Novels by Starrynights

EPILOGUEGINA’S POVThere is something beautifully ironic about how life refuses to end where you think it will. Exactly one year ago, I genuinely believed my story had already been written. I thought my future consisted of pretending to smile beside a husband who had broken me piece by piece until I no longer recognized the woman staring back from the mirror. I believed I would spend decades trapped inside a marriage held together by contracts, public appearances, and carefully rehearsed lies. Back then, happiness felt like something that happened to other people. I had convinced myself that surviving was the best I could hope for. Looking back now, I almost want to hug that version of myself. She had absolutely no idea that everything falling apart was simply making room for something infinitely better.The Washington empire no longer exists in the form the world once worshipped. The board removed Mark as Chief Executive Officer within weeks of the investigations becoming public. On

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOURTHE RESCUEDANTE’S POVThere are moments in a man's life when everything slows down so completely that every decision feels carved into stone. Standing inside Mark Washington's office with my phone pressed against my ear is one of those moments. The revelation that Gina is alive should have been enough to loosen the iron band crushing my ribs, yet it only tightens when my operative finishes explaining exactly where she is. An abandoned private estate belonging to Richard Washington, hidden nearly forty miles outside Manhattan, surrounded by woodland and protected by enough former military contractors to discourage curiosity. Not official security. Personal loyalists. Men who have worked for Richard for decades and whose salaries have never appeared on any corporate payroll. Ghosts. The kind of men wealthy monsters keep for the jobs that cannot survive daylight. The realization chills me more than I care to admit. Richard didn't simply kidnap Gina. He planned it car

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREEDANTE’S POVTHE TRUTHThe moment Gina's phone goes straight to voicemail for the third time, something inside me snaps. It isn't panic at first. Panic is messy. Loud. What I feel is something far more dangerous—a cold, methodical certainty that something has gone catastrophically wrong. Gina never ignores my calls after therapy. She never skips her morning run without telling someone. She is predictable in the small ways people never notice until those patterns disappear. Her smartwatch stopped transmitting fifteen minutes ago. The GPS tracker hidden beneath the chassis of her car shows it parked exactly where it should be. Rita tells me Gina left through the front gates just after dawn wearing black leggings, a gray hoodie and running shoes, saying she wanted fresh air before breakfast. Security cameras capture her leaving. They never capture her returning. By the time I reach the trail, every instinct I've spent years sharpening tells me exactly what I already k

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWOGINA’S POVKIDNAPPEDMorning usually grants me a brief illusion that life still belongs to me. Before the endless pretending begins, before I have to smile for people who would happily dissect my misery over brunch, before therapists encourage me to excavate wounds I have spent years burying beneath discipline and perfection, there exists this small pocket of silence where I can simply breathe. It is why I run. Not because I enjoy the exercise, but because the rhythm of my footsteps has always been the closest thing I have found to peace. Every stride drowns out another intrusive thought, every mile pushes the ache in my chest a little farther away, and for the duration of that run, I am not Gina Washington, billionaire's wife, scandal survivor, or national headline. I am simply Gina, a woman trying desperately to remember who she was before love became synonymous with suffering.The mansion remains wrapped in the sleepy stillness of dawn as I quietly slip out throug

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONESHAKENDANTE’S POVThe moment I step into Barbara Washington's private sitting room, I know something is wrong. She is already standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan, one hand wrapped around a crystal glass of untouched whiskey, the other gripping the edge of the marble windowsill so tightly her knuckles have turned white. The television mounted on the opposite wall plays a business channel on mute while headlines crawl endlessly across the bottom of the screen, but her attention isn't on any of it. She's waiting for me. Pacing. Thinking. Panicking.The instant the door clicks shut behind me, she turns sharply."What happened?" she demands.No greeting. No carefully crafted pleasantries.Just the question.I close the distance between us before lowering my voice. "I got the prison recording."Barbara's expression hardens."And?"I slide a small encrypted flash drive onto the coffee table between us."I hacked into the prison surveillance syste

CHAPTER FIFTYDANTE’S POVDANGERThe moment I see Gina walk through the prison's front entrance, every instinct I've spent years sharpening starts screaming that something is terribly wrong.I've watched people leave prisons before. Victims. Families. Witnesses. Men who'd just identified bodies. Women forced to testify against abusive husbands. There is always something in the way they move afterward. Grief has a rhythm. Anger has weight. Relief makes people breathe differently. But whatever has settled over Gina... I've never seen it before. She doesn't look angry. She doesn't look heartbroken. She doesn't even look frightened. She looks as though someone has reached inside her chest and quietly removed every thought from her mind, leaving behind only an empty shell that's somehow still capable of walking.I push myself off the SUV before she's even halfway across the parking lot. Usually, she notices me immediately. Usually, there's a sarcastic remark waiting on the tip of her tongue

