MasukEMILY I didn’t realize how badly I needed to see him until I was standing in front of the door.My hand hovered over the wood for a second longer than necessary, my chest rising and falling like I had just run a mile instead of walked down a quiet street. It felt ridiculous, the way my heart was beating fast, uneven, like it didn’t know whether it was about to break or heal.Then I knocked.Soft at first.Then again, louder.Footsteps came from inside, and the moment the door opened, everything inside me cracked.“Miriam…”Her name left my lips like a breath I had been holding for days.She didn’t say anything at first. She just stared at me like she was trying to confirm I was real and not something her mind had made up out of worry.Then she pulled me into her arms.I held her back just as hard.“You’re alive,” she whispered against my shoulder, her voice breaking in a way I had never heard before. “Emily, you’re alive…”“I am,” I murmured, but my own voice wasn’t steady either. “I
EMILY When Julian didn’t come that afternoon, I found myself breathing a little easier. I convinced myself he had changed his mind, that he wouldn’t force me to leave the west after all. That night, though, my thoughts refused to settle. War consumed everything. I lay awake imagining it, the fighting, the bloodshed, the chaos and I was afraid. Not only for myself, but for him. I pictured Julian deep in the jungle, fleeing the west troops, alone and hunted. Sleep never truly came.It was almost midnight when he finally stepped into my room.Relief flooded me so sharply it hurt. I hadn’t realized how much I needed to see him until that moment.“What’s going to happen?” I asked immediately.“War,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time. My guess is South troops will arrive in a month or two.”“That long?”“Congress will debate. Then they’ll have to mobilize, supply, coordinate, transport…” His expression was grim. “It takes time.”Something in his face made my stomach tighten. “What is it
EMILY I woke early, far earlier than I should have after the horrors of the night before.Bright tropical sunlight streamed through the open balcony doors, flooding the room with warmth that felt almost cruel in contrast to everything I had seen. Sleep had come in fragments, restless, broken and when it did, it brought nightmares with it. I had seen the dead again. Burned bodies. Broken men. And Alessandro… My goodness, Alessandro. In my dreams he had been alive, charred and accusing, blaming me for leaving him and for choosing Julian and promising that he was going to take my son from me.When I finally surfaced into full awareness, my first clear thought struck like a blow: the Maine had been destroyed. So many had died. Alessandro had possibly died too.And Julian… Julian had been here with me.He had brought me home just as he promised. I could not remember the journey itself, only flashes, his voice calming a panicked Venida, insisting that I was safe, that I was unharmed. I rem
EMILY “Julian!” I called out.He was already moving away from the docks, trudging as though each step weighed more than the last. His shoulders were slumped, his posture defeated, and even from a distance I could see how utterly exhausted he was.My chest tightened at the sight of him.Pride surged through me despite everything—the horror, the chaos, the smoke still curling into the night sky. I had seen what he had done. I had arrived at the harbor just after the explosions, just in time to witness the Maine engulfed in flames. Later, through the confusion, I had caught a glimpse of him dragging an unconscious sailor from the sea.I had wanted to go to him then.But I hadn’t been able to.The wounded had come in waves, burned, broken, screaming and I had been pulled into the desperate rhythm of the relief effort. I had worked without pause, tending to one victim after another until my hands moved almost without thought, until I could barely distinguish one face from the next.Now, f
JULIAN I rode across the road like a madman.There was no control, no restraint—only speed and desperation. I drove my black stallion forward in a reckless gallop, spurring him on despite the foam lathering his neck and flanks. He was exhausted, but I gave him no mercy. I couldn’t. And what was worse, was how my mind played this same scenario over and over again because this was how I lost her the first time. People shouted as I tore through the streets. Pedestrians leapt aside. Carriages swerved. I barely saw them. Barely registered anything at all. There was only one thought in my mind—Emily.Her face burned behind my eyes, clear and inescapable.I cursed Alessandro under my breath, over and over. The damned fool. The useless, blind fool. Every second lost felt like a betrayal, like a mistake I couldn’t undo.Then the horse went down.Half a mile from the docks, his legs buckled beneath him, and he collapsed hard onto the road. I didn’t even have time to react properly. I was thro
JULIAN I knew I should have stayed away but I couldn’t.Our last encounter had unsettled me more than I cared to admit. It lingered, pressing at the edges of my thoughts, refusing to be dismissed. I found myself torn in two—one part of me wanting to believe her, the other resisting with everything I had. It was taking an exhausting amount of willpower not to trust her, not to give in to what I wanted to believe.The truth was harder to ignore than I liked. I was afraid that I was falling for her in a way I hadn’t planned, in a way I couldn’t control. And I didn’t see how anything between us could survive the weight of the past, the misunderstandings, or the undeniable differences in where we came from. Those things didn’t just disappear because I wanted them to.Still, I came to the East to look for her after promising myself that I'd give her distance.I kept to the shadows as I entered the small estate, moving carefully, making sure no one saw me. Old habits. A quick glance around
JULIAN I had known we would be followed. I had been certain of it. It wasn’t logic, it was sheer, hardened instinct.And I had been right.I crouched on a rock ledge above the narrow trail that wound toward the rim of the plateau. The path was treacherous even in daylight—slow, rough, and easy eno
EMILYHe had lied after all.I clung to the hot anger that swept through me. Anger was better and safer than the hurt and disappointment that had filled me after our night of sheer pleasure. My fingers dug into his shoulders as we cantered between two towering buttes, leaving the town farther and f
ALESSANDRO I have not slept in days. The clock in my study has ticked through two full nights since Julian took her, and every single sound feels like a hammer against my skull. I was loosing my damn mind. Because I am one word away from burning this entire place down.“She’s not at the northern
EMILYwe rode to the boarder, and I was aware only of him, of him and my dangerous thoughts. He was the most attractive man I had ever met, even though I've met countless men or maybe it was because he was my mate. The feel of his body behind mine was erotic and sexy. we were never going to see eac







