4

Naomi pov

“Come,” she whispered.

I stepped forward, joining her under the cover of night.

“Your room walls are too thin,” Maria said, barely moving her lips. “The guards would hear what I need to say. That’s why I told you to meet me here.”

She glanced over her shoulder again, then stepped closer. Her voice dropped lower.

“You need to run away, miss. Or you’ll die.”

My breath caught.

“What….?”

“They don’t tell you everything. Not until it’s too late. The selection… It’s not just a display. It’s a test. If he fails to impress the other Dons, if you do anything wrong… they’ll take you away.”

I stared at her, my mouth suddenly dry.

“Take me where?”

“They’ll take you to the Underground World,” Maria said, her voice trembling now. “That’s what they call it. ‘Proper training,’ they say. But most people don’t survive it.”

My blood ran cold.

“Training… for what?” I whispered.

“To be a good wife. They break you…physically, mentally…until you’re nothing but a shadow. And if you fail… You disappear.”

My knees felt weak.

She grabbed my hands.

“You need to escape, Naomi. Tonight. Before it’s too late.”

“Thank you for informing my wife about the selection properly,” a cold, thunderous voice cut through the night air like a blade.

I froze.

Maria’s hands slipped from mine. Her face went pale.

“But you see,” Eldon continued, stepping out from the shadows, the moonlight catching the cruel smirk on his face…

“Having her run away would be a very big insult to my name.”

He stepped closer, slow and deliberate.

“And that… is something I, Don Eldon Rayes, cannot take.”

Maria dropped to her knees immediately, head bowed, trembling.

I stood there, paralyzed with my mouth dry, my heart pounding against my ribs like it wanted to escape on its own.

Eldon looked between us. His eyes gleamed like a predator who had just caught both his prey in one trap.

“Now, darling,” he said to me, voice venomously soft, “why don’t you tell me again how grateful you are for this marriage?”

“Please don’t hurt her,” I begged, my voice cracking. “I’ll do anything… please.”

Eldon just stared at me for a moment, then turned his gaze to the guards behind him.

“Guards,” he said calmly, like he wasn’t destroying someone’s world, “escort Maria to her room. Tomorrow, I’ll deal with this… and with my dear wife.”

He turned to me with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Good night.”

Terror gripped my chest so tightly, I could barely breathe.

I watched in silence as Maria was dragged away, her face was void of expression, like she knew begging wouldn’t help her now.

I returned to my room in a daze.

Closed the door. Locked it. Sat on the floor, back against the wall.

“That night, sleep eluded me entirely. I lay in the darkness listening to the sounds of the house settling around me, imagining the Selection that awaited. What would they make me do? How many ways could I fail without realizing it?

I sat in the corner, counting every moment until sunrise…

Which could very well be my last.

As the light crept into the room, the silence was shattered.

CRACK.

My door burst open.

The guards stormed in and dragged me out without a word. My legs scraped against the cold tiles. I didn’t try to fight them. I couldn’t.

They threw me into the main hall, where Maria was already on her knees, head bowed, with her hands bound.

I was yanked to my feet and forced to stand beside her.

Eldon stood before us in full black, surrounded by his men. 

He looked at Maria like she was filth.

“This woman was found corrupting my wife,” he said. His voice echoed off the walls. “Trying to convince her to run away from me.”

He raised the gun slowly.

“As such, I will make an example of her…so everyone remembers who I am. So she,” he glanced at me, “learns that betrayal has only one price.”

He pointed the gun at Maria’s head.

“No…please!” I screamed, breaking free from one guard just enough to stumble forward. “Please don’t! I begged you…please, hurt me instead! Please don’t kill her!”

BANG. I shut my eyes, scared to see her dead body. 

But it wasn’t Eldon’s gun.

The sound rang through the mansion like thunder.

BOOM.

A deafening explosion shook the entire mansion, like a part of the house had just been bombed. The walls trembled. Lights flickered. Screams rose in every direction.

Smoke filled the hall.

“We’re under attack!” someone shouted. “Protect the Don…get his wife to safety!”

Everything turned to chaos.

Guards scrambled, trying to draw their weapons, and others were barking orders. More gunshots rang out in the distance.

I could barely breathe. I reached for Maria, but they were pulling us apart again.

“No..please!”

I pushed hard against the guard, using the chaos as my only chance to escape.

It was probably useless. Futile.

But I had to try.

I stomped hard on his foot and tore myself free, sprinting into the smoke-filled room, heart pounding, eyes locked on Maria.

“Maria!”

I shoved past panicked guards and falling debris, almost there…

Until a hand yanked me back by my long black hair.

I screamed as he dragged me toward him.

“You dirty bitch,” he snarled, slamming his palm across my mouth so hard I tasted blood.

“How dare you touch what belongs to me?”

A low, dangerous voice admits the chaos. A growl that rumbled through the air and into my bones.

It sounded so familiar… so terrifyingly familiar that it took the strength right out of my legs.

I turned…slowly.

And there he was a face I never thought I’d see again.

Green eyes like the forest, burning with rage.

Ash's blond hair was disheveled and dusted with soot.

A chiseled jaw, clenched so tight it looked like it might crack.

It was Cassian, my stepbrother.

But not the quiet, gentle boy who used to bring me bread in the night.

This Cassian was darker.

His eyes glowed with barely restrained fury…but this time, it was laced with something else.

Bloodlust.

The kind that doesn’t forgive. The kind that doesn’t negotiate.

Cassian didn’t wait.

He didn’t let the guard speak.

Didn’t give him a second glance.

He just raised the gun and shot him straight in the head.

The sound cracked through the chaos like thunder.

Blood sprayed across my dress.

The guard crumpled instantly, his body hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

I stood there, frozen.

With my hands shaking.

Cassian stepped over the corpse without flinching. His eyes met mine ....“No one touches you ever again.”