Within a Hollow Heart - Chapter 22: Volume 1, : "Beneath the Guardian’s Shadow"

For ten years, he had loved her, but with just one word of “brother,” she rejected him completely.His dignity was trampled upon, yet she remained indifferent to his feelings. It was only when He Ju finally woke up to the truth that he realized his love was not even worth mentioning in her eyes.With a plane ticket and a long-planned confession, He Ju finally understood that there were people in this world who loved him foolishly.He Ju no longer obsessed over the past, and instead focused on the person in front of him.However, when he achieved success and had a loving wife, his former lover came crying to him: “Brother He...”

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

She is not a weak nor submissive type of woman. She is Dominant! A female alpha, the rarest of her kind, who could match up the strength of the most powerful creature, the Vampire King.

As the war between the two races continues, the Alpha Princess falls for the Vampire King. Their fated bond will be tested by their past and origins. Will the two be able to break the loop of revenge and hatred between their clans?

Bound by blood and revenge, can love set them free?

*****

Excerpt:

“You. Are. Not. Going. Anywhere!” His scarlet eyes settled on her face, blazing in a raging fury.

“No way! You just want me for your revenge,” she responded mockingly while meeting his intense gaze. “Just leave me alone!”

In a flash, he closed their gaps, pushing her down on the bed while trapping her in his arms. “I can't... because my kind of revenge means... Trapping you here…” he brought her hand into his chest, pointing to his heart.

“and by enslaving you here… in my bed,” his mouth moved over hers in a sensuous exploration, traveling down her throat to her neck. His hand was already caressing her soft flesh.

“I will get what I want by making you mine!” Before she could complain, a ripping sound was heard as he tore her clothes apart.

One day, the majority of humanity had a collective thought.

‘I wish the world would just collapse.’

And then, that wish came true.