A Minute To Midnight Novels & Stories

A single message had appeared on the screen, its words like a dagger to my heart: “Come alone. Midnight. Or he dies.” The clock on the wall read 11:23 PM. I had thirty-seven minutes to make the hardest decision of my life.

His voice was trying not to shake and mostly failing. "That's all I know. She gave me the container and the access code and the timing.""The timing." I said."Midnight." He said. "She said midnight specifically."I looked at my watch.Eleven fifty eight.Two minutes.I looked at Nyxara. She was still holding the container, her expression doing the specific thing it did when she was working through something precise and fast.

“One last step before you’re done.” He smirked as he ran his tongue over the punctures, helping them to close up. A low moan escaped me from the sensations despite trying to contain it. My mate flashed me his sexy grin that always got me going, but now was not the time. I pouted with that realization. “How much time do we have left?” I asked Caiathus. “Forty-seven minutes until midnight, miylana,” he told me. I took a deep breath and pushed my anxiety aside because there was no time to deal with that.

“Move is: we do 9:25 AM instead. Right now. All of us. Eyes closed. 11 seconds. For right now. Not for March 14th. Not for December 31st. For right now.” _Silence. 9:25 AM._ Chloe closed her eyes. Alex closed his. Adrian reached for my hand. I closed mine. 11 seconds. No March 14th. No December 31st. Just 9:25 AM. Just heavy. Just 8 holding it. *9:26 AM. [SFX: EXHALE. THEN LAUGH. THEN US.]* Eyes opened. Chloe laughed. Not big. Just a breath out.

I was in and out within thirty minutes. Aunt Rose blew me a kiss before she hooked her arm in Drake's and led him out, but he glanced over his shoulder toward me before they left. Micky gave me a wink and a single head nod before he took his exit. Once I was all alone, my heart raced and echoed in my head. The clock on the wall read 11:40 p.m. and the twenty minutes until midnight ticked by excruciatingly slow.

The clock on the nightstand reads 11:58. Two minutes until midnight. The rose is on the floor. The ribbon is loose. Someone is watching. Someone is always watching. But now, we are watching back.

I whispered. We stopped at a red light. My gaze caught on a billboard the size of a building. It shimmered, transitioned—and suddenly, the word blazed across the screen in white fire: LUNARIS. A high-end nightclub. The most elite. The kind only the rich, powerful, and probably criminal could enter. Even back downtown, Lunaris was a fantasy, the kind of place people dreamed of making enough money just to glimpse. The ad shifted. And then his face appeared.

Did he hear too? The room seemed to tilt. The music swelled. At the head of the hall, the Alpha Council stood to begin the first toast. "We should go.” She downed her wine. “I don’t—” "Now or never. Your choice.” She said, placing the now empty goblet gracefully, back on the table. Now or never, I thought. My final glance at Shawn, as he was preoccupied with a group of men, sealed it for me. Now. We slipped out as glasses clinked and cheers erupted.

I shook my head, too confused to speak. “Because the last time a lunar eclipse appeared here, something extraordinary happened. A bond formed between two wolves, marked by the moon herself. We call it "Midnight's Mark". It has not appeared in one hundred and twenty-three years. Most think it’s legend, but I saw it when I was young.” My mouth felt dry. “What kind of bond?” “The truest kind, a mate bond chosen by the Moon Goddess herself, marked on the skin at the eclipse’s peak. Those who bear it are destined for each other, their souls matched perfectly. Such bonds appear only when the pack needs them most.”

Now I got my answer. It was time. The marriage had run its course. The only thing left was the cooling-off period until the divorce came into effect. T-minus, one month. What a coincidence. The wedding she promised me would happen in one month. … T-minus, 22 days. Lauren was leaving early and coming back late a lot more than usual. The promise of a wedding might as well have never existed.