
CROWN WITHOUT A KINGDOM
samuelnwosu07 · Ongoing · 77.6k Words
Introduction
Callum has a flawless exterior and a rotting foundation underneath. A younger brother with medical bills nobody talks about. A father who collects trophies, including a new wife, like acquisitions. A mother who chose peace over her children. He does not do feelings. He especially does not feel for the girl, his father just made his stepsister.
But walls are only useful until someone stops believing in them.
When Sable Voss, Callum's calculating ex, films Wren's worst moment and posts it for the entire school, Callum has to choose between the life he performed and the girl who made their cold, contractual household feel like something real. Wrong call, Callum. Because Wren Calloway is done surviving. She came to win.
Chapter 1
POV: Wren
The note has been on my back for eleven minutes.
I know because I checked my phone at 7:43 when I left the bus, and the janitor pulled me aside at 7:54, and in between those eleven minutes, approximately one hundred and thirty Hartfield Prep students saw it before Idido.
He doesn't say anything. Mr. Diallo, the janitor. He just touches my shoulder, waits for me to stop walking, and peels something off the back of my hoodie with the careful hands of someone who has done this before. Someone who has seen this before. He folds it before I can read it and drops it in his cart.
"Head up," he says quietly. That's all.
But I already heard the laughter.
I already saw the phone come out.
I turn around. The hallway is full, loud, first-day-of-school electric. And at least a dozen people are looking at me with that specific look. The one that means they saw it. The one that means they are deciding if I am worth feeling sorry for or just worth laughing at.
I smile.
Not because I am okay. But if you cry at Hartfield, they take a video of that, too.
I walk to the nearest bathroom, lock myself in the last stall, and lean against the wall. My heart is pounding like I ran a race I didn't sign up for. I breathe in through my nose, out through my mouth, the way my mom taught me when panic used to swallow me whole in middle school.
You are smart, she always says. Smart outlasts everything.
I believe her. I have to.
I look down at Mr. Diallo's cart through the gap under the stall. He unfolded the note. I can see it sitting on top of a pile of crumpled paper.
CAUTION: OVERSIZED LOAD.
Bold letters. Printed, not handwritten. Which means somebody planned this. Somebody woke up this morning, opened their laptop, typed those words, changed the font size to make it bigger, printed it, and brought it to school specifically for me.
The first day. Before Ihade said a single word to anyone.
I have been here before. Different school, same script. The difference is that at Hartfield Prep, everybody has a phone with a good camera and ten thousand followers.
I flushed the toilet even though I didn't use it. I wash my hands. I look at myself in the mirror.
Brown skin. Natural hair stuffed under a grey hoodie. Eyes that are too tired for seventeen. I look like someone who already knows how this year is going to go.
I point at my reflection.
One more year, I tell her. Scholarship. Graduation. Out.
She nods back. We have an agreement.
Second period is English Literature, and I am three minutes late because I got lost, which means every head turns when I open the door. Thirty pairs of eyes. I feel each one like a finger poking a bruise.
The teacher, Ms. Obi, points to the only empty seat without making a thing of it. I slide in. The girl next to me has perfect box braids and is drawing a tiny sun in the margin of her notebook. She doesn't look up. The boy behind me smells like expensive cologne and is already asleep.
I open my book and try to disappear.
It works for about four minutes.
Then I hear it. A whisper. Then a giggle. Then the whisper again, louder this time, shaped like my name,e even though nobody here knows my name yet.
I don't turn around.
Ms. Obi is writing on the board and hasn't noticed. Or she has noticed and is choosing not to engage, which is a kind of cruelty teachers don't know they're doing.
The girl with the braids, the one drawing the sun, slides her notebook toward me without looking up.
Don't turn around, she has written. It's what they want.
I stare at those words.
Then I write underneath: I know.
She writes: I'm Zola.
I write: Wren.
She finally looks at me. She has sharp eyes and a small smile, as if she is keeping a secret.
She writes one more thing: You walked in here like you owned the room. They hate that.
