ATHENAMy body was still hurting from my run-in with that mongrel, Marissa. I had underestimated the speed of that nasty mongrel. But I am smarter than I let on. However, I had fared worse. And the only thing that mattered was survival. With the castle lights flickering behind me, I fled into the shadows of the thick woodland. They had dismissed me as if I were unimportant. Me. Athena. This is my generation's strongest witch. I suppressed the anger and allowed it to boil beneath my skin, even though the insult was more painful than the injuries on my body. Since I had a strategy. They believed they had triumphed. They believed I had lost. However, they were unaware of my abilities. Now, I had a new ally. The trees grew thicker as I moved deeper into the forest, the scent of damp earth and night-blooming flowers filling the air. I mumbled an incantation beneath my breath and felt the energy race through my veins. A tiny glimmer flared in the darkness ahead. He waited. David. Azure's s
DAVID There was a perceptible weight to the air in the castle. Unease. Mistrust. It thickened with each glance that was directed at me, becoming almost tangible. Ryan kept an eye on me. He was constantly observing. As Jaden guided me around the castle, his voice full of excitement, I caught a glimpse of his golden eyes across the courtyard. The escalating conflict between his parents went unnoticed by him. Between us. "Come on," Jaden urged me to move on. "The war rooms are still hidden from you. Following the previous vampire incursion, my mother had them reinforced. His mom. I stifled a grin, maintaining a deliberately neutral expression. What was about to happen was unknown to Hailey. Neither did Jaden. As we went beneath imposing arches, the smell of steel and old parchment filled the air. Jaden babbled on about history and war tactics, but I was still focused on other things. Ryan was still suspicious and in my space. He continued to observe. A predator identifies a fellow preda
MARISSAThe castle was more subdued than normal tonight. There was an unnatural quiet that clung to the air, like the quiet before a storm. Everywhere felt tense and electrifying; pack members were scared out of their minds, and the stench of fear radiated.And I didn't appreciate it.The torches' flickering made long shadows on the floor as I approached Hailey's room, my boots softly echoing on the stone floor.Turtela walked alongside me, her strides light and smooth. She wasn't as taut as I was, but I knew she sensed it, too—the change in atmosphere, the insidious feeling of discomfort. David. The new bone of contention in the house. We can all feel how dangerous he is, but not Jaden; he trusts him explicitly even despite all warnings given.Ryan had spoken to me about him, his suspicions dark and ominous. Hailey had agreed, which wasn't typical. She was protective, but she wasn't one to judge.That alone rang alarms. Hailey would never condemn anyone without all facts in place; i
JACKSONThe minute I stepped into the castle, I knew something was off. The atmosphere here wasn't just charged—it was polluted. You could smell the hidden odour around here of great trouble brewing. It was silent, a tick below normal, but I'd been a part of the human world long enough not to miss the scent of deceptions when they hung thick in the air.Jermaine was already in the grand hall, arms folded, his face as sharp as ever."Do you feel it too?" he asked as I walked in.I nodded. "David?"Something was not right with him.It's not a suspicion, just intuition. A powerful, nagging feeling that twisted in my gut whenever I looked at him. He was too smooth, too controlled. Men like him couldn't be trusted.I'd run across my fair share of lying people in the human world—corporate vipers who grinned as they orchestrated your downfall, politicians who had spun deception into poetry. And David? The same vibe. The kind of person who took the long way around, who got you to believe him
JADENI ran through the castle halls, my brothers' words ringing in my ears."David is not safe. You have to wake up, Jaden.""There's something not right with him. I don't trust him.""And you shouldn't either."It wasn't what they told me that unsettled me—it was the certainty in their voices. Jermaine was usually reserved, the sort who would weigh everything before he spoke, and Jackson, despite his arrogance at times, possessed a keen eye for spotting lies. But they were both wrong this time.David was okay.He had always been okay.Hadn't he?I suppressed the idea.Blending around the cutting corner, I bumped my shoulder into the chilly stone wall but barely registered.I needed air.Sliding the doors of the courtyard wide open, I entered the biting night. The sky stretched out endlessly overhead, and stars shone like lanterns in the distance. The stillness was a welcome change.Until I saw him.Waiting beside the far archway, David stood in the shadows. He wasn't pacing. He wasn
DAVIDI could feel the change in the air.Jaden was stepping back.Not sudden—not a drastic move. But I knew him too well. He lingered a little longer. His eyes lingered a little longer, searching for something he wasn't sure that he wanted to see.I had seen it before. Doubt. It was a powerful thing. A weapon.And I was a master at wielding it.I had to act quickly.I came across him near the training grounds, looking up into the branches of the trees as if in deep thought. Perfect."Deep in thought about something serious?" I joked, my tone light and cheerful.Jaden shifted restlessly, then shook his head once more. "A lot on my mind."I rested against the stone wall beside him. "Jackson and Jermaine, then?"His head whirled around. "How did you—I smiled. "Come on, Jaden. We've been friends for years. You think I don't know when something's wrong with you?"His shoulders relaxed a bit. He wanted to believe me.Good."Let me guess," I continued, looking at him. "They think I'm a thr
