LOGIN~~~DARIUS.There was silence in the room for a long while.Not the calm kind or the empty kind.The kind that made every sound louder, every breath, every shift of weight, and every heartbeat.I watched the woman closely, listening beyond sight. Her heart was steady, too steady in fact. It was slow, even, and unafraid. There was no panic in her rhythm, no spike of dread, and no frantic flutter beneath her ribs.Only the blood smeared across her lips told me she had already been handled.I finally moved and settled into the chair across from her, crossing my legs with deliberate ease.“You know what is worse than fear?” I asked.She lifted her gaze to me, eyes sharp, defiant, and unblinking. She did not answer.“Pain,” I said.Her head tilted slightly, curiosity flickering through her expression as she tried to follow my thoughts.“Fear makes the mind run,” I continued calmly. “It imagines, guesses and prepares.” I leaned back. “But pain… pain does not ask for permission.”I rose to my
~~~DARIUS.“We found her!”Ronan barged into my office, and my eyes shot up immediately.“What?” I asked.“We found her. That woman,” he said again, his voice tight with urgency. “I’ve found her.”The scrolls slipped from my hands and scattered across the floor as I stood up slowly. My heart was already pounding.It had been three days since the sketch was drawn. Three days since her face was plastered across every corner of the pack. Three days of waiting, watching, and hunting.And now…“How?” I asked again, my voice low.“It is as we suspected,” Ronan said. “She is a sorceress.”“What?” The word left my mouth sharper than I intended.“Last night,” he continued, “an old woman came to me in secret. She said she was risking everything by speaking. Turns out… all the hidden mages and witches in this pack hate her.”I stiffened. “Hidden?”“They fear her,” Ronan added. “Not because she is powerful alone, but because she works without loyalty. She sells her craft to anyone who pays enough
~~~ELENA.“Did something happen between you and the Alpha, my Luna?” Lyra finally asked after minutes of walking in silence.A couple of days ago, I had snapped at her, telling her not to say a word unless I asked. And she had taken it seriously. She barely spoke to me at all until she clocked out for the day.Yesterday morning, when she resumed her usual duties, she still carried that same cautious, and careful energy. God, I had legit told her to talk as much as she liked and that I didn’t mind.I had to admit that I had no idea just how much she had grown on me until this moment.“Why did you think so?” I chuckled.“The alpha’s pheromones. God, my Luna, it was… like… like the air itself became heavy and warm, and I couldn’t breathe properly at first. My head was spinning, my knees felt like jelly, and I… I just… wanted to sink to the ground and not move,” Lyra admitted, her cheeks pink.I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Weak because of it?”She waved her hand, frustrated. “Not weak, ex
~~~ELENA.“Excuse me?” My brows snapped together at his words.“Yes, Elena,” Darius said without hesitation. “I would kill him for the second time. I would dig his grave and kill him over and over again if I could.”I stared at him like he had completely lost his mind.“You are crazy.”His jaw tightened, his eyes darkening in a way that made my chest feel tight. “He could have helped you without marrying you. He didn’t need to put a ring on your finger. How dare another man claim what belonged to me?”I parted my lips to argue, to scream, and to remind him that he had lost the right to say anything about my life but the words died in my throat.Because he meant it.There was no exaggeration in his tone. No anger just for show. This wasn’t pride speaking. This was something deeper, something raw, ugly, and possessive.Gods, how could a person be so jealous that even death wasn’t enough?How could he want to kill a man who was already gone?“You don’t get to say that,” I finally said, m
~~~ELENA.For a moment, every heavy thing I had carried for four years… every thought, every memory, and every wound suddenly went quiet the second Darius’ lips touched mine.A soft sound escaped me before I could stop it. His mouth moved slowly at first, like he was afraid I would pull away too soon. But when I didn’t, when my lips parted the slightest bit to answer him, his hand tightened at the back of my neck, deepening the kiss in a way that made my knees turn weak.His lips were warm, steady, searching… like he had been starving for this. For me.I felt myself give in. My fingers lifted, shaking, and reaching for the front of his clothes. All I wanted in that moment was to pull him closer, to forget everything, to drown in him like I used to.But the moment my hands brushed his chest, my mind screamed at me.Four years of pain.Four years of hurt.Four years of fighting to stand again.And just like that, something inside me snapped back into place.With every bit of strength I
~~~ELENA.“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Darius said as I walked fully into the office.I didn’t respond. My eyes moved around the room instead, and my arms folded tightly across my chest.“Nothing has changed in here,” I murmured.“Right?” I could feel the smile in his voice even though I wasn’t looking at him.He stood there, watching me closely, too closely. I could almost feel the weight of his eyes on my body.“Do you remember?” he asked softly. “You used to sit here with me until nightfall, so that I wouldn’t be bored working alone. Sometimes you even helped me sort through paperwork.” A quiet chuckle left him.I kept my expression blank, refusing to fall into the wave of memories forcing their way into my chest. The nostalgia was warm… too warm. I cleared my throat softly, staring at the tiny crack in the marble floor instead of meeting Darius’s gaze. My palms felt damp, and my breathing was uneven. And I tried to do everything to avoid those eyes.Those dark, searchin