I didn't feel like I owned anything. But I decide right then that Zola is the first good thing about Hartfield Prep.
Lunch is loud and geography. Where you sit is who you are. I already know I am a corner-of-the-room, head-down, eat-fast kind of person. I find a table near the window and pull out my book.
That's when I see him.
He walks in with three other guys, all of them big, all of them loud, all of them carrying the specific energy of people who have never once worried about where to sit. The whole cafeteria shifts when they enter, the way a room shifts when the temperature changes.
He is tall. Golden hair. The kind of face that gets people elected or cast in movies. And I know him because I have already seen him today.
He is the one from the hallway.
The one who looked at me.
The one who walked away.
He sits at the centre table, laughing at something one of his friends said. He hasn't seen me. I am invisible again, which is how I want it.
But then his friend says something,g and he turns, scanning the room the way popular people do, checking their territory. His eyes move across the cafeteria.
They land on me.
He recognizes me. I can tell because his jaw tightens. He saw what happened this morning. He knows he walked past.
I hold his gaze this time. Three seconds. Four.
He looks away first.
Good, I think. Remember that feeling.
I am almost at the bus stop when my phone rings. Mom. I pick up.
"He,y baby," she says. She sounds nervous and happy at the same time, which is a combination that has never meant anything good. "So, Gerard is cooking dinner tonight. He wants us all to eat together."
"Okay," I say slowly.
"And Wren." She pauses. Long enough that I stop walking. "He has a son. Two sons, actually. They're going to be there tonight."
The air leaves my lungs.
"Mom."
"His older son goes to Hartfield," she says. "Isn't that a nice coincidence?"
I already know. I already know before she says the name.
But when she says it, when she says Callum Voss, and I hear that name out loud for the first time, my whole body goes cold.
Because Callum Voss is the boy from the hallway.
The one who saw the sign on my back and walked away.
And tonight I am eating dinner at his house.
Last Chapters
#70 Chapter 70 RUNNING ON EMPTY
Last Updated: 8/11/2026#69 Chapter 69 WHAT WE ARE
Last Updated: 8/9/2026#68 Chapter 68 IF YOU ASK ME TO
Last Updated: 8/6/2026#67 Chapter 67 WHOSE SIDE
Last Updated: 8/4/2026#66 Chapter 66 PHONES UP
Last Updated: 8/3/2026#65 Chapter 65 OUT OF TIME
Last Updated: 8/3/2026#64 Chapter 64 NO WAY TO PROTECT HER
Last Updated: 8/1/2026#63 Chapter 63 PICKING SIDES
Last Updated: 8/1/2026#62 Chapter 62 PROTECTING HER THE ONLY WAY SHE KNEW
Last Updated: 7/31/2026#61 Chapter 61 NOT ABOUT GERARD AT ALL
Last Updated: 7/31/2026
You Might Like 😍
After One Night with the Alpha
I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by a beast.
My world was supposed to bloom at the Moonshade Bay Full Moon Festival—champagne buzzing in my veins, a hotel room booked for Jason and me to finally cross that line after two years. I’d slipped into lacy lingerie, left the door unlocked, and lay on the bed, heart pounding with nervous excitement.
But the man who climbed into my bed wasn’t Jason.
In the pitch-black room, drowned in a heady, spicy scent that made my head spin, I felt hands—urgent, scorching—searing my skin. His thick, pulsing cock pressed against my dripping cunt, and before I could gasp, he thrust hard, tearing through my innocence with ruthless force. Pain burned, my walls clenching as I clawed at his iron shoulders, stifling sobs. Wet, slick sounds echoed with every brutal stroke, his body unrelenting until he shuddered, spilling hot and deep inside me.
"That was amazing, Jason," I managed to say.
"Who the fuck is Jason?"
My blood turned to ice. Light slashed across his face—Brad Rayne, Alpha of Moonshade Pack, a werewolf, not my boyfriend. Horror choked me as I realized what I’d done.
I ran away for my life!
But weeks later, I woke up pregnant with his heir!
