Semua Bab CLAIMING HAILEY : Bab 211 - Bab 220

AKAEL The second we crossed the threshold of the dark forest, I felt it. A thrum. A summons. Not in words, but in the binding seal that encircles my soul like a chain soaked in fire. Father was calling us. "He knows," I whispered. Akasha tensed at my side. "Of course, he does." We did not speak again as we walked. Our boots crunched through dry sticks, leaves whispering in fear overhead. The silence between us was heavy, not with guilt, but with inevitability. There has never been a time when Father wasn't aware of what we were up to. There has never been a time when his punishments were lenient. The garden gates loomed as a cage of bone and sorrow. When I went to touch the obsidian iron, they groaned open of their own accord. The garden inside was too perfect. Never-wilting flowers, blood-red roses with crystal thorns, vines that shone silver in the moonlight. The one place Father smiled. A sanctuary of control. He was already there. Audacus stood between, in midnight. Wings

RYAN The rain began just as I shut the motel room door behind me. It pinged off the roof in a rhythm that mirrored the storm inside my chest. A dull ache had settled behind my eyes. The silence in the room screamed louder than any council chamber ever had. No guards. No royal quarters. Just four walls and a bed that smelled like bleach and regret. I wanted the quiet. I craved it. And yet, it grated against me like broken glass. Jackson and Logan had followed me, but I’d sent them away. I am too pissed to be reasonable at the moment and my emotions keep spiraling out of my control. I should hear her out, get to the bottom of things but the fact that kids that aren't mine but of hers and our mortal enemy's checks me wrongfully. I had sworn that any children carried by her will be mine and mine alone yet for some reason she has not one but two existing out there. There were words I couldn’t say with Jackson and Jermaine hovering, thoughts I couldn’t afford to speak aloud. If I stayed i

JADEN The scent of old bark trees, burning lavender, and polished incense wrapped around me the moment I stepped into the study. Mother always kept this room like a sanctuary, quiet and untouched by time and presence, a temple of thought. I hadn't told anyone I was coming; it's meant to be a surprise. Cheesy, yes, especially considering the fact that my brothers and I were parents now and I had pulled a tantrum and hated my mom the most for dividing us all, but the more I grew, the more I understood her, and after becoming a parent myself, I appreciated her more. Something inside me just pulled me here, and no matter how hard I tried to shake it off, I couldn't. Mother needed me. She didn't hear me enter. She sat with her back to the door, draped in her silken veil, that same ethereal fabric that always hid more than her beauty. She was staring at a map of the realms, fingers ghosting over one of the old battle zones, the one where she had almost died; she was so focused and lost i

RYANI’d never known silence could be so deafening. The hum of the engine, the crunch of gravel under the tyres, the faint creak of the old gate as I stepped into the palace grounds—all of it felt unreal and surreal. Like I was walking through someone else’s nightmare. Except it was mine. All mine.I didn’t expect the event to feel so heavy. My limbs dragged with every step I took, my chest felt constricted, and the palace loomed ahead; a place that once meant sanctuary now felt like judgement incarnate.The guards straightened as I passed. They didn’t say a word. I didn’t need them to. My shame was written in every line of my body.I walked in. My boots echoed against the marble. Hailey’s scent still lingered—jasmine and something wild. I paused outside the study door. For a second, I thought about turning back. Pretending none of this had happened. But that wasn’t who I was. No matter how badly I wanted to crawl out of my skin.I opened the door.She was sitting by the fire, wrapped in h

SERENIAI stood at the edge of the royal garden, clad in flowing silk and flashy jewelry I hadn’t earned, my three beautiful sons cooing beside me. Each a perfect replica of Ryan—the way his jaw cut like granite, his dark, tempestuous eyes, and the wolfish smirk that could melt the resolve of the most disciplined soldier. Jaden is shocked speechless as he watches them avoid his attack by taking up a force filled shield.They were flawless. And they were mine. Mine. Not Hailey’s. Not the Council's, not Marissa, Lyna, Logan or any of the busy bodies, not that sickening brat Turtela. Mine.I smoothed my hair and squared my shoulders. Today was supposed to be Hailey’s big day—the pompous, over-the-top recoronation of the so-called Queen of All Species. What a joke. Three years of secrecy, three years of keeping my children out of sight, and for what? To spare her feelings? To preserve some illusion of her perfect little dynasty? No more.I strolled onto the dais without invitation, without