When Chase Tanning’s mother remarries a decade after his father’s death, he is happy to see his mother happy once again. But when he moves in to his new house with his new step-father and step-brother, he’s convinced that they have made a grave mistake. Not only is the house centuries old and gives off a creepy vibe, but his new step-family is even more mysterious and cold towards him than he anticipated. However, moving to a new school in his sophomore year is even more challenging than he anticipated, and as the bullies have a field day with him while his step-brother, Alexander Marshall, all but avoids his very existence. That is until…he is pushed down the stairs and ends up hitting his head hard enough to heal. In an instant, his life changes forever as he is surrounded by people with fangs and claws, with no hope of escape. But right then, a shadowy figure steps in front of him, and drives the hissing creatures away. “Welcome to hell, little brother,” says his savior. “From now on, you are mine to claim, mine to do as I please.”
View MoreChase’s P.O.V
They say old houses talk if you listen closely enough.
I used to think that was just something people said in horror movies to make you sleep with the lights on. But standing in the shadowy hallway of Devil’s Lake High, I was starting to believe it.
The school was ancient, built before things like heating or properly-sized windows existed. Its walls creaked when the wind blew, lockers clanged shut by themselves, and the stairwells always smelled like damp stone and secrets. If my new house gave me the creeps, then this place practically screamed at me to run.
But I’d already tried to run—mentally, emotionally, even physically once, when I begged Mom not to go through with the move. She didn’t listen.
She was happy now, after all. In love. Glowing, even. Like her new husband had drained all her anxiety and filled her with champagne and roses. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand how a man like Landon Marshall—stoic, unreadable, cold—could make someone like my mother smile so easily.
I was still trying to wrap my head around how I ended up with a new last name, a new town, and a new stepbrother who looked at me like I was a bug he couldn’t be bothered to squash.
Alexander Marshall.
Tall. Dark. Ice-blue eyes that could cut glass and a jawline like it was carved with precision. He was the type of guy who didn’t just walk into a room—he owned it. People either looked up to him or moved out of his way. No one talked back to Alexander. No one touched him. He had that quiet, dangerous energy that made you forget how to breathe.
And he hated me.
I didn’t know why. I hadn’t even said ten words to him since I moved in. But from day one, the tension between us had been like stretched wire—ready to snap at any second. He barely acknowledged me at home, never looked at me twice at school, and made it painfully clear that I was an outsider in his world.
Still, even if he didn’t like me, I’d hoped he wouldn’t let me get beat to a pulp in front of him.
Stupid, right?
—
It started when I opened my mouth.
Big mistake.
There was this kid—chubby, round glasses, tucked-in shirt like he was attending a science fair instead of high school. The kind of guy you just knew got picked last for everything. A group of guys had cornered him at the lockers, laughing at him, mocking the way he breathed, even.
And I just… couldn’t shut up.
“Hey,” I had said, stupidly brave. “Why don’t you try picking on someone who’ll actually fight back?”
They turned on me like a pack of wolves.
Now, here I was, crumpled on the tile floor of a third-floor corridor, ribs throbbing, jaw aching, my dignity bleeding out somewhere behind the janitor’s cart.
“Man, this guy’s got guts,” one of them jeered, wiping sweat off his brow after landing another punch. “Too bad he’s got nothing to back it up.”
“What’s wrong, new kid? Not so tough now, huh?” Brad taunted me. He’s the leader of this pack that’s got me cornered and surrounded.
“I think he needs another lesson on how things work here,” Tyler said, laughing. He’s Brad’s sidekick, cracking his knuckles like he’s in some movie, loving every second of this.
I tried to sit up. A mistake. A boot met my stomach and knocked the air out of me.
The hallway spun. My vision blurred. I could taste blood in my mouth now—coppery and warm, slick against my teeth. My breath came out in ragged gasps. My ears rang.
And through that ringing, I heard the sound that made my stomach sink even deeper.
Footsteps. Steady. Casual.
I didn’t need to look. I already knew.
Alexander.
I turned my head—slowly, painfully—and there he was, walking past the fight like he was stepping around a puddle on the sidewalk.
Our eyes met.
His gaze lingered. For a second, I swore I saw something flicker there. Not concern. No, nothing so human. It was more like... recognition. Hunger, maybe. A strange tension passed between us, like a current in the air.
