s side of the bed already empty. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, trying to push away the lingering horror of Sera’s message. It didn’t matter what she said. It didn’t matter what the Voice wanted. I would not become their weapon.My body still ached from yesterday’s confrontation, muscles protesting as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I needed to move, to act, to do something rather than wait for Sera’s next assault on my mind. Athena stirred beneath my skin, her copper presence warming as she pushed forw
I should have been offended, or at the very least surprised, but the absurdity of it, of Lily daring to strike the Alpha Queen and immediately announcing her exclusive rights to do so, broke something loose in my chest. A laugh escaped, dry and brittle and somehow turning into a sob halfway through. I buried my face against her shoulder, my body shaking with the force of emotions I’d been holding back since Sera first appeared in my mind.“They’re trying to make me kill Lukas,” I gasped between sobs, the words tearing my throat raw. “They’re trying to make me kill my mate, Lily. They’re in my head, showing me things, making me see things that aren’t real, and I can’t make them stop.”Lily’s arms tightened around me, one hand coming up to cradle the back of my head with surprising gentleness after her earlier assault. “They won’t win,” she said, her voice fierce with certainty. “Th
I had barely reached the palace's ground floor when I heard the whispers. Two guards, heads bent together, voices hushed but not enough: "the King shifted right in the courtyard—tore off running into the forest like hellhounds were after him." The second guard nodded. "Five of the royal guard fol
I woke at 4am, my eyes snapping open in the darkness as if Athena had flipped a switch inside me. The wolfsbane's burn had receded to a dull throb, no longer spreading fire through my veins but leaving its bitter memory etched in every muscle. Beside me, Lukas slept fitfully, his face troubled ev
I lowered myself onto my throne with deliberate grace, refusing to show even a hint of the fatigue that still lingered in my bones. The wolfsbane's poison might not have killed me, but its ghost remained, a dull ache that Athena's accelerated healing hadn't fully conquered. She stirred within me,
I watched Amelia rise from her throne with regal grace, her spine straight, her chin lifted in that way that still took my breath away after all these months. There was nothing of the servant girl left in her now—only the Queen, the Alpha female, the mate who had fought through poison and treache







