Chapter 1: The Night Everything Changed

Glass exploded inward from the skylight, and Hart Santino's first thought was that his night just got significantly worse than dealing with overdue student loans.

Three massive figures crashed through the ceiling and landed in the conservation lab like they'd done this a thousand times before, which honestly, given how smoothly they moved, they probably had.

Hart stood frozen behind his workstation, still holding the stupid wolf totem he'd been documenting for the past hour, and watched these absolutely giant men brush glass off their shoulders like it was confetti.

The alarm system went on immediately, and Hart's brain finally caught up with his survival instincts.

"Oh shit," he said eloquently, and bolted for the door.

He made it approximately three steps before the biggest one appeared in front of him, which was impossible because he'd been across the room half a second ago, but apparently physics had taken the night off along with building security.

"Give us the totem, little human, and maybe we don't rip your throat out." The guy's voice sounded like thunder, and when he smiled, his teeth were too sharp and too many.

Hart clutched the carved stone tighter against his chest, because clearly that was going to protect him from whatever the hell these things were.

"How about you leave before the cops show up and arrest you for breaking and entering?"

The creature threw his head back and laughed, which gave Hart enough time to duck under his arm and run toward the emergency exit.

He almost made it before a clawed hand grabbed his collar and yanked him backward so hard his feet left the ground. Hart hit the wall with enough force to crack the drywall, and the totem tumbled from his grip.

Pain bloomed across his skull, and through blurring vision, he watched the leader crouch down and reach for the artifact lying on the floor between them.

The moment those clawed fingers touched the stone, blue light erupted from the totem like someone had set off a flashbang.

The creature shrieked and jerked his hand back, smoke rising from its burned flesh that smelled like a barbecue gone horribly wrong.

"It bonded to him!" One of the others snarled, his face doing something truly disturbing that involved too much bone movement.

"The prophecy wasn't bullshit after all!"

The leader turned his burned hand toward Hart, and the expression on his face suggested Hart's life expectancy had just dropped to about thirty seconds.

"Then we take the human and the totem, and Liam can figure out how to break the bond before we kill him."

Hart tried to stand, but his legs had apparently decided to quit, which was fair because he was seriously considering quitting existence altogether.

Blood ran warm down the back of his neck, and he was pretty sure his wrist was broken from where he'd tried to catch himself.

The three creatures stalked toward him, moving like wolves that had learned to walk upright, and Hart had the absolutely hysterical thought that at least Mira wouldn't have to worry about tuition if he was dead.

Then the steel doors to the conservation lab didn't just open, they exploded off their hinges and crashed into the opposite wall hard enough to embed into concrete.

A fourth figure walked through the smoking doorway, and Hart's brain gave up trying to process anything rationally.

This one was even bigger than the others, he was built like someone who had taken a professional heavyweight fighter and scaled him up by fifty percent.

He wore a black shirt that looked painted on and jeans that had seen better days, and his eyes were glowing gold in the emergency lighting.

"You're making a mess in my city," the newcomer said conversationally, like he was commenting on something small instead of imminent murder. "I hate messes."

The leader of the intruders spun around, and for the first time, Hart saw something like fear cross that inhuman face.

Then the intruders leader started. "Cole Haanshil, this isn't Bloodlines territory, and we're on mercenary contract, so unless you want to violate the peace accords…"

"The peace accords don't cover you breaking into human establishments and assaulting curators over stolen artifacts," Cole interrupted, his voice dropping into a register that made Hart's bones vibrate.

"Tell Jasmine BlackY that she's violated treaty terms, and if she wants to discuss reparations, she can schedule an appointment like a civilized Alpha instead of sending her puppies to trash museums."

"We don't answer to Bloodlines anymore!"

Cole's smile was the kind of expression that belonged on predators right before they ate something. "I know, that's what makes this fun."

He moved, and Hart couldn't track it with human eyes because one second Cole stood in the doorway and the next he had the leader by the throat, lifting all seven feet and three hundred pounds of monster off the ground with one hand like he weighed nothing at all.

The creature's body started changing, furs were rippling out across skin, even Its bones were cracking and reforming into something between human and wolf, and Hart's mind finally hit its limit.

"Oh," Hart said faintly as his vision tunneled, "so that's what a nervous breakdown feels like."

Cole turned his head toward Hart, those golden eyes of his locking onto him, and the totem still lying on the floor between them suddenly blazed with white light so bright it hurt to look at.

Cole's expression changed from controlled violence to something Hart couldn't even name because he was no longer thinking straight.

But when Cole finally talked after what seemed like many seconds which was when he has recovered to a normal facial expression, his voice echoed out and it sounded nothing human. “ MATE” was the word he said.

Hart's consciousness decided it had had enough of this supernatural bullshit and politely checked out, the last thing he heard was the sounds of cracking bones and someone screaming, though whether it was him or the monsters, he honestly couldn't tell.