LOGINLilith's POV
The room is suffocating and hot, like it's about to explode. Heat stings on my skin, my heart ramming in my ribs so hard I can hardly think properly.
The silk ties are still wrapped around Roman's fingers and Vane? I can feel his long, masculine hands wrapped around my hip, pulling me close to his crotch. Malakai is so close to me I can literally feel every beat of his heart; calm, scary.
Just then, a sharp loud beep rings through the intercom on the wall. It's a normal, small sound but in this room, it's as loud as a gunshot.
Malakai freezes. He doesn't growl, just stops dead in his movements. But those sharp, predator eyes of his doesn't soften.
“Malakai, the great Genotype must not be bred in lust” the voice rings out through the speaker, it sounds like an old man's. The council. “No skin to skin contact until the Vows of Blood are exchanged tomorrow at dawn, the blood must be pure”
For a second, nobody breathes.
But, Roman then lets out a sharp, messy laugh as he tosses the silk ties to the bed. “Tsk….” He clicks his tongue shaking his head. “Old hags want a wedding before the bedding, huh? How fucking cute”
Vane growls, pulling his hand off my skin as though it burned him. When he stares at me, there's no form of emotions, just empty, distant stares.
“Tomorrow” he mutters, his voice vibrating. “Keep your pretty clothes on, Princess. This might be the last time you'll ever have them”
°°°°°°
Whether I'm prepared or not, morning comes.
And when I walk into the dining hall, I'm greeted first by the strong smell of coffee and the familiar scent of rich people; one I grew up with.
My eyes are red and sunken from crying all night, literally, from screaming into my pillow until I could hardly talk the next morning.
And at the dining hall, I sight my father. He's slicing a rare steak like it's another boring Tuesday morning. My mother is staring at her reflection on the silver spoon, smoothening the hair that was out of place.
They both look oddly calm and….normal. as though they are waiting for their brunch reservations rather than their daughter's funeral.
“Ple….please, Daddy” I cry out, my voice cracking as I rush towards them, trying to reach for his hand….those familiar hands that always held me whenever I was scared.
But, I pull away and grab the salt instead, not even sparing me a glance.
“Tell….tell these men this is all a sick prank” I say again, my words coming out messy and desperate. “Please….just…tell them you're going to take me home. I'll give everything back…the…they house, jewelry, cars, everything. I'll even work! Just tell them I'm your child”
Finally, my father, Marcus, looks at me. But instead of that usual, familiar look of warmth and love, it's replaced by a look of relief and hate.
“Lilith” he calls out, his voice cold, brows formed into a thick frown. “You were never our daughter”
I freeze almost immediately, but he doesn't give me time to process my emotions properly before he continues.
“You were more like umm….a pearl we polished for them. And you have no fucking idea how much it cost to take care of your bratty needs just to keep you from finding out what you really are”
I flinch so hard, I almost stumble on my feet. His words hit me like a painful slap across my cheeks. My chest feels….empty. “What….what I was?”
“Darling, a vessel” my mother chimes in, her tone annoyed, like I'm being bratty. “Or more like, a peace treaty. Our pack was…. going bankrupt but the Triad stepped in, threatening to completely wipe us out” she pauses, adjusting her necklace.
“....until we finally offered a cure for their…. instability. You literally saved our lives, Lili. Don't act selfish”
“What….what about Jax?” I mutter, finding it difficult to breathe properly as my heart shatters into a million pieces. I double over, clutching my chest tightly though it could stop the deep ache I feel at the moment.
“He…he said he loved me. He…he wouldn't….”
The swinging of the door opening cuts me off.
Almost immediately, Jaxson strides in, wearing a brand new designer jacket, tossing a familiar key in the air; my Ferrari keys!
“Ja…Jax?” I say his name again, my heart fluttering with the tiny, pathetic hope I feel at the moment.
He doesn't spare me a glance, just walks towards the buffet and grabs a croissant, then winks at Malakai who's quietly observing everything from the shadows.
Malakai seems annoyed at Jax, like he's some kind of bug loitering where he shouldn't.
“Hey…don't give me that look, Lil” Jax laughs, talking with his mouth full; a habit I once found cute but now irks me.
