A Bloodline of Secrets: The Unification (Original Sin Book 2), page 1
Contents
Copyright
Playlist
Author's Note and Content Warnings
Map East
Map West
Dedication
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26
27. Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
30. Chapter 30
31. Chapter 31
32. Chapter 32
33. Chapter 33
34. Chapter 34
35. Chapter 35
36. Chapter 36
37. Chapter 37
38. Chapter 38
39. Chapter 39
40. Chapter 40
41. Chapter 41
42. Chapter 42
43. Chapter 43
44. Chapter 44
45. Chapter 45
46. Chapter 46
47. Chapter 47
48. Chapter 48
49. Chapter 49
50. Chapter 50
51. Chapter 51
52. Chapter 52
53. Chapter 53
54. Chapter 54
55. Chapter 55
56. Chapter 56
57. Chapter 57
58. Chapter 58
59. Chapter 59
60. Chapter 60
61. Chapter 61
62. Chapter 62
63. Chapter 63
Fullpage image
Chapter
Glossary
THANK YOU
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Danielle D. Drummond
Chapter
Chapter
Copyright © 2025 by Danielle D. Drummond
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publisher at danielle@danielleddrummond.com
No generative artificial intelligence (AI) was used in any way, during the creative process, or the writing of this work. Without in any way limiting the authors’s exclusive rights under copyright, the author expressly prohibits any entity or persons from using this publication to train generative AI technologies to generate text, including, without limitation, technologies capable of generating works in the same style or genre as this publication.
All rights reserved.
Cover Art by Lexie at Selkkie Designs
Hard Cover and title page artwork by Juniper Hartmann
Interior art by Juniper Hartmann
Interior art by Anastasia Mirolubova
Interior design and formatting by Danielle D. Drummond
Map design by Winter Cutt
Editing by Charla Ayers
PAPERBACK ISBN: 9781763765122
HARDCOVER ISBN: 9798270474294
HARDCOVER D/J ISBN: 9781763765139
Playlist
When I daydream about the world I’m creating, music becomes my muse, inspiring me to breathe life into my characters. It helps me tap into deeper emotions, visualise scenes as they unfold, and find the creative energy to tackle even the most challenging chapters. If music resonates with your creative process too, or if you simply enjoy listening while you read, hop over to Spotify and explore the incredible artists who helped shape the world I’ve brought to life for you.
Author's Note and Content Warnings
ABloodline of Secrets: The Unification is a book of fiction. Any description or representation of any person or place in this work is fictional, and any resemblance is purely coincidental.
This book contains heavy themes of emotional abuse and manipulation, drug use, violence, kidnapping, self sacrificial rituals and death, both on and off page. The FMC goes through a lot of trauma in this book and it is not entirely dealt with. Your mental health matters so please take note and use your discretion before choosing to delve into the world of Elyndria and please be kind to yourself while reading this. This book also contains explicit sexual content.
For the girls who lost their way in the darkness. . .
Sometimes the darkness is our greatest strength, do not fear it, embrace it. For when the darkness loves you, you are no longer lost, but finally found.
She tip-toed quietly through the night, fearful of making a sound, and waking the wild monsters that reside inside her heart.
For once aroused, she knew not how to tame them.
—Dee Dee Paturzo
Chapter 1
Quentin
She was screaming his name, and it ripped Quentin Ishaan from his slumber. Was this some new nightmare? She was catatonic when he got her back to the pack’s manor and laid her down to rest. Her only words were, “I’m sorry.” She was sorry? He was a Godsdamn asshole, and he should have stayed away.
Groaning, Quentin peeled his heavy lids open. He looked over to where Paege once lay beside him. His nest was destroyed, but it was the empty blanket he had cocooned her in that stopped his heart. She was no longer in the overly large bed. He sat up and scanned the expansive bedroom to find pillows and blankets strewn across the room. The morning sun beamed through the opened windows, her rays caressing and teasing him with a sense of joy and adventure. But there would be no adventure or joy, not today. Maybe not ever again. He shrugged it off. While he loved the day, the night was where he felt alive, especially in the presence of the all-powerful moon. It was a Wolf thing. They thrived in the dark.
It hadn’t been long since he brought Paege into his home. Since he laid her down and closed his eyes. Since leaving after Guy was killed.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
Quentin blinked. The memories of the fight and Guy dying hit him like an avalanche, the debris of his actions burying him one stone at a time. His brother was the only one he had ever truly trusted. The only one he would have given his life for. Everything he had done to this point was to keep his brother safe. Guy was a much better male than he ever was. A much better son. Brother. Wolf. Guy deserved far better than he was ever given.
