LOGINI had been stuck here for almost a week, and every passing hour made the walls feel like they were closing in. Staying indoors was a dreadful, suffocating experience. I had essentially barricaded myself in the guestroom to avoid Lucien, and thankfully, he seemed to have taken the hint. He left me alone, though the silence of the estate felt more like a predatory wait than a peace offering.
The staff moved like ghosts, their footsteps muffled by carpets that cost more than my entireLucien’s POV I watched Seraphina storm off to her room. I was pissed off at her attitude towards Madame Vivienne and Talia. I stood in the hallway for a moment, listening to the heavy thud of her door closing upstairs. It felt like another barrier being slammed between us, just one more wall in a house already full of them. I didn't understand why she was attacking the only people who could actually help her. 'What's her problem?' I thought. I felt the heat of irritation rising in my chest, a sharp contrast to the cold morning air of the chateau. 'You are gonna ask that question, Lucien?' Kael said in a sarcastic tone. His voice was a low rumble in the back of my mind, dripping with a judgment I didn't have the patience for right now. I ignored him, she was acting up again, pushing me away. Just when I thought everything was going smoothly between us. I thought the drive to Calais had brought us closer, that the shared danger would make h
Seraphina’s POV I was exploring the home, and I saw pictures of different people. They were lined up along the dark wood of the hallway, their eyes following me as I moved. A lot of them look paler than normal. Probably people who lived here long ago. The air in this part of the house felt heavy, like the walls were holding onto the breath of everyone who had ever been tucked away here. The frames were heavy gold and silver, but the faces inside them looked like ghosts waiting for something to happen. I ran my fingers along the dusty edges, feeling the coldness of the stone floor through my thin socks. "What a pretty little cage he brought you too," she whispered. Her voice was like a cold breeze in my ear, mocking me. "It would be so much easy to kill him and everyone here now that we were alone." I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block her out. I could feel her pacing in my mind, her hunger for blood vibrating through my own skin. She liked the isola
Hannah’s POV "So this is it, huh?" Hannah said to the person. She was sitted in front of her, her eyes locked on the file in her hand as she flipped through it. The paper felt crisp under her fingers, filled with the kind of secrets that could burn a kingdom down. She looked at the photos, the medical reports, and the history that Seraphina had tried so hard to keep buried. "Yes, it is. Everything you need is in there," Tyler said with a sly grin. He was leaning back in his chair, his hands rubbing together in anticipation. He looked like a man who had finally found the winning lottery ticket and was just waiting to cash it in. The room was dim, the only light coming from a flickering lamp on the desk, making the shadows on his face look even more twisted. "Now, how would we deal with them?" Thomas said. He was pacing the small room, his footsteps heavy on the floorboards. He looked nervous, but the hunger for revenge was clear in his eye
Seraphina’s POV The drive north was gruesome, a relentless stretch of asphalt that seemed to drag on for a lifetime. Lucien had insisted that we travel by car, his voice leaving no room for argument. He claimed it was the only way to avoid suspicion, to stay beneath the radar. A part of me felt like he was hiding something—another secret tucked away in the dark corners of his mind—but I tried to push the suspicion down. He was doing this for my own good. He had to be, right? Still, the atmosphere in the cramped SUV was suffocating. For hours, the only sound was the low hum of the engine and the occasional, mutterings from the driver’s seat. Lucien was a man possessed, his knuckles white against the steering wheel as he whispered obscenities to himself in French. His phone was a permanent fixture in his hand, and every few miles, he would hiss into the receiver, his tone clipped and lethal as he coordinated with Alec or someone else in his network.
The walk to her room felt like a descent into a fever dream. Every second that had passed while she was unconscious was a needle under my skin, but now that she was awake, the fear had shifted into something else. I shoved the double doors open, the wood thudding against the bumpers with a violent crash that made the young doctor jump. She was sitting up in the bed, looking smaller than I remembered against the mountain of white pillows. She looked fragile, her skin like porcelain against the harsh, bleached linens, and the light in her eyes flickered with something haunting. Yet, she was still my Seraphina —the woman who had turned my world upside-down. I didn't waste a single moment. I crossed the room in three strides, my shadow falling over her before I pulled her into my arms, hauling her against my chest as if I could physically shield her from the secrets I was carrying. Her sweet, floral scent—mixed with the tang of the antiseptic—filled my sens
The headache was a rhythmic thumping behind my eyes, a physical manifestation of the stress Alec had been pouring into me for the last hour. I paced the length of my study, the floorboards creaking under the weight of a man who felt the world tilting on its axis. The familiar scents of the room—old parchment, expensive leather, and the lingering ozone of a storm—did nothing to calm the wolf clawing at my insides. Every step I took felt like I was walking on glass, the fragile peace I had built around Sephina shattered by the secrets Alec had unearthed. "The Blackwood family helped sign off on the death sentencing of Adrian Valentine and his son in order for no punishment to be administered against Sarah Blackwood," Alec had said earlier, his voice as cold and clinical as a surgeon's blade slicing through flesh. "They were always obsessed with the preservation of their lineage," I growled to the shadows, the words tasting like ash and bile. I spat the se
The first thing I noticed wasn't the light, but the silence. It wasn't the peaceful quiet of a sleeping house or the hushed anticipation of a library; it was a heavy, pressurized vacuum that seemed to ring in my ears. I opened my eyes and gasped. I wasn't in my bed. I wasn't even
It had been about a week since the fiasco that nearly levelled the main wing of the estate. Seraphina had been asleep since she collapsed in my arms, her body retreating into a protective coma. While she slept, I was left to clean up the wreckage—both the physical debris and
Lucien pov. We had just finished sparring, and the men and I were taking a break. It was intense, precisely what I needed to bleed off the agitation simmering under my skin. I had been losing my mind over Seraphina’s sudden coldness. Just when I thought my mate and I
I managed to walk back into the kitchen, my legs feeling like lead. I sat at one of the tables overlooking the outdoor patio, staring blankly at the horizon. The scenery was beautiful, a sprawling masterpiece of nature and wealth, but my heart was a chaotic mess. The rejection lett