Then he blinked, broke eye contact, and kept walking.
No words. No hesitation.
He just left.
And something in me snapped.
I wanted to scream. Not just from pain, but from betrayal. From knowing that even my stepbrother—who could’ve stopped this with a look—chose to do nothing.
The next punch was a blur, but I didn’t feel it. I was too numb by then. My thoughts were spinning somewhere else, lost in the growing darkness behind my eyes.
Then came the slam.
A door burst open down the hallway with a crash loud enough to freeze everyone mid-swing.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
A voice—female. Sharp, commanding, pissed off enough to wake the dead.
A red-haired girl stormed into the room like she’d walked off a battlefield, green eyes blazing with fury.
The jocks hesitated. “Lucia?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” she snapped. “And unless you want detention until graduation, I’d start running.”
“Back off, Lucia,” Brad growls. “This isn’t your problem.”
Lucia steps closer, and even though she’s tiny, she’s got this vibe like she’s in charge of everything, so brave and daring.
“Three guys ganging up on the new kid? Really brave,” she fires back. “I already told Coach Peterson. He’s coming with Principal Williams.”
Brad’s smirk fades instantly. “You’re lying.”
“Test me,” Lucia says, crossing her arms. “See how safe your basketball spot is when they find out you’re bullying newbies in the school compound.”
There was a pause. Then chaos.
The guys scrambled, swearing, tripping over each other to escape before their precious reputations got ruined. One kicked over a chair on his way out. Another slammed his knee into a desk. I would’ve laughed if I didn’t feel like my ribs had shattered.
Lucia turned to us, the fire in her gaze softening.
“Keith?” she said, rushing over to the kid still huddled by the lockers. “You okay?”
He nodded shakily. “Y-Yeah. Thanks, Lucia…”
She crouched beside me next. “And you. What’s your name, football hero?”
I blinked up at her, dazed. “Chase.”
“Can you stand?”
“Define ‘can,’” I mumbled.
“Smartass. Here.” She hooked her arm around mine and hoisted me up with surprising strength for someone barely five feet tall. “We need to move. Now.”
“Wait—what about the teachers?”
“There are no teachers,” she smirked. “I was bluffing.”
I coughed a laugh. “You’re insane.”
“Thank you. Now run.”
She led us through the hall like a general leading her troops, Keith hobbling behind, clutching his bag. We slipped through an empty stairwell and ducked into a janitor’s closet while she peeked through the cracked door.
“Okay,” she said finally, brushing her hands together. “I think we’re good.”
Only then did she turn back to me and really look at me. Her smile faded a little as she took in the dried blood on my lip and the bruises forming under my eye.
“You really pissed them off, huh?”
I shrugged, wincing. “Guess I don’t know when to shut up.”
She offered her hand again. “Lucia Randall. Official chaos-maker of Devil’s Lake High.”
I shook it. “Chase Tanning. Official new kid punching bag.”
“Ah, poor baby,” she teased, then tilted her head curiously. “Wait… Tanning?”
I nodded.
“You just move here?”
“Last week. My mom remarried, so we came to live with her new husband.”
Lucia’s eyes narrowed. “What’s his name?”
“…Landon Marshall.”
Her expression shifted immediately. Her whole body seemed to tense, like a predator catching the scent of something unexpected.
“You’re with the Marshall family?”
“Yeah?” I answered, slow and unsure. “My stepbrother’s Alexander—”
Her eyes went wide.
“Oh hell,” she whispered.
