Novels by JussAire

The knock wasn’t loud.That was what terrified her.Three soft taps. Polite. Patient.Ari backed away from the door, heart slamming so hard it hurt. The symbols carved into the walls hummed faintly, a vibration she felt in her bones. Outside, the city breathed—distant sirens, the whisper of wind between buildings—but the hallway beyond the door was silent.Too silent.“Chosen girl,” the voice came again, closer now, amused. “I can smell you.”Her throat tightened. She pressed her palm to the wall, grounding herself, trying to remember Dante’s words. Do not open the door. The tug in her chest pulsed again, sharper this time, like a hook catching in muscle.The handle turned.Stopped.Snarling echoed from the stairwell—fast, furious. A body slammed into the wall outside, followed by a guttural growl that rattled the frame.Kai’s voice cut through the chaos. “Back away from the door, Ari!”Relief hit her so hard her knees nearly buckled.Another crash. A scream—wolf, not human. The sound

They moved her before dawn.Ari barely remembered agreeing—only the exhaustion, the fear buzzing under her skin, and the weight of too many eyes watching her every move. The city was quieter at this hour, streets slick with leftover rain and secrets. Dante drove again. Kai followed this time, pacing the car from rooftop to rooftop like gravity meant nothing to him. Lennox walked beside them, silent as a shadow.The building they stopped at didn’t look special. Just another high-rise tucked between abandoned factories and flickering streetlights.“That’s it?” Ari asked.Dante nodded. “Pack housing. Neutral ground.”“Neutral for who?”“For wolves who don’t want bloodshed,” Kai said. “And humans who don’t know they’re prey.”Inside, the air felt different. Clean. Guarded. Symbols were carved into the walls—marks she didn’t recognize but felt in her bones. Her skin prickled as they passed through the threshold.Lennox paused behind her. “Once you step in, you’re under pack protection.”Sh

They didn’t ask her if she wanted to come.That was the first rule Ari learned about their world.The city blurred past the car windows as Dante drove, one hand loose on the wheel, the other resting casually like he hadn’t just revealed monsters were real. Kai sat in the passenger seat, silent and rigid. Lennox followed behind them on foot—on foot—keeping pace with traffic like physics didn’t apply to him.Ari’s heart hadn’t slowed since the alley.“Where are we going?” she asked, breaking the suffocating silence.“Somewhere safe,” Dante replied.“That’s not an answer.”He glanced at her in the rearview mirror. His eyes weren’t glowing now, but they were still too sharp. Too knowing. “It’s the only one you’re getting.”The car veered into an abandoned industrial district, warehouses stacked like bones against the skyline. They stopped beside a building marked with faded graffiti and boarded-up windows.“This place is condemned,” Ari said.“Good,” Kai muttered. “No humans.”That word l

Night fell over the city like a challenge.Ari stood in front of her bedroom mirror, tugging at the hem of her dress, already regretting the choice. Black, fitted, simple—but on her body it felt like a declaration. Like she was stepping into something she couldn’t take back. The bass from the club down the block thumped through the walls, a steady heartbeat that synced with her own.“You’re overthinking it,” she muttered to her reflection.Her sister, Nyla, popped her head in from the hallway, already glowing. “You ready? Lennox hates being late.”The name tightened something low in Ari’s stomach.Lennox.Her sister’s man. Her sister’s mate—though Nyla hadn’t used that word. Not yet. She just said he was intense. Quiet. Protective. The kind of man who didn’t smile for anyone but still somehow owned every room he walked into.“I’m coming,” Ari said, grabbing her jacket.The club was already packed when they arrived, neon lights slicing through cigarette smoke and bodies pressed too clo

Morning came too fast, the city streets already alive with the noise of car horns, sirens, and the hum of life that never stopped. Ari yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she leaned against the chipped counter of the apartment she shared with her mom. The smell of strong coffee and toasted bread filled the small kitchen, grounding her in the mundane—but only for a moment.“Where’s my sister?” she muttered, glancing toward the living room. The couch cushions were bare, the blinds drawn back to catch the early sunlight.“Sleeping,” came the voice that made her stomach twist in ways it shouldn’t.Ari froze. The voice wasn’t her sister’s. It was him.Kai. Her stepbrother. Not biologically, but still—dangerously close in every sense of the word. He had moved in after his mother’s sudden death, a figure from her mom’s past that now intersected with Ari’s life. Tall, lean, dark eyes sharp and assessing, and a smile that could make her think things she swore she wouldn’t.He leaned aga

The city never slept, and neither did her heartbeat.Ari weaved through the crowded streets, heels clacking against cracked pavement, neon signs reflecting off puddles like broken mirrors. The air smelled of fried food, gasoline, and something else—something electric, almost alive. She pulled her hoodie tighter around her, trying to disappear into the shadows, but she never quite could. Not when the city hummed with life, not when danger lurked just out of sight, and certainly not when he was near.Dante.Her best friend’s father. Smooth. Dangerous. The kind of man whose voice could make a heartbeat skip without even trying. She hated herself for thinking about him, hated the way her chest tightened when he smiled or that low, velvet murmur that made the hair on her arms stand on end. He was off-limits in every sense: old enough to be her father, untouchable by every social rule she knew. Yet here he was, standing on the corner near the old bodega, leaning against a chain-link fence w