Martha Reader Novels & Stories

Days, Months, and Years passed by. Things were not as smooth as they seemed to be. The level of worries for Anjana was increasing day by day. And one day something happened that she was never ready to accept it. While she was cleaning old things from the bed box, she found some greeting cards with some romantic notes on them. However, she already knew that Amreet was having a girlfriend before marriage, but, that hardly made her worried much because it was all before her marriage. but, one day when she opened his f******k account, she found that both of them has chatted together even after their marriage. This made her very much agitated.

“Oookay, who?” Martha pursed her lips, taking a deep breath. “Zheira.” She looked away with an awkward smile. “Zheira Martin.”

It was Martha, the elderly Omega who had spent forty years washing linens in the packhouse underbelly. Martha? Valerie's voice was barely a rasp. Get away from here. If Jace catches you. Hush now, Martha interrupted, her wrinkled hands shaking as she reached through the rusted bars. She pressed something hard and wrapped in a rough cloth into Valerie's bleeding fingers. Eat this. It's just a piece of dry crust from the morning baking, but you're starving, child. You won't survive the winter down here without anything in your stomach. Valerie gripped the dry bread, a sudden, heavy lump forming in her throat. Martha, you shouldn't have risked this. Killian has guards everywhere.

I say aloud, and the sound of my own voice in the empty room is almost comforting. "She laughed while he choked her. While he touched her. While he gave her more attention in one night than he's given me in our entire marriage." My hand curls into a fist against the mirror. "She's in his head. In his wolf. In every moment we've ever shared, she's there, a ghost I can't exorcise, a shadow I can't outrun." I think about the dungeon. About the way Kai stood between me and that cell, his body a wall I couldn't breach. About the way his wolf, his wolf bared its fangs at me. His mate. His wife.

I had stood my ground, and the sky had not fallen. ​AMARA'S POV ​Late that evening, the library had grown dark, the fire in the hearth burning down to a pile of glowing red embers. I was packing up my notes when Martha slipped quietly into the room, ensuring the hallway behind her was completely empty before she closed the door. ​She walked toward me with quick, hushed steps, her hands tucked anxiously into the folds of her apron. ​"My lady," Martha whispered, her voice laced with a strange, nervous energy.

"Let them reject it. Those Ironclaw bastards have been here three days and already they treat us worse than the rogues do. I’m Martha, by the way. Most just call me Ma." "Anna," she replied, dipping the canvas back into the freezing water. "I know who you are, child," Martha said softly, leaning closer over the wooden partition. Her voice dropped beneath the roar of the rushing river. "We all do. You’re the girl who used to carry the ledger books into the Alpha’s study. The one who made sure the winter coal allocations actually reached the lower valley orphanages last year." Anna’s hand froze in the water. She slowly looked up, her pulse quickening.

I wasn’t entirely alone. “They were all I could get from your room,” Martha whispered, her voice trembling slightly. She looked around, her gaze sharp and alert, as if any moment someone might come and tear us apart. I pulled the clothes on quickly, feeling the warmth wrap around me like a long-lost friend. For the first time in what felt like ages, a spark of hope flickered within me. Someone was helping me. Against all odds, a member of Redcape was risking everything to give me a chance. I made a silent promise to myself right then—I would never forget Martha’s kindness. I would carry her selflessness with me, wherever I went.

I didn’t have much experience with men, but I hated how I had treated Dante, he was our neighbor, I didn’t want to make things awkward; but that was wistful thinking on my part. He greeted the girls and Martha when he came by to deliver the snacks they ordered but gave me a nod, a nod? Why was I getting worked up when I was the one who pushed him away? I had half the mind to refuse when Martha offered me a biscuit, but I took it, chewing angrily as I looked over the books; the same books I had checked several times. “You’re going to read the same page for another two hours?” Martha wasn’t being her kind usual self.

She was trembling—not just a little shiver, but a deep, violent quake that seemed to come from her bones. "Hang on," I said, my voice sounding rougher than I intended. "We’re almost there." She didn't answer. She just tightened her grip on her midsection and closed her eyes. I took the next exit, a dusty turnoff that led away from the main interstate and toward a cluster of rocky hills. I knew a place. During my years hauling "special interest" freight, I’d met a few people who operated outside the lines. One of them was Martha, an old rig-driver who’d retired to a fortified ranch house. She turned it into a sanctuary—a safe house for women who were being hunted by the kind of men who don't

Martha shook her head, “I took care of you. Watched you grow and made sure you lacked nothing. I think maybe I even loved you.” Katelyn scoffed, “You think?” She couldn’t believe her ears. Martha ignored the snark in Katelyn’s voice, “But the happiness you filled me with wasn’t enough to fill the emptiness in my heart. And the love couldn't erase how much I hated myself and that life I was reduced to. Then Jacob started talking about having another baby.” “I knew I couldn’t live a life like that no matter how glamorous he made it seem. The fire was my way out but then he wouldn’t let me die. He…he gave his life to save mine.” Martha closed her eyes, another tear rolling down her cheek.