Lahat ng Kabanata ng LUSTRONOMICA: WILD CRAVINGS: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

The convent was so quiet.Midnight had come and gone, the single toll of the bell vibrating through the stone walls like a summons from the depths. I slipped from my cell barefoot, the Eucharist chalice clutched to my chest under my robe like a stolen lover. Its gold rim pressed cold against my skin, a reminder of what I was about to defile. Guilt clawed at my throat, but the ache between my thighs pulsed hotter, slick already dampening my underlinen with every step up the winding stair to the bell tower.I told myself I could stop. Turn back. Confess everything to Mother Superior at dawn and beg for penance, flogging, fasting, exile if needed. But my body betrayed me, nipples tight and aching against the coarse wool, clit throbbing like it remembered Lilith’s tongue and fingers and cock more than it remembered any prayer.The tower door creaked open on rusted hinges. Wind whipped through the open arches, carrying the scent of night-blooming jasmine and distant rain. The massive bronz

Five months laterI should have known better. I was one of the most brilliant scientists on Earth—not being vain, the five awards framed on my office wall were proof enough—but how the hell did I miss the full implications of that bite on my neck? Kael had mated me. Not some casual fling or temporary claim. It was a deep, biological bond for Lupari shifters, one that tied souls and bodies together. Two weeks after he left for Lunara, his homeworld, I collapsed. Fever, shaking, my body screaming for something it couldn't have. The med team ran every test and finally pieced it together: severed mate bond. Kael had cut the connection from his end back on Lunara, probably the moment he stepped foot in that crystal palace. He didn't even warn me. I almost died from the rejection sickness. The pull that had kept me horny and restless every damn day, fingers, toys, random hookups nothing satisfied it. Then the final snap, like a cord being sliced, and I was left hollow.Why didn't he just

KAEL POVFor five months, I had hungered for this human, a hunger I had never once felt before in my life. Though I had realized, too late, that in my madness during that cursed rut I had attacked her and ravaged her like the animal I truly was, then gone ahead and marked her as my mate without a single thought for the consequences. I should have known better. How could I not? My drink had been spiked during the Lunaria festival, some rival’s poison slipped into my cup sending me into a full berserk state. I left the palace in a haze of blood and fury, tearing through the city, leaving carnage and havoc in my wake until her team finally found me, subdued me, and dragged me back.Of course, once I returned to the palace, I knew exactly who was responsible. The same factions who never wanted a full-shifter Lupari on the throne. They feared us—too instinctive, too savage. Our people had evolved over generations; most shifters now stayed in elegant, controlled forms. But there were still

KAEL POVSix months had passed since that night in the hotel, and everything had changed in ways I never imagined possible.After I pushed into her room, slamming the door, the tension between us exploded like a supernova. We fucked like animals that night, raw, desperate, her sassy mouth biting back at every growl I made, her body arching into mine like she’d been starving for me too. I knotted her twice, breeding her deep until she was sobbing my name, her nails raking bloody lines down my back. By morning, the mate bond had snapped back into place, stronger, unbreakable. We marked each other again, fresh bites on our necks, sealing what we should have never broken.When I returned to the palace, still smelling of her, I announced it all. I was marrying Grace Sullivan, the human scientist who had saved me. My father was furious—roaring about politics, alliances, the scandal of dropping Nashti. But my mother, brother, and sister weren’t surprised. They’d seen the way I looked at her

Ring! Ring!The alarm hit the floor with a pathetic clatter and died. Mom knocked again. “Jessie, seriously, get up! You’re late for school!”I groaned, rolling out of bed, feet hitting the cold floor. My whole body felt… different. Lighter. Tighter. Hotter in places I wasn’t used to. I shuffled to the bathroom mirror, still half-asleep, rubbing my eyes.Then I froze.The girl staring back wasn’t me. Or… she was. But upgraded. No glasses, my vision was perfect. Green eyes wide and bright, framed by thick dark lashes. Skin clear, glowing, no pimples, no redness. Lips fuller, naturally pink. Hair longer, shinier, falling past my shoulders in glossy waves. And my tits… holy shit. They were bigger. Perkier. High and round, straining the thin tank top I slept in. My waist had cinched in, hips flaring out in a perfect hourglass. I looked like one of those Instagram models Kira and her friends worshipped except it was me.“What the fuck,” I whispered. “Who are you?”The reflection mimi