He closed his heavy eyes and leaned back, trying to relieve the pressure in his tightening chest. He pushed the unfurling anger deep into his core. She screamed once more, and it yanked him from his thoughts and back to the present moment.
No, not a dream.
Quentin sat upright again, and his eyes snapped open, landing on the source of the sound. He found her lying on the floor at the end of the bed. “Paege?” he asked as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and willed his tired and aching body to stay upright.
“Quentin? Please help me,” she pleaded. Paege looked up to him with watery emerald eyes. Her delicate face was still covered in grime and blood from the battle they had just faced. Both were too tired and broken to clean up.
“Fuck, Paege. What’s going on?” Quentin helplessly watched in shock as she writhed around in pain, unable to come to her aid. Paege’s limbs contorted in all the wrong ways. He didn’t know what to do. Quentin’s brain scrambled for any understanding of what was happening.
Finally, it clicked. He had seen this before. Hels, he had experienced this before. Quentin pushed himself off the bed, then stilled and stared in disbelief.
It can’t be.
She was half Human and half Fae. This was impossible. But how could he ignore what his memories were showing him? What was happening right before his very eyes? After all, she did take a life. She killed Ric. Quentin pushed down the need to help her and trusted what his instincts told him. What he knew with every inch of his being.
For a beat, he tried to reject it, but he watched in utter disbelief as she shifted.
As she Emerged.
First, Paege’s face morphed, and her mouth became elongated as her muzzle formed. The rest of her body followed, twisting and contorting. Her body changed before his eyes. When her coat filled out, his heart thundered heavily in his chest with awe right before it split open in pain. Because once the painstaking Emergence had finished, there she stood as a regal, beautiful Wolf. Her coat was thick, white, and ran into grey, pointed ears. The grey tip on her tail and her striking emerald-green eyes were like none he’d ever seen before—except for one. His stomach knotted and twisted as he pieced together what he saw.
Paege was not only a Wolf; she was the perfect image of Guy. How could this be? What did it mean? “Paege, if you can hear me, nod,” Quentin told her with a shaky voice as he took a nervous step toward her.
Paege bowed her beautiful head, so he continued toward her, and surprisingly, she moved to meet him. Quentin didn’t want to startle her, though. He wasn’t even sure she knew what just happened—what was happening to her—and he’d hate for her to run or attack him before she shifted back and he could explain. He stayed calm, letting his breath fall into a calming rhythm while he waited for her to approach him in her own time. He slowly closed the gap between them, matching every step she took with one of his own. When Paege reached him, he held out his hand and brushed his fingers against her cheek. She nuzzled into him, allowing Quentin to cup her face.
His body relaxed. “You. Are. Beautiful,” Quentin sighed.
He stared into her deep emerald-green eyes for a moment, and Quentin swore he saw the flicker of a flame ignite inside them. It all made sense, he supposed. More pieces fell into place as he watched her. Was this why his father asked him to keep an eye on her? She wasn’t human at all. She was a Wolf.
Quentin couldn’t move. He tried. Gods, did he try, but it was like his bones had turned to a heavy metal that held him to the spot like a statue. He attempted to reconcile what he saw before him, but it made him sick to consider.
He was sent to watch her. To keep an eye on her. She was part of something much bigger.
Visions swam through his mind, weaving between his thoughts. Memories he had long forgotten burst to life as if he were experiencing them for the first time.
He didn’t know. How could he? Yes, he had willingly done what his father asked, even contributing to the insanity of his plan, but it was clear that he was missing something. There was so much he hadn’t been told.
He would have to find out.
His chest tightened, and he blinked twice. He couldn’t deny that she was downright beautiful. “Paege, you’re a Wolf.”
Upon Quentin’s words, Paege shifted back into her Fae form and collapsed on the bedroom floor. He sank and grabbed her, wrapping her in his arms. He wasn’t sure she would want him to hold her after everything he had done, but he couldn’t let her go. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Paege flinched, her body recoiling for a split second, but then she reciprocated his embrace and buried her head in his chest. Just as quickly as it broke, his heart selfishly started to heal. But hers probably never would. Gods, she smelled like fresh wildflowers and salty air, and it reminded him of home. Without hesitation, he relaxed into her, unsure of what else to do, what else to say, and how else to act. After everything, he never expected this. Sure, he knew there was something different about her. Knew there was something else.
Quentin felt her heart pounding against his body, and she let out a long, rattled breath. His body shuddered in response, mirroring hers.
Fuck.
