The Road Home Novel Novels & Stories

"Ms. Hathaway, I'll be going overseas for further studies next month. Here is my resignation letter." The HR manager, Kelly Hathaway, looked at me in surprise. "What's with the sudden notice?" she asked. I gave her the explanation I'd prepared long ago. "My son's mother is in Austera. I'm planning to take him there so we can be reunited as a family." Kelly nodded. "That's good. It must be hard for you to raise a child alone here. We all thought you were a single father."

This was home. I pulled off the road, stopping for a moment to catch my breath. It had been just two hours on that dark, winding mountain road, but it felt like I’d been driving forever. My hands shook on the steering wheel, but I forced them steady. I was safe now. I was free. But my mind could erase Kael's words. There's no home. I burnt down your home. Crescent pack is your new home. My home. The walls I grew up in, the place that held every memory of my childhood. My chest tightened as I thought of it, my heart burning with the questions I hadn’t dared ask him. Had my brother been in there?

“All of it.” I sat on the hard shoulder of an eastern territory road forty minutes from the estate and listened to Crane tell Victor everything, and I felt the twins moving in their evening way, and I thought about Nate driving east in the dark and Levi in the passenger seat and Julian who had called instead of coming in, and I thought about the nursery with the level mobile and the diagonal walls and the drawer with the two small sets of clothes in it. I was going home. I did not know how yet. But I was going home.

Love you''. Kim watched as her cousin sauntered out of her office and thought about her parting words, because Sam was right about something, she did miss home, a lot. Lovers's valley was a small town in backwood California where Kim had grown up, everybody knew everybody there and the people of lover's valley made it a habit to be in each other's business, if you had a secret the town was definitely not the place for you, but for Kim, it was home, the home she hadn't been to in eight years. She often saw her parents on occassions like Christmas which was only possible because she had promised to always buy their plane ticket whenever they came to New York, although they never missed any opp

Instantly, Elsie's eyes welled up with tears, and she confessed in a brittle voice, "I missed my family." A twinge of jealousy quaked Cilia's insides. She wished she also had people to call family, who actually deserved the appellation. Following Elsie's leadership, they arrived at the main road where dotted cars drove past. It was not a frequently used road because of the menace of wild animals killing wanderers in the forest. Immediately, Elsie's previously filled face lit up like a Christmas tree. She smiled radiantly, "We can finally go home. Let's stop a car."

My hands tighten around the steering wheel when my mind has me feeling their hands on my arms, restraining me, preventing me from going to my brother and sheltering him from hateful eyes and the Alpha's harsh words. My shoulder twitches at the memory of finally breaking free and running to my brother. I take a slow, deep breath in, and let it out just as slowly before pressing on the gas and turning the wheel left, away from the pack house. I don't drive far, just a minute down the street until I reach the next road, then I turn right. As soon as I turn onto the road, I can barely breathe. Everything's all too familiar. The ache in my chest is stronger than I thought it would be. This was on

Forbidden Flames Chapter 1: The Return to Shadows The narrow road leading into Willowbrook felt like stepping back in time. I had left this sleepy village years ago, chasing bigger dreams in the city, only to return with those dreams shattered and a heavy inheritance weighing on my shoulders. My grandmother’s old house sat at the edge of the woods, its windows dark and welcoming at the same time. I parked my car and sat for a moment, gripping the steering wheel. Coming back here meant facing more than memories. It meant facing the men I had never truly forgotten.

In the distance, Eric honked the car horn, gesturing for Bryan to get in the car. "Do you need a ride home?" Bryan asked. Maya shook her head. "Can we keep in touch?" Bryan queried, his tone a little tentative. Patting him on the shoulder, Maya said, "Of course. We're partners who've worked a case together." While driving, Maya took in the streets that she hadn't seen for some time now. Although only two years had passed, quite a lot had changed. Even the sights seemed a little foreign to her now. She drove around the city aimlessly, unsure where she should go.

A silent rebellion against the unspoken rules of our home. Sometimes, after school, if Zane was distracted, Zye would linger near the main gate. Morison, bless his heart, would find an excuse to be busy nearby. Zye would talk, her voice soft, about her day, about her dreams of far-off places. I’d listen, offering quiet observations. Those moments, few and far between, were oxygen. They reminded me that not everyone in the world, not even in that house, saw me as an infection of poverty.

he said impatiently. Soon, they arrived back at the Linnus residence. As soon as he got out of the car, Dad stormed into the living room angrily. When he saw Aunt Caroline kneeling on the ground and crying uncontrollably, he stopped abruptly. In front of her lay my body, so rotted that it was almost unrecognizable.