All Chapters of THE VEILED BRIDE : Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

"Some people inherit power. Others become it."TAMARAOld women who knew too much irritated me. This one irritated me more than most because she was almost always right, and there was nothing more aggravating than someone you could not argue with on the facts. I had spent years sharpening the ability to find the flaw in every argument, every position, every piece of advice offered by people who thought they understood more than they did. The Priestess had no such flaw. Which made her infuriating in a very specific and personal way.I wandered through the outer rooms of the cottage while Kiva remained inside with her, asking what I was certain were a significant number of questions. Typical. My sister had always wanted answers before she moved. I had always preferred moving first and figuring things out from whatever broke on impact. Neither approach was wrong. They were simply different languages for solving the same problems.I picked up a small crystal from one of the shelves. It hu

“PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE”BRYAN.This was humiliating.No. Humiliating wasn't even the right word. It was insulting. I, Bryan, Alpha of the Southern Gates, was hanging from a stone pillar like a common criminal, chains wrapped around both wrists forged from some cursed magic that refused to snap regardless of how much strength I poured into them.Hours. I had been here for hours. My shoulders burned with the specific agony of sustained tension. My arms had gone from pain to numbness and back to pain again. My patience had died somewhere around the second hour and left nothing useful in its place."You little witch," I growled through gritted teeth. "When I get my hands on you..."Tamara's face moved through my mind. That lazy smile. The crimson sparks dancing across her fingers like she was doing nothing more interesting than thinking. The way she had looked me directly in the eyes without the smallest suggestion of fear. Even now, hours later, chained to a pillar in an empty wa

KIVA.The guard's voice lingered in my mind long after we left him."Mate." One word. One single word. It was enough to make my chest ache. He remembered me. Somewhere beneath everything that had swallowed him whole, Damien was still there. I clung to that thought like it was the only thing keeping me upright as we pushed deeper into the trees."We're getting close," Tamara said quietly.I looked up."How do you know?"She pointed toward the trees ahead.“Can you see how those tress are moving much slower now?”I frowned."What?""You'll understand." We continued deeper into the Northern Forest. With every step the silence became heavier, pressing against my skin until even my own breathing felt too loud. There were no birds. No insects. No wind. Even the leaves refused to move. It was as though the entire forest had decided that making noise was a terrible idea and had gone completely still to prove it. A low growl echoed somewhere ahead. Another answered right after. My body stiffe

KIVASomething was wrong. I could feel it . I turned toward the northern path. "He isn't wandering anymore."Tamara followed my gaze, her eyes narrowing as she tracked the same broken branches I was tracking, the same disturbed earth. "What?""He knows where he's going." I started walking, faster than I meant to. She fell into step beside me without a word. "Where?""North." I quickened my pace until it was almost a jog. "The estate." Tamara stopped dead. "Kiva." I turned back to her, impatient, every second feeling like it cost something. "What if he's going there because he remembers it?" A pause, heavy enough that I felt it in my chest. "Or what if he goes there because he thinks there are people there?"My stomach tightened into something hard and cold. "Then we better move."We ran. The forest blurred around us as we pushed through the trees, branches catching at our clothes, tearing small threads loose, scraping thin lines across my arms that I didn't feel until later. The groun

“IF YOU WERE A PIANO, I’D SPREAD YOUR LEGS LIKE KEYS, PRESS EVERY SOFT NOTE WITH MY TONGUE, AND PLAY YOU UNTIL THE ONLY SOUND LEFT WAS YOU COMING ON MY MOUTH.”KIVA His mouth stayed on mine, unhurried at first, then deeper, like he was making sure I was real. I kept my hands on his face, feeling the warmth of his skin under my palms, the way his jaw flexed when he kissed me harder. The piano was cold under my thighs. His body was not. He stepped between my legs without asking and the solid press of him made my breath catch against his lips in a way that felt strange and new.He pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were still darker than they should have been, but the gold was there now, steady, and something else under it that looked almost drunk on the fact that I was right here. He didn’t speak. He just stared like he was memorizing the exact shape of my mouth.Then his hands moved.One stayed at my waist, the other slid under the hem of my shirt and up, slow and deliber