Lucas's POVI drummed my fingers against the polished mahogany table, watching as the other alphas gathered their papers and exchanged final pleasantries. The meeting had dragged on for hours, each minute stretching like pulled taffy as we debated territory lines and hunting rights. My head throbbed with the beginnings of a migraine. It wasn't until everyone began filing out that I remembered I'd sent Grant home early—a decision I was now regretting as I contemplated the long journey back to my pack lands without my Beta or his car."You fuck so well, Blackwood."The voice slid into my ear like warm honey laced with poison. I didn't need to turn to know who it belonged to. LydiaSykes—Alpha of the North Side Pack—stood behind me with her lips curved into what she probably thought was a seductive smile. Her perfume—too floral, too strong—invaded my senses, making my wolf bristle beneath my skin.I looked up at her, taking in the tight dress that she had now changed into that hugged her
Lucas's POVLydia met me at the edge of the room, her smile sharp enough to draw blood. Up close, she was taller than I remembered—maybe even taller than me in her boots—and her eyes were a flinty blue that dared me to blink. She wore a suit, too; only hers looked like it had been custom-tailored to fit over a bomb.“I expected you to duck out early,” she said, dropping her voice so the others couldn’t hear. “You never struck me as the civic duty type.”I let my eyes sweep the length of her, slow and deliberate. “You don’t know me that well.”She stepped in too close, her hair catching the edge of my tie. “I’d like to.”Behind her, Grant coughed. I could feel his gaze burning a hole in the back of my head. “If you two are going to fuck, can you do it somewhere that’s not on my watch?”Lydia flicked her gaze at him and then back to me. “Cute. He always plays chaperone?”“Only when I’m in trouble.” I smirked at her, then turned to Grant. “Go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”Grant’s face twiste
Lucas's POVSelina could fuck anyone she wanted. I just wished it wasn’t always Jonathan and that she wouldn’t do it in places I could smell. It wasn’t even about jealousy, not really. It was the way she met my eyes as she bounced on his cock in the back seat of his shitty G-wagon, how she bared her teeth at me over his shoulder—defiance, contempt, and something wilder, maybe even longing. All that, while I stood by the open car door, one hand on the frame, the other fisting my own frustration in my pocket. She liked hurting me more than she liked getting off.But that was last night. By morning the memory was just another sore tooth in my skull, pushed aside by the pain of today’s obligations. I stood in front of the hotel bathroom mirror, cold water dripping from my jaw, and watched the bruises under my eyes fade from livid purple to the sallow yellow of a healing wound. My knuckles were only a little swollen from what I’d punched after Selina’s performance. The suit was navy and ta
Vera's POVNight fell like it wanted to crush the house in its palm. I sat at the kitchen counter, flipping a fork between my fingers, the metal catching the grim, anemic light of the overheads. Grant was pacing, shirtless and agitated, tracing circuits between the window, the fridge, and the door to the mudroom. Each lap left a wake of salt in the air, sweat and animal stress mingling into a scent that made the back of my tongue itch.He stopped mid-stride and turned to face me. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”I smirked. “Is it the thing where you hope if you ignore a problem, it’ll just bite someone else’s ass?”“Not how I was raised,” he said, voice flat.“Then why the song and dance about Jonathan? If you know something, just say it.”He braced his hands on the counter across from me and leaned in, close enough that the furrow of his brow lined up with the crack in the laminate. “Fine,” he said. “You want the whole story?”“Give me the fangs-and-all version.”He exhale
Vera's POVJonathan moved like a fucking demon that day. I could still see his body in the air, blurred along its own axis, as if someone had crossbred a linebacker with a specter and taught it how to be disappointed in me. I’d spent the last two hours staring at the ceiling of my room, tracing the spider cracks between paint and plaster, and every branching fissure led me back to him—his voice, the crisp cut of his “stay away from me and Selina,” and the physics-defying way he’d crossed the entire den to loom over me in one breathless moment.I even tried it myself—got up, stood by the couch, and timed how long it took me to reach the kitchen entry where he’d landed. No human man could’ve done that without at least some brisk cardio, or maybe a pair of those rollerblades my brother was obsessed with in third grade. But Jonathan wasn’t human, was he?Except he was. By every file and record and embarrassing family photo Selina had forced on me, Jonathan was a garden-variety homo sapien
Jonathan’s POVI barely stepped through the damn door before her mouth opened.“Ah, the clingy chewing gum is back,” Vera said, arms crossed, standing at the edge of the living room like she owned the place.I froze.For half a breath—maybe less—my instincts flared. Vampire speed surged up my spine, ancient and lethal, ready to flash me across the room and shut her up the permanent way. My foot twitched forward.Then I stopped.Control. I was playing human. Remember?So I straightened my coat instead and looked at her—really looked. This little human has too much sass and too little fear. She wasn’t just poking the bear. She was baiting a predator she didn’t understand.I smiled. Cold. Sharp. The kind of smile I used before I drained someone dry.“Careful,” I said, voice low. “You say something that stupid again, and I might forget I’m supposed to be polite.”Vera didn’t even blink. “Oh, I’m shaking,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Tell me again how Selina’s life wouldn’t be complete wi