Lahat ng Kabanata ng His Straight Pet: Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

Raymond’s POV"Get up."It wasn’t loud. Just enough to split the quiet in two. My brain buzzed, my chest tightened, and the silence that had wrapped itself around me cracked straight down the middle. My eyes snapped open. He stood in the doorway, shadowed but unmistakable, his gaze locked on mine."Get up," he said again. Calm. No edge to it. But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t a suggestion.I scrambled to my feet.My shirt was wrinkled, stuck to my back with sweat. My legs were stiff from sitting too long, nerves rattling. I waited for him to say something else—ask what I’d done, where I’d gone, what I was thinking.He didn’t.He stepped aside and tilted his head. "Go get changed."I blinked. "Changed?"He didn’t repeat himself. Just turned and walked down the hall.I obeyed.I peeled off the shirt, the fabric clinging like it didn’t want to let go. I changed fast, not thinking, just moving—clean shirt, loose pants, no socks. My heart was hammering the whole time.When I stepped out, Jud

Raymond's POVI felt like shit.Not even the kind of shit that comes from being sick or hurt. Worse. The kind that wraps around your chest and pulls tight until you can't breathe. The kind that makes everything feel too loud and too quiet at the same time.I slammed my door shut and leaned against it, letting the silence crawl over me. My heart was still racing, like it hadn’t caught up with the fact that I was alone now. That Jude wasn't standing two inches from me, watching me like he owned every inch of me. Like he could crush me or kiss me or tear me apart with the same breath.What the hell was I?I slid down the door until I hit the floor, pulling my knees up. My hands were shaking. Not from fear. From confusion. From everything.Was I just a body to him?A thing to feed from, to bend and break and shape into something useful?Or was I more?Because everyone else seemed to think I was. Xalor, the guards, even that mysterious bastard who left the letter in the bushes. They all ac

Raymond’s POVJust when I thought I had seen everything the library could offer, something caught my eye.It was a book on the top shelf—slightly crooked, dusty like it hadn’t been touched in years. The spine was almost blank. Faded leather, no clear title, but a single etched word barely visible in the light filtering through the stained glass:Seraphine.Not Seraphin. But close. Too close to ignore.My chest tightened. My fingers itched. Something in me stirred—that same pull I felt when the man in the alley first whispered the word to me. I stepped up onto the carved wooden stool beside the shelf, reached up, and pulled the book down.It was heavier than expected. Cold.As soon as it was in my hands, I felt it—a slight pulse. Like the book had a heartbeat.I sat back down in the alcove and cracked it open.Instant confusion.Half the pages were gone.Literally ripped out. Jagged tears where parchment should've been. And it wasn’t recent. The edges were aged, browned and curled like

Jude's POVIf not for the fact that he is so damn stubborn and arrogant, he wouldn’t be out there risking his life. But no—Raymond always wants to do things his way. Like rules don’t apply to him. Like the world won’t swallow him whole the second he steps too far from my reach.I gripped the edge of the kitchen counter so hard the marble cracked beneath my hand. My phone buzzed in the other, and I answered before the second ring."Jude," Xalor's voice came through, low and steady. "Calm down. We’ll sort this out. Tell me everything."I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and turned away from the broken slab of marble."He insisted on going to the library," I said, pacing. "I allowed it—barely—but I sent four guards with him. Two nightborns, two wraith-bloods. All highly trained. All instructed to remain close and invisible.""And they followed protocol?""Exactly to the letter," I replied. "Raymond entered the main archive section. He spoke with the librarian, a woman nam

Jude’s POVThree days. That was all the time it took to arrive at the single most important night of this century. Three nights ago, I had set the summoning marks in blood and flame. Three nights ago, I sealed my will in shadow and smoke and sent it to the five other Lords scattered across the human world. And now, they were coming.Tonight.It was happening tonight.The city was quiet beneath the veil of night, but the sky itself was a different thing entirely. It was heavy. Pregnant with storm. The air didn’t move the way it normally did. It pressed.The kind of pressure that came before history.I stood in my office, staring out the tall windows. The reflection staring back at me looked like a carved god — marble skin, eyes like smoldering frost, black suit cutting a perfect silhouette.Behind me, Xalor leaned against the wall, arms crossed, always composed. But I could feel it rolling off him. The anticipation. The dread. The fire."Xalor," I said, without turning. "Do you really t