MasukSeraphina I lay back against the pillows, not panicking.I closed my eyes and turned my awareness inward, sinking effortlessly past the fading numbness of the drugs."Lyra," I called out."I am here, Seraphina," her voice answered instantly. It was a beautiful, resonant sound, echoing in the quiet spaces of my mind like music. "I am always here now. They cannot silence us again.""What are we?" I asked, the question burning in my throat. "Vane keeps calling us gods. He keeps talking about evolutionary perfection, about an empire of monsters. Is that what you are?"I felt calm ripple through my consciousness from her side of the bond."No," Lyra replied. "We are not gods, and we are not the warped nightmares they are manufacturing in their basements. We are simply a species. A people, just like humans, but gifted with the spirit of the wild and the ability to shift between spaces. We are born of the earth, not a syringe."As we spoke, images began to paint themselves behind my eyelids
AzrielI had survived black ops ambushes, chemical warfare, and a literal virus designed to tear a man’s humanity away from the inside out. But I never imagined that a grown man like me could be dragged through a dense forest with such terrifying, neck-snapping speed.My back plowed through briars and thick underbrush, chaotic vortex of dirt and leaves smearing us. The massive jaws of the wolf had a vice-like grip on the collar of my shredded shirt, hauling my dead weight over rocks and fallen logs.The moment the relentless forward momentum finally stopped, the wolf unceremoniously dropped me onto a patch of damp moss. I collapsed into a heap, groaning, my ribs aching and my lungs burning for air."Son of a..." I wheezed, rolling onto my side and pressing a hand against my chest.I blinked through the dirt sweating into my eyes, forcing my vision to focus on the massive predator standing over me. The silver-grey beast was towering, a mountain of pure muscle and instinct.Startled, I
SeraphinaAlistair didn't even change his expression. Beside him, Doc nodded slowly, his eyes glued to the black claws still protruding from my fingertips."The dampener is completely flushed. Bring the containment team."I was still weak to swing at them, a dozen armored guards flooded the room. They pinned my arms and legs with heavy metallic tethers, and hauled me out of my cell.When they finally threw me to the ground, I heard the door sealing shut behind me.I scrambled backward, my claws scraping against the floor. I was trapped inside a massive, circular observation chamber. The walls weren't concrete; they were solid panels of thick, tinted observation glass that went all the way to the ceiling. Behind the glass, silhouettes moved in the shadows."Subject 01, Seraphina," Doc's clinical voice bounced from a speaker overhead, completely detached. "Suppression drugs completely cleared from the system. Observation for full transformation."My head throbbed as the pain was unbeara
AzrielCold mud pressed against my cheek.When my eyes finally fluttered open, the world was a dizzying blur of dark greens and murky grays. I lay facedown on the damp earth, my breath coming in shallow gasps. Slowly, painfully, I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, my muscles screaming in pain.I was human again.I looked down at myself, my breath hitching. The clothes I had been wearing were practically shredded, hanging off my frame in useless, muddy tatters. My hands were caked in dried blood and dirt, my skin wasn't any better. I looked like a raving madman.The moment my brain registered my surroundings—a dense, completely unfamiliar forest miles away from anything I recognized. My mind immediately thought of her.Seraphina.A violent, blinding spike of pain shot directly through my head, forcing a choked groan from my lips. I clutched my temples, collapsing back onto the ground as the memories of the past week came crashing into my head in violent, fragmented shards.Flas
SeraphinaThat night, alone in the darkness of my cell, Alistair’s words refused to leave me. It seemed he was somehow on my side."They are chemical dampeners. High-grade suppressants. They are keeping your true biology asleep because they are absolutely terrified of what will happen if you wake up." I shut my eyes and thought back. Ever since I arrived at Millbrook, the voice inside my head had gone silent. Only the vivid forest dreams grew clearer and more intense each night .I should have been happy about that. Except for the project, the constant, overwhelming noise in my head was the exact reason I had agreed to come to Millbrook with Azriel after he bit me. I had wanted to be cured. I had wanted to be normal.But as I sat there, curled up on the floor, I wasn't happy at all. Instead, sensation settled deep in my chest. For some reason, it felt like a vital part of my own soul was missing.For the very first time, I closed my eyes, turned my thoughts inward, and tried to speak
Seraphina.For the next few days, I forced myself to keep the mask on and played the part of the compliant prisoner.I asked structured questions about the serum, nodding along as they ran their agonizing tests, and pretending to absorb Vane’s grand speeches about a new world order. But inside, my heart was breaking into smaller pieces every time I looked at Alistair. Seeing how cold-hearted he truly was, how he could look at me—the daughter of the woman he had claimed to love—and see nothing but a collection of useful cells, was a special kind of torture.To think that what I thought was a myth was my reality drove me crazy. Indeed, we lived in a world where there was more species in existence than humans. My freaking father was a werewolf and I was a bait to get the man that has never been in my life.Seriously, I couldn't care less what they did with him as long as this ended.My fake cooperation bore fruit. The deeper I pretended to sink into their world, the more the curtain was
AZRIEL.As I buried my face into her wetness, I wrapped my arms around her thighs, lifting her off the surface. When she pressed one hand against my head, fisting my hair then tugging every time I thrust my tongue inside, I was forced to try to tamp back the lurking creature.She continued shifting
SERAPHINA.While my mind was reeling, I felt a crack of the thick leather strap, I fell forward onto my face. The shock of pain was as blinding as it was electrifying, my mind pushed into a frenzy of salacious thoughts.He fisted my hair, yanking me back into position. “I'm just starting. Be a good
SERAPHINAHis promise to me was an edged adventure and I wanted that experience so bad.Azriel captured my mouth, holding my lips in position as he slipped one hand around the back of my neck. The moment he wrapped his fingers there, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was no going back.
AZRIEL Exhaling, I concentrated hard. I needed to find her now. Finally, I noticed the drapes in front of the oversized window had fluttered. I wasted no time, heading in that direction, yanking it back by several feet. That was when I heard radiant laughter. I was momentarily relieved. Altho







