MasukChloe’s POVThe hotel room smelled like lemon cleaner and recycled air. The bed had too many pillows, the TV remote was bolted to the nightstand, and the heating system made a faint ticking sound every few minutes.I’d been lying on top of the covers for forty minutes trying to logic my way through the most illogical situation of my life.I had a notepad. Real, physical paper, because something about this problem felt too big for a phone screen. I’d drawn a line down the middle — Pros on one side, Cons on the other — and I’d been staring at it long enough that the words had started to blur.The cons were easy to write. Society. Judgment. Logistics. The fact that I’d once told Alina this exact situation was crazy, and now the universe had apparently filed that under things to prove wrong. The fear that it would implode and I’d lose all three of them. The fear that I’d lose myself trying to be enough for
Chloe’s POVWhen I opened Lucian’s door and found all three of them standing in the hallway, my first instinct was to close it again.I didn’t. But I thought about it.“Is someone dead?” I asked.“No one’s dead,” Lucian said. He was the calmest, which tracked. “Can we come in?”I stepped back and let them in. They filed into the living room and arranged themselves — Lucian on the armchair, Marcus near the window, Dominic leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Like they’d choreographed it. Which, knowing Lucian, they probably had.I sat on the couch, tucked my feet under me, and waited.“We talked,” Lucian began.“I can see that.”“Without fighting,” Marcus added.I looked at Dominic. He raised one shoulder. “Mostly.”“We think the way things are going isn’t working,&rd
Lucian’s POVThe coffee shop was Marcus’s idea — neutral ground, he’d said. Which I found ironic given that Marcus had never once been neutral about anything in his life since I've known him.Still, I showed up. Because someone had to be the adult, and it clearly wasn’t going to be either of them.I arrived first and ordered a black coffee and a table in the corner. Marcus came in two minutes later, already scanning the room like he expected an ambush. And Dominic rolled up five minutes after that, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else on the planet.They acknowledged each other the way two dogs acknowledge each other in a small yard — tense, measuring, not quite growling.This was going to be fantastic.I waited until they both had drinks in front of them before I started. “I’m going to say something, and I need both of you to hear it before anyone responds.”“Good
Dominic’s POVI pulled up outside her office building at five-thirty, engine idling, sunglasses on, telling myself I wasn’t nervous.I wasn’t nervous. I was just early.Okay, I was nervous.The plan was simple. Pick Chloe up from her last in-person day before her new leave started, grab food, go back to my loft. Easy. Normal. No reason for my stomach to be doing whatever it was currently doing.Then I saw her.She came through the glass doors laughing. Head thrown back, hand on her chest, the way she laughed when something actually got her. And beside her was some guy in a fitted button-down and neat slacks, grinning like he’d said the funniest thing in the world. Young. Good-looking in a clean, harmless kind of way. He was leaning slightly toward her — not inappropriately, not obviously, just close enough to make my jaw tighten.I stepped out of the truck.Chloe spotted me and her smile shifted slightly. Not guilty. Just surprised. “Dominic. You’re early.”“Traffic was light.” I look
Chloe’s POVI’d been avoiding the office for two weeks, working remotely, attending meetings virtually. But Adrian insisted on a face-to-face for the quarterly review, so Thursday morning, I found myself back in the InnovateTech building.With Marcus shadowing me.“You know this makes me look insane, right?” I said as we rode the elevator up.“It makes you look protected. It’s totally different.”“Everyone’s going to think you’re my boyfriend.”“Would that be so bad?”I glanced at him. “I don’t know. Would it?”He smiled slightly. “Let them think what they want. Your safety matters more than office gossip.”The elevator doors opened, and I immediately noticed people staring.Maya, my work friend, practically sprinted over. “Oh my God, is that him? The bodyguard everyone’s been talking about?”“Marcus, this is Maya. Maya, Marcus.”“Pleasure,” Marcus said with professional politeness.Maya was practically vibrating with curiosity. “So you’re like, her personal security? That’s so intens
Marcus's POVI took a breath. This was the part where I could pull back. Where I could make a joke or change the subject and keep my walls intact.But Chloe had asked. And I was tired of hiding."You scare me," I admitted."I scare you?""Terrify me. Because protecting you makes me feel useful. It gives me purpose when I've spent years feeling like I don't deserve one." I met her eyes. "But it's more than that. Somewhere between teaching you to fight and watching you adapt and listening to you talk about your fears… I started seeing you as more than a mission.""What do you see me as?""Someone I'm falling for. Someone who makes me want things I thought I'd given up on." My voice cracked slightly. "Someone I can't imagine my life without anymore."Her eyes went wide. "Marcus…""I know it's fast. I know it's complicated with Dominic and Lucian. I know I'm probably the worst option of the three because I come
Alina’s POVThe interrogation room where they had taken Tommy looked like something straight out of a crime TV show. It had cold, bare concrete walls and a single metal chair fixed to the floor, with a drain in the center that I tried not to think about. Tommy was sitting in that cha
Ronan’s POVThe main hall was packed by seven AM—every available Serpent crammed into the space, sitting on chairs, standing against walls, perched on tables. The energy was tense, filled with anticipation. Word had spread that this was an emergency meeting about “critica
Ronan’s POV - The Next MorningTommy brought up a serious topic during the morning meeting. “We need to talk about Chloe,” he said, keeping his tone calm but looking around with a keen eye.“What about her?” Jaxon asked, sounding cautious.“She's a civilian caught in a war zone,” Tommy replied. “Th
Ronan’s POVTwenty-three hours into the forty-eight-hour deadline, and the Nick situation had gone from complicated to absolutely fucked.“Run that by me again,” I said to Blade, staring at the financial records on my screen with growing unease.“The payments to Nick’s account came through a shell







