LOGINWe found her.The words echoed through my mind.The man standing across the study didn't look human.His eyes were completely black. Not dark brown. Not black because of the shadows.His teeth were too sharp, and something about the way he moved made my entire body scream at me to run.But I couldn't.My feet were frozen to the floor.The other two men slowly spread out, blocking every possible exit.I looked at Alessandro.For the first time since I'd met him, I saw something in his eyes that terrified me more than the creatures standing in front of us.Fear.Not fear for himself.Fear for me.Stay behind me, he ordered.I didn't move.Alessandro.....Maria, His voice dropped into a warning growl. Behind me, Now.One of the men laughed.Still protecting her after all these years?Alessandro's jaw tightened.You should have stayed in the shadows.The creature smiled.And you should have killed her when you had the chance.My heart stopped.When I had the chance?I looked at Alessandro
I didn't sleep.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same thing.The light.That impossible golden-white light that had exploded from my palm and thrown a grown man across Alessandro's room.I stared at my hand beneath the blankets.Nothing.Just skin.A small bandage wrapped around my palm.No light.No explanation.Nothing.But I knew what I had seen and I knew Alessandro had seen it too.That was what frightened me most.He hadn't looked surprised, He had looked terrified.I slowly sat up.The mansion was silent.It was something after three in the morning. Moonlight spilled through the curtains, painting pale lines across the floor.I thought about the note.Your father didn't die of illness.My fingers tightened around the bedsheet.Ask Alessandro what he knows about the De Luca family and the year you were born.I had read those words so many times that I could almost see them without the paper.I couldn't wait anymore.I climbed out of bed.I needed answers.I slipped into th
I followed him upstairs, but every step felt heavier than the last.The note beneath my mattress burned in my mind like a secret I could physically feel.Someone had entered the mansion.Someone who knew about me.Someone who knew about Alessandro.And worst of all, someone had told me that the man standing a few steps ahead of me was hiding the truth about my family.Where are we going? I asked.Alessandro didn't slow down.My room.I stopped walking.He took two more steps before realizing I wasn't behind him. When he turned around, his expression was already dark.What?Your room? Yes.I thought you said I should stay close to you.“You are.”That doesn't mean I have to sleep in your room.One of his eyebrows lifted.You're arguing about where you're sleeping after someone broke into my house?I don't care if someone broke into the Vatican. I'm not sleeping in your bed.Something flickered in his eyes.Amusement.I hated that I was beginning to recognize when the feared Don was amu
The Council scattered behind us, chairs scraping, voices murmuring, but I barely registered any of it. I was too busy trying to keep up with Alessandro, who moved through the mansion like a storm looking for somewhere to break."Wait," I said, half jogging to match his stride. "Who is he? Why does it matter that he knows my name?"He didn't answer. He turned down a hallway I hadn't seen before, and I followed because I didn't know what else to do, because some part of me was starting to understand that whatever Luca was to him, it wasn't nothing."Alessandro."The sound of his name out of my mouth for the first time made him stop. He turned so fast I nearly walked into his chest. Up close, his eyes weren't just gold anymore. They were glowing, faint but unmistakable, like something behind them was pressing to get out."He's a De Luca," he said, like that was supposed to mean something to me."I don't know what that is.""You will." His voice was clipped, controlled in a way tha
His mouth was hard against mine and for a second I forgot how to think. I forgot that thisman had held a gun to my throat only hours ago. My hands came up to push him away butthey curled into his shirt instead, betraying me.Then his phone buzzed against the desk and he pulled back.He stared at me, his gold eyes darker now, almost black at the edges. His jaw was tight. Fora moment I thought he would say something, explain himself or apologize even. But he just wiped his thumb across his bottom lip like he was wiping away a mistake and turned away from me."Get some rest," he said. "You start tomorrow.""Start what?" I asked, my voice hoarse."You'll see."He walked out of the study without looking back, leaving me standing there with my lips still burning and the contract sitting on his desk.The same woman who'd shown me my room, was waiting outside the door. Her name was Greta, she told me on the way back upstairs. She didn't ask why my cheeks were flushed or why I was
I leaned back and stared at her small frame, at the way her eyes darted from one place to another. She looked so timid and pathetic. But then just as I was about to kill her, my wolf that had been going into a rut had quieted and called her mate. Mate. This little human that had no power or anything else to write home about. I hated humans as a whole. They took my family away and I was left as the only one standing from the werewolf clan. All the other paranormals, vampires, shape shifters and witches had either gone into hiding or blended with humans as I had. And yet of all the species to call mate after two hundred years of living in pain and with a dying wolf, he had chosen to call a human girl wolf. I studied her while she sat there trembling in that chair. Her hands were clasped together in her lap and she was trying so hard to look brave. But I could see the fear rolling off her in waves. I could smell it. l "Do you want the truth or a deviation?" I asked instead. She b