They say my heterochromatic eyes mark me as a rare true mate. But I’m no wolf. I’m just Elle, a nobody from the human district, now trapped in Brad's world.
Brad’s cold gaze pins me: “You carry my blood. You’re mine.”
There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the beast who ruined me.
WARNING: Mature Readers Only
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
The Ice Between Us.
Then comes Jax Miller.
Jax is a hotheaded rookie with a lightning-fast puck and a reputation for burning bridges. He doesn't follow playbooks, he doesn't respect authority, and he’s determined to melt Julian’s icy composure. When a viral video of their on-ice collision threatens to bankrupt the program, Coach Clain delivers an ultimatum that feels like a death sentence: they must live together in a cramped, two-bed dorm for the duration of the season.
Forced to navigate the high-stakes world of sports fame, "forbidden" locker-room tension, and the mysterious blackmailer who caught their first mistake on camera, Julian and Jax must decide what’s more dangerous: losing their careers, or losing themselves to the person they were supposed to hate.
Offside With You
At the hospital, Asher falls into a coma. His scans reveal bruises, internal bleeding and signs of prolonged physical abuse. Broken and furious, Aveline vows to expose the cruelty hidden behind the prestige of Crestwood Academy.
Cutting off her hair and disguising herself as her brother, Aveline infiltrates Crestwood Academy and fights her way onto the hockey team determined to unmask those responsible. Revenge should have been simple until she meets Kieran Hampton, the team’s arrogant and sharp-eyed star player. From their first clash, tension ignites. Aveline is certain he’s guilty and has no problem making his life miserable, but their undeniable chemistry only draws them closer with every confrontation.
While Aveline focuses on the wrong target, the real threat stands closer.
Cassian Thorne seems strange at first, his interest in her uncomfortably personal yet he gradually becomes her friend. Meanwhile, Kieran despite believing Aveline is male finds himself drawn to “him” in ways he can’t understand. When he uncovers her true identity, he chooses to protect her at all costs even as she refuses to trust him.
Revenge turns to grief when Asher dies, leaving Aveline drowning in guilt for falling for her brother’s supposed tormentor. Questions remain unanswered, and the truth is far darker than she imagined because Asher Carter was never just a victim. The bullying wasn’t just random.
As secrets unravel and loyalties shatter, Aveline must face one devastating question: what happens when the brother you were ready to destroy the world for isn’t who you thought he was?
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
The Princess's Revenge
Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.
Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.
As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2
The vampire queen (Ambrosia) and Pythia will become close and discover the true origins of their pasts. They rely on each other when their mates are not around. New family is discovered and it is time they all come together to face one of the toughest moments in the dark witches history.
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms
I’d appreciate all your support, thank you so much!
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.
On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...
Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.
George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.
His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"
Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.
When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.
"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"
George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"
"I'm afraid that's impossible."
Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."
The Alpha King's Human Mate
“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.”
He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere.
“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family – and not even you.”
Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.
The Last Tribrid: Hunted & Hollow
That’s what the blood in the woods says.
That’s what Astrid saw with her own eyes.
And that’s what should have ended it.
But it didn’t.
Because her death wasn’t the beginning of justice.
It was the beginning of the hunt.
As grief fractures their world, Astrid and her friends are forced to confront a terrifying truth—someone isn’t just killing.
They’re choosing.
Marking.
Watching.
And now, the circle is closing.
What started as a single investigation quickly unravels into something far more dangerous, pulling them into a web of ancient forces that have been waiting… watching… and are no longer willing to stay buried.
Enemies rise from places they never thought to look.
Allies become something else entirely.
And survival begins to demand impossible choices.
Because some lives can only be saved by sacrificing others.
As power awakens inside Astrid—wild, unstable, and willing to burn everything in its path—she’s pushed to the edge of what she can control… and what she’s willing to lose.
Even if it costs her everything.
Even if it costs them.
Because this time, they aren’t just being hunted.
They’ve already been marked.
(this is a continuation of 'the last tribrid')
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-












