Painawakened

Xavier POV I stepped inside my mother's office. She crossed the space before I reached her and pulled me in before I could say anything. Her hug was tight. Fierce. I let myself sink into it for a second, face against her shoulder, breathing in the familiar scent of her perfume. "I'm sorry we woke you early," she murmured. "How are you feeling?" "Okay," I said against her shoulder. It wasn't a lie. It wasn't the truth either. She pulled back just enough t

AUSTIN POV The knocking came at 0602. I knew because I checked my watch before I moved. Old habit. I swung my legs off the bed and walked to the door, running a hand through my hair before pulling it open. Nathaniel stood there. For a second, I didn't process anything else. Just him. The same face I remembered, untouched by time. If anything, sharper. More defined. Like the years had refined him instead of aging him. Aaron stood one step behind

AUSTIN POV "If he dies," the man said quietly, "you will too." Years of training told me the threat was real. Everything about him — posture, stare, grip — said he'd follow through. "I didn't shoot him," I said. "Then lower the gun." I lowered it slowly. He released the barrel. Before I could ask him who he was, two more figures dropped beside the wolf. My brain registered the speed, the silence, and filed it under What The Fuck. I was dru

Xavier POV “I don’t understand.” My voice came out steadier than I expected. Good. I was aware of my hands. The specific effort it took to keep them still at my sides. My mother sat across from me at the table where we’d eaten breakfast every morning of my life. The same place she’d helped me with schoolwork. Where she’d told me stories about her own ascension. Where she’d told me how proud she was of how hard I worked. She looked at me the way she looked a

Xavier POV The field had emptied twenty minutes ago. Dinner was on the table somewhere inside the pack hall. I could smell it from here. Roasted meat and woodsmoke drifting across the tree line. The kid - Marcus, barely fourteen, the newest shift in the pack - was still out there alone in wolf form, stubbornly running the same sequence Jon had used to drop him while the pack laughed every time he hit the dirt. He lunged. His back leg dragged. He hit the groun

Xavier Reid has always known exactly what his life would be. Heir to a powerful family, raised for leadership, with a future as the next Alpha of the Greyhaven pack. Surrounded by loyal allies — including the vampires Aaron, Sade, and Nathaniel — he has never questioned the world he is set to inherit. But as Xavier steps into adulthood, cracks begin to form in the future he was raised for. Book 2 of the Awakened series. Can be read as a standalone. Updates: 1–2 chapters per week. Approx. 25–30 chapters planned.

Austin POV I hadn’t been back in years. The ferry horn echoed across the harbor as Boston disappeared behind me. The city shrank into gray shapes through the fog, the skyline dissolving until only the water remained. Wind scraped across the deck and shoved against my coat. I stayed at the railing anyway. The island appeared slowly out of the mist — dark trees rising behind a strip of docks and weathered buildings that looked like they’d been standing there since b

Thank you so much. I loved writing Aaron and Nathaniel’s story. I'm glad it resonated with you

Thank you

BONUS CHAPTER: 1915 The war had a way of swallowing names. On the outskirts of Amiens, in a canvas field hospital pitched on mud thick as gravewater, a young man lay half-conscious on a narrow cot, his chest wrapped in dressings stiff with blood. Rain hammered the canvas overhead. The air stank of gangrene and smoke. He drifted in and out like a man already dying. A shape moved near his bed—a woman. Thick-waisted, with a face broad and shapeless as cooling wax. Her hai

THREE YEARS LATER Aaron POV "I'm ready." Nathaniel stood in the doorway, fresh from the shower, a towel slung low on his hips. Water still clung to his skin, catching the last of the sunset, and he looked so young it made my chest ache. "You don't have to decide tonight," I said carefully. "We can wait. Another month. Another year. However long you need." "I don't need more time." He stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. "I've made my choice."

Nathaniel POV The bedside lamp cast a warm glow across the room. Aaron's arm was draped across my chest. The sheets tangled around our legs. We'd been lying here talking for hours. He was quiet for a moment, his thumb tracing patterns on my skin. "What if one day you realize I took something from you that you can never get back?" I turned my head to look at him. "That would never happen." "A century from now. Two centuries. What if you wake up one day and realize

THREE MONTHS LATER Nathaniel POV My dorm bed was barely big enough for one person, let alone two. But somehow we'd made it work, limbs tangled, his weight pressing me into the narrow mattress. His mouth was on mine, hungry and unrestrained in a way I hadn't felt from him in months. Every careful coffee date, every chaste goodnight kiss, it all dissolved as his hips rolled against me. He broke away suddenly, breathing hard. "We don't have to—" he started, but I fis

ONE YEAR LATER Nathaniel POV The Friday night rush at The Iron Foundry was a sensory assault. The scent of craft malt and hops mingled with cologne, the roar of the after-work crowd from the Financial District, and the sticky humidity of a Boston summer clinging to everything. "Here you go. Macallan 18," I said, setting the heavy crystal glass down in front of a man in his mid-thirties. He was a regular here and was the kind of guy who spent more on his watch than I made in

Nathaniel is the one who says “I love you” in that scene. Aaron never does. 😣I’ve revised the line slightly to make that clearer.