LOGINEliza,I stared at my hands, still shaking from the incident earlier. The fine tremor ran from the tips of my fingers up through the tendons of my wrists and into the soft underside of my forearms. Skin felt tight and slightly damp. I was not scared. I was thrilled. The energy of what I had seen still moved through me in restless waves, sharp enough to keep the shake from settling.The Thorne family had raised me like a woman who never would bow her head to others. From the earliest lessons the rule had been clear and absolute. I was ruthless when it came to my business and money. Deals closed hard. Softness never entered the room. At the same time I was insecure about my appearance and my ability to join a combat. The private catalog of small flaws lived quietly behind every polished surface I presented. Until today I never let anyone know except her, the Lycan Queen.But to my absolute shock, despite being a Plus-size woman like me, she didn't look back. She fought with absolute st
Novaretta, “You have to pay for extra for working overtime.” I whispered to Corvus while grabbing the drumsticks from his plate. The words slipped out low enough that only he could hear them over the soft clink of silverware and the low murmur of conversation around the long dining table. My fingers closed around the warm, seasoned meat without hesitation. Everyone looked at me with wide eyes. Nobody had dared to touch his plate without washing hands three times and I was grabbing the drumsticks without any hesitation. Carolina’s face cracked with a smirk. The hint of wickedness was glinting behind those eyes, wishing to see how he reacted. She leaned forward slightly in her chair, as if the entire performance had been staged for her amusement. Across from her, Flora’s gaze flicked between us with quiet interest, while my mother-in-law kept her expression carefully neutral. To everyone’s surprise, Corvus placed a few cucumber slices on my plate. “The payment is negotiable.” He
Novaretta,“The lunch is ready. Come with me.”Corvus stood in the doorway, one shoulder resting against the frame while I finished applying sunscreen to my face. The cream smelled faintly of citrus and left a light coolness on my skin. Afternoon light spilled in behind him, outlining the sharp lines of his posture.I nodded and reached for my phone. “Do you have Eliza’s number? I forgot to save it.”He shook his head once. “No. Asher can collect it.”“Alright.” I walked over to him. “Let’s go. I’m starving.”“Did you take your medicine first?”“I don’t need medicine now. I feel great. I could take down two hundred people if I had to.”By the time we reached the elevator, the earlier memory of the forgotten button had already returned. We both laughed again, quiet but genuine. Corvus rarely showed unnecessary emotion, yet this time he did not hold the sound back. The change softened the hard edges of his face, and for a moment he looked almost approachable. The elevator hummed downwa
Novaretta,“You don’t have to carry me in.” I opened the car door the moment the vehicle stopped in front of the estate. Corvus’s calm expression cracked for a second before it smoothed over again. He did not stop me this time.Something slipped from my lap and hit the ground with a soft thud as I stepped out. The afternoon air carried the scent of damp stone and cut grass. The guards stationed near the entrance watched me with open scrutiny, the kind that measured and dismissed in a single glance, as though I owed them an explanation for standing there. The weight of those stares settled across my shoulders.Then Corvus stepped out behind me. Their expressions changed at once, the judgment vanishing into careful, respectful smiles.“Welcome home, Your Majesty.”He ignored them and looked at me instead. “Do you have time?”I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. The fabric was soft against my fingers. “I have all the time in the world. What do you want?”“Let’s have lunch to
Novaretta,Corvus carried me all the way through the thinning trees. His scent was too overwhelming for me to stay quiet. The mate-bond reacted with a restless, crawling heat under my skin, tightening in my chest and low in my stomach until every breath felt borrowed. I did not want to feel anything about him. The physical pull was simply a fact of the bond, nothing more. Still, my mind kept cataloguing the solid band of his arm beneath my knees, the steady press of his chest against my side, the dark lethal edge of his scent that somehow settled rather than alarmed me. I felt comfortable in his arms in a way that made my throat tighten with quiet resentment.For a second the thought of him leaving me alone last night instead of staying with me crossed my mind. A faint ache bloomed behind my ribs. I had not been important enough to be held through the fever. That complaint was too small, too insignificant to care. Most of me, the practical part that had survived worse, understood th
Novaretta,Eliza’s expression turned serious the moment the footsteps reached us. Her Lycan stirred behind her eyes, bright and ready. We both held our breath. The cold night breeze kept threading through our hair, carrying the damp smell of grass and distant earth. Eliza’s hand found mine. It was shaking. She looked more shaken than she wanted to admit.Then the faint metallic scent of blood drifted toward us. Eliza stiffened, but her gaze stayed sharp, scanning the dark between the trees.Three figures appeared, heavy armor dull under the moonlight, silver daggers glinting at their sides. The sharp, chemical bite of wolfsbane rode the air with them. My pulse jumped once, then settled into something colder and more useful.“Don’t make any noise. Hide behind that tree.”We rolled across the grass, the blades cold and wet against my skin, and pressed ourselves behind the thick trunk. The men kept walking, far enough that they had not noticed us yet, close enough that we could see what







