Was she drunk?She didn’t smell like she should. Not just alcohol. Something sweeter. Thicker.Something wrong.Soren walked her to a door at the far end of the hall. “Here’s your room,” he said.My spine locked.That wasn’t her floor.Her room was on five.This was eleven.I took a step forward, an
ANDREII’d had enough of the party.More than enough.The music had gone from tasteful to deafening, the wine had turned to whiskey, and every overly perfumed Alpha in the room seemed determined to corner me with opinions I hadn’t asked for. I could feel my jaw aching from clenching it. My hands itc
LILITHI crossed one leg over the other, the fabric of my gown whispering as it shifted around my ankles. My wine glass tilted slightly in my fingers, half-forgotten. From my shadowed seat near the ballroom’s arched windows, I had a perfect view of the revelry unfolding before me—and it was delightf
NATALIAThe tables had been pulled back, the chairs stacked or whisked away, and the polished stone floor had been transformed into a massive dance space—glossy as glass and glowing under the cascade of chandelier light. The DJ had taken over the string quartet’s corner and was spinning a set list s
LILITHI was on dress number six when I heard him sigh.Loudly.From the sitting room, where he’d been posted up for the last thirty minutes with a tumbler of scotch and a face like carved stone, Andrei let out a groan of pure irritation. It wasn’t theatrical. Andrei didn’t do theatrical. But it was
The air smelled faintly of jasmine and polished wood, touched with the warm tang of wine.At the far wall, a string quartet played something intricate and low—violin, cello, harp, and flute. Their music braided itself through the hum of conversation, rising and falling like a tide beneath the buzz o