Chapter 6"Holly stop," Tan shouted behind me but I walked on, furiously blinking the tears trying to find their way out of my eyes. He didn’t deserve and a drop of them. Bastard."Dammit! I said stop! “He grabbed my arm, grinding me to a sudden halt.When I turned around, his lips were pulled into a thin line stretching all the way to the edges. The playfulness was gone from his eyes, aggravation slipping in its place. So what could possibly be the reason he had that look on his face when I was the one who got hurt by him? He couldn’t even pretend he was sorry for a damn second."Why should I stop Tan? So you can try to get me into your bed like those girls you sleep with every day?" I questioned, pulling my exposed arms around myself to shield myself from the cold chills."Because I don't want you here Holly. I want you gone, far away from RCU. I don’t want to see your face or be anywhere near you," he blatantly pointed out, no hint of remorse in his voice."Excuse me?" Was he being

CHAPTER FIVEThe wind pushed my hair back as I struggled not to grind my jaw. I was not sure if it was from the chills of the unforgivingly cold night or the chills from knowing Tan was sitting by the bar, the space between us filled by a few drunk couples grinding to the loud hip-hop music."It's okay if you don't want to do this today," I felt Alex's hand grab my arm.She was absolutely right but I had already postponed this once. I could have confronted him yesterday after calling Joon but I had cowered away like a little scared rat. The thought of seeing had been outrightly overwhelming then, freezing my insides with no mercy whatsoever. Today it had taken me every ounce of willpower to show up here and I was not about to let myself chicken out again."I'm fine. Besides we are just going to talk and hopefully I'll never have to speak to him or feel on edge when he is around," I smiled just to keep her off the fact that I was beyond being nervous. Every fiber in my body was screami

CHAPTER FOURIt has been three days since my encounter with Tan and honestly I was pretty much nervous every time I stepped in class. He never once met my gaze or batted an eyelid towards me. It should not have bothered me but the fact that even Joon had stop paying attention to me was nagging a bit. Should I just have talked to him when he showed up at my room?"Derek has been staring at you the entire class and he is kind of cute," she added wiggling her eyebrows rather mischievously."Who is Derek again?" I probed pushing my books into my back along with my laptop. The lecturer had just walked out and right now all I could think of was some spicy steak."The blonde sitting just in front of Tan," She whispered.Tan. I hated how that very name could easily make me freeze in place. It affected me in ways that nothing else could. I risked a glance at the said boy but almost regretted it when my gaze connected with Tan's instead. His eyes pierced right through me, sending a series of ti

CHAPTER THREEJoon was friends with Tan? If they were friends where had they been for the past one week since I reported and why didn’t Sarah ever mention a thing about this to me? I needed to avoid Joon if I really wanted a drama free school year. The Tan I used to be friends with was somebody different to the Tan here. Four years ago it was impossible to imagine Tan using any type of cuss word when talking to somebody older than him and yet he did boldly talked to the lecturer like that today. I was disrupted from my train of thinking by the shrill ringing of my phone. I picked it up without checking the caller ID because I assumed it was my mother.“Hello,”“Hey Holly. Its Joon,” My attention was suddenly sparked.“H-How did you get my number?” The stuttering had not been intentional.“My sister,”“Of course,” Very predictable.“You seemed to be in a hurry when you left class this morning,” He said in an easy tone.“Yeah. I had an emergency that I had to take care of immediately,”

CHAPTER TWO“You left in hurry yesterday,” Alex commented as we hurried to class the following morning. We had to arrive early enough so we could get the front seats. The fifty something old lecturer was not loud so unless you were close enough to her, you’d end up with nothing for the entire semester. I had to graduate with an Honors and not just because my parents were strict about my grades but because I wanted that. It was the one thing that could get me giddy with excitement.“I was just feeling tired,” I said, shrugging.“That’s a bummer. You missed the most epic moment of the fight,” Her voice dropped down as we entered the class. A few students were present so we managed to acquire the two front seats.“I wasn’t even enjoying it,” I admitted pulling out my notebook from my brown leather duffel bag.“I never enjoyed any of it either,”“But you were screaming pretty loud yesterday,” I could have sworn her voice had been at its highest peak.“Well, a girl has gotta do what she go

Holly's POVPunch. Blood. Another punch. More blood. I fidgeted nervously, trying to subdue the imminent urge to throw up. The sight of blood was playing around with the food I had eaten earlier and yet I kept on looking just like the rest of the students and outsiders, my face scrunched up in disgust. This was definitely nothing close to fun. This was just another harsh way of inducing nightmares.“Are you having fun?” Alex, my roommate and personal bodyguard, shouted above the ongoing roar, tagging at my arm, a look of pure glee on her porcelain face. Why did I let her talk me into this? I could have been cuddled up in my bed covers crying over some sad movie right now.“If seeing people punching each other to each other to death is the definition of having fun, then I’m totally having fun,” I shouted back.“See? I knew you’d like it,” It was either my touch of sarcasm was lost on her or she was trying not to let me ruin the night for her. Either way, she was just being Alex.My bro

