Born From The Ash
He rejected her under the moonlight. Now fate has thrown them into the same war...
Aria Ashborne was supposed to be forgotten the castaway of a fallen pack, the daughter of a disgraced Alpha. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. When Alpha Kaiden Blackthorn the brutal enforcer of the Northern Territories discovers she is his fated mate, he rejects her in front of the entire council, branding her unworthy.
But Aria doesn't beg. She doesn't break. She builds. She builds in silence.
Now a fierce warrior leading her own rebel wolves, she's forced into an uneasy alliance with Kaiden when a deadly new force begins tearing through the werewolf ranks. Old enemies. New secrets. And a bond neither of them can truly sever.
What happens when hate burns hotter than desire? And when the one person you swore to destroy... might be the only one who can save you?
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Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
KAIDEN'S POV
I felt it the moment she stepped onto Ashborne land.
The bond muted and distant these past few days flared like a spark in my chest. Pain, laced with something sharper than longing. It burned through me, waking the wolf I'd been trying to silence since the ceremony.
My hands trembled where they rested on the table, war maps forgotten. The air in the war room thickened, my breath catching like smoke in my throat.
"Aria." I muttered, clenching my fists tightly and closing my eyes in frustration, trying to calm my breathing.
Elias, my Beta, lifted his head. "What is it?"
"She's back. In the ruins." I answer him, feeling the pain in my chest increasing second by second.
His eyebrows frown in disbelief as he stares at me. "That's suicide. If she gets caught then..." He words trails off, and I know what he's going to say.
"She won't be caught." I said. She can't get caught. "She's not that foolish." I don't know if I'm telling him or myself.
He studied me for a beat, then returned to the map. "Are you going after her?" He asks and I lean back on my seat.
"I don't know." I muttered, not sure what to do.
"You do." I hear him saying quietly. "You always do when it's about her." He adds and I look at him.
My jaw clenched tightly. "That doesn't mean I should." I growled, getting up from my seat.
"No." Elias replied. "It means you can't stay away. Away from her. Or away from the truth. That you and her are bound together for life."
I left the room in silence, the stone halls of Blackridge echoing with my steps. The guards parted as I passed, no one daring to speak. I was Alpha, but right now, I didn't feel like a leader. I felt like a storm held barely in check.
The stables were quiet. My horse snorted when he saw me, sensing my unrest. I barely saddled him before swinging onto his back, heart thundering like hooves.
As I rode toward the Ashborne estate, snow began to fall in slow, lazy spirals. The wind whispered through the trees, brushing against my skin like a warning. My wolf prowled inside me, every stride of the horse making the bond throb harder.
She was close. I could feel her.
The ruins loomed ahead like a broken crown. Blackened stone towers, scorched doorframes, cracked windows staring out like hollow eyes. Time hadn't been kind to the Ashborne land. Neither had we.
I dismounted from my horse and moved toward the main hall.
The moment I stepped inside, her scent hit me like lightning, Moonlight and pine. Smoke and fire. Her. It clung to the air, fresh and fierce. She had been here. Recently. My heart lurched in my throat.
Elias's words echoed in my mind: 'You always do when it's about her.'
I followed the trail through the ruined halls, my boots crunching over old ash and shattered glass. The study door hung off one hinge as I stepped inside.
She'd found the panel. The hidden one behind the sigil. My father's secret. The secret that has been hidden for years. But now?
The journal was gone.
So was the map.
I leaned against the scorched wall, the ghost of her presence still alive in the air. I closed my eyes and breathed her in.
"She knows." I whispered, closing my eyes and breathing her lingering scent in the air.
A memory surged: the night her father died. His last words, spoken in fury and desperation, meant something to me. Only me.
"Protect her. One day, she'll awaken the fire they fear."
I hadn't understood then.
But now I do.
I moved to the desk and opened the false drawer. Empty. She'd taken it all. The scrolls. The coded glyphs. Everything my father spent his life hiding.