Chase’s P.O.VI barely had time to register the cold air of Alexander’s bedroom before my back hit the mattress.One second I was stepping across the threshold, hesitant, heart pounding out of sync with my thoughts—and the next, he had pushed me down with a force so graceful it barely made a sound.For some reason, I felt heat surge from my neck to my face.His room was dark, the curtains drawn tightly, the air thick with something that didn’t belong to this world. I tried to look around, to see what kind of space the enigma that was my stepbrother called his own, but I couldn’t focus. Not with him leaning over me.Not with the weight of his body pressing against mine.His hand was beside my head, fingers curled loosely against the sheets. The other gripped my waist, firm, possessive, like I’d already been claimed. He was looking down at me with those cold, unreadable blue eyes—so sharp, so inhuman in their stillness—that I couldn’t breathe right. My chest heaved, my limbs stiff again
Chase’s P.O.VI stood there, absolutely flabbergasted, as Alex's words echoed in my ears. "Wait, what did you just say?" I stammered, trying to wrap my mind around what had just come out of his mouth."What do you mean, Alex? What the hell do you really want from me?" My heart was racing, and I felt this strange mix of confusion and unease settling in my stomach.Alex didn't respond the way I expected. Instead, before I could process anything further, he reached out and, without warning, grabbed my waist. His hands were firm, pulling me toward him, and before I could even react, his chest was pressing against mine. I froze for a second, feeling the warmth of his body against mine as he whispered, his voice low and almost too casual for my liking, "I want a good fuck."My brain short-circuited. "W-what?"It only made Alex smirk. “I want to fuck you, Chase. In my bed, ridding you and fucking the hell out of you and you screaming my name, telling me how much you enjoy my dick in your tig
Chase’s P.O.VI couldn’t sleep. The house was too quiet. The kind of quiet that made every sound feel amplified—every creak of the wood, every sigh of the wind. But what kept me awake wasn’t the house. It was those eyes. Those damn red eyes.They kept flashing in the darkness of my closed eyelids, jerking me awake every time I almost drifted off. The hissing too—I could still hear it, like they were right there again, circling me, breathing down my neck, hungry and wild.And then Alex—he’d appeared like some kind of phantom, tearing them off me like I was nothing more than a piece of meat being fought over. I didn’t want to admit it, but he’d saved me. Still, that didn’t mean I trusted him. Not even close.I gave up trying to sleep and dragged myself out of bed, padding barefoot down the stairs to the kitchen. Maybe some water would help clear the fog in my head. Maybe. Or maybe I just needed something to do other than lie in bed, haunted by creatures I didn’t even know existed a week
Chase’s P.O.VI sat on the edge of my bed, shirt half off, the pain from the gash on my temple a dull throb now compared to the sharp sting it had been earlier. My mother knelt beside me with a cloth soaked in antiseptic, dabbing gently around the bruises from the fall before she focused on the wound on my forehead.The familiar scent of lavender clung to her sweater, grounding me in a way I hadn’t realized I needed. I winced when the gauze grazed a particularly raw edge, and she muttered an apology under her breath, her fingers far too practiced at this. Like she had done this a thousand times before—not just for me, but maybe even for herself once. Or for someone else.“You’re lucky it didn’t go deeper,” she murmured, taking out a band-aid and placing it carefully around the gash. “Stupid lucky, if you ask me.”I gave her a crooked smile, trying to ease the tension I felt buzzing in the room like static. “You always say that. Feels like I’m either lucky or stupid. Or both.”She didn
Chase’s P.O.VI sank to my knees.The second she said it—those words, that she loved him—that nothing had changed while my world felt like it was crumbling right in front of my eyes—It was like the fight just drained out of my body. All the confusion, the anger, the heartbreak—it turned into something else.Something heavier. I felt it in my chest, pressing down until I couldn’t breathe. My hands trembled as they hit the floor, and I just stayed there, stunned and silent, like the truth itself had ripped the ground out from under me.“Chase!” I heard her voice crack as she rushed to my side. “Oh, sweetheart—please, please look at me.” Her hands were on my arms, trying to lift me, comfort me, but I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t even bring myself to blink.“You knew,” I whispered hoarsely. “You knew about everything. About him. And you didn’t say anything?” I finally looked up at her, eyes stinging with the threat of tears. My voice broke, and I hated it, hated how small and raw it m
Chase’s P.O.VI had never run so fast in my life.My boots thundered against the cobblestone drive as I stormed past the wrought-iron gates of the estate—the same ones I once thought looked regal and beautiful, like the opening to some grand fairy tale. But there was no magic here. Only ghosts. And secrets. And the echo of my own heartbeat threatening to tear through my chest as I slammed my shoulder into the front door with enough force to make the hinges scream in protest.“Mom!” I bellowed, my voice raw, cracking from the cold and the panic that had clawed its way up my throat.The door flew open under the pressure, crashing against the wall and making one of those damned ancient vases tremble dangerously on a nearby table. That vase alone probably cost more than everything I’d ever owned. I didn’t care if it shattered into a million pieces. The house smelled the same—like lavender and furniture polish—but the air felt wrong. Heavy.The kind of stillness you feel in a crypt. The ch
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