Lahat ng Kabanata ng TO DENY A LUNA: Kabanata 111 - Kabanata 120

VELARA'S POVThe car rolled smoothly over the darkened roads, headlights carving through the quiet of the night. Inside the vehicle, silence lingered—not strained, not uncomfortable, just a soft, grounding hush that hung between us like a shared breath. It was the kind of silence that didn’t need to be filled, the kind born of two people carrying the weight of something unspoken. My fingers rested loosely in my lap, still tingling faintly with the memory of what I’d done.Marking him had changed everything. The bond had always existed, somewhere beneath the surface, quiet and trembling. Before this moment, it was easy to ignore—easy to treat it as some theoretical thread between us, too weak to mean anything real. But now, the mark burned like a flame in the dark, and there was no pretending anymore. It was real. Irrevocable. Public.And soon, everyone would know.The city would whisper first, and then it would scream. The mark on Damon’s neck wou

VELARA'S POVI waved off the earlier subject, urgency pressing harder now. Whatever else there was could wait. Right now, I needed clarity. My voice was steady as I turned to Isla, asking what she truly needed.“Yes.”Her shoulders were tight, and the strain in her voice made it clear how hard this had already been for her. She explained, carefully controlling her tone, that they were threatening to discharge him—unless he could start paying. The justification? A supposed lack of beds. But the truth was obvious beneath the excuse. He was a rogue. And rogues never got the benefit of the doubt.Behind me, Damon let out a gruff, disbelieving sound, the frustration in his voice sharp as he called it out for what it was—nonsense. He pointed out what we already knew. The hospital wasn’t even near full capacity.Isla dropped her gaze to the floor. There was a heavy silence before she admitted the truth, one we’d all grown painfully used to. It w

VELARA'S POVThere’s a strange tension in the air having Damon inside my home. It feels foreign. Off. The kind of awkwardness that prickles beneath the skin. Things I normally handle for Kael were now being redirected to his father. Like cutting up his food. All of a sudden, I wasn’t the one he needed. When it came time for his bath, he didn’t call for me. He wanted Damon.All evening, my hands felt useless, like they didn’t belong to me. The task was simple—just warming up dinner. Nothing complicated. Nothing strenuous. But the way they trembled slightly, hovering over the microwave buttons or fumbling with the edge of a plate, told a different story. I couldn’t focus. My body moved through the motions, but my mind was stuck somewhere far darker.Damon, on the other hand, said nothing. Not a single word of complaint. He didn’t even seem to notice how disconnected I was. He sat there, fully absorbed in Kael’s stories, his eyes softening in a way I hadn’t s

DAMON'S POVThe shower was impossibly cramped, like trying to clean myself inside a broom closet. Each movement brought chaos—an elbow collided sharply with the tiled wall, a bottle toppled from the overcrowded caddy, crashing onto the slick floor. I had barely stepped in before nearly knocking myself unconscious on the absurdly low showerhead. A few inches lower, and it would’ve doubled as a guillotine. Who on earth designed this torture chamber?And then there was the color.Everything—absolutely everything—was pink. A relentless explosion of bubblegum hues assaulted my senses. Pink shampoo lined the shelf like soldiers. Pink bars of soap sat in their trays, almost smug. A pink shower curtain clung to the rod like cotton candy, and the matching bathmats underfoot made it feel like I was showering inside a flamingo’s fever dream. I hadn’t imagined her to be the type to embrace this level of frilly chaos. Clearly, I’d misjudged. Regret crept in—I should’ve

VELARA'S POVThe hush of night wrapped around the house like a heavy blanket, still and undisturbed, until a sudden pressure in my lower belly dragged me out of slumber. Groggy and disoriented, I blinked into the darkness, only to feel the sharp protest of my spine as I shifted. My body was twisted awkwardly, wedged around a solid, warm weight in the center of the bed. Kael.Of course. His body stretched comfortably across the middle, arms flung out like he owned the mattress. No wonder my back throbbed. But as my gaze adjusted, it wasn’t Kael’s presence alone that made my breath hitch—it was the figure lying beside him.My body went rigid.A spike of tension gripped me as my muscles coiled tight. My thoughts scrambled, instincts screaming without reason. I jerked myself out of bed and hurried down the hall, my bare feet silent against the floor. The bathroom light flicked on, too harsh and sudden, but I didn’t care. I closed the door and braced m