Tobik_Yemi

Ten years ago, Belle Madrigal was blamed for her sister’s death and cast out of her pack. Her Alpha father’s final words “Why did she die, but not you?” drove her into exile. She lived among humans, hiding her identity, her wolf, and her pain.


Now, at twenty-eight, Belle learns her mate is none other than Christian Martin, the powerful Alpha of the strongest pack and heir to a billion-dollar empire. But instead of love, he offers her a contract: marry him for one year so he can fulfill the requirements of his inheritance.


Belle accepts to save her parents’ home but finds herself in a loveless arrangement, mocked by the pack and haunted by the past. Then Christian returns with another woman, the one he truly loves… and it’s Belle’s sister, long thought dead.


As secrets explode and bonds unravel, Belle must decide if she can forgive the mate who rejected her or burn the past down with him in it.

The Forgotten Pulse of the Bond

The parchment was still in her hand when the alarm bells rang three sharp chimes, no more, no less. Not a full-pack emergency, but enough to mean trouble. Enough to mean something had broken through.

She moved through the corridor like a blade, silk gown trailing behind her, feet silent on the marble. The guards were already rushing past in wolf form, eyes glowing, claws unsheathed. She followed them without waiting for permission.

The scent hit her the moment she cleared the south courtyard gate.

Ash. Blood. And something else pinesap and old iron.

Then a body crashed through the tree line.

He staggered forward, dragging one leg behind him. His face was streaked with blood, shirt shredded, shoulder torn open. Two border wolves flanked him, growling at whatever still lingered in the shadows.

"Get him inside!" Magnolia shouted.

They obeyed instantly. She ran beside them as they pulled Beckett through the southern threshold and down into the stone-walled infirmary beneath the estate.

The healers were already moving snapping orders, clearing benches, brewing poultices.

Beckett collapsed onto the cot with a guttural groan, his eyes fluttering open as Magnolia knelt beside him.

"Ambush…" he rasped. "Near the river pass. They weren't rogues. They were… clean. Organized."

"Four. Maybe five. They were waiting."

She looked down at his wounds. Claw marks. Not random. Not wild. Surgical.

He coughed. "Delivering intel. From your contact in St. Louis. About the seal."

Beckett's head dropped back. "Sterling's funding something outside the territory. Not just wolves. Something darker."

Beckett hesitated. Then slowly reached inside his shredded coat and pulled out a black velvet pouch, sealed with gold thread. "Didn't get it. But they tried."

Inside, she felt it pulse against her fingertips. A sigil. Ancient. Forbidden.

The symbol from the forest ruin. The same one that once marked the wall where Camille disappeared as a child.

A serpent wrapped in a ring of flame.

The last time she'd seen it, she was thirteen. And it had been carved into bone.

Beckett winced. "You have to tell Rhett."

"No," Magnolia said, her voice firm. "Not yet."

She stood, tucking the pouch into her sleeve. "Rest. I'll protect this. You protect yourself."

As she left the infirmary, her mind reeled.

Ashriel wasn't just a myth. He was waking. And if the symbol was back… it meant the forest hadn't forgotten.

She didn't notice the figure in the shadows until she reached the end of the corridor.

He stepped forward, gaze locked on her hand.

"I did once," she said quietly. "And it nearly killed me."

And for the first time since she returned, she didn't look back.

Ashes Don’t Sleep