Mag-log inWe stepped back into the ballroom like nothing had happened in that hallway, but my body remembered every second of it. Marcus's cock had stretched me open and filled me up, and now every step sent a slick reminder of his cum inside me. The bond between us hummed warm and sated, but underneath the power clawed at the collar like a caged animal trying to break free. I adjusted my tie, forced the CEO smile onto my face, and let the lights from the chandeliers wash over us. The room smelled like expensive perfume, old money, and blood hidden under silk. Elites clustered in groups, their laughter too loud, their eyes too sharp as they watched everyone and everything. Elara stood near the dance floor with that red-dress woman, her posture relaxed but her gaze flicking to me every few seconds like she was checking if I'd cracked yet after the safehouse. Ethan lingered by the bar, swirling a glass of something dark, probably timing our move to the service stairs that led down to the catacomb
We piled into Ethan’s blacked-out SUV like the world was on fire behind us. Ethan took the wheel, Elara riding shotgun, both of them quiet in that loaded way people get when they’re pretending the last hour didn’t just rewrite everything. I slid into the back with Marcus. The second the doors shut, the engine growled and we were cutting through the dark streets toward the city.The gala was happening tonight at the old Grand Meridian—some annual bullshit where the rich and the rotten pretended they weren’t all circling the same carcass. Ethan said the catacombs entrance we needed was sealed under the east wing ballroom. Perfect cover. Walk in like I still owned half the city just the usual CEO human crap, smile at the sharks, and slip downstairs when no one was looking. Easy. Except nothing about tonight felt easy.My ribs still ached from where that wolf had clipped me. The collar sat heavy under my dress shirt, the mark beneath it throbbing in time with my pulse. Marcus’s thigh pr
The door exploded inward like the building itself had given up. A massive werewolf barrelled through first, all fur and fury, his claws tearing chunks out of the frame. More followed, eyes locked on me like I was the prize at the end of a hunt they’d been waiting years for.I didn’t think twice I just moved.Marcus was already in front of me, shoulder wound be damned, swinging a piece of broken pipe like it owed him money. The first wolf caught it across the snout and went down hard, but two more came right behind it. Elara grabbed a chair leg and drove it into the throat of the one closest to her, twisting until something cracked. She wasn’t protecting some random—she was protecting me. Her brother. The words she’d never said out loud but lived like gospel every time she put herself between me and the world.“Stay close!” Marcus shouted his voice rough from the pain in his shoulder. He grabbed my arm and yanked me behind him, but I wasn’t staying behind anybody tonight. Not when t
The room was still shaking when the first howl hit outside, i literally could care less about having Marcus fuck my brains out.It wasn’t close but Far enough to be a warning. Close enough to make every hair on my arms stand up, my ears were more active now, that the collar was on my neck.I was still in the middle of the wreckage, chest heaving, shadows crawling over the ceiling like they had finally learned my name. Elara was on one knee near the wall, blood at the corner of her mouth, eyes wide from the force of what I had done. Marcus stood half in front of me, half turned toward her, one hand pressed over the bullet wound in his shoulder, the other hanging loose at his side like he was deciding whether to kill somebody or kiss me or rip the whole room apart. Maybe all three.Then the voices outside started, they weren’t hunters or wolves.Low, rough, pissed-off voices barking orders like he damn own the city,and then another sound, sharper this time, full of teeth and rage, a
The motel room felt too small for the three of us. Marcus stood in front of me, one hand near my throat, cleaning the collar burn with a focus that made his whole face go hard and serious. Marcus always looked dangerous, but when he got like this, steady and quiet, it did something ugly to my chest. I saw it in the way her jaw tightened as she watched us from the window. She had a gun in one hand, some silver thing I didn’t trust, and her whole body was tense like a wire about to snap. Outside, hunters shouted and moved with much intensity, boots pounding, glass crunching under them. “You always talk like you’re in charge.”“I am in charge right now,” he said. It was rough and musky, the same voice he used when he was one breath away from dragging me into bed and fucked me like crazy, just enough. “Then why are you standing there like a guard dog with a pretty boy problem?”My mouth almost twitched. “Elara,” I said, “could you maybe stop talking like we’re all in some toxic soap opera
Marcus moved first.He yanked me down before the second bullet cracked the air, slamming my shoulder against the motel floor so hard my teeth clicked. Glass rained over us in sharp little bursts. Elara cursed and dropped to one knee, already reaching for the pendant at her throat like it might protect her from a whole army. “Stay down,” Marcus screamed . Another shot tore through the curtain. Then another. Hunters. My heart kicked hard. The collar at my throat buzzed like it was waking up for a feast, and I tried controlling myself through my teeth as the metal burned hotter against my skin. Marcus saw it immediately. “Damn it,” he said. He hauled me behind the bed, one hand braced on my back, the other tugging at the collar with careful fingers. Marcus always tried to be careful with me, like I was something breakable. I hated needing it too. “Noah,” he said, voice low, tight. “Look at me.” I did, because somehow when he said my name like that, my body listened befor
************Noah shifted, his neck stiff. The iron collar was still there, a cold, heavy weight that felt like a permanent part of his skin now. Every time he breathed, he felt the faint sound of the nullifier tech, a low-frequency buzz that kept his blood feeling like lead. But when he turned hi
Marcus didn’t think, he couldn’t afford it, Noah his is mate and he loves him.If he thought, he would choose wrong.And tonight… choosing wrong meant losing Noah.Another shock ripped through Noah’s body. His back arched, a broken sound tearing out of his throat, raw and painful and real.That wa
**MARCUS ***Marcus didn’t remember leaving the cathedral.One second he was standing in front of twelve ancient vampires, their eyes digging into him, their voices echoing with accusations, threats, betrayal… all he knew was he obeyed the call of the council.The next—Blood,and screams everywher
The alarms kept screaming like the building itself had lost its mind.Red lights washed over the room, turning the glass walls into slices of blood-colored fear. Kris Heather stood in the middle of it all like he owned the chaos, one hand on the control panel, the other resting casually at his side







