Se connecterAria’s POVThe slap was heavier than I expected.The sound of my palm meeting Noah’s cheek cracked through the silent hall like a gunshot. My hand stung, a sharp, buzzing heat radiating from my fingers, but it was nothing compared to the fire roaring in my chest. I had walked into this house with an anger I couldn't explain, a dark, oily tide that had carried me all the way from that blood-soaked alley to these marble floors.I had hit an Alpha. I had struck the man who held my life in his hands, and the regret hit me almost immediately. "How dare you?" Cassian’s voice barked, slicing through the air.Within a heartbeat, Four guards appeared surrounding me in a tight, suffocating circle. Their scent was aggressive, of musk and steel and their eyes were fixed on me like I was a rabid animal that needed to be put down."What did you do to me?" I screamed, my voice cracking with anger."What did the both of you do to me?"I didn't just shout; the words felt like they were rippe
Maeve’s POVI reached up, my fingers ghosting over the glowing violet mark at the base of my throat. It pulsed with a cold heat, a constant reminder of the power beneath my skin.Aria.The name alone tasted like ash in my mouth, bitter, dry, and suffocating.A maid, her head bowed in submission, stood behind me, holding the bodice of my gown. She fumbled with the clasp of a diamond-encrusted choker, her fingers shaking so violently that the metal rattled against my collarbone. I caught her gaze in the mirror, and she instantly looked away, her eyes wide with terror.Good. She knew who the queen of this fortress was, and she knew the price of a mistake.I ignored her presence entirely, closing my eyes to shut out the sterile, white light of the dressing room. Immediately, the darkness took over and I was back in the forest. I could smell the smoke, the thick, oily, cloying scent of burning fur, blood and flesh. I remembered the screaming, the way the sky had turned a bruised, u
Noah’s POV"I’ll kill Julian."The words left my lips as a vow, my voice echoing against the cold stone of the hallway. The moment the threat left my mouth, the estate’s power grid came back to life. A maid, Betty, stumbled out from the power room entrance, her skin the color of ash. She was shaking so violently that her uniform rattled. I didn't care about the cause of the failures, I was too consumed by the missing Aria situation.Cassian, however, was in a different headspace. He lunged toward her, his posture predatory. "What the fuck, Betty? Explain yourself."The maid jumped, her breath hitching in a sob. "S-sorry, Alpha. I forgot to flip the main breakers immediately… I was… I was...""Useless," Cassian spat, rolling his eyes as he began to pace in agitated circles, his muttering lost to the sudden roar of the estate's ventilation.Betty didn't wait for a dismissal. She bolted, her footsteps retreating as quickly as her trembling legs would allow, no doubt fearing the
I blinked, my eyes struggling to focus in the oppressive darkness of the alley. My head throbbed, a dull ache pulsing behind my temples like a trapped bird beating against a cage. I tried to push myself up, but my hands skidded on something slick. I looked down, and my breath hitched in my throat. My clothes were shredded, stained dark with dried, crusty blood.The gala. The music. The laughter. The way Noah and Cassian had looked at me, like I was a prize they’d finally captured. I remembered the heat rising in my blood, the golden agony of the mark on my neck, and then… nothing.Suddenly, a high-pitched, piercing ringing shattered inside my skull. I gasped, clutching my ears, but the sound only grew louder, a thousand layered whispers hidden beneath the screeching frequency."No," I hissed, my voice rasping and foreign to my own ears.I stumbled to my feet, my legs feeling like lead. I had to get away. I felt the cold now, a damp, biting chill that seeped into my marrow. Th
Cassian’s POV"Clear the floor!" Noah’s voice boomed over the clinic’s intercom system, his tone dripping with a lethal, alpha authority that turned the air icy. "Every civilian, every staff, out! If you are still in this building in sixty seconds, you will be considered an enemy and you will not survive."Panic erupted. The sound of fleeing footsteps and shattering glass filled the hallways as people scrambled to obey. I didn't care. I moved like a blur, scenting the air for Aria. My knuckles were already stained dark with the blood of Julian’s men who dared to block my path.I reached the surgical wing first, kicking the heavy steel doors off their hinges. I expected to see Aria strapped to a table, her skin glowing with that void-touched black. Instead, the room was empty.The bed was stripped. There was nothing here but a lingering, sickly scent of lavender and a discarded, empty vial of violet liquid rolling across the floor.Noah stormed in behind me, his eyes glowing a
Cassian’s POVThe silence in the medical wing was louder than the screams at the gala forty-eight hours ago.I paced the length of the room, my boots clicking loudly against the polished marble. Every instinct in my body was screaming to shift, to tear through the walls, but there was nothing to fight. There was only the rhythmic beep-beep-beep of the heart monitor connected to Aria.She looked fragile. Her skin was pale and dull, especially the faint outline of where her golden mark used to be. Now, it was just bruised, sensitive-looking skin."Stop pacing, Cassian," Noah said from the corner. He sat in a high-backed leather chair, his shirt buttoned to the chin to hide the purple, thumb-shaped bruises Aria had left on his throat. He looked like a king who had lost his crown. "You’re going to wear a hole in the floor.""She hasn't moved in two days, Noah. The world is burning outside, and she’s just… sleeping.""She’s not sleeping," a calm voice interrupted.Dr. Aris stepped i







