LOGINNight crept over the estate with deceptive calm, the kind that made the darkness feel deliberate, as if it were waiting for permission to descend fully. Liana stood near the tall windows of Viktor’s east wing, arms wrapped tightly around herself, watching the lights along the perimeter flicker on one by one. Each glow marked a line of protection, each shadow between them a reminder that no barrier was ever complete. Somewhere beyond those gates, Dmitri Serov was moving pieces into place, confident enough to announce his presence, patient enough to wait for the right fracture. Behind her, the room carried the quiet tension of restrained urgency. Viktor had retreated into himself after Caden left, his posture rigid as he reviewed information on his tablet, jaw clenched, eyes dark with calculation. She could tell when he was angry; it was never loud, never dramatic, but it lived in the stillness of him, in the way he stopped pacing and started planning. It unsettled her more than any ra
Liana stayed longer than she had planned, not because Viktor asked her to, but because neither of them seemed able to find the right moment to let the conversation end, as if speaking meant keeping the fragile bridge between them intact and silence risked watching it collapse. The late afternoon light faded slowly, turning the room into a gradient of shadow and gold, and Viktor shifted carefully on the couch as the pain in his side grew sharper, though he never once mentioned it. She noticed anyway, of course she did, the way his breathing changed when he moved, the tension in his jaw when he tried to hide discomfort, and the quiet resignation in his eyes when he realized she had seen through him yet again.“You should lie down,” she said softly, for what felt like the tenth time.He exhaled, the corner of his mouth lifting in a faint, tired smile. “You sound like my doctor.”“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she replied, though her smile didn’t quite
The room seemed to contract around them the moment Viktor spoke, as if the walls themselves leaned in to listen, as if the air thickened with the kind of gravity that only existed when two people stood on the edge of a truth they could no longer avoid. Liana closed the door behind her gently, the soft click echoing louder than it should have, and for a heartbeat neither of them moved. Viktor remained seated, shoulders tense, one hand resting protectively over the bandages beneath his shirt, while she stood near the entrance with her coat still on, fingers curled tightly around the strap of her bag like it was the only thing anchoring her to the ground.She had imagined this moment on the drive over, had rehearsed dozens of versions of what she might say when she saw him again, but every prepared sentence evaporated the instant their eyes met. There was something different about him now—something stripped bare. The usual iron control that wrapped around him like armor w
Liana had never been good at pretending everything was fine, yet somehow she had spent the entire morning doing exactly that—answering her brothers’ questions with half-truths, keeping her gaze lowered whenever Viktor’s name slipped into the conversation, and biting the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood every time her mind replayed the moment he whispered that he didn’t want to hurt her anymore. The house felt too loud, too crowded with the intensity of her brothers’ overprotective presence, and she kept moving from room to room as if she could outrun the heaviness growing inside her chest. Leo and Marcus argued in the kitchen about something she didn’t catch, probably something petty, but even that familiar noise felt distant, like her mind was wrapped in fog.She tried distracting herself—folding laundry she didn’t need to fold, organizing books that didn’t need organizing, cleaning the same corner three times—but nothing stopped her thoughts from circling back to Viktor
The Carver mansion was rarely quiet, but that night, the silence felt thick enough to swallow sound. Every corner seemed to hold its breath. Every shadow felt deeper than usual. Every small noise echoed through the halls like a warning.After the note was found in Liana’s room, her brothers moved with the tense coordination of men who were both furious and scared, even if none of them admitted it out loud. It was almost unsettling to watch — seeing the normally loud, chaotic Carver household turn into something sharp and vigilant. Something that reminded Liana that despite their teasing, their jokes, and their reckless outbursts, her brothers were wolves in their own right.And right now, they were hunting.Markus was downstairs securing the entrances. Elias was double-checking cameras. Luca was pacing with his phone pressed to his ear, whispering urgently to someone on the security team. Leo stayed glued to Liana’s side, shadowing every step she took through the house, refusing to le
The drive back to the Carver mansion felt longer than usual, as if every street stretched itself to hold the weight of Liana’s thoughts. The sky was darkening with heavy clouds, the kind that warned of an evening storm. Beside her, Leo sat stiffly with his arms crossed, his protective energy filling the car like a wall between her and the world outside.She should have felt safe.But she didn’t feel anything close to safe.She felt watched.Not by Leo. Not by any of her brothers.But by Viktor.Even from the hospital bed, even pale and injured, his dark eyes had tracked her. Not possessively. Not like he owned her. But like he was memorizing her, committing every detail to some private place in his mind. As if he knew she wouldn’t be back anytime soon.As if he feared he was losing her.And Liana didn’t know what scared her more — that Viktor might be right… or that she didn’t want him to be.“Lian







