
After the Guns Fall Silent
Amber Lust · Ongoing · 233.3k Words
Introduction
Noblewoman Arianna is trying to find her way after the recent conflict. When she meets Sevianne, a widow struggling to care for her child after losing her husband, Arianna promises to help her create a better future. But as Arianna reaches out to others, she finds herself facing her own emotional battles.
Her partner, Clair, returns from a journey burdened with secrets and the weight of leadership. The distance between them grows as he grapples with his responsibilities, leaving Arianna wondering if they can ever be close again.
In a world where noble families fight for power and the memories of fallen heroes linger, Arianna must navigate tricky politics and her own feelings. Will she find the strength to follow her heart, or will duty pull her apart from the love she craves?
Chapter 1
Light spilled over the huge polished table littered with papers. No air moved in the green velvet curtains draped at the long windows though the windows were flung wide open. The dark wood panelling of the walls, the low ceiling smoky from candle-lit conferences going on into the night seemed to increase the weight of the hot humid atmosphere, to press the distressed faces of the long-haired council clerks into frowns and scowls and force their clashing voices into shriller and more anguished tones.
Lord Pava el Maien van Sietter, Privy Councillor and King's Representative for Foreign Affairs, sat absolutely still. His chin was in one cupped hand, his other arm lay negligently over the back of his chair. His long thin body in its flowing green robe looked relaxed but his cold grey eyes in his aristocratic close-cropped head were fixed to the man sitting opposite him.
General-Lord Esha el Gaiel van H'las had pulled back his chair from the table as if to separate himself physically from the hysterical frenzy of the clerks. He wore a red robe but was clearly a soldier: broad and bluff with short greying hair, a neat beard and gentle brown eyes.
Lord van Sietter felt an almost intellectual interest in what van H'las' next move might be. He knew van H'las could come up with tactics in politics as great as those he demonstrated in warfare. He had good cause to know how great a tactician van H'las was in warfare.
General-Lord van H'las suddenly stood up. He thumped one fist on the table, making jugs and glasses jingle. The council clerks slowly fell silent.
"We cannot talk here," van H'las said, looking intently into the motionless pale face opposite him.
van Sietter removed his chin from his hand and said to a footman: "Fetch two chairs."
They walked through the long windows into the brilliant harsh sunshine outside. They sat down where no one would overhear them, in the middle of the long green palace lawns, at some distance from the sandy paths and neat hedges. The garden had been cleared of the large numbers of staff who maintained perfectly clipped lush lawns in the baking heat of summer at the palace. The long-haired clerks clustered in the windows in their dark robes, staring. The two aristocrats sat side by side in the hot sunshine heedless of the extravagance of the fresh green lawns.
van Sietter and van H'las had met in this way seven times. The bitter war they had fought had ended in stalemate. Since then, they had over-taxed merchants until it was cheaper to travel to court by a route twice as long as the one through their lands. Merchants right across the country were trying to work out what they wanted and begging the council clerks to give it them.
van H'las said bluntly, looking with frank clear eyes into van Sietter's face: "Let us bind our families with a tie."
van Sietter raised one eyebrow, staring coldly away down the hot empty green lawn. "I have come here willing to discuss a mutual lowering of taxes," he said.
"How long would such an agreement last?" van H'las asked. He opened his arms and stretched his hands out to van Sietter. "Let us give the merchants a guarantee of the goodwill that should lie between our lands. We are one body, el Maien. My port is the left hand, your Maier Pass the right hand to our prosperity. Let us bind our families closer."
van Sietter turned to look at him from a completely expressionless face. He did not seem to understand what van H'las was hinting at. van H'las frowned, impatient that van Sietter was being slow when there was so obvious a tie they could make between their families.
"I have one son," van H'las went on. How much more did he have to say? van Sietter was still staring blankly at him. "He is my only child, the future sworn Lord. Commander of an H'las troop, a fine boy, intelligent ... sweet-tempered." He gritted his teeth at this disgusting necessity to describe his own Vadyan as if his son were some horse he were selling to the dealers.
van Sietter said: "Do you want me to place my son in his troop?"
van H'las said angrily: "You forget that I know Lord Clair el Maien. I saw him come to court to plead with us for peace. I know it well that he is a Commander himself. I am not seeking to insult you by asking him to serve under my son!"
van Sietter said: "I did not mean my oldest son."
"You have another son?" van H'las asked in surprise. "If you have a younger son .... Is he commissioned? In what troop?"
van Sietter sat silent by his side then said, "my sons are both former officers of Fourth Sietter." van H'las scowled at the mention of this particular troop. "My younger son's current designation is ... privy." van H'las' eyes flicked in puzzlement. van Sietter's grey eye turned with his habitual cold expressionless stare in it. "You are not asking for one of my sons to be placed in your son's troop," he stated.
"N-no," van H'las said hesitantly. "I am asking, I am thinking .... I have not yet sought to arrange a marriage for Vadya."
van Sietter's eyes opened wide then suddenly he laughed. "Sweet Hell!" he exclaimed, his face lit up in the sunshine. This suggestion pleased him far beyond what van H'las had expected. "Of course. Dear Anastelle, the flower of my family's honour. Angel of Grace! Well .... Do you know much of her? My daughter. The daughter of the el Maiens."
