LOGINVanessa's POV The morning sun didn’t warm the northern estate; it merely cast a harsh, unforgiving light across the shattered pieces of a night I refused to let break me.I didn't sleep. I spent the dark hours sitting in the velvet armchair by the bedroom window, watching the horizon bleed from pitch black to a bruised, sickly gray. Every time I closed my eyes, the image of Abel stumbling through the foyer—smelling of cheap whiskey and cheap deceit, wearing another woman's mark on his collar—burned behind my eyelids.He had chosen his side. He had chosen his whiskey, his closed doors, and his silent betrayals.Fine. Let him keep them.By six in the morning, I had changed into a dark, fitted tactical jumpsuit and heavy leather boots. I checked on Ethan one last time; he was still curled up deep beneath his duvet, breathing evenly, his small face relaxed in sleep. I pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, leaving strict instructions with the head maid that he was not to leave the suite u
The Bait and the Broken TrustThe heavy oak doors of Abel’s mansion slammed shut behind me, the sound echoing hollowly across the marble porch.I didn't pack a bag. I didn't leave a note. I walked straight down the front steps, ignoring the cold bite of the evening wind, and motioned to one of the estate drivers waiting near the idling black town car. He didn't ask questions—the look on my face must have been enough to keep anyone from speaking. I yanked the rear door open, slid across the leather seat, and told him the only destination that mattered anymore.South.The drive took over an hour, cutting through the dark, winding highways that separated Abel’s fortified luxury grounds from my father’s territory. As the town car cleared the main security gates of my father’s estate, the atmosphere shifted instantly.This wasn't a quiet, pristine sanctuary of wealth. It was an armed camp holding its breath before a storm.Heavy steel barricades blocked the main drive. Armed guards in tact
Vanessa's POV The coffee in the heavy porcelain cup had gone stone cold. I hadn’t touched it in an hour.I sat at the edge of the velvet-upholstered armchair in the estate’s private library, staring out the towering, floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the sprawling, frost-veiled expanse of the northern grounds. Down below, across the manicured lawns and the wide cobblestone driveway, security patrols moved in quiet, measured strides. They were professionals, carrying sleek sidearms tucked beneath tailored coats rather than heavy battlefield kits. This wasn't a trench-lined army base. It was a sprawling, hyper-fortified luxury estate—a modern fortress of glass, dark timber, and reinforced stone built to house a king who had traded his formal military uniform for an alpha’s crown years ago, even if he had never truly shaken the rigid discipline of his past.And right now, that fortress felt like a gilded cage.My father was out there.I didn't need a formal intelligence report or a tapp
Vanessa's POV The fluorescent lights of the northern district trauma ward hummed with a low, relentless drone, casting a sterile white glare across the linoleum floor.I sat in the stiff metal chair beside the narrow hospital bed, my elbows propped on my knees, staring blankly at the steady, rhythmic rise and fall of Mandy’s chest beneath the thin cotton blanket. The rhythmic bip-bip-bip of the heart monitor was the only sound keeping time in the quiet room.Inside my head, the silence was deafening, and it was driving me slowly out of my mind.How long is this going to last?The question echoed through my thoughts, cold and sharp as a shard of broken glass. How many more mornings would I wake up waiting for the next shoe to drop, the next alarm to wail, the next piece of news to rip whatever fragile ground I was standing on straight out from under me? We were constantly reacting. We were always dancing to Ronan’s psychotic, methodical tune, dodging his traps, putting out his fires,
The Shattered GlassVanessa's POV The heavy oak dining doors were still swinging on their splintered hinges when Mandy collapsed face-first onto the cold marble foyer floor.Abel dropped his hand from the butt of his sidearm, taking a sharp, instinctive stride forward, his golden eyes narrowing in disbelief. "Who the hell is she?"Before I could answer, Mandy let out one final, ragged gasp, her fingers twitching against the polished stone before her body went completely limp, passing out cold right on the spot.A second later, heavy, frantic boot steps echoed across the courtyard as four territorial patrol officers rushed through the broken doorway, their weapons drawn and breathing hard. They skidded to a halt in the foyer, their eyes darting between Abel, the shattered door, and the unconscious woman bleeding on the marble."Commander Abel! We are so sorry—" the lead officer stammered, dropping his weapon's safety and lowering his rifle with shaking hands. "We tried to stop her at
The Weight of a UniformVanessa's POV The heavy oak door of my suite clicked shut behind me, sealing in the lingering chill of the hallway. I dragged my boots across the threshold, tossing them aside with a dull thud, my pulse still hammering a frantic, irritable rhythm against my ribs.Ethan was already awake.He was sitting cross-legged in the center of the plush guest bed, his dark hair tousled from sleep, staring intently at a small, flickering metallic sphere he was levitating a few inches above his palm using his raw kinetic pull. The air around him hummed with a low, static charge that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.Before I could open my mouth to tell him to drop it, a sharp, polite rap sounded against the outer entry door.I crossed the room in three strides and pulled it open. Two junior housemaids stood in the corridor, their hands clasped respectfully in front of their aprons, their eyes lowered."Your Grace," the lead maid murmured, dipping her head. "We’ve brou







