Diana’s POVThe world shattered around me in a blur of sound and chaos, horns screaming, people shouting, tires shrieking across burning asphalt.My knees throbbed. My hands were scraped raw. I couldn’t even cry, just stared at the cracked blue of the sky.For a moment, I thought I was already dead. I closed my eyes, trying to float above. But nothing came.No light. No tunnel.Just the sharp, acrid smell of scorched rubber and exhaust.When I opened my eyes again, Kael’s car door was flung wide, and he was running… No, charging toward me like a storm let loose, his face contorted in panic, chest rising and falling.“Diana!” he shouted, dropping to his knees beside me.His hands hovered over my shoulders, trembling like he was afraid to touch me, afraid I’d vanish if he did.But the moment his eyes swept over me, no blood, no twisted limbs, just road rash and shock, his expression darkened. Like I had personally betrayed him by surviving.He exhaled through clenched teeth, his jaw loc
Mrs. Johnson’s POVSunday always smelled of talcum powder, and the faintest trace of incense from last week's service was still clinging to the coats in the hallway.The morning sunlight breaking through the curtains like a promise. The sound of the kettle hissing in the kitchen mingled with the familiar creak of our old wardrobe as Diana changed outfits for the third time.My husband had already gone, called to the barracks before dawn, as always. That left just me and Diana.I paced the tiled floor, my heels tapping like a metronome, anxious and sharp.“Diana, hurry!” I called, tugging my scarf into place in the cracked hallway mirror. “We’re late already. Jesus is waiting, but He won’t wait forever! Don’t make me call you again!”She mumbled something from her room, probably fussing with her earrings or spraying that lavender perfume she drowned herself in every Sunday. She always took too long. Hair, lips, brows, everything had to be perfect, even for church.She finally stepped
Kael’s POVCaleb still wouldn't shut up.He trailed behind me like a persistent shadow.“Just one hunt, cousin!” he begged, tugging at my sleeve like a needy pup. “Come on. You need it. A little blood. A little sweat. A little sin. You’ll feel better.”I didn’t answer.I never did when my mind was elsewhere.Ahead, the gates of Lucifer’s mansion loomed, black as coal, etched with veins of silver light that pulsed like veins beneath the skin. As they groaned open, heat spilled out, thick and alive, wrapping around us like a dragon exhaling.Inside, the corridor twisted like a serpent’s spine, walls carved from polished obsidian. Each step we took echoed off the glassy dark.Candles hovered midair, suspended in gravity’s rebellion, their flames whispering like a hundred secrets on the edge of breath.At the end, the throne room yawned wide, massive, echoing, impossible. A cathedral of shadows and power.And there, lounging like a god carved from smoke and bone, sat Lucifer.My grandfath
Kael’s POVThe music pounded like war drums as I stepped inside, bass booming through the floor, vibrating up my legs and into my chest like it was trying to jolt something dead back to life. It didn’t. It only reminded me I was still here. Still breathing. Still haunted.Lights slashed through the darkness; blue, red, violet. They flickered across sweating bodies moving like one organism.The scent of too much perfume hung thick in the air, layered over sweat and smoke, clinging to my skin.The club pulsed with hunger.Laughter spilled like wine. Hips rolled. Skin flashed. Women, dressed to kill, eyes sharp as daggers, stared like I was something rare.Not prey. A prize.Everywhere I turned, hands reached out. Fingers grazed my arm. A whisper of a touch, a flash of a smile, lips parted in invitation.And in San Francisco, someone like me wasn’t supposed to walk into a place like this without an entourage. Without guards.But who the hell would dare stop me?I’m Kael.A hybrid Alpha.
Diana’s POVThe cafeteria throbbed with noise, forks scraping trays, shoes squeaking on worn linoleum, voices overlapping like static.Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, one bulb above me flickering like a faulty star, casting a cold pallor that made everything feel colder than it already was.I sat at the far end, where the shadows gathered and no one dared to follow. My tray held a crust of bread and a sliver of fruit, like even the food didn’t want to be near me.Two tables away, Eva sat, her chair angled subtly in my direction.A silent rebellion.Her posture screamed restraint, but her eyes, those defiant, steady eyes, never stopped watching me. She couldn't speak to me. Couldn't sit beside me. But she stayed close.That was her rebellion.Kael’s law.The outcast decree.It kept everyone away. By rule. By fear. No one could sit with me. No conversation. And above all, no defense. I wasn’t just avoided.I was erased.And yet, Eva, stubborn to the core, carved her presence into th
Kael’s POVThe air in the council chamber hung thick with the cloying scent of ancient incense, sweet and rotting at once. Smoke curled like ghostly fingers along the rafters, coiling in and out of the dim light. Every breath tasted of ash and iron.At the far end of the table, the Sovereign stood, draped in ceremonial black, tall and unmoving, a judge carved from shadow. His voice rang out, cold and echoing, reverberating through the stone walls like the toll of a funeral bell.“Lord Draven has failed this council. He misled us with a false promise of a surprise on his birthday. And his silence about the girl, Diana, has endangered us all. He is hereby stripped of his position as the Lycan Leader. He remains only as a member.”His words fell like stones into a still lake. No one moved. No one even breathed.Except my father.Who sat close to me at the head of the table, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought his teeth might snap. His eyes stared forward, Stoic, unreadable, as if he ha