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2025-09-05 12:24:08Naomi 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.”
Latest chapter
Step Brother's Deadly Obsession 57
Naomi’s POV The drive back to the city felt longer than it should have. The wind carried the scent of rain and burned metal through the open windows, and though Cassian’s hand never left the wheel, his mind was miles away, probably tracing lines of war I couldn’t yet see. The note burned in his coat pocket like a live ember. I could almost feel its heat from where I sat. Beatrice’s handwriting haunted me, every word felt like a ghost come to accuse. When we reached the safe house, the air was thick with tension. Guards were changing shifts, radios buzzing, eyes flicking toward us for answers they wouldn’t get. Cassian handed Rubio the note’s coordinates with a terse order. “Run it through everything we have. Cross-check against Syndicate patterns.” Rubio nodded and disappeared into the operations room. Mara followed, already on her comms. That left Cassian and me alone again. He walked to the window, staring out at the skyline. Rain had started to fall, soft at first, then he
Step Brother's Deadly Obsession 56
Cassian’s Pov; Night settled like smoke over the valley as we drove north again. The same road that had carried us away from fire now carried us back toward it. The truck’s headlights cut through a thin fog, turning the blackened trees into pale ghosts on either side. Naomi sat beside me, hood drawn, her fingers tracing the wolf pendant I’d given her months ago. She hadn’t spoken since we left the city. She didn’t need to. The silence between us was thick enough to fill the cab. The ruins appeared just after midnight, a silhouette of ash and twisted metal rising from the fields. The barn’s frame still stood, ribs of charred wood glinting faintly under the moon. The air smelled of soot and rust. Rubio and Mara followed in a second vehicle, their beams sweeping the debris. “Perimeter looks cold,” Mara’s voice crackled through the radio. “No heat signatures, no motion.” “Keep watch,” I said. “We go in and out fast.” Naomi’s gaze stayed fixed on the ruins. “This is where I wa
Step Brother's Deadly Obsession 55
Naomi’s Pov; The days after the rescue felt unreal, like waking up inside someone else’s dream. The safe-house was quiet, almost too quiet. Every sound seemed magnified, the hum of the generator, the shuffle of guards outside, the faint clink of dishes from the kitchen below. My body healed faster than my mind. Bruises faded, cuts closed, but my thoughts kept looping back to the cell, to the scent of iron and smoke, to the sound of Cassian’s voice cutting through the chaos. He hadn’t left my side for the first two nights. He’d sat in the chair beside my cot, half asleep, half awake, his pistol resting on the table. Sometimes I’d wake in the dark and find his gaze already on me, as if making sure I was still there. He didn’t talk much. Neither did I. Silence had become the language between us, heavy, necessary, almost tender. On the third morning, Mara brought me a tray of food and a manila folder. “Cassian’s orders,” she said. “He thought you’d want to see this.” Inside we
Step Brother's Deadly Obsession 54
Cassian’s Pov; The road back to the city stretched out like a scar, long, silent, and endless. By the time the first checkpoint faded behind us, the adrenaline had burned away, leaving only the smell of smoke and blood in its place. Naomi sat in the back seat, her head resting against the window, eyes half-open but distant. Every few minutes the truck hit a bump and she flinched; she tried to hide it, but I saw. Her wrists were red and raw where the chains had been. Mara drove, one hand steady on the wheel, the other on the radio, speaking in short bursts to our safe-house teams. Rubio rode shotgun, rifle balanced across his knees, eyes scanning the horizon. No one spoke for a long time. When we reached the river road, I finally broke the silence. “Any tails?” Rubio shook his head. “Nothing on the scanners. Either Reyes’s men scattered or they’re licking their wounds.” “Good,” I said. The word didn’t sound like victory; it sounded like exhaustion. By the time we reached
Step Brother's Deadly Obsession 53
Naomi’s Pov; I sat on the cot, staring at the mark I’d carved into the wall days ago. The wolf’s head looked rougher now, the edges darkened from the soot that drifted through the vents. I traced it with my fingertip, whispering the same promise I said every night. He’s coming. The sound reached me then. Distant at first, something metallic, a muffled pop, then another. It was sharper, faster. Gunfire. I froze, breath catching in my throat. The guard outside shouted. Boots pounded down the hall. Voices overlapped, curses, commands. And then the lights went out. The sudden darkness was absolute. I could hear my own heartbeat, the clink of my chains when I stood. For one heartbeat, I thought maybe Reyes was moving me again, that this was another trick to make me hope. But the next sound shattered that doubt: the roar of an explosion somewhere above, the ceiling trembling, dust raining down like ash. The door burst open, flooding the cell with light from the hall. The limping gu
Step Brother's Deadly Obsession 52
Cassian’s POV It was close to dawn when Mara found me. The city outside the windows was still burning in places, thin trails of smoke curling against the pale light. I hadn’t slept, not since the night before, not since the warehouse. The smell of ash still clung to my clothes, to my hair, to everything I touched. I was standing at the map again, tracing routes that led nowhere, when Mara burst through the door. Her face was drawn, eyes sharp with urgency. “You need to see this,” she said I turned. “What now?” She didn’t answer. Just crossed to the far table where a monitor flickered, a live feed, one of hundreds we’d hijacked from Reyes’s security network. Most showed empty hallways, guards smoking, blank walls. But on this one, the image was different. A small, windowless cell. Gray walls, iron cot, single light bulb. And Naomi. My breath caught before I could stop it. She was sitting on the edge of the cot, head bowed, hair tangled. She looked thinner, bruises faint
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