“The Triad offered me something better than ‘love’” he sneers, scoffing like he just said something ridiculous. “My own territory, even cleared my gambling debts. You're actually smoking hot, babe, but I don't think you're ‘get-murdered-by-the-three-devils’ hot. Also…..” he leans in, his voice dropping into a mocking whisper. “You were too soft for me…boring. These guys might know what to do with you”
He pats his pocket, bulging with cash. “Thanks for making me rich, Princess. Literally”
Just then, Malakai strides out of the shadows. The whole room goes dead silent almost immediately. He stares down at Jax like he's some trash.
“The transaction is finished, Jaxson. You were paid to end the relationship with her” he says in a cold, calm tone. “Now take your money and get out. If you're seen anywhere around this city after this hour…. I'll fucking peel that jacket off your back…along with your skin”
Jaxson turns pale, his whole bad boy act melting away in an instant as he runs out through the pack door without glancing back at me even once.
I stand there, still reeling in shock, my body still trembling like I just witnessed a real life horror film.
The heavy thud of some documents gets my attention, snapping me back to reality. Malakai pushes the document across the table to me.
The paper looks heavy and the edges….. bloodstained?
“Read,” he orders. “Clause seven….The female will be used a a biological drug to stabilise the Triad's feral instincts”
He leans towards me, his huge frame covering my petite body. “Your body wasn't just sold, Lilith. It was alongside your future and soul. All sold for a seat at a table where they'll never be welcome”
He then strides towards my mother, slowly putting his hands on her shoulders. For a second, she's scared, then the next, she sighs softly, as though relieved.
“Crazy irony, right?” he smiles, but doesn't reach those cold, empty eyes.
"You took care of her, Elena." Malakai touches her throat. "Kept her nice and soft. But the prophecy says the Spawn must be born from sacrifice... and baptized in the blood of the one who raised her."
My heart stops. "What? Malakai, stop. What are you doing?" He looks at me and smiles, but there's nothing human in it.
"Your mom sold you for a seat on the Council, Lilith. Only fair she pays the tax." It happens fast. Just a loud crack, like breaking a stick in a quiet forest.
I scream at the top of my lungs, It hurts my throat. My mom's body falls as he drops her at my feet like trash.
"Don't look so shocked." Malakai wipes a drop of blood off his cufflink. "She didn't love you. She was just a person taking care of a special flower."
He turns to my dad who's now shaking, broken. "Get out, Marcus. Before I decide I need two dead bodies for the wedding."
My dad runs. He doesn't look at his wife, doesn't look at me. Just run.
I fall down. My white dress soaks up blood from the carpet. I'm shaking so bad I can't breathe, my hands pressed against my mother's neck as I try to stop the bleeding, but unfortunately, it's impossible.
Roman walks over and grabs my choker. He pulls my head up, makes me look at them.
"Now, Princess." His voice is soft. His eyes are mean. "No more parents, no more boyfriend."
He lifts my chin.
"Ready to walk down the aisle?”
Lilith's POV The ear landed on the silk sheets with a wet, sickening thud, and for one suspended heartbeat, the world just stopped existing.Blood. Dark, congealed, still-fresh blood smeared across the white fabric like some kind of grotesque signature, and attached to that blood was an ear. An Alpha ear, severed cleanly at the cartilage, the skin around it still faintly warm. I stared at it, my brain refusing to process what my eyes were seeing, because this wasn't supposed to be happening. We were supposed to be safe. The compound was supposed to be impenetrable. And yet here was this woman, this ghost of a woman, standing at the foot of our bed like she owned the place, her lips curled into a smile that made my stomach turn inside out.Vane didn't hesitate. One second he was beside me, his body coiled with that lethal tension that always made him look like a predator about to strike, and the next he was across the room, his hand wrapped around the assassin's throat, slamming her
Lilith's POV The snow had stopped falling by the time I made it to the broken gates of the estate. My bare feet were numb against the frozen ground, but I couldn't feel the cold. Not really. All I could feel was the heat radiating off the three massive bodies surrounding me, their growls vibrating through the air like thunder rolling across a dark sky.Caspian stood in the center of the ruined courtyard like he owned the place. His silver-trimmed wool coat was the kind of expensive that screamed old money, the kind of wealth that came from generations of blood and betrayal. The snow around his feet was already stained pink from the bodies we'd left behind, but he didn't seem to care. He just stood there, smirking like this was all some kind of entertainment for him."You three marked her as street-rogues," Caspian said, holding up a glowing parchment that looked like it had been soaked in blood and set on fire. The symbols on it writhed and twisted like living things. "But under A
