LOGINRONAN The tires of the SUV screamed as I swerved into the Mansion service entrance.I didn't have time for the front gates, or the cameras or for the polished lies of the High Luna's security details.I felt like I knew this building better than the people who owned it, I had been a Null, an unregistered Omega, too. The invisible who emptied bins at a time in my life, I had seen houses like this.I ditched the car in a restricted area, the engine still ticking as I walked towards the maids entrance.My heart was a frantic, and jagged heartbeat in my chest, but my hands were steady on the cold weight of the handgun tucked into my waistband.I'm coming Kieran, I bypassed the main residential elevators, slipping instead the maintenance corridors. The air smelled of industrial grease.I moved with a silence I didn't know I possessed, I ducked past two guards, men wearing the Vale crest, looking like they were ready for a celebration, not a fight.They didn't even see the shadow, that s
KIERAN The world was dissolving into a thick, foggy haze.The gas Rhea had pumped into the room wasn't just a sedative.It was a toxin designed to force an Alpha into his rut.My lungs became hot as I inhaled the cloying sweet scent.It tasted like a chemical gravy with a sick mix of synthetic roses that made my nerves paralyzed. My knees buckled as if my bones were solely turned into jelly , the heavy army uniform feeling like dead weight , dragging me onto the floor.My phone was vibrating against the floor I could still hear Dax , shouting, “Kieran!” but his name was blurring into his smear of light in my eyes , “Kieran your vitals are crashing! Answer me!”His voice was becoming tiny and desperate coming from the speaker on the floor vibrating against my fingers.As I struggled to pick up my phone to speak , I tried to snarl , but it wasn't working either.I gazed through my half lidded eyes as Rhea stood by the door, her silhouette blurred and distorted by the smoke.She wasn't
KIERAN The gala was in full swing, Rhea's voice carried through the speakers, and flooded into the streets, it made my skin crawl.“I'm so pleased to announce that Kieran and I have reconciled,” she said to the masses below. “The bond we have are sanctioned by the stars and we are stronger than ever.”I stood in the crowd listening to my wife lie to the entire council while the elites cheered for a fictional story leaving her lips.My hands were shaking with anger, the cold hollow absence of love or empathy of any form for her.My wolf was still silent, it had been silent in front of her since the day I stood at the altar and said i do to a woman who was always changing her skin.I was here for the truth, her room always smelled wrong, it always had, that was going to be the first place i was going to check for them.As I walked back out, our eyes locked before I left,running to the Vale mansion as it was a stone throw from the ball venue.I walk into the house, my parents house al
KIERAN After holding him to me all night, the morning light felt better than I had for the past three years.The penthouse felt different today, the air wasn't thick with the usual hatred Ronan showed me.But even the little warmth was tainted, behind my eyelids when I remember the sight of the jagged scars on his back, like brands.Those marks weren't supposed to exist, they were physical evidence of the three years of his life I wish I could cut off.I stood before the mirror, my fingers clumsy and stiff as I pinned the high commanded badge to my dress uniform.Today was the gala of the stars, the Playground of the rich, I had to go, to stand in a room full of vipers pretending the council wasn't debating my execution, and I had to do it with a straight face.“Why did you marry her?” His voice was raspy, like it had been dragged through the night.I froze, my hand still hovering over a gold medal on my chest.I looked into the reflection of the mirror, Ronan was sitting on the edge
RONAN I stepped out of the room, my heart beating faster from the thought of getting caught by Rhea.The penthouse smelled of spilled whiskey and Kieran's anger was like a physical entity with us.Kieran was still leaning against the frame in the closet,his shoulders heaving with a violence he was trying and failing to suppress. He looked like he was wrestling a demon and was barely winning.He didn't look at me, but he knew I was there. He always knew, his alpha senses were probably responding to the frantic fear I was feeling.“We can't stay in here,” he rasped, his voice sounding like he was holding back. “The scent of her….it's everywhere.” He didn't wait for an answer from me, picking me up with ease, carrying me down the hall to the smaller guest suite, it was wide and quiet.For the first time I was grateful for being here, it didn't feel like a cell but a sanctuary, once the door was locked, he leaves then appeared returning with a small box.Setting it on the Nightstand with
RONAN The rattling of the bedroom door handle was now loud against the silence in the room.I backed away slowly into the hidden closet, my heart thudding faster against ribs, until my spine hit the cold wood of the bookshelf.Kieran was farway on his way to the council, fighting for the power to keep me.The elevator to the penthouse chimed again and a voice came through. “ Ma'am the master override key,” a guard said.She wants to bypass the key. Her heels began their slow, deliberate march across the room outside the door, click, click, click. It sounded like a countdown to my end.“I know you're in there, you little whore,” she calls out, her voice echoing with a terrifying edge. I didn't think or could afford to think, a lot of things could go downhill if I'm caught.Tipping the book backwards, the space was tight, smelling of damp books, I ran inside closing it before I heard the bedroom door finally swing open.Rhea walked in like she owned the air itself.There was a camera i
Kieran“For Nightshade.”The words don’t echo as he chooses to begin with Ronan to get a reaction out of me.Beside me, Ronan stiffens, barely noticeable, but I feel it like a tremor through a shared bone.His pulse drops as his heartbeat slows, Fenir rises immediately at the threat against him, an
Kieran The scent of Alpha fills the hall as he leaves, and the students burst into a hall of applause.I joined because everyone else does. Since he started talking of fangs, a feeling of dread filled me.Each clap sends a dull throb through my chest, as if something inside me is pressing outward
RONAN Kieran has been looking at me, not with suspicion but with hunger. It hits me that something in him has shifted from trying to understand me to instinct. I chase after him on the stairwell, catching him a few inches from the door, as my hand wraps around his wrist, my grip iron tight, and b
RHEAThe cornfield maze closes as I walk back. He knows, fuckkk he knows.Well, that doesn't matter, I have the ring I'm betrothed to him, and nothing can change that. I feel it before I hear it, as the harvest moon starts shining for the night, the big red moon hanging above the maze, looking as