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Author: Calliee
last update publish date: 2026-04-20 19:27:39

OLIVIA

Axiel started the engine and turned to me one more time before putting the car in gear. "Are you absolutely sure about this? Once we leave, it's a long drive back if you change your mind."

I stared out the windshield at the Barcelona skyline, at the city that had been my home for years, and felt nothing but the hollow ache in my chest.

"I'm sure," I said quietly.

"Alright then." His voice was gentle. "Let's do this."

He pulled out of the parking garage, and I watched the hotel disappear
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  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Three days

    OLIVIA It was a small laugh, kind of rusty, like something that hadn't been used in a long time… but it was real, and it moved across his face and made him look, for just a moment, like someone I remembered from a long time ago. Someone from before everything went wrong.From the doorway, Axiel was no longer pretending the cough was a cough."I'm going to accept it," I said, "and I'm going to make my own changes. Real ones. Not adjustments to the existing structure — a genuine rebuild from the ground up. New resource strategy, new alliance approach, new internal policies. The council will advise but they will not override me. Everything gets examined." I looked at my father directly. "All of it. Including things that have been done a certain way for thirty years simply because they've been done a certain way for thirty years.""Yes," he said, still recovering from the laugh. "Yes. Anything you need.""Good." I stood up, and he looked momentarily startled. "But not today.""Not—""I

  • The Bride He Never Wanted    I got you

    OLIVIAThe drive back to the main pack grounds felt different in the morning.Yesterday, coming in, everything had looked like a wound… the peeling paint and the overgrown paths and the hollow-eyed pack members had landed on me like evidence in a case I was still deciding whether to take. This morning, with proper sleep and Axiel's eggs and the particular clarity that comes from having actually made a decision, it looked different.Not better, exactly. The problems were all still there, plain as ever in the early light — a loose shutter hanging off the community hall, a fence line that needed replacing, a garden that wanted serious attention. Nothing had changed overnight.But it looked like a list now instead of a verdict.*That needs fixing. That needs replacing. That needs someone who actually cares to spend three hours with it and a set of tools.*Manageable problems. Hard, expensive, time-consuming, emotionally loaded… but manageable.I'd spent the drive making mental notes, and

  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Slow heat

    AXIELThe pack grounds were quieter now, the last lights going out in the windows as I crossed back toward my chambers. Overhead the sky was clear and I stopped for a moment and looked up at them.Two months I'd been living in this place, watching it slowly come apart and holding the whole operation together. Two months of careful conversations and long evenings and learning which elders were reachable and which were calcified beyond help. Two months of not knowing if any of it would work.And today Olivia Hunter had walked back through those gates and in the space of an afternoon had looked at a seven-year-old boy on a fence post and shaken his hand like a promise.Yeah. She was going to say yes.I walked back inside, and she was exactly where I'd left her… one hand tucked under her cheek, the covers pulled to her shoulder, breathing slow and even.I gently carried her to my room, placed her on the and laid beside her.I kept to my side, but the moment I settled against the pillow Ol

  • The Bride He Never Wanted    I appreciate it

    AXIELShe was asleep.I noticed the exact moment it happened… the way her breathing changed, slowing and deepening, the slight release of tension across her shoulders that had been there all day like something she'd been carrying and hadn't been able to put down. One moment she was watching the film with that expression she had… and then her head drifted, and then she was simply gone.Her head was on my shoulder.I stayed very still.I was aware that I was smiling in a way that probably looked ridiculous, and I was equally aware that there was nobody here to see it, so I let myself have it anyway. She's here.After everything… after months of living in a deteriorating pack and having difficult conversations with a dying Alpha and navigating the very delicate question of how to reach a woman who had every justifiable reason to want nothing to do with anything connected to the situation… she was here. In my space. Asleep on my shoulder, with the film still playing softly in the backgro

  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Are you okay?

    OLIVIAHe drove us off the main pack grounds to a smaller cluster of residential buildings on the territory's north edge… newer construction than the main residence, less grand but better maintained. He parked and led me to the second floor of the end unit, and when he opened the door I stopped in the doorway for a moment.Okay. He hadn't been exaggerating.It was warm, first of all… genuinely warm, with soft lighting. He'd rearranged the furniture into something that actually made sense for the space. There were books stacked on the side table and a decent rug under the coffee table and curtains that matched, which given what I'd seen of the rest of the pack's current state of resources seemed almost miraculous."Did you just… bring all of this?" I asked, stepping inside."Some of it. Some I found in the pack's storage." He shrugged out of his jacket and hung it by the door. "There's a lot of decent furniture buried in that storage building on the west side. Nobody's been using any

  • The Bride He Never Wanted    A quick stop

    OLIVIAAxiel was waiting in the hallway outside, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed."How'd it go?" he asked."He wants me to take over as Alpha."Axiel blinked. "Well. That's... not a small ask.""No. It is not." I started walking and he fell into step beside me easily, matching my pace. "He's also in worse shape than I thought. The famine is real, the pack numbers are down, and half their alliances have dissolved." I glanced at him sideways. "You knew all of this when you came to get me.""I knew some of it.""Axiel.""I knew most of it," he amended. "But I also knew that if I led with *your father's pack is in famine and falling apart and he wants you to take over as Alpha,* you might have said no before you'd seen it for yourself.""You were probably right," I admitted. "I'm still slightly annoyed.""Noted."We walked in silence for a moment, down the corridor toward the main entrance. Through the windows, I could see the pack grounds… the overgrown paths, the building

  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Gonna cum inside you

    OLIVIAThe words bubbled up from deep inside me, raw and unfiltered. "Ryan," I whispered against his lips, my voice coming out with need. "I want you. I want to feel you... all of you."Inside me, Raina stirred… a wild, joyful rumble echoing in my mind. ‘Yes, yes! Tell him to carry you to the room.

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-30
  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Stay for the night

    RYANShe studied my face for a long moment. With a small sigh, she leaned back against the tub. “Fine,” she said. “But if you do something weird, I’m splashing you.”I huffed a quiet laugh. “Fair.”I reached for the sponge, wetting it and adding a little soap. My movements were slow and gentle, lik

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-30
  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Can I come in?

    OLIVIALena had barely stepped out before I started moving. I didn’t even remember deciding to clean. One moment I was standing there staring at the door she’d just closed, and the next I was picking up cushions, straightening the throw on the couch, wiping down the counter like a madwoman. I lit

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-30
  • The Bride He Never Wanted    Personal space

    RYANI lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling, my chest rising and falling too fast to be normal. Olivia was tucked against my side, half on top of me, her head resting on my chest.My arm was around her, my heart was still beating like it had run a mile, pounding so hard I was sure she could fe

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-30
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