MasukDIEGOThe call cut through the low hum of discussion in the boardroom like a blade, sharp and sudden. My assistant’s voice wavered just the faintest tremor but enough to betray the unease I wanted him to hide.“Boss… Adam’s back in Italy.”I didn’t flinch. My fingers tightened around the pen on the table until the wood creaked. “How do you know?” I asked, my voice controlled, smooth, but every muscle in my body tensed like a coiled spring.“He… he just landed at the airport,” he stammered. I smirked, a cold, slow curve of satisfaction, and cut the call before he could add more.Adam. My oldest rival. My bitterest enemy. Months had passed since he left or so I thought. Months in which business had flourished, my name whispered with respect, my influence unchallenged. Other families bowed. They feared me. They respected me.And I had imagined peace. I had imagined life without the shadow of him.But that illusion shattered the moment I heard his name.The boardroom grew still. My men fr
LAURA “I’ll be leaving soon.” Adam’s voice drifted through the half-open door, low and controlled, the kind of calm that meant the decision had already been made. Not anger. Not hesitation. Just finality. “I can’t allow your sister’s feelings to keep growing for me.” The words landed one after another, slow and precise. My feet refused to move. My fingers tightened around the doorframe until the wood pressed painfully into my skin, anchoring me there as everything inside me shifted. Leaving. The room felt too quiet, too still, like it was waiting for something to break. So this was how he chose to handle it. Distance. Escape. Italy. As if an ocean could erase what he’d already stirred awake inside me. As if love could be outrun. My chest tightened, breath catching halfway in. Heat burned behind my eyes, but I refused to blink. I refused to fall apart in a hallway. He knew. I could hear it in his voice. He knew exactly how I felt and still, he was walking away. A bitter knot
MALAKI “Before I kill you,” I murmured, my lips close enough that my breath grazed her ear, “tell me where your child is.” Her body shook violently. A broken sound tore from her throat as her head jerked side to side. “I don’t know,” she sobbed. “I swear, I don’t know where Kael took him.” Tears spilled freely, soaking her lashes, sliding down cheeks already hollowed by fear and guilt. She collapsed forward, chains rattling as she cried harder. “I betrayed you,” she whispered hoarsely, voice cracking under the weight of it. “I know I did. But my child my son he’s innocent. He doesn’t deserve this.” She lifted her face to me, eyes red, swollen, desperate. “I deserve to die,” she said quietly. I stared at her, my jaw tightening. She was right. She deserved nothing less. And yet, I needed information. Her child would be close in age to my Lyra. That thought alone tightened something ugly in my chest. If Kael’s blood lived on… if his poison had already taken root inside that chi
MALAKI “You have a son?” The question left my mouth soft, almost weightless. The reaction wasn’t. She jerked as if struck. Breath caught. Eyes widening too fast, pupils quivering, already dark with fear. Her hands fisted in her dress, twisting the fabric until her knuckles showed white, as though she needed something anything to keep herself standing. She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to. The silence told me everything. So it was true. She wasn’t frightened by the question itself. She was frightened because the truth had been dragged into the open. I moved closer. One step. Then another. Her scent reached me achingly familiar, warped now, threaded with guilt and something old and rotten. Mate. Fate had marked her as mine long before this moment. And yet she stood there carrying my brother’s sin inside her. “You’re scared,” I said slowly, watching every flicker of her expression. “Not of dying.” Her throat worked. Still no words. “Of me finding out.” Her lips parted, a
ADAM The words slipped out before I could stop them. “Don’t leave.” Silence followed heavy, dangerous silence. The kind that presses in on your chest and makes you aware of every breath you take. Pain coiled tight in my ribs, sudden and sharp, like something inside me had snapped. I clenched my jaw and stared up at the ceiling, fixing my eyes on a crack in the plaster as if it had personally betrayed me. My heart slammed violently against my chest, each beat too loud, too fast. I was certain Laura could hear it. Certain she could feel it. Get a grip. I shut my eyes hard, my lashes damp. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. None of it was part of the plan. Still, my gaze drifted back to her, pulled by something stronger than logic. She stood a few steps away from the bed, unmoving, as though afraid any sudden motion would shatter me. Light from the window brushed against her hair, catching in soft strands, outlining the worry she didn’t bother to hide. Her hands were clenche
MALAKI I didn’t hesitate. I dropped into a crouch in front of Kael and caught his chin, forcing his face up. His skin was clammy beneath my fingers. Each breath he took rattled in his chest, uneven and shallow, blood seeping into the dirt beneath him like a dark stain the earth was eager to swallow. My hand shifted midair. Bone snapped. Skin stretched. Pain rippled up my arm as claws tore free, long and glinting, silvered by the moonlight above us. “This ends tonight,” I said softly. His mouth curved just barely. A smile. I struck. My claw tore through flesh and bone, straight into his chest. The impact jolted up my arm. The sound was thick and wet, a noise that would haunt quieter nights. When I pulled my hand back, his heart came with it. It twitched once. Twice. Then stilled. Kael’s body sagged forward, yet his eyes never left mine. Blood pooled at his lips, spilling down his chin as he laughed a weak, broken sound. “You killed me, brother,” he rasped. “But this…” His