Paege tilted her head toward his and looked at him through her long lashes with eyes full of confusion and discomfort. Quentin studied her face. He took in the curve of her full lips, the little freckles that butterflied across her button nose, her defined cheeks with one little dimple on the left side, and her wide green eyes, once full of life and kindness, now full of darkness and grief.
He did this.
She had been through so much these past few months, but here she was still fighting, still surviving, and Quentin’s chest cracked open thinking of all the grief and pain she must have felt. All the trauma she had been dealt. He considered how strong she must be not to give up at all.
It didn’t matter that when he said those three words to her before they went to battle, she didn’t say them back. How could she love anyone when she had never truly loved herself? She has been used, abused, and lied to her entire life—by him, too. After what he had done, he didn’t deserve those three words. Not from her or anyone. It didn’t matter that he thought he was doing the right thing or that he thought he was protecting everyone. It didn’t matter that he felt something for her, and that his feelings could have been true one day. All that mattered was that he lied to her. He betrayed her and put her in danger like everyone else. How would he ever get her to trust him again? Because now, more than ever, he needed her to.
Quentin pushed down the hurt and swallowed his pride. His loyalty lay with his father. With the pack. With the Wolves. Brushing the hair from her face, he returned her gaze. She didn’t deserve this. Any of this.
“Quentin?” When she finally spoke his name, his chest ached from a dark place he never expected.
He did this. He broke her. And while he knew he had to, he took no pleasure from it. “Yes, Books?"
“What’s happening?” she asked in a raspy voice.
What’s happening? What’s fucking happening? He had no idea. “What do you remember?”
“I remember.” She paused, and he watched her face. Her eyes darted around the room as if scanning her memory bank, looking for answers. Then they widened. “I remember pain. I remember seeing wolves in my sleep. I remember. . .I remember.” She paused again, and he didn’t speak, waiting. He wanted her to remember. He needed her to come to the recognition herself; it would be less traumatic that way. “Oh, the Gods,” she pulled herself back from his embrace. “Quentin, I think I’m a Wolf.”
Chapter 2
“Idon’t understand,” I cry as I pull myself from Quentin’s arms and wrap myself in a blanket that’s fallen from the bed. “How is this possible? I’m half Human, not Wolf. Human!”
“I don’t know, Paege,” Quentin finally speaks. He sweeps the hair out of his eyes, and a broken male stares back at me. He lost his best friend. His brother. He lost members of his pack. His friends.
And although he doesn’t know it yet, he’s lost me.
My heart fractures as I study his face and infinite grey-blue eyes. I trusted him, and he betrayed me. He followed me on orders from the king to keep an eye on me. He infiltrated my life and pretended to be my friend, to care. Why me? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that everything I thought we had was a lie.
And what about Guy? Why would he not tell Guy any of this? He was his best friend, his brother, his fight-or-die, and Guy was just as shocked to hear Quentin’s words as I was.
For some reason, I trusted Guy more than I trusted anyone. And now he’s gone.
They are both gone.
And what about the fact Quentin said he loved me just before our lives imploded? How could he say such a thing, after everything that had unfolded in the day before? Was it just another lie? Was it another tactic to gain my trust and believe him?
I think back on his words. I don’t believe them. I can’t. There was something selfish in the way he spoke them. He wasn’t asking for them to be returned, no, but he was expecting something of me. My forgiveness. His betrayal punches me in the ribs. I wish the words were true, but no matter how hard I try, I just don’t believe them.
Despite how angry, confused, or hurt I am, I still want nothing more than to blind myself from the truth and hold him once more, ease him of his pain. Damn empathy. But I can’t. I am falling apart. My life is crumbling around me. The debris is crushing me, suffocating me, sucking the air out of my lungs, and I’m using every ounce of energy I possess to keep myself together.
My world, as I know it, is gone.
I have taken a life.
Guy is dead.
I am a Wolf.
My bloody hands tremble uncontrollably by my sides, and with one, I grasp the charm hanging from my neck, searching for anything to make sense. My dad must have been a Wolf, but who was he? A cloud looms over every memory I have and every story I was told as I rummage through my mind, playing the plethora of conversations I had with my mum about the man I had thought was my father. But that man I had been told of, the man that I loved, doesn’t exist, or doesn’t exist as I know him.
“Paege?” Quentin’s voice breaks my thoughts and brings me back to the present. “Paege, I need to ask you something.” I look at him from my knees. He runs trembling hands through his blood-caked hair and sighs a rattled breath. “What do you know about Guy?”
This question isn’t what I expected, but I answer anyway, curious about where he’s going with this. “He’s your friend, your brother.” I push through the lump forming in my throat. “His dad was king—”
“No, not that,” Quentin interrupts. “What do you know about his Wolf?”