The coffee shop’s interior was a blend of traditional Hawaiian design, though the faded walls and peeling paint hinted it had seen better days. My eyes wandered from one wall to another, scanning the room in a desperate attempt to avoid Claire’s penetrating gaze. She hadn’t stopped watching me since Hunter left, and her stare felt like it could peel away layers of secrets I wasn’t ready to reveal.“Good décor,” I said impulsively, trying to break the silence, though the words felt hollow.“My daughter’s idea,” Claire replied, her voice softening with a note of pride. “She’s an interior designer in Illinois.”For a fleeting second, the warmth in her tone hit something deep within me. A sharp pang of pain surged through my chest, and unbidden images of my parents lying in a pool of their own blood, slaughtered by Rowan’s hand, flashed across my mind. I clenched the cup of coffee t

CHAPTER FIVEWe’d stopped for gas at least twice before reaching the outskirts of Crest Falls in the early morning hours. From what I’d gathered, Hunter wasn’t much of a talker. Whether it was due to paranoia or just a deeply ingrained habit, I couldn’t be sure.“Fancy a cup of coffee, Maddison?” he asked, pulling into the parking lot of a small, almost deserted diner. Just as quickly, his expression shifted. His face paled as he mumbled, “Unless... pregnant women shouldn’t drink coffee. I don’t know jack about the do’s and don’ts of pregnancy.”The panicked look on his face was enough to make me crack a small smile as I pulled off my helmet.“I don’t mind a cup,” I replied, leading the way inside.The place had a quiet, sleepy atmosphere, like it was caught in a time warp. A middle-aged couple worked behind the counter, chatting in low voices. There were only two other customers: a young woman, probably in her early twenties, with her nose buried in a stack of textbooks, and a scruff

Its quite a mad quest if you think about it but then again, I hadn’t experienced an ounce of normality for ages. My life was beginning to be so good at growing chaotic each day and the only thing that proved to be the only shining light in my otherwise darkened life, was the baby growing in my womb. The wind hit my face but I doubted it was as hard as the wind on Hunter’s face. We hadn’t exchanged a word since he began driving almost an hour ago and I’m certainly very grateful for that. I sincerely could not stand being caught in a conversation right now. Instead, I let my brain think of the one man who had single-handedly ruined my life and that the day he’d come into my life. FLASHBACK The chill evening air in River Moon town-home to the best pack in the city of Rosewood and consequently my pack-brushed my dark hair but that did not bother me even for a second. I took in a harsh load of breath, my frail arms hanging around my lithe body shakily. I stole a quick glance at my fathe

CHAPTER THREE HUNTER’S POV Nightfall approached quicker than I had anticipated and from where I sat peeling a tangerine while watching crackles of the open fire I’d built outside the house; I couldn’t help but think about her rather beguiling yet strange and dangerous predicament. It was almost suicidal. My eyes involuntarily settled on her face across the fire. The flames caressed her face and once again, I found myself clawed with a certain hunger. Fuck! She was not mine and I knew better than to cross that damn alpha. She had her knees drawn up against her, hugging them while staring into the flames, a distant look in the green of her eyes. Maddison Brown was known among all the wolf packs in Pearl town and beyond as the mate to the ruthless Rowan. Sure, I’d not recognised her at first but I’ve heard of her name; most people have. I’d heard rumors of her beauty but I’d not believed it until I saw her. From what I had heard, an alpha of some small pack had commented on Maddison’s

CHAPTER TWOHUNTER’S POVShe finally fell asleep after failing to fight the effect of the sedatives I’d given her after eating, her eyelashes warping her soft cheeks. No one ever ran away from Rowan and whatever made her run, knowing the imminent danger she was placing on her head, had to be something really worth losing her life over. But what could it be? The question was gnawing at me more than I cared.“What are you hiding little wolf?” I muttered under my breath knowing she could not really hear me.I glanced at her sleeping face, sighed then walked outside to watch the sun dip in the horizon. The orange streaks decorating the horizon were the only glorious sight in this goddamn life. I sat on the small dry tree stump overlooking the expansive area. Watching sunset was the only good thing I could actually bring myself to do, apart from training, riding my motorbike and working.“Stop,” A piercing scream rented the quiet evening air.In a heartbeat I was inside the room, beside th

CHAPTER ONEMADDY’S POVI was about to step out when my gaze fell on the full length mirror hanging by a hook on the wall, my naked body staring back at me. Of course, he took off my dress when he was dressing my wound. It should bother me that he saw my body but now was not the time. There were things far much more important to me; things that made me want to bolt out of here as fast as I can . I scanned the room and found the dress lying on top of an old, rusty table. The last thing I cared about was the blood on it. The moment I was dressed up, I glanced around the room for some sort of weapon but there was none. Either the guy was too good at hiding his weapons or he just didn’t give a damn about security. Was he a werewolf? He had to be otherwise he wouldn’t have known Rowan. At the moment, my wolf senses had been paralyzed by the wolf lichen Rowan had injected in me; making it harder for me to sense another wolf. Or even tell any other kind of supernatural.“Hello?” I called, wa