MasukLEO POVThe office was quiet enough that I could hear the low electrical hum behind the screens.I preferred it that way.Noise distracted weaker men into believing activity was the same thing as progress. Silence forced precision. Silence made people reveal themselves if you waited long enough.I sat behind the desk with one hand resting near the keyboard and my eyes fixed on the largest screen in front of me. The image was grainy in places, the kind of feed pulled from distance and angles not meant for comfort, but it was clear enough.Lilith.She moved through Damien’s training space with the stubborn focus of someone who had already made peace with pain before stepping into it. I watched her fall, catch herself badly, rise again, adjust her footing, then go back in when a smarter person would have asked for a minute to breathe.Maleek circled her with that patient brutality men like him mistake for kindness. He wasn’t going easy on her, which I like. Going easy on her now would on
GENERAL POV Sophie had been sitting in the same spot for nearly an hour, and the wine still hadn’t moved.The glass stood on the table beside her, full to the line she had poured and then forgotten. Her phone was in her hand, screen bright against the dark room, her thumb moving in slow, restless swipes that took her through the same pieces of information again and again, as if repetition might make them smaller.It did not.A photograph of Lucian leaving an event with Isabella on his arm.A headline written carefully enough to avoid naming what everyone already understood.A rumor disguised as society gossip.Another mention of Isabella’s pregnancy, this one tucked inside a short report about family alliances and quiet power shifts.Sophie stared at the screen until the words blurred, then sharpened again.She had known.Of course she had known.Nothing about Lucian happened beyond her notice for long. Not for years. Not while she was useful, wanted, brought into the right rooms and
Lucian POVNight suited my office better than daylight ever did.The city outside had gone darker, the windows across from mine turning into scattered squares of yellow and white, each one hiding some smaller life that had nothing to do with power and would never understand the cost of keeping it. I sat alone with a drink in my hand and the reports spread across my desk, though by now I knew every number on those pages well enough to recite them without looking.The warehouse loss still hadn’t settled properly. One shipment recovered, another delayed, two routes compromised, and too many men speaking to me with the careful tone people used when they were afraid of saying the wrong thing. The fight between Damien and Sokolov had reached me days ago. I had listened to the report without interrupting, then asked for it again from a different source just to hear whether the details changed.They didn’t.Damien had gone after Victor like a man who had forgotten his own limits. Victor had
Lilith POVThe floor was colder than the rest of the house.I felt it the moment I stepped into the training room, through the thin soles of the shoes Maleek had told me to wear, through the last of the sleep still clinging to my body. Everything down here felt deliberate. The concrete walls. The steel racks along one side. The mats stacked neatly in the corner like an afterthought no one had bothered to soften. There were no windows, no music, no attempt to disguise what the room was for.It wasn’t a gym. It was a place where people stopped pretending.Maleek was already there.Of course he was.He stood near the center of the room with his arms folded, dressed in black, expression unreadable in the way it always was when he had decided that kindness would be inefficient. His eyes went to the wall clock, then to me.“You’re late.”I looked up.“It’s 7:02.”“Exactly.”I almost smiled at that. Almost. But the look on his face made it clear that if I laughed, he’d put me on the floor w
Damien POV I woke before the light fully settled into the room. For a moment, I didn’t move. Lilith was still asleep beside me, one arm draped across my chest like she had fallen there and never thought to move again. Her hair was a mess against the pillow, her breathing even, her face softer than I had seen since she arrived yesterday.Her face was calm. I watched her longer than I should have, and that was the problem. Not because she distracted me, not because she made me careless, it was because she had changed the way I made decisions. That was worse. I shifted slowly, careful not to wake her. Her arm slid off my chest as I sat up, and for a second, she stirred—barely—but didn’t open her eyes. I stood, grabbed my shirt, and pulled it on without looking back again. If I stayed, I wouldn’t leave. And I needed to think. The underground room was already active when I walked in. Screens lit up the walls, maps layered with markers, movement patterns, incoming intel feeding in
Lilith POV His mouth was still on mine when everything else finally caught up. The noise downstairs. The smell of blood. The tension that had been sitting in my chest since the flight, since the call, since the moment I heard his voice cut through chaos and disappear. It all found somewhere to go. Into him. Into the way I held his shirt like if I let go, he would disappear again. Into the way he pulled me closer without asking, his hand pressing into my back like he needed to confirm I was real. This wasn’t slow. It wasn’t careful. It was two people who had spent too much time pretending distance would solve something, suddenly refusing to pretend anymore. He kissed me harder, deeper, like he had something to prove and didn’t know how else to say it. My fingers moved to his neck, his jaw, the line of his shoulder, memorizing what was still there, what hadn’t been taken from him yet. “Lilith…” My name came out low, almost rough, like he hadn’t used it enough in the last few
LILITH POVI inclined my head slightly. Sophie was shocked. Her face, her wide eyes, her shrill scream, said it all. She nearly dropped the hair dryer, but her reflex kicked in and she caught it as it fell off her hand. I nodded one more time, looking right in her stunned eyes. I knew she was not
Lilith’s pov “I love you” I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing. I was, and still remain Lucien’s property, but I let those words slip through. Damien didn’t move. Not an inch. He was probably dumbfounded by my new found courage. The audacity to breathe such words without biting a lip. Like
GENERAL POV The energy of the party was overwhelming, music rolled low and smooth. Lucian stood slightly apart with Damien, close enough to see the crowd, far enough not to be overwhelmed as well. After some time he leaned in, his voice controlled. “Victor Sokolov is here.” Damien turned sharp
Damien’s POV The glass walls of my office stood out from the city like a tower. New York flowed like water under me, nothing down there was truly random. I took my position at my desk with my laptop open, eyes fixed on numbers, reports, and projections. My hands moved skillfully while my mind s







