Living Untethered Novels & Stories

Her father ordered her to muck out the stalls and apologize to old man Henry McAllister. Johnathan was a beautiful dark haired young fella with marvelous green eyes. He was the son of the neighboring clan. Johnathan Campbell was the eldest son out of four siblings to Douglas Campbell. At the age of 13 he was 4 years older than Olivia. Olivia frustratingly said “I had to ummm. I had to help with the care of the horses today. These idiots put me in the feed closet and left me there. You saved me.” She gushed as she clung to him again.

The cold stare in her eyes sent a wave of cold through my body. Looking at the chair I was cleaning, I realized I had drifted away from reality. “I'm sorry, Ms April.” “Oh, no! I won't be able to forgive myself if I let Ms April ruin my day before it even started.” As I walked toward the next chair to clean, my eyes fell on the wall clock – it said 4:30am by the clock. While others were sleeping, I'm up, working and slaving my life away. Yes, that's the kind of life the Moon Goddess has granted me since birth, but it's going to change soon…. Only in a matter of hours.

“You like torturing me, don’t you?” “Not torture.” His voice dropped, velvety and dark. “Anticipation.” The word echoed in the space between us, tempting, dangerous. I stared out the window, letting the city blur past like a moving canvas. After about fifteen minutes, we pulled up to an understated storefront on Oak Street — the kind of place that had no sign, only frosted windows and a doorman in a tailored black suit. Inside, I was ushered into a sanctuary of muted lighting, gleaming mirrors, and glass shelves lined with pristine bottles.

Her lips are swollen, her hair is a mess and between her legs, everything is slick and full and ruined. One of the girls tilts her head. “You okay? You look… feverish.” Elara forces a smile that feels like glass. “Yeah,” she croaks. “Just… really into the material today.” They laugh, she sits. The chair is cold against her bare, dripping skin. She clenches. Feels him leak a little more, her phone buzzes in her bag. She doesn’t need to look to know who it is. Ten days left and she’s already drowning.

But not a natural one. A forced one. I whimpered, curling into myself on the cot, pressing my thighs together as the pressure built. It wasn’t just physical—it was wrong. Synthetic. Like a false tether pulling at my instincts while my body rebelled. My wolf stirred inside me, but weakly. The connection between us was smothered, like someone had pressed a pillow to her spirit. She growled faintly, confused, disoriented. There was no strength to shift. No clarity to call on.

I look toward the horizon. Beyond the relit skyline. Farther than the web we stood inside. And I feel it. A new pulse. Not part of the old structure. Not tied to the collapsed convergence. Small. Independent. Unmapped. “No,” I say softly. “It is not over.” The new signal activates fully in the distance. Not copying. Not converging. Not asking permission. Just… beginning.

He also managed to find out the city that I'd flown to. I knew that he had connections and could track me down eventually, so I purposely left my phone at the airport, asking a staff member to please hand it to him when he got here. Oscar unlocked my phone and realized that my photo album was full of our photos and memories back when we were still happily together. I also took many photos of Ingrid growing up. As he flipped through my photos, Oscar began to cry. He eventually opened up my notes app. The contents somehow triggered him so badly that he grasped his chest and gasped for air because of how much his heart hurt. Then, he began pummeling himself on the chest.

Not rushed. Not desperate. Just… real. Every unspoken emotion poured into it. My fingers curled into his shirt as I leaned closer, my heart racing uncontrollably. His hand found mine. Holding it. Grounding me. The world blurred. Time slowed. And in that moment— There was no past. No pain. No confusion. Just us.

And for a moment I felt something like understanding ripple through it. Not from me. From everything. “Lila…” Nathan said softly. “Yeah?” “What happens next?” I looked at the shifting threads. At the countless lives now faintly touching each other. At the instability still buried beneath it all. At the system that was no longer a system. And I realized something terrifying. Something honest. “We learn how to live like this,” I said. A pause. “And if we can’t?” I hesitated. Then answered truthfully: “Then we break again.”

Her anger for him seemed to reach the sky’s limit because even his very own breathing irritated her. They just arrived at Meridianam and they already had too much to do. Leath was still listening to Hayden because he was talking about their itinerary. Piper usually does these things for her but she was in a different class and they had different schedules so she had to take notes, Avery and Aric were busy taking pictures like they haven't been to Meridianam before and she had doubts they're even listening.