LOGINAurora’s POV: Damon’s mouth found the curve of my throat as he pushed me against the wall. His hands bracketed my ribs, his thumbs tracing the swell of my breasts through the thin linen of my dress. My head fell back against the wood, a shuddering exhale escaping my lips as his teeth grazed the skin beneath my ear. Not biting. More of him promising. The heat in my belly was immediate and consuming.My fingers found the waist of his pants, tugging at the laces with a clumsiness born of urgency. “You’re wearing too many clothes,” I managed low and gasping the words half-laugh, half-gasp.“Then do something about it.” His voice was a low rumble against my skin sending thrills down my spine. Max stirred beneath it—the beast peering through red-flecked eyes, patient but ravenous.My hands ran down his chest, looping around buttons and laces with a deftness that made him suck in a breath. The fabric of his shirt parted. His pants dropped to the floor. I pulled and tugged until he stood bar
Present Day — Hagetha's POVMy eyes snapped open. The memory dissolved like smoke, leaving me standing once more within the ancient chamber beneath the ruins. Silence surrounded me. Not the comforting silence of peace. The silence of something waiting. I slowly raised a trembling hand to my cheek. Moisture. A tear.With a frustrated growl, I wiped it away. "No..." I would not cry. Not now. Not after everything. Lucian had been waiting for me for centuries. Every sacrifice... Every life I had taken... Every soul I had broken... Every kingdom I had manipulated... Every vessel I had created... It had all been for him. For us.Rick had merely been another step toward fulfilling the promise I'd made on that battlefield. I turned toward the endless darkness stretching beyond the ancient archway. "My love..." My voice echoed through the abyss. "I failed to protect Rick."My fingers tightened around my staff. "But I haven't failed you." The darkness answered with nothing more than a low vibra
The memory shifted. Years passed in the span of a heartbeat. I remembered every stolen glance. Every walk beneath the stars. Every kiss that left me believing I had found the one soul the universe had created for mine. I remembered laughing with him beside crystal lakes, watching meteors streak across the heavens as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, listening to him tell stories about the beginning of creation. He always knew exactly what to say. Exactly when to smile. Exactly when to touch my hand. Exactly when to look into my eyes until the rest of the world disappeared.Now...Looking back through centuries clouded by grief... I could still feel the way he had been with me. The warmth of his voice. The patience in his touch. The way he made me believe, even for a little while, that I was cherished beyond measure. I had loved him with everything I was, and even now, that love refused to die quietly.Part of me still wanted to believe those moments had been real. Because if they
Hagetha's POV"No..." The word escaped my lips in little more than a whisper. The ritual chamber shuddered around me, not from stone or earth, but from magic itself. Black runes carved into the floor splintered one after another, tiny fractures spreading through the glowing symbols like cracks racing across frozen ice. I reached for Rick.Nothing. My magic slipped through the connection as though it no longer existed. Again. Nothing. The bond I'd spent years forging... was gone. "No!"Dark energy burst from my hands, slamming into the walls. Candles exploded. Shelves collapsed beneath the force. Dust filled the air, yet none of it mattered. Rick had vanished from my control. Not dead. No... Worse. I could still feel him. Faint. Distant. Locked away."Aurora..." I hissed her name through clenched teeth."What did you do?" I closed my eyes and reached deeper, searching for the thread that had always connected me to Rick. There. Barely. A strand no thicker than a spider's web. Still aliv
Aurora's POVThe nursery had never been this quiet. Not the peaceful kind of quiet that came with sleeping babies or late evenings. This was different. It felt heavy. Like the castle itself was waiting for something... and didn't know if it should hope or fear what came next.Thea slept against my shoulder, her tiny breaths warm against my neck. Every so often, her fingers opened and closed, catching the fabric of my shirt before relaxing again. I held her a little tighter. Across the room, Rick remained exactly where the magic had frozen him. A statue of gray stone.Kneeling. Head bowed. One hand still stretched toward the place where he'd been holding my daughter. It was unsettling. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he would move if I blinked. Damon walked over beside me, his footsteps soft against the nursery floor. He looked from Thea to Rick, then back again."So..." he finally said. His voice was quiet enough not to wake the baby. "What exactly are we looking at?"I let out a t
Aurora’s POVThe silence in the nursery wasn’t peace. It was weight. Heavy enough to crush breath from lungs. Heavy enough to make even warriors outside hesitate before entering. Rick was still on his knees. Still holding Thea. Still crying. But the tendrils were no longer simply reacting. They were failing. Flickering like dying embers. Yet I could feel it underneath everything. Something far worse than loss of control.A secondary presence. Not Rick’s. Not Hagetha’s alone. Something older was pushing back against his awakening clarity. Something hungry. Something patient. Something that did not like being denied. Lucian. I had never seen him. Never faced him. But I had felt his shadow before. And now it was reacting. Because Rick was no longer a perfect vessel. He was becoming unstable. That made him dangerous.To us. To Thea. To the world. Damon stepped beside me slowly. His eyes never left Rick. Max was tense inside him now. Focused again. Predator focus. Not confusion anymore. Ju
An hour later, I was standing in front of her full-length mirror. I had a short tight fighting black dress that ended mid-thigh, a slit on the side went to my hip. Black heels. My brown hair she had dried and picked out, letting my natural curls come out resting down my back. She did my make-up in
"Well..." She said, "Why can't Thomas help you study? I bet he could help you relax too?" she said with a wink. I rolled my eyes. "He says he is fine waiting until I get into college. He says sex is not the most important thing to him. "He says that, but he's been waiting almost 3 years for you. E
My Name is Aurora Grayson. I'm your average 17-year-old girl with big goals and even bigger dreams. I live with my parents in a modest two-bedroom home off the outskirts of town and life has been hectic and chaotic and really busy if I am being honest with myself. Between studying and trying to get
Damon's POV: I looked at this silver-eyed beauty. My head clouded. I wasn't sure what I must have drunk to make me feel this way. I'd had a single whiskey. It occurred to me, I may have been drugged. My eyes went wide with the realization. Before I could stand up and go speak with my beta abou







