LOGINFive's POVThe kitchen was loud that morning.Not the usual low industrious noise of staff moving through their routines—there was something different underneath it, a current of something that made the hair on my arms rise before I had identified the source.I kept my head down and listened.It took four minutes to piece it together from the fragments moving between the kitchen staff in lowered voices.Girls had arrived from the facility.A fresh batch, someone said. Six of them, maybe seven. Brought in last night, which explained the unusual guard movement I had noticed in the corridor this morning and dismissed.I set down the pot I was carrying very carefully.Six or seven girls.From the facility.I thought of the council record. Twenty facilities. The careful system of supply and demand, girls moved between packs according to need, according to the particular requirements of whatever Alpha or lord had made a request.It was routine.It happened all the time.I knew that.And yet
Five’s POV“I’m not judging you,” she clarified, her voice quieter now. “I understand it. He’s—I understand it. But Five.” She held my gaze. “Look at this room.”I looked.“Two beds,” she pointed. “One of them double the size we had to share before. Two windows. A dress with his sigil. Guards who step back when you walk past.” She paused. “He is giving you things.”My breath stuttered. “I know that,” I whispered, suddenly feeling exposed.“Do you know why?”I said nothing.“Because things given can be taken,” she said simply. “Every comfort he provides is also a leash. The nicer the room, the more you have to lose. The softer he is with you, the harder it becomes to remember what he is.” She looked at her hands in her lap. “I’ve watched it happen. Girls who arrived the way you arrived—angry, sharp, impossible to manage—and then slowly the edges wore down. Not because anyone forced them. Because someone was kind.”The room was quiet.I thought of his hand on my back.The steadiness of
Five’s POVTo say I was in good spirits would be an understatement.My body ached from getting barely enough sleep, and my cheek still stung from being slapped, but I was in a good mood.A guard had guided me from the King’s room and I’d expected to be led back to the small, cramped room I shared with Seven.Imagine my surprise when we’d turned a different hallway and I was ushered into a new room.It was plain, the walls painted a boring beige color. But it was much bigger. And there were two windows.And more importantly, two beds.It was more than luxurious compared to what I’d been managing with Seven.The bed was soft, pulling me in the moment I sat on it.A small giggle slipped past my lips.It was almost as good as the one I had at the facility.The facility.My smile fell.I looked around, feeling a different emotion stir within me.I was still a slave.I glanced down at my hands. At the same hands that had done something yesterday that had no explanation, no precedent, nothin
Five’s POVI stepped out of the bathroom, completely naked and dripping.I didn’t know what to expect next.He was too cruel to predict.Steam still clung to my skin. Water ran in slow trails down my collarbones, between my breasts, over the soft curve of my stomach. My hair was wet and heavy against my back. I hadn’t bothered with a towel. There was no point. He would only take it from me anyway.Lucien was waiting.He sat in the wide armchair near the bed, one ankle resting over the opposite knee, still fully dressed. The only concession he’d made was the open collar of his shirt. His eyes tracked every drop of water sliding down my body. Blank. Assessing. Hungry in a way that made my stomach tighten.“Come here.”I walked. The floor was cold under my bare feet. When I stopped in front of him he didn’t reach for me. He simply looked.Then he leaned forward, caught my wrist, and pulled me between his spread thighs.His free hand skimmed up the outside of my leg, slow, deliberate.
Five’s POVI woke up slowly. And honestly, I wished I hadn’t woken up at all. The bed was soft and hard in a perfectly synchronized way that made my limbs feel relief. And the scent. That intoxicating manliness of the King’s that managed to turn me on and infuriate me.I pressed my lips together. Then opened my eyes.The room was completely cloaked in darkness. I sat up, looking around the room. My vision had always been sharper than average in the dark, but it had somehow become even clearer. I could see almost as though it was day. It impressed me and unnerved me.My eyes stopped at the center of the room, my breath catching in my throat.Lucien stood there, his expression blank as ever. My heart beat rapidly as I recalled everything that had happened before I’d fallen asleep in his arms. The way he had held me. The warmth of him.That conflicted expression on his face. My chest tightened. “I haven’t forgotten,” he whispered, his voice dark.My brows pulled together.
Lucien’s POVI didn’t know how long we stayed in that position. But eventually, her breathing slowly evened out, and her body relaxed. She was sleeping. My wolf purred, content with having his mate this close to him. ‘Mine.’My jaw clenched. She was a human, and far too weak to bear my mark, to stand beside me as Queen. Rebecca was the better option. The sensible option. The politically acceptable option. But thinking it didn’t just make my wolf snarl, it triggered something inside of me. I looked down at Five.There was something about her that refused to fit neatly into the world I’d spent decades ruling.She was supposed to be insignificant.A human.A breeding slave.A number.Yet somehow, she’d managed to become the one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about.I rose to my feet, holding her with a gentleness I hadn’t opted for, but had come to me anyways. I placed her on my bed carefully and left, going to find Theron. He was in his office, going through paperwork with a f
549’s POVIt was time. For the first time, I wasn’t clad in a white dress. I wore a black trouser and a black turtleneck top. It felt… thrilling, like my first real act of rebellion. I was getting out of here with my friends. We’ll find other humans, find that paradise I’d dreamed of. We’ll be
549’s POVI curled up in my bed, my head heavy, my throat sore from crying. The higher ups would punish me for not looking after myself. But I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not when everything was crumbling around me, not when my fate had been sealed. I hated it, hated the breeding facility, th
549’s POV"You’ll never return to us." Twelve’s words echoed in my head. The dread tinged with melancholy made it sound more like a sentencing than a prediction. I stood on the far end of the line, my gaze on the floor, my shoulders squared, chest pushed out—just the way we were taught. My body
549’s POV “What did they say?” Twelve asked as she twisted the cap of her water bottle. I shrugged, trying to act casual. “I passed.” She froze, then her eyes snapped to mine. I looked away, unable to bear the pity that swirled in those grey orbs. “Oh five forty nine,” she sighed, droppin