Footsteps approached and I knew who it was, without seeing him. Elias had followed me to here.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked, looking at me carefully. I can feel his gaze on my every action as I tried to check everything.
"I don't know what choice I have." I replied honestly, because I seriously have no idea what to do.
"You always have a choice." Elias said as he stepped beside me. "You chose to stay silent before. Will you do it again?"
I stared at him, guilt gnawing at my gut. "I was seventeen. What could I have done?" I tried to reason with him but I, myself, don't feel confident in that.
"You could've spoken. stood up for her. Fought for her. You were Alpha even then." He says and I clench my fists, because he's brutally right.
"I was afraid." I admit, looking out of the window, trying to catch even the slightest sight of her. Just her.
"And now?" Elias asks, stopping me dead in my steps.
I didn't answer. Because the truth was, I still was.
But maybe this time, the fear wouldn't win.
I stepped into the snow, with Elias on my heels, watching the wind twist through the broken estate. Somewhere out there, she carried the truth. And soon, she'd come for answers.
Or for blood. My blood.
"Aria." I whispered her name into the wind, wishing I had chosen a different path years ago.
If I had chosen her.
And the fire between us would finally ignite.
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7.1
The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash of my starship crashing. But instead of a rescue crew, I woke up tied to a wooden post, surrounded by hostile beastmen.
My universal translator kicked in just in time to hear their priestess, Chelsea, declare that I was a cursed demon who ruined their hunt. To save the clan from winter starvation, I was to be burned alive.
The flames were already blistering my legs, and jagged stones hurled by the crowd gashed my forehead. I barely negotiated a three-day reprieve to find them food, venturing into the deadly primeval forest.
I found a massive supply of wild potatoes and even gained the protection of Bronson, a terrifyingly powerful saber-toothed tiger beastman.
But Chelsea wouldn't stop.
She labeled my food as poisonous, tried to sentence me to starve in a penitent's cave, and when my agricultural knowledge proved her wrong, she invoked an ancient law. She incited the tribe's savage warriors to fight over me, turning me into breeding property.
I was a scientist offering them endless food, yet their primitive ignorance and one woman's vicious jealousy kept pushing me toward a brutal end. I was terrified, completely powerless against their monstrous physical strength.
As five ruthless challengers drew their bone axes to claim me, I begged Bronson to leave me and run.
Instead, he pulled me against his scarred chest and kissed me fiercely in front of the entire clan.
"She is my mate," he roared, unleashing a soul-crushing aura. "Anyone who wants her, come at me together."
7.2
Aria was born with a fire in her soul a mysterious ember that hums with a power even she cannot control. Ordinary life was never meant for her, but when shadowed creatures rise from the Veiled Realm, kingdoms teeter on the edge of war, and an ancient prophecy stirs from the depths of forgotten magic, Aria discovers that her gift may be the only thing standing between life and annihilation.
As she struggles to master her abilities, Aria is thrust into a world of ruthless warlords, cunning sorcerers, and dark beasts that hunt from the shadows. Every ally she meets could be a traitor, every enemy may hold a secret, and every choice she makes carries the weight of a realm cloaked in mystery and danger.
Amid the chaos, a forbidden bond ignites with a warrior whose strength matches her own, a connection that could either become her greatest strength or her deadliest weakness. As love, betrayal, and destiny collide, Aria must confront the shadows of her past, embrace the power within her, and decide whether she will rise as the savior of the Veiled Realm or fall and let it burn.
Embers will flare. Secrets will awaken. And one girl's courage will shape the fate of a hidden world forever.
7.3
Clara came home from a fourteen-hour board meeting to the sound of a piercing scream in the playroom.
When she rushed in, she found her husband, Chadwick, kneeling on the floor in a panic.
But he wasn't looking at their five-year-old son, Leo, who had a massive bleeding welt on his forehead.
Instead, Chadwick was trembling as he held the nanny's daughter, Autumn, who barely had a microscopic scratch.
