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| Eternal Devotion Series • Completed | Elise Dorne is one of the finest hunters of the Elysium order-cold, precise, and relentless. When she's assigned to track down Vael Laurent D'Rath, a notorious mafia lord who thrives in the shadows, she expects just another mission. But as their deadly game of cat and mouse unfolds, Elise and Vael begin to uncover fragments of a past-memories of another life, another time, where their fates were intertwined in ways far more dangerous than they ever imagined. With every step closer to the truth, the lines between hunter and prey blur, and Elise is forced to question everything she knows. Is Vael truly her enemy, or has destiny bound them together for something far greater than revenge?

Waking up crushed under a man, I nearly screamed—until I saw who it was. Adrian. My cold, obsessive husband. The man I spent a lifetime escaping from. In my past life, I trusted the wrong people. Betrayed the only man who ever protected me and died alone. One life ruined me. This one? I’ll ruin everyone who tries again. Now, the game is mine and I write the rules. I'll act sweet. Stay mysterious. And pit every snake against each other. And as for my dangerously obsessed husband? I will tame—wait... WAIT! I was just being a little gentle, why is this tyrant acting like a delicate princess? 'Hey, hey, stop clinging to me! What? You want cuddles? Head pats? You—You are not a cat, Adrian!' … “He’s deathly allergic to strawberries? But he devoured one from my hand like it’s a miracle elixir.” “He has sleeping disorders? But he hugged me and passed out like a lazy cat!” “He’s sulking… because I didn’t hold his hand?” When he saw me hugging my female best friend? He lost his mind. Yanked me into his arms and growled, “Mine,” like a deranged villain in love. I finally understood: no one else ever stood a chance. I was his only obsession.

My girlfriend was a police officer. One day, I got kidnapped, and the explosives on my body were ten minutes away from detonating when the kidnappers ordered me to call her. Instead of worry, all I got was relentless scorn and a tongue-lashing. "Caleb, are you seriously doing this right now? How could you be so petty and jealous when a life is on the line?! Lucas' cat is in danger. It has been stuck on a tree for three days, and that cat is as important to him as his own life! "If I don't save them in time, you'll be the one at fault!" Over the line, I heard the voice of a young man that sounded, to my ears, anything but genuine. "Thank you Jamie, you're the best!" That man was my girlfriend's childhood friend, Lucas White. Before the bomb exploded, I sent her a final message. [I hope we never see each other again. Not in this life, and not in the next.]

Midnight. I heard a faint meowing through the window. I was about to have a look when floating words appeared in front of me. [Don't open the window! There isn't a cat outside! It's a serial killer!] [I'm done. How could the side character be so dumb? I can already imagine how tragic her death will be.] [Go and find the villain! He loves you so much! He will surely protect you!] I quickly retracted my hand on the window latch…

I had just gotten home when a parent in my son’s class group chat erupted: [Ms. Zinn, what kind of place are you running? Do you let just any random stray off the street become a teacher?] [My daughter came home, grabbed two forks, and tried to jump off the balcony. She said it was Miss Never who told her to!] The homeroom teacher panicked and denied it at once, insisting there was no such person as Miss Never at the kindergarten. She even posted the official teaching schedule in the chat to prove it. On the security footage, there was not a single trace of this so-called Miss Never. However, later, my son whispered to me in secret, “Mom, Miss Never is an old lady with a cat’s face.” “She says only kids can see her.”

"You are more than enough for me, Mia Cara. I wish you would know how much." She was running from one devil but fell straight into the arms of another. Miabella Dennison thought marrying Matteo Valdrighi was her way out. He was rich, charming, and just enough to piss off her toxic family. But then his older brother walked in, Rafael Valdrighi, and became the only man who ever looked at her like she was more than just a doll to be moved around. Rafael wasn’t supposed to care, but she also wasn’t supposed to fall. Now, she’s trapped between two brothers, one who owns her life, and the other who’s starting to own her heart. And when the cat is let out the bag, Miabella will have to decide: Is love worth breaking every rule for?

Je courais derrière le ballon de Samira comme si ma vie en dépendait. Elle riait aux éclats, cette petite tornade de cinq ans, pendant que le vent emportait son jouet vers l’inconnu. — Naïla, attrape-le ! cria-t-elle, les bras levés. J’avais dix-huit ans, une gamine encore, mais déjà tout pour elle : sa sœur, sa mère, son monde, depuis que le nôtre s’était effondré. Alors je courais, pieds nus, ma robe trop grande flottant autour de moi. Le ballon roula jusqu’aux marches d’un grand hôtel. Il atterrit… juste devant lui. Un homme. Immobile, costume noir, une rose blanche à la main. Son regard perdu dans le vide. Derrière lui, des dizaines d’invités en tenues élégantes. Silencieux. Figés. Je me suis arrêtée, haletante. Tous les regards s’étaient tournés vers moi. Mais lui… ne voyait que moi. Il m’a fixée longuement. Ses yeux se sont allumés, comme si une idée folle venait de naître. Puis il a tendu la main — vers moi, pas le ballon. — Toi, viens ici, dit-il d’une voix glacée. Je suis restée figée, tremblante. Un murmure a traversé la foule : — C’est elle… Il l’a choisie. Derrière, une femme a crié : — Il a perdu la tête ! Épouser une inconnue ? Une gamine ? Mais il s’est avancé. Lentement. Et quand il s’est arrêté, il a dit, calmement, comme une évidence : — Tu es au bon endroit, au bon moment. Tu seras ma femme. Aujourd’hui.

Elena had once believed that silence could mean safety. That a gentle hand and a warm cup of tea placed quietly on her desk every morning could be a form of love. Lucien was never cruel—not in the obvious ways. He remembered how she liked her eggs, noticed when she swapped her perfume, and sent flowers on days he knew she wouldn’t expect them. He raised her like one would raise a pet—softly, without question. And Elena, foolish in the way only the very lonely can be, mistook his quiet affection for devotion. She told herself he was reserved. Mysterious. That love didn’t always wear its heart on its sleeve. But when the old flame returned—the one who spoke his language without needing to try—Elena saw it. The difference. He looked at her like a man who had found his lost religion. And Elena? She had simply been convenient. No tears, no scene. Just papers on the breakfast table, beside the eggs he cooked perfectly. She didn’t accuse or beg. She only asked for freedom. He didn’t sign. He chuckled. A soft, dismissive sound. “A cat raised indoors doesn’t know how to survive on the street, Elena. You’ll come back." But she didn’t. She disappeared, like smoke—except she didn’t vanish, not really. She lived. She wore colour again. Laughed at bad jokes. Let strange men hand her coffee and ask for her number. Lucien? He watched. He watched her become someone without him. And it drove him mad. The night he cornered her outside the gallery, rain in his hair and desperation in his eyes, he looked like a man undone. "Elena," he breathed, "please. Look at me. Just once." She did. Calm as ever, and her love already gone.