جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 7

Aria POV I was already drunk stupidly, recklessly drunk when the path through the woods stopped making sense. The trees blurred into dark pillars, the ground swayed under my heels, and the night air felt thick and sweet, like it was trying to pull me deeper. I don’t even remember why I’d wandered this far from the road. One minute I was outside the bar arguing with myself about calling a cab; the next I was stumbling between ancient pines, my dress catching on low branches, my head spinning.Then I saw it.A structure rose out of the mist like something from a dream: tall glass and dark stone, glowing softly from within. Not a cabin. Not a house. A penthouse somehow dropped into the heart of the forest, all clean lines and impossible luxury. Golden light spilled from the upper windows. I squinted, swayed, and laughed under my breath.“Who builds a penthouse in the middle of nowhere…”My feet carried me forward before my brain could argue. The front door wasn’t locked. Of course it wa

Aria POV: I sat across from him at the long dining table, the white roses between us filling the air with a soft, almost mocking sweetness. My hands rested in my lap so he wouldn’t see them tremble. Leo was waiting outside with the servant. This interview, if it could even be called that, would decide whether my son got the medicine he needed or whether we went back to that damp basement and the endless cycle of unpaid bills.Kael Thorne watched me over the rim of his glass, golden eyes half-lidded, expression unreadable. The silence stretched.She didn’t recognize me at all, he thought, the words curling through his mind like smoke. What a heartless woman. I really should take a hard bite out of her neck… No. The nature of a wolf is to be swift and decisive, but when facing my prey, I must take it slow.I cleared my throat, forcing my voice to stay professional.Is this how rich people conduct interviews? I wondered. No questions about my résumé, no discussion of duties just sittin

Aria POVI chose the soft dove-gray dress first. The fabric whispered against my skin as I slipped it on in the adjoining dressing room, the silk so fine it felt almost weightless. When I stepped back out, the maids fell silent for a beat. Then the whispers began, soft enough that they probably thought I couldn’t hear.“She is truly the Lord’s woman…”“She is so beautiful.”“No wonder the Lord stayed chaste for her for five years.”“She has the aura of a fairy.”Heat crawled up my neck. I kept my expression carefully neutral and walked toward the bodyguard, who stood near the door with his hands clasped behind his back.“I was just hired as a family doctor,” I said, keeping my voice polite but firm. “How do I deserve to wear such nice clothes?”He inclined his head slightly. “Miss Aria, you are now the Lord’s personal doctor. You represent the Kael family image. If you don’t dress well, people will misunderstand and think the family mistreats its employees. This is all for work. Every

Kael POVThe private clinic smelled of antiseptic and something faintly sweet Leo’s scent, still soft with childhood, already carrying the undertone of wolf.I stood at the foot of the examination bed while Aria checked the boy’s pulse for the third time. Her fingers were steady. Her face was not. Dark circles sat under her eyes like bruises. She had pulled her hair into a messy knot, a few strands falling against her cheek. The dove-gray dress from earlier was gone; she wore simple black scrubs now, the ones I had ordered for her. They still looked wrong on her. Too ordinary for the woman who carried my mark.Leo lay quiet, too quiet for a five-year-old. His small chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. When the fever spiked an hour ago, his eyes had flashed pure gold for three full seconds. Aria had seen it. She just didn’t understand what it meant.I did.The blood in that child’s veins was mine. Same silver undertone. Same restless power trying to surface under a human skin that w