"She needs ice. And antibacterial ointment," Chadwick snapped, carrying the nanny's daughter away and leaving his bleeding son behind.
From that moment, the nightmare only escalated.
Chadwick ordered Clara to cook a three-hour meal for the nanny's kid, threw away Leo's favorite toys because Autumn sneezed, and even secretly took the nanny and her daughter on Leo's promised Disney trip.
The final humiliation came at the Met Gala.
Right before their sponsor speech, Chadwick received a frantic call from the nanny claiming Autumn was having a panic attack.
He abandoned Clara in front of hundreds of flashing cameras, sprinting out of the ballroom.
Clara stood completely alone, the humiliation eating through her veins like acid.
She couldn't understand how a father could call the nanny's kid his "little princess" while watching his own son cry.
Why was he treating his own flesh and blood like garbage just to play savior to another woman's child?
Suddenly, the blinding camera flashes were blocked by a massive shadow.
Erasmo Chase, the heir to New York's largest financial dynasty, stepped out of the darkness and shielded her.
"A man like that is unworthy of your grief, Ms. Best," he whispered, pressing a silk handkerchief into her trembling hand.
Looking at the sharp profile of the powerful man beside her, Clara's shock hardened into a lethal, cold fury.
She was going to dump her family's shares, crash the board, and make Chadwick lose absolutely everything.
8.3
For six years, Lumi thought she had everything: a steady relationship with her devoted fiancé, Caius, and the promise of a perfect future. But the night before her engagement party, Lumi walks in on a betrayal she never imagined, Caius in the arms of her own cousin, Wren.
With her heart shattered, Lumi decides it's time to stop being the good girl. She creates a daring "sin list"-ten bold rules to break before the year ends. Rule #1: seduce a stranger. But when that stranger turns out to be none other than Caius' older brother, the dangerously alluring and untouchable Briggs, Lumi's game of revenge ignites a fire neither of them can control.
As each "sin" on her list pushes them closer, Lumi will have to decide if vengeance is worth the price, because loving him might be the most dangerous sin of all.
9.7
Blurb
"I, Alpha Jackson Caesar of the Black moon Pack, reject you as my mate!"
Rose, a poor and humble slave, enters into a world of power, betrayal and forbidden love.
Her life takes a drastic turn when she's saved by the feared yet kind Lycan Prince Aiden, her second chance mate. As their love gets stronger, jealousy and lies threaten to destroy them. Poisoned, kidnapped, almost killed. She unveils shocking truths. She is the long lost daughter of an Alpha and the rightful heir to a very powerful Pack. With enemies exposed, and love prevailing, Rose rises from a servant to a Luna, uniting two great Packs and reclaiming her destiny. But there's always a price to pay. Rose must fight to protect everything she loves.
7.5
I was Nyx, a top-tier covert operative. But when I opened my eyes, I was trapped in the unfamiliar, overweight body of a bullied girl named Eliza.
Before I could even process the body swap, the bedroom door splintered open. I was in bed with Julian Malone, a wealthy military heir, both of us heavily drugged. Cameras flashed wildly. It was a vicious setup to ruin his career, and I was the bait.
To save his family's reputation, Julian was forced to marry me. But the moment the wedding was over, he abandoned me. His elite family treated me like a disease. His mother froze my only bank account, trying to starve me into submission.
I even intercepted a private conversation between his parents.
"Once she's in a private facility, she loses all legal standing. We can sign anything we want on her behalf."
They planned to lock me up in a mental asylum and erase my existence entirely to get rid of the "trailer park trash."
To them, I was just a weak, pathetic pawn they could crush without a second thought. They thought they had backed a helpless girl into a corner.
They had no idea they had just declared war on a lethal weapon.
I didn't cry or beg. Instead, I bypassed their state-of-the-art security, cracked their safe, and stole the financial secrets that could destroy their entire empire.
"I want five hundred thousand dollars, or these files go to the IRS."
This time, I was playing by my own rules.