Category: Romance

The rain hammered down as Emily stood in the abandoned greenhouse, shards of glass dangling from its once-grand dome. Drenched, she felt her solitude shift when Kian appeared, his tailored coat doing little to mask the raw energy radiating from him. “You’re here,” he said, his dark eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that made her stomach flip.

She shouldn’t have been there, not after learning what he was: the last of an ancient, immortal clan whose power thrived on secrecy. Being seen together endangered not just his life, but hers.

“Why did you come?” she asked, her voice shaky.

“For you,” he murmured, stepping closer. His fingers brushed a wet strand of hair from her cheek, igniting warmth even in the chilled air. “I warned you to stay away. Not because I don’t want you, but because I do. And that could destroy us both.”

Her breath caught, but she didn’t move. In that wrecked sanctuary, with only rain and shadows as witnesses, the world slid away, leaving only the dangerous promise of what could never be.

The old greenhouse sat deep in the woods, glass panes fractured by ivy roots but glowing faintly under the silver moon. Lauren hesitated at the door, her heart quickening. Inside, Damian waited, his amber eyes catching the fragmented moonlight. He wasn’t like anyone she’d met—his presence hummed with an energy that made her knees unsteady.

He stepped closer. “You shouldn’t have followed me here, Lauren.”

“I had to,” she said, defying the shiver that ran through her. His skin, pale and cold as marble, brushed hers as he moved a stray hair from her cheek. She wanted to step back, but his magnetism rooted her.

“You don’t understand what you’re doing,” he said, his voice shadowed with both warning and longing. She did understand—he wasn’t human, not fully. He was tied to the earth, cursed to feed off vitality itself. To love him meant risking her own life.

Still, Lauren’s hand drifted to his, and for a brief moment, he let her. The world fell silent as their fingers intertwined, and the impossible still felt like it could be within reach.

Rain dripped through the abandoned greenhouse’s shattered roof, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and wildflowers overtaking forgotten walls. Claire traced her fingers over a fractured clay pot, wishing she could turn back time. Across the room, Nikolai’s eyes locked on hers, golden in a way that wasn’t human. He had once been an angel, but now his wings were invisible scars on his back, his fall from grace a price for loving her too deeply.

“We shouldn’t be here,” he said, though not as a warning. His voice carried regret and longing. “Every moment I stay, I risk them finding us.”

She wanted to demand who “they” were, why his presence in her life sent shadows skittering over her at twilight, but his nearness consumed her. He stepped closer, rain dripping along his collarbone. Her breath hitched; she sensed his heart beating, a rhythm unbound by earthly rules.

“I’d risk it all,” Claire whispered, trembling with the knowledge she meant it. But the ancient law he broke to love her clung to them like chains, as unrelenting as the rain falling around them.