"I came to the child's Angel blessing," van H'las said, eyeing van Sietter mistrustfully. "My wife was, um, Lady el F'lara's cousin." He turned his eyes away in embarrassment.
Lord van Sietter's first wife had been a famous beauty: a Northern heartbreaker with exquisite slanted dark blue eyes, a creamy magnolia petal face and a mouth bunched like a rose-petal. van H'las knew that van Sietter's oldest son had inherited his mother's beauty; he had seen him in the King's Council on his knees to plead for peace. Commander-Lord Clair el Maien had lifted a face back then twisted with an agony that was made the more appealing by heartbreakingly lovely Northern features. They still said of him that he was the most desirable man at court.
Last Chapters
#220 Chapter#222
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#219 Chapter#221
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#218 Chapter#220
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#217 Chapter#219
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#216 Chapter#218
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#215 Chapter#217
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#214 Chapter#216
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#213 Chapter#215
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#212 Chapter#214
Last Updated: 1/15/2026#211 Chapter#213
Last Updated: 1/15/2026
You Might Like 😍
Omega Bound
Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life.
Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate
What? No—wait… oh Moon Goddess, no.
Please tell me you're joking, Lex.
But she's not. I can feel her excitement bubbling under my skin, while all I feel is dread.
We turn the corner, and the scent hits me like a punch to the chest—cinnamon and something impossibly warm. My eyes scan the room until they land on him. Tall. Commanding. Beautiful.
And then, just as quickly… he sees me.
His expression twists.
"Fuck no."
He turns—and runs.
My mate sees me and runs.
Bonnie has spent her entire life being broken down and abused by the people closest to her including her very own twin sister. Alongside her best friend Lilly who also lives a life of hell, they plan to run away while attending the biggest ball of the year while it's being hosted by another pack, only things don't quite go to plan leaving both girls feeling lost and unsure about their futures.
Alpha Nicholas is 28, mateless, and has no plans to change that. It's his turn to host the annual Blue Moon Ball this year and the last thing he expects is to find his mate. What he expects even less is for his mate to be 10 years younger than him and how his body reacts to her. While he tries to refuse to acknowledge that he has met his mate his world is turned upside down after guards catch two she-wolves running through his lands.
Once they are brought to him he finds himself once again facing his mate and discovers that she's hiding secrets that will make him want to kill more than one person.
Can he overcome his feelings towards having a mate and one that is so much younger than him? Will his mate want him after already feeling the sting of his unofficial rejection? Can they both work on letting go of the past and moving forward together or will fate have different plans and keep them apart?
Goddess Of The Underworld
When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
Falling For The Biker: The Vice President's Girl
His eyes darken, flicking to my mouth.
"It's wrong. Your brother would slit my throat for just standing this close. But tell me, little bird" his breath ghosts my skin, "are you trembling because you hate me… or because you've wanted this just as much as I have?"
Wren thought she'd buried the chaos of New Orleans for good—the clubs, the blood-soaked loyalties, the men who lived and died by their kuttes. Seattle gave her everything she ever wanted: freedom, love, a future.
But one betrayal shatters it all.
Dragged home by tragedy, Wren finds herself under the watchful eye of Ezra Jax—the Raven Reapers MC's vice president and her brother's best friend. He's infuriating, dangerous, and far too tempting for a man she should never touch.
And the deeper Wren is pulled back into his world, the more she realizes nothing about her past—or about Ezra—is what she believed.
In the chaos of gang wars, mounting debts, and old betrayals, he becomes the one constant. The more she fights him, the harder she falls. And the more he pushes her away, the more lethal his pull becomes.
Because in this world, love isn't sweet.
It's brutal. Bloody.
And it's bound to break them both.
When loyalty is everything and love can cost your life, will Wren risk her heart on the one man she was never meant to love?
A pack of their own
The mafia princess return
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
The Human Among Wolves
My stomach twisted, but he wasn’t finished.
"You're just a pathetic little human," Zayn said, his words deliberate, each one hitting like a slap. "Spreading your legs for the first guy who bothers to notice you."
Heat rushed to my face, burning with humiliation. My chest ached — not from his words alone, but from the sick realization that I had trusted him. That I had let myself believe he was different.
I was so, so stupid.
——————————————————
When eigteen-year-old Aurora Wells moves to a sleepy town with her parents, the last thing she expects is to be enrolled in a secret academy for werewolves.
Moonbound Academy is no ordinary school. It's here young Lycans, Betas and Alphas train in shifting, elemental magic, and ancient pack laws. But Aurora? She's just...human. a mistake. The new receptionist forgot to check her species - and now she's surrounded by predators who sense she doesn't belong.
Determined to stay under the radar, Aurora plans to survive the year unnoticed. But when she catches the attention of Zayn, a brooding and infuriatingly powerful Lycan prince, her life gets a lot more complicated. Zayn already has a mate. He already has enemies. And he definitely doesn't want anything to do with a clueless human.
But secrets run deeper than bloodlines at Moonbound. as Aurora unravels the truth about the academy - and herself - she begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Including the reason she was brought here at all.
Enemies will rise. Loyalties will shift. And the girl with no place in their world...might be the key to saving it.
The Prison Project
Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?
Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.
Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.
Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...
At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…
Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?
Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?
What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…
A temperamental romance novel.












