LOGINSeptember 9, Night - Rurik MansionThe Rurik mansion had already sunk into silence.Susan had put Demyan to bed a little over an hour ago, after reading three stories and humming an old song that her own mother used to sing. Carla and Alexei had also retired.Dmitry observed everything from the second-floor veranda. The cold of the night did not bother him. It never had. His Lycan skin barely registered the negative temperature, and the wind blowing from the gardens only tousled his dark hair.Some answers, however… those still bothered him.Slow footsteps approached. He did not need to look to know who it was. He recognized the rhythm of that gait since childhood, the slight drag of the right foot that Anatolie had developed after waking from the coma.“Didn’t you manage to sleep?” Dmitry asked, without taking his eyes off the snow.Anatolie stopped beside him, resting his aged hands on the stone railing.“I haven’t slept properly in years. Since before the coma, actually.”Dmitry le
September 9 — Late AfternoonBoris closed the old book he had been pretending to read for nearly half an hour. He had not managed to advance a single page, and his thoughts kept returning to the same place.Alexei.The young man had barely entered his life and was already managing to disrupt decades of carefully built certainties.He rose from the armchair with the slowness of someone carrying centuries in his bones and walked over to the huge window of the library. From there, he could observe part of the gardens covered by a thin white mantle.But he was not paying any attention to the landscape. He was thinking about his grandson. About the phone call from the previous morning. About the overly controlled voice. About the way Alexei had asked questions without a single threat, without a single insult, simply seeking answers, as if he were assembling a puzzle whose final image he still could not see.The library door opened discreetly.Yuliam entered first, his black hair tousled by
September 9 — Early AfternoonShortly after lunch, because Carla had the rare opportunity to sleep in after three consecutive shifts, she was crossing the hall when she found Sasha talking to one of the staff members in a low voice.The moment he saw her, he immediately stopped the conversation, which was suspicious in itself.“Carla!” he exclaimed, with far too much enthusiasm. “Exactly the person I wanted to see.”“Hi…” She slowed her steps, narrowing her eyes. “What do you want?”“Answer me one thing. Quick. Without thinking too much.”“Depends on the question.”“Do you know how to make brigadeiros?”She blinked, processing the abrupt change of subject.“I do… it’s basically condensed milk and chocolate. Why?”“How many?”“How many… what?”“Brigadeiros. How many can you make? In one day? With unlimited resources?”“Sasha… why would I make brigadeiros? For what?”“Fifty?” He widened his eyes, making a horrified face. “Who said fifty? Fifty is an exaggeration. Absurd. No one needs fi
“You’re still thinking about the parking lot, aren’t you?”The question came softly, without any teasing. It was the tone Sasha used when he dropped the mask of humor and showed the real concern he hid underneath.Alexei remained staring at the steam rising from the mug, his eyes fixed on the white spirals.“Every minute. Every time I close my eyes, I see the tracker screen going dark. Every time she leaves my side, my heart races.”“I figured.”“I should have gone to get her.” Alexei murmured, his voice even lower now. “I should have insisted. I should have waited in the parking lot.”“No.”“I should have. I knew something was wrong. I felt it.”“You shouldn’t have.” Sasha’s amber eyes met the blue ones with unusual firmness. “You’re trying to control something that already happened. That doesn’t exist, Lesha. The past doesn’t get rewritten.”Alexei stayed silent, his jaw tense.“Do you know the difference between guilt and responsibility?”He shook his head.“Guilt looks backward. I
The hours passed between appointments, medical charts, and small coffee breaks. Shortly after noon, her cell phone vibrated.Lex 🐺: “Did you get there safely?”She looked at the screen, then at the four men discreetly spread out along the hospital corridor. She typed:“I got here. Your men are very efficient. They even searched the cabinet in the exam room.”Less than five seconds later another message arrived.Lex 🐺: “Did you have lunch?”She took a deep breath.“Not yet.”Lex 🐺: “Have lunch.”“Yes, sir.”The reply came almost immediately.Lex 🐺: “Funny. Send me a photo of the plate.”She smiled without realizing it, her fingers still hovering over the screen. The nurse beside her noticed.“The boyfriend?”Carla slipped the phone into the pocket of her lab coat.“Uh-huh.”“Did you fight? You two seemed so glued together last week…”She thought for a moment. Then she glanced discreetly at the security guards again. One was positioned near the window, another close to the door, and
September 8The first thing Carla noticed when she left the Rurik Mansion that morning was that Alexei had lied. Or, at the very least, had omitted part of the truth.The night before, after the bath, after making love to her until they both collapsed exhausted onto the sheets, he had said he would assign security to accompany her. She had imagined two discreet men, perhaps a car following hers, something that would go unnoticed in the hospital routine.What actually happened was completely different.Two black SUVs were already waiting in front of the main staircase. Beside them, four Lycans spoke in low voices. All wore perfectly fitted dark suits, discreet earpieces, and carried themselves with the straight posture of men ready to react to any threat in a fraction of a second.The moment Carla appeared at the door, still adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder, the four men immediately stopped talking.“Good morning, Doctor.”She blinked several times, her eyes moving from o
Dmitry left the bathroom and picked up his phone from the nightstand. A new message from Alexei was flashing on the screen:"The advisors want to see you. It looks like Natalia ran to open her mouth about the redhead. Careful, they're foaming at the mouth."He snorted, already expecting it."Of cou
On the other side of the mansion, Natalia paced back and forth in her bedroom, her heels echoing against the wooden floor. Her face was flushed with rage, her blue eyes flashing.“Son of a bitch!” she screamed, her hands clenched so tightly that she felt her nails digging into her palms.Svetlana s
The VDNH was still buzzing with voices, laughter, and music when Dmitry crossed the main entrance once again. Eyes turned to him like magnets. His aura, previously contained, now exuded a primal power. Even without the explicit scent of sex or marking, the Lycans knew. They always knew.There was n
The car cut through the cold Moscow night, the headlights illuminating the thick fog that licked the asphalt. The deep rumble of the engine was the only soundtrack in the dense silence hanging between them.Dmitry drove with one hand firmly on the wheel, the other resting on Susan’s thigh — a touch