JACKSONI felt like the wind had been punched out of my lungs.David was Alexia's half-brother?That wasn't some irrelevant piece of information we had overlooked—that changed everything.I turned to Jermaine, my fists tightening. "Are you sure?"Jermaine's expression was serious. He tapped the parchment again. "This record is old, Jackson. There's no mistake. Azure and Alexia's mother had a child before ever meeting Alexia's father. That child was David."I ran a hand through my hair, trying to get my head around it. "So that means." My jaw clenched. "That means he's been lying to Jaden the entire time."Jermaine nodded. "Not just Jaden. All of us."I sucked in a sharp breath. "We have to tell Hailey."Jermaine hesitated. "We have to be careful how we do that. Jaden is already wound up. If we push him too hard, he'll think we're trying to manipulate him."I growled. "I don't care if he gets mad at me. This doesn't involve Jaden anymore. Alexia's involved. And if David is anything lik
LOGANThe grounds groaned beneath me, the motor growled, but I hardly heard it. I was not unconscious of the cold, stinging night air whipping by. I was still unable to understand their words. "Flora was his mother." "His father was Azure." In my imagination, these phrases sounded like battle drums. Flora. My friend, my mate, the mother of my daughter and the angelic human I had loved with every fibre of my being is presently being linked to the one who almost destroyed us all? How is this even possible?. I tried to calm my beating heart, which had suddenly become unsteady, perspirations across my forehead as my knuckles repeatedly shook and the words I had heard settled and dawned on me. Years had passed since she died—gone from me, leaving only memories and an empty spot that I had never occupied. And now, suddenly, the truth was revealed. She had another living child. The son of Azure. I grind my teeth. It was an unpleasant betrayal. This information had dealt me a sudden blow, and
AUDACUS The moment I stepped through the massive glass doors of Kings Enterprises, the atmosphere shifted. Clean, polished, professional—exactly how humans liked to present their tiny empires. It was nearly funny. The whole building reeked of ambition, desperation, and carefully hidden fear. It smelled like opportunity.I adjusted the mortal guise I was wearing: well-pressed suit, comfortable leather loafers, and a pair of glasses perched low on the bridge of my nose. The perfect image of a struggling investor who'd at last been able to scrounge up sufficient capital to swim with the sharks. Beneath, I smiled. They had no idea.The receptionist greeted me with that rehearsed corporate warmth. "Welcome to Kings Enterprises, Mr.?""Addison," I supplied the alias with ease. "Jon Addison. I'm here to see your investment representative. I'm interested in purchasing direct stock."Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and within a second she nodded. "Right this way, Mr. Addison."It all pr
AUDACUS The moment I stepped through the massive glass doors of Kings Enterprises, the atmosphere shifted. Clean, polished, professional—exactly how humans liked to present their tiny empires. It was nearly funny. The whole building reeked of ambition, desperation, and carefully hidden fear. It smelled like opportunity.I adjusted the mortal guise I was wearing: well-pressed suit, comfortable leather loafers, and a pair of glasses perched low on the bridge of my nose. The perfect image of a struggling investor who'd at last been able to scrounge up sufficient capital to swim with the sharks. Beneath, I smiled. They had no idea.The receptionist greeted me with that rehearsed corporate warmth. "Welcome to Kings Enterprises, Mr.?""Addison," I supplied the alias with ease. "Jon Addison. I'm here to see your investment representative. I'm interested in purchasing direct stock."Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and within a second she nodded. "Right this way, Mr. Addison."It all pr
RAYThe night was mine. The odor of war clung heavy to the atmosphere, and the promise of approaching chaos made my skin crawl, bones moving just below as I stretched through all my shapes. Tonight the game was set, and I, Ray, his most trusted one, had the honor of delivering the king's new scheme.Audacus loomed over us, demonically serene, every inch of him a vision of lethal refinement. That voice, so smooth but colder than winter's cold, was a force no sane man would want to challenge. "Keep them busy," he instructed us, fingers lazily spinning a glass of dark wine as if this plan wasn't going to break the world. "Isolate Hailey and Ryan at all costs. The two of them together are trouble. Alone, they fall apart."A vicious grin crept gradually across my lips. Simple in appearance. Deadly in purpose."What about the others?" I asked, masking my enthusiasm with polite calmness.Audacus's golden eyes flashed to mine, as cutting as a knife. "The triplets are strong, but unripe. Diver
