Semua Bab Marked For Ruin: Bab 11 - Bab 20

The silence Caius left behind was heavier and more menacing than any noise. Kara stood frozen in the middle of the warm, inviting library, but the cozy blankets and family photos offered no comfort now. The whole house felt tainted, haunted by the ghost of a face she thought she’d left behind forever.Her mind was a tangled knot of confusion and terror. Kael's twin. A brother he'd never once mentioned. A man who looked like her monster but had warned her of danger. It didn't make sense. None of it made sense.But the warning itself had been delivered with a chilling certainty she couldn't ignore. Trackers crossing the river. The words cut through her paralysis. This wasn't something she could keep to herself. This wasn't just her problem anymore.Leaning heavily on her crutches, she turned, her mind set on a single, clear goal: Find Milo.Every shadow in the hallway seemed to stretch and twist as she passed. Her journey back to the medical wing, which had felt hopeful just minutes bef

The forest at night was a place of fear for most. For Caius, it was home.He moved through the dense undergrowth of pine and fern without a sound, a phantom clad in shadow. The cool night air was a familiar balm, and the moonlight that sliced through the high canopy was all the illumination he needed. The mission was simple. Stalk. Isolate. Deliver a message. It was a task of irritating necessity, born from his twin brother's predictable blend of arrogance and incompetence. Kael was a spoiled child playing at being a king, and now his tantrum had spilled across the border.Caius paused, his head tilting as he tasted the air. He filtered out the familiar scents of damp earth, pine needles, and sleeping blossoms, searching for something intrusive, something that didn't belong.He found it a moment later. A foul, intrusive stench that pierced his sensitive nose, cutting through the clean scent of the forest. It was the scent of outsiders, tainted with the specific

Two days passed in a quiet, healing blur. The encounter with Zaide, while initially jarring, had settled into something strangely reassuring in her mind. His suspicion was a wall, but his absolute loyalty to Lucian was the foundation the entire house was built on. For the first time, Kara started to believe that the foundations here were solid.She was finishing the last pages of the romance novel—an act that felt both foolish and deeply hopeful—when Milo knocked and entered, a friendly smile on his face."Good news," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Your leg is healing so well, we can probably switch you from the cast to a boot in another week." He paused, then added, his tone carefully casual, "A few of us are eating in the main dining hall in an hour. It's nothing formal. Just food. We'd like you to join us, if you feel up to it."Kara's first instinct was to say no. The thought of sitting in a room with all four of those powerful, intimidating Alphas made her stomach clench with anxi

Sleep had been a restless, fleeting thing. Kara awoke to the pale morning light feeling as though she hadn't slept at all. Milo's final words from the night before—The choice is coming—had echoed in her mind, chasing away any chance of real peace.A restless energy hummed beneath her skin, a low-grade fever that had nothing to do with illness. Her senses felt heightened, the scent of the clean linen almost overwhelmingly fragrant, the sound of a bird outside her window unnaturally loud. Her body was preparing for a battle she had spent her entire life trying to avoid, and the temporary shield of the suppressants felt thinner by the hour.She was sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to still the trembling in her hands, when the inevitable, gentle knock came at her door.Milo entered, his eyes immediately doing a gentle, professional scan. He noticed the slight flush on her cheeks, the restless energy she couldn't quite hide, and his warm smile became a little more compassionate."Goo

Drawn by a curiosity that overrode her caution, she quietly made her way to the open doorway and peered inside. It was a gym, and it was not empty.Zaide stood in the center of the room, shirtless, his back to her. A complex tapestry of dark tattoos snaked over his broad shoulders and down his arms. Every muscle in his chiseled physique was coiled tight as he smashed his fists into a heavy punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Thud. Thud. Thud. The rhythm was brutal, relentless, but also incredibly controlled.This was a side of him she hadn't seen. Not just the suspicious guard, but the disciplined warrior. There was no wasted motion, no wild rage, just pure, focused power. It was terrifying, but it was also, to her surprise, deeply impressive. He wasn't a monster; he was a guardian.She stood there, hidden in the doorway, watching the raw display of controlled power. And then, as if summoned by the sight of the powerful Alpha, the next wave of heat h