Lilith's POV The static died.Vane crushed the analog speaker under his heavy combat boot, the metal casing splintering against the stone floor in a shower of sparks and twisted wires. The shrill, grating noise that had been drilling into our skulls for the past twenty minutes finally cut out, leaving behind nothing but the howling mountain wind and the deafening silence of victory.He looked back at me, his golden eyes burning with pure wolf-dominance, the kind of feral intensity that made my stomach flip and my thighs clench even in the middle of a crisis."No more screens. No more Council games," Vane growled, his chest rumbling like distant thunder. The muscles in his shoulders were still coiled tight with residual rage from the Primordial wolf fight in the greenhouse, and a thin line of blood trickled down his temple from where one of the creature's claws had grazed him. He didn't even seem to notice. "They think they can bomb us out like cowards? If they want our Queen, they
Lilith's POV The Primordial's roar shook the very foundation of the greenhouse as it threw Malakai through a marble pillar like he weighed nothing. I watched his massive black demon-wolf form crash through stone and glass, my scream tearing out of my throat so raw it hurt. But Malakai just shook the rubble off his scarred body, his red eyes locking onto the beast with something that looked like pure, sociopathic joy. He let out this dark, vibrating chuckle that sounded entirely demonic, and I swear to god, my unsealed heat spiked so hard I almost collapsed against the wall.Vane and Ronan didn't hesitate. They stripped completely naked in a split second, their bones snapping and reshaping as they shifted into their massive Alpha forms right there in the middle of the ruined greenhouse. This wasn't some organized fight with rules and strategy. This was teeth, claws, and ancient pack tactics. Vane's silver-gray wolf locked its jaws entirely around the Primordial's back leg, and the
Lilith's POV I woke up wrapped in so much Alpha scent that I couldn't tell where one of them ended and another began. The master suite was drenched in it—Malakai's smoky cedar, Ronan's rain-washed pine, Vane's crisp winter air. My body ached in ways that made me blush just thinking about it, but I felt safe. Completely, utterly safe for the first time in weeks.I found one of Malakai's oversized shirts on the floor and pulled it over my head, the fabric swallowing me whole. My bare feet padded against the cold marble as I made my way downstairs, following the sound of low voices and the click of keyboards.Vane was in the security room, hunched over a console with holographic screens floating around his head like some kind of tech wizard. Ronan stood beside him, arms crossed, jaw tight. Malakai leaned against the doorframe, his red eyes tracking my every movement as I walked in."There she is," Malakai said, his voice rough with sleep and something darker. "Sleep well, princess?"I
Lilith's POV Malakai didn't even hesitate when he made the call. The Council dreadnoughts were maybe twenty minutes out, their engines shaking the ground beneath our feet, but instead of dragging us into the dense woods like we were some pathetic rabbits running from hunters, he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the massive iron gates of the Alpha estate we'd raided weeks ago. The one belonging to that power-hungry bastard who thought he could take what wasn't his. The one we'd painted red with his own blood."You're insane," I breathed, my legs barely keeping up with his long strides. My body was still buzzing with the aftermath of the liquid silver I'd used to decimate that patrol unit. "There's no way we're getting through those—"Malakai didn't let me finish. He ripped the biometric lock panel right off the wall with his bare hands, sparks flying everywhere, and shoved the reinforced steel doors open like they weighed nothing. The sound of grinding metal screamed through the
Lilith's POV The sound of running water fills everywhere, echoing in the bathroom. Steam fills the air until it's almost heavy and thick, the scent of expensive jasmine clogging my nostrils…the kind my mother loved. But no matter how much perfume is poured, it still can't reduce the bitter, meta
Lilith's POV One moment, I'm standing on the platform, the next, I'm being dragged out of the room. Vane doesn't lead me towards the red carpet at the main entrance or the hotel. Instead, he hauls me through the back service doors reserved for the workers, right past empty stacks of crates. His
PROLOGUE;They always told me the world was my oyster. Turns out I was just the pearl….polished pretty for someone else's collection.My name is Lilith. And no, this isn't one of those stories where I'm the rejected mate crying in the rain. I don't do rain, it ruins the suede on my Birkin. I was th
Lilith's POV The cabin is pitch black and freezing cold. Not the kind of cold that makes you shiver a little. The kind that sinks into your bones and makes your teeth clack together like you're chewing on ice cubes.I stand by the dead stove for ten minutes. Maybe longer. I've lost track of time i