AUDACUS The council chamber stank of old magic and old pride. It clung to the stones, bleeding into the mortar like the blood of all fools who'd ever sat upon high thrones and imagined that they were invulnerable.I was in the center, hands clasped behind my back, the gravity of a century measured in the loose bend of my shoulders. Ten wizard elders stood around me, faces etched with lines made of centuries, eyes filmed over by complacency. The robes flowed over the marble floor as they shifted to stand nearer, as if attitude itself might distort fate in their direction."Audacus," the oldest, Master Callum, said, his voice husky with a challenge never breached in all his years. "Your arrogance does not belong here. You are not welcome."A smile flared at the edge of my lips. "Arrogance is the right of the already triumphant. You just haven't quite caught up with reality."Whispers circulated around the circle, soft, trembling shivers from tired old gods in mortal flesh. I could near
AUDACUSBeen out again in the mortal world feels so surreal but good, it's been so long, too long really but the night tasted sweet. Sweeter than a vow. More bitter than deceit.I stood beneath the crooked arm of a dying oak, one hand leather-gloved, the other bare, tracing my finger along the cold curve of my ring. The dark stone pulsed softly beneath my fingers, full of the quiet, slow hunger I always kept just beneath my skin.The world was still tonight. Even the wind had enough sense to whisper not when I heard it. I could sense the earth beneath my feet, the shift of shadow as it crawled towards me, drawn like a moth battering itself around its own funeral place.The shifter was late.It was always so with beasts bound by fear and not by love. Still, I was impressed by its cunning. Its guile. The art of slinking in and out of hides like leaves from a book.Finally, the beast emerged out of the woods.A distorted shape, wrapped in the stolen form of a man — the fifth, I think, si
LOGANThe air reeked of blood, pungent enough to slice through bone-deep exhaustion. I arrived too late for the battle, but just in time for the cleanup.Marissa stood with her arm raised over the shape-shifter's deformed body, which collapsed at her feet like a crumpled flower. Its body shook as if even death would not claim it cleanly. Her sword dripped with black, noxious ichor.I'd wanted to feel proud — darn it, I was proud — but my wolf howled inside my chest walls, screaming for vengeance."Are you alright?" I pressed forward, ready to catch her if her legs gave out under her.Marissa cleaned the knife on her hand, jutting chin as if the fighter I knew her to be was finally free of that cage she'd been holding herself in."It won't be the last."That solitary stark truth weighed between us like a boulder."Not if I have any say in it," I growled. And I meant every damn word.ISAIAH The scent of smoke still hung in the air, seeping into the stone walls like an unwelcome memory.
TURTELA The castle had never been this still, not really. Even at midnight, its old bones vibrated with the thrum of wards and remembrances. But tonight, after the fight, after blood and smoke, the stillness was oppressive as ever. It lay on my chest like a heavy hand, smothering the wolf inside me who trotted in ceaseless circles, anxious and watchful.I should have stayed in my own chambers. Should have soothed myself with a hot bath or the echoing sound of dad's voice up and down the halls. Instead, my own feet led me out, past the marble pillars, to the garden where everything was bathed in moonlight.And she was there.Serenia.Sitting on the stone bench like it was her own, as if she had burst forth from the earth itself, dark hair falling like silk down her back. She was so still that I almost mistook her for another statue, some forgotten relic the old kings had left. I did not sneak up on her. I wanted her to hear me coming. I wanted her to know that I was not afraid."You'
ISAIAH The moment Hailey's call brushed my thoughts, I felt it — the shift in the air. There was no desperation in her tone, no panic, but resolve. And that scared me more than any battlefield ever managed.I arrived in the courtyard as the moon carved silver wounds in the stone. My steps faltered as my gaze met hers.Serenia.The last time I'd ever seen her was under other skies — when I'd lost all hope of having a mate. When fate woke me up, I'd never expected that she would be bound to me again, or in this manner.She was now by Hailey's side. Not as an enemy. Not even as a stranger.Her eyes settled on me, hard and unflickering."You came," she said.I cleared my throat, finding my balance. "Your mother summoned me."Her lips curled into a semblance of laughter, but there was no warmth behind it. "Oh, naturally she would. Always the Queen, always the commander."I started to open my mouth in defense of Hailey — habit — but Serenia raised a hand, stopping me. Her voice softened, a
HAILEYThe moon hung low in the heavens, casting a silver glow across the courtyard. The air was thick with anticipation, a silence that reeked of danger waiting to happen. I stood alone, senses heightened, muscles bunched and prepared to move.I was startled by a sudden stir within the shadows. A figure emerged, veiled in the shadows, moving with lethal grace. I recognized her immediately—Serenia, daughter of Lilith. She was a storm, her eyes burning with a mix of rage and grief.She attacked silently, her sword flashing towards me. I parried, the sound of steel on steel ringing out like a thunderclap. Our battle was a dance of fire and ice, each strike a question, each parry an answer."Why?" I shouted, our blades intertwined. "Why attack me?"Her eyes twitched, agony clouding her features. "Because he wants you," she snarled. "The Serpent King wants you, and I need to know why."Comprehension dawned. This wasn't a straight-up attack—it was a test, a desperate search for information