Chapter 1: Blood in the Rain

Blood looked black under the flickering neon lights of Silver City, especially when mixed with the relentless midnight rain.

​I didn’t know that five minutes ago. Five minutes ago, my biggest problem was the blistering ache in my heels after a twelve-hour shift scrubbing grease traps in the kitchen of The Velvet Fang, and the terrifying fact that I was still four hundred dollars short of paying off the loan sharks who had threatened to break my little brother’s legs by Friday.

​Now, my biggest problem was staying alive for the next ten seconds.

​I pressed my trembling back harder against the freezing wet bricks behind the rusted dumpster, clamping both hands tightly over my mouth so the monsters standing ten feet away wouldn’t hear the ragged sound of my breathing.

​"Look at me when I’m talking to you, Victor," a voice commanded through the downpour.

​It wasn't a shout. He didn't need to shout. The voice was a low, gravelly baritone, smooth as aged whiskey and colder than a winter grave. Simply hearing it sent a violent, primal shiver straight down my spine, making every fine hair on my arms stand on end.

​Slowly, fighting every survival instinct screaming inside my head, I risked a glance around the sharp edge of the metal dumpster.

​Three men in expensive suits lay crumpled in the filthy puddles on the asphalt. None of them were moving. A fourth man—Victor—was on his knees, clutching a shattered wrist to his chest while blood poured from a gash above his eye.

​Towering over him stood the devil himself.

​He was easily over six-foot-three, built with the broad, lethal grace of an apex predator. A tailored black trench coat clung to his wide shoulders, completely untouched by the dirt of the alley. Raindrops caught in the silver-streaked dark hair that fell carelessly across his forehead. Even from the shadows, the sheer dominance radiating off him was suffocating—like standing inches away from a live high-voltage wire.

​He calmly pulled a white silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the crimson stains from his knuckles.

​"Tell Alpha Marcus that the East Docks belong to the Shadow Pack," the man said, his tone terrifyingly bored. "If he sends another pack of mutts sniffing around my shipments, I won't send back a messenger. I'll send back heads."

​"You think you're untouchable, Kael?" Victor spat a mouthful of blood onto the wet pavement, glaring up with pure hatred. "The High Council knows your bloodline curse is getting worse! Without a Luna to anchor your wolf before the Blood Moon, you'll lose your mind—and Marcus will tear your empire to pieces!"

​The air in the alley instantly dropped ten degrees.

​I didn't even see Kael move. One heartbeat, he was folding his stained handkerchief; the next, he blurred through the rain like a phantom. His massive hand clamped around Victor’s throat, effortlessly lifting the two-hundred-pound grown man clear off the asphalt with a single arm.

​Victor’s boots kicked wildly in the air as he choked, his fingers clawing uselessly at Kael’s iron wrist.

​When Kael tilted his head, the neon light from the club’s back door caught his face—and my heart completely stopped.

​His eyes weren't human. They burned a fierce, molten gold, glowing through the darkness like the eyes of a starving wolf.

​God help me, I thought, sheer terror turning my blood to ice. The rumors are real. Shifters are real.

​Desperate to escape while he was distracted, I took a single, silent step backward toward the street.

​Crunch.

​My heel came down directly on a discarded glass bottle hidden in the shadows. In the dead silence of the alley, the shattering glass echoed like a shotgun blast.

​Kael froze.

​Without even looking at the man choking in his grip, he flicked his wrist. There was a sickening snap, and Victor’s body went completely limp before hitting the ground like a sack of stones.

​Slowly, Kael turned his head toward the dumpster. Toward me.

​Those glowing, predatory golden eyes locked directly onto mine. The breath evaporated from my lungs. I was a rabbit caught in the jaws of a beast, and we both knew it.

​Run! my mind screamed.

​I spun on my heel and sprinted blindly toward the mouth of the alley, my worn sneakers splashing wildly through the deep puddles. I didn't dare look back. My chest burned, tears of panic blurring my vision as I reached for the bright streetlights of the main avenue just yards away.

​I was three steps from freedom when a towering shadow detached itself from the brick wall directly in front of me.

​I gasped, trying to skid to a halt on the slick pavement, but it was too late. I slammed hard into a chest carved out of solid stone.