Tribe Nine Ao3 Novels & Stories

The second he saw me glance up, something dark flashed across his face. He strode straight toward Kael. “Are you insane? You think if you recreate the old trick, she’ll suddenly look back?” Then he swung. They crashed into each other so hard that the roses scattered across the pavement. “I’ve never seen anyone more shameless,” Kane spat. “Thirty years old and still playing the pathetic third man outside another woman’s gate.” Kael hit back just as hard. “Third man? Selene was with me for nine years. If she hadn’t lost the pup in that crash and if her body hadn’t been damaged after, I never would have let Lyra keep the child.”

I smiled faintly and said, "It's fine. If Elara likes it, then let her have it. I had been abandoned so many times, so I couldn't possibly hold expectations of their love anymore—whether it was the Sacred Huntress title, my family's love, or even Caelum. I suddenly felt the injuries on my body begin to ache faintly, but the sensation rapidly escalated into a sharp, tearing pain. I gasped for air as a heavy pressure blocked my chest, and a numbness spread to my fingertips. I looked down at the empty wine glass, and my face suddenly turned pale.

At the DeLuca Family banquet announcing its new advisor, Matteo said he was going to end nine years of secrecy and finally acknowledge our relationship in public. I stood in the back row of the banquet hall, so nervous I'd crumpled my prepared speech into a ball. Over nine years, I'd cleaned up the port books for him three times, negotiated two cross-border shipping routes, and taken a bullet for him. Everyone knew the DeLuca Family had a female advisor who never showed her face, but no one knew I was that woman. I thought that after tonight, I would finally stop being his shadow. Until the screen at the front of the banquet hall lit up. There was no photo of us. Instead, there was only a si