All Chapters of Clash of the Battle Valley Empires : Chapter 21 - Chapter 25

Vivienne lay motionless beneath the moonlight, her silver eyes fixed upon the modest house before her. Every instinct within had her wolf recognized Oliver’s scent long before her mind could fully catch up to what her body already knew. Just the way a person would recognize a familiar voice in a crowded room. This was Oliver's home. The scent pouring from the small house was so strong that there could be no mistake. It was on the walls, it drifted from the windows, clung to the wooden fence and the narrow path leading to the door, wrapping itself around the place as though it belonged there as much as the wood and stone. It was the same scent she had followed for miles without stopping. And now here she was, standing before a door she had never seen before but feeling more certain of where she was than she had felt of anything in her entire life. She stood and began moving. Trotting around the house. Her white body moving silently through the darkness as she circled the property a

Far across the kingdom in the slave quarters of the Bolivia palace, the morning had brought no peace at all. Monera had not slept. She had sat facing the door of their small room through most of the night, and when morning came she was still sitting there hoping Vivienne would walk in any minute.Her hands were folded in her lap, her eyes red at the rims. Cecilia sat beside her, close enough that their arms touched, and she had not said much since a certain point in the night when words had stopped helping."She'll come back," Cecilia said, because she had been saying it at intervals through the night and it seemed wrong to stop now."I know," Monera replied, the same answer she had given every time, though the line between knowing something and believing it had grown thin in the dark hours before morning.A palace guard appeared at the entrance to their room. "The king sends word," he said. "You are both excused from your duties today."King Reginald himself had ordered that both wom

Rudieloff rode ahead of General Finn with a force that made his horse strain beneath him, its hooves striking the road in a rapid urgent rhythm. The wind tore at his cloak, tugged at his hair, and stung his face, yet he barely felt it. His mind was fixed on one thought alone.What if he was right? What if Vivienne had somehow found Oliver?The possibility was absurd, and yet it would not leave him. It had become certainty without proof, dread without reason, and instinct without mercy. Something inside him had gone taut the moment he saw her running off. Vivienne was missing, and now every passing second seemed to tighten that invisible cord around his neck until it threatened to snap.The modest house eventually came into view at the side of the road. The peacefulness of the place almost mocked the storm gathering inside Rudieloff. He had pushed the pace the entire ride and Finn had kept up without complaining, which was a testament to the man's endurance because Rudieloff had not be