Heretics

HERMES

What were the chances of finding someone you'd waited your whole life for… in the underground of all places?

Lost and feverish from heat, a room away from where Mafia bosses were having their annual meeting.

Well, what happened next… was a blur of memory.

***

Anastasia tasted the same. Better than I expected.

She knocked me off my feet the moment she crashed her lips to mine.

Now her hands tightened on my chest. Frustrated, she shoved me off and backed away, flushed.

I let her go… mostly because I knew she wouldn’t get far before I caught up again.

It was fate. Written in our bones. She just didn’t know it yet.

“Don’t you dare!” Her voice was venom. Her eyes shone, her heart breaking in real-time. “Your mother… Skylar, we thought you were dead.”

Her cheeks were red, lips swollen from my kisses.

And that brought a sick satisfaction to my gut.

“Skylar knows I’m alive. As for Mum… she wouldn’t survive what I became. And you—” I took a step forward, “you don’t deserve transparency, not when you erased your own existence from me, don’t you think?”

“You were fourteen,” she whispered. “I didn’t owe you anything.”

“Then what are we arguing about?” I feigned a wince, pressing a finger to my temple. “It’s too loud in here.”

There it was; rage instead of guilt. If I wasn’t careful, she’d smack the devil out of me.

“Get it out! Now!”

I blinked. “What?”

“The suppressant. Rip it off!”

I rubbed my neck with a smirk. “No can do, peaches.”

“I swear to Selene, Hermes…”

I backed off slowly. “I really can’t. Not until you’re ready to take responsibility.”

Her face lost all color.

I moved toward the mini bar. “You did this to me. Clawing, marking and claiming me. My back is still shredded with scars from your nails. Goddess, you’re like a cat in heat, Ana.”

She whispered something that sounded like shame.

“I’ve been covering it ever since. The suppressant messes with a dominant Alpha’s biology. The headaches, the dizziness. My rut being confusing as hell. But without it, my body screams for a body far away. I suffered, Ana.”

“You knew where I was. You should’ve come so we could break the bond.”

I smiled into my cup. “Busy.”

By the door, Adonis snickered.

I was raising the cup to my lips when she yanked me by my collar, like when I was still a kid and she’d just caught me slashing another one of her date’s tires.

Then my arm. But now, her fingers barely wrapped halfway around it.

She noticed. And it pissed her off more.

“We’re going to the clinic. There has to be a way.”

I followed willingly. “It’s sealed, Ana.”

“It takes six months. We have three weeks left.”

“Four—for the one holding the mark to get out without casualties.” Her grip tightened. “I don’t think I can bear it. I don’t want to die, Ana.”

She froze. “Shut up. Shut up! let me think!”

The room fell silent.

My men outside held their breath. They knew what was coming.

I shrugged. “Okay, Ana.”

Their gasps were audible. It was hard not to laugh. They never really knew me.

I stared at her pacing form. The way she raked her hair back like it could fix the chaos. The way she pinched herself once just like she used to when she was overwhelmed.

Still her. Still Ana.

Adolf stepped in then. “Boss. It came.”

Just in time. If I stayed any longer, I wasn’t sure I’d stop myself from jumping her bones.

Ana looked at me like she still didn’t believe this was real.

I placed the cup down, walked over, wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my nose in her neck.

She didn’t freeze. Didn’t hug me back either.

Didn’t matter.

I inhaled deep. “Wait for me. Alright?”

“I have no choice,” she answered. “We need to talk. I need to understand what you’re doing here.”

Even now, her concern was for me.

My lips grazed her forehead. “We will.”

ELEVEN YEARS AGO...

“You did this!” Mum screamed at Ana. “You couldn’t stay away, and now he’s dead!”

Dad’s lifeless body lay in her arms, head cradled to her chest as she screamed into the night.

Ana staggered back, horror on her face as she stared at the man who had loved her like a daughter.

The only man bold enough to challenge the Alpha of Eviscera by protecting the daughter he discarded. A common lawyer whose empathy outweighed his survival instinct.

And it had cost him.

Twenty-four hours ago, Ana had barged into our home in her wolf form, sobbing. Something about stabbing her stepbrother… that she didn’t mean to… that she didn’t want to…

Dad had held her. Comforted her.

And even when Mum demanded she be thrown out, Dad had hidden her.

Now I stood beside her, fresh from crawling out of the hole he’d stashed us in when the gammas came.

Skylar collapsed beside him, pressing the gaping wound in his chest like she could seal it shut. “Dad, please! Dad, please wake up—”

Ana’s lips trembled. Her hand shook. “I—I’m sorry. Mrs. Blackwell, I’m so… sorry.”

“It’s too damn late for that, don’t you think?!” Mum snarled.

“It’s not Anastasia’s fault,” I shouted back, my voice watery and too small for the moment. I was still a late bloomer then. “What could she have done—”

“Stay quiet, Hermes. I need her to leave. Leave and never come back.”

Ana flinched. A soft sob broke from her throat.

My chest hurt. It burned. She looked so small. So frail I thought she’d collapse.

So I held her hand.

But Ana—she snatched it back like I was the plague, eyes wide with guilt and terror. Like she hadn't been the one shielding my ears from the bangs just hours ago.

“Ana…”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Skylar. Mrs. Blackwell, I’m so sorry.”

And then she shifted.

A dark, regal wolf, feral and breathtaking. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

She bolted into the night.

I tried to follow, but my human legs were no match.

She wouldn’t answer my calls.

That was the last I ever saw her—

Until now.

***

Now…

Blood dripped down the knife. And my fingers.

I tilted my head, nose wrinkled. He fucking smelled like a pig.

Alexei sat strapped to the chair—face swollen, uniform shredded, blood oozing from wounds on his lap and shoulders. Snort, sweat, and salt-drenched fear.

For someone who was all bark in that bathroom, he sure cried like a bitch.

“Adrian…” he gurgled, blood soaking through broken gums. “Adrian gave the orders. I didn’t want to hurt her, I swear—I—I…”

I chuckled.

Adrian.

Strategic and deadly. Just like me.

Except for the deadly part.I had a hidden halo.

“Boss.” Adolf’s voice was tense. “He told you everything. Just end it.”

“Aww, come on. It’s fun here.” I raised the knife to the overhead bulb. “When he screams, I get butterflies.”

“Hermes, it’s hot in here.”

“Fine, fine, get off my back jeez.” I grumbled, raking a bloody hand through my hair. I should’ve worn gloves. Ana wouldn’t like this stench on me.

Alexei whimpered again. “Please… I beg you. Let me go. You’ll never see me again, I—I swear—”

A smile tugged at my lips. I crouched to eye level, watching him drown in his own panic.

“What do you think?” I asked, tilting my head. “Still a pretty boy?”

He sobbed louder.

“It’s alright.” I patted his knee. “You’ll be sending a message to Adrian for me. So I need to let you go.”

His eyes lit up. Tears of gratitude spilled down his face.

“You will what?” Adolf asked, voice incredulous. “You’re letting him go? After this? You’re acting strange.”

“He’ll go,” I stood and wiped the blade on Alexei’s ruined shirt. “I just… never said alive.”