The Rival’s Arrival.

Another boring party.

I stood beneath the glittering chandeliers of the Imperial Hotel ballroom, swirling the wine in my glass as I tried to hide my growing irritation. The room buzzed with laughter and fake conversation. Omegas with lying tongues moved around like butterflies; their soft, pitchy voices were slightly higher whenever an Alpha passed by. Alphas, dressed in their finest designer suits, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, their smiles fake.

They weren’t here for me.

They were here for my father.

Every one of them hoped to be favoured by the Rin’s family, to secure a contract, a deal, an opportunity. To them, I was simply an accessory—Young Master Rin, the beautiful but temperamental son of the most powerful alpha in the city. I was pretty to look at, but ultimately irrelevant.

I so much hated these events. The fakeness of it all made my skin crawl.

As I tried to calculate the earliest moment I could sneak out without drawing attention, a murmur rippled through the crowd. Heads turned toward the grand entrance as new guests arrived.

Ugh.

But one name echoed through the crowd before I even got to see his face.

Thorne.

And there he was.

The most eligible bachelor himself.

The air in the ballroom seemed to shift the moment he entered. He wasn’t only tall, but he had an aura I couldn’t quite place. His charisma was ice cold. Maybe it was the black suit because it hugged his broad shoulders perfectly. Thorne carried himself like a man who owned everything in that room. His dark blond hair lay on his shoulder perfectly. 

Every omega in the room straightened their backs, adjusting their suit and hair, their eyes following his every movement like he was a prey they desperately wanted to catch.

He wasn’t a prey.

He was the predator.

And everyone knew it.

Thorne Brown, heir to the Brown Group, the only family that rivaled my own in wealth and influence. The city called him the perfect alpha. He was smart, charming, and successful. He had proven himself in his father’s empire before he even turned twenty-five. His reputation was spotless—no scandals, no weakness.

And I despised him.

Not because he was my enemy.

It was because no matter where I went, people always compared me to him. Whenever my name was mentioned, he followed like a shadow. Two alphas. Two heirs. The city’s golden future. But while Thorne’s path gleamed with perfection, mine was filled with whispers.

Reckless. Wild. Unpredictable.

They called me the Rin family’s disgrace behind closed doors.

And I was tired of it.

Because tonight, everything would change.

My fingers slipped into the pocket of my suit jacket, brushing against the small plastic capsule tucked inside. The pill was barely noticeable—white, round, and deceptively harmless. A friend of mine who worked in one of the top pharmaceutical companies had given it to me last week.

‘’If you want to level the playing field,’’ he’d said with a smirk,’’ slip this into his drink. He won’t be your rival anymore.’’

When I asked what exactly it would do, he refused to say.

‘’Don’t worry. It won’t hurt him. Physically.’’

That was enough for me.

Tonight, Thorne's reign would end. No more perfection. No more comparisons. I would finally break free from his suffocating shadow.

A waiter passed by with a tray of wine glasses. I grabbed two, quickly and discreetly dropping the pill into the one on my left. It dissolved instantly, without a trace.

I straightened my shoulders and walked towards him. I was trying so hard to look confident. Beneath all that, I was terrified.

Thorne’s attention shifted the moment he saw me approaching. His polite smile was broad across his lips. As I reached his side, I could see the amusement in his eyes. Or was it annoyance? We hadn’t spoken in weeks, not since our last business gala where I made the mistake of calling him out publicly.

‘’Rin,’’ he greeted smoothly. His voice was deep and warm. ‘’Enjoying yourself?’’

‘’Hardly,’’ I replied, forcing a smile of my own. ‘’These events are exhausting.’’

He chuckled lightly. ‘’We both know our fathers wouldn’t forgive us if we skipped.’’

‘’I suppose not. I extended the wine glass in my left hand. ‘’A toast then?’’

But before he could reach for it, a clumsy waiter bumped into me from behind, causing me to lose my balance. Thorne’s hand shot out instantly, gripping my arm with surprising strength and steadying me.

‘’You alright?’’ he asked, with genuine concern in his voice.

‘’Fine,’’ I muttered, flustered.

Without hesitating, he took the glass from my hand—the glass with the pill—and he handed me the one he’d been holding.

‘’Here. Take mine.’’

Panic ran through my spine. My heart skipped. Which glass had the pill? In the commotion, I had lost track.

I hesitated for a while.

His sharp eyes narrowed slightly. ‘’Something wrong?’’

‘’No,’’ I lied, forcing my hand to lift the glass.

‘’Cheers.’’

I drank the contents in one swallow, praying I hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of my life.

We exchanged a few more meaningless words before I excused myself, my stomach twisting into knots. I could feel his gaze following me as I climbed up the balcony, desperate for air.

Five minutes passed.

Then it hit me.

A slow, creeping warmth spread through my chest and belly, unlike anything I’d felt before. My skin flushed, growing hotter by the second. My breath started to come in short breaths, and an ache was low in my abdomen, sharp and painful.

No.

This wasn’t happening.

My vision blurred slightly as my legs could no longer carry me.

I grabbed the balcony railing, but I had little strength left in me.

A voice called my name behind me.

‘’Rin?’’

I turned, barely able to focus. Thorne’s figure stood there, his expression shifting quickly from confusion to alarm.

‘’What’s wrong? You look dead.’’

I tried to answer, but my voice was barely a whisper.

Heat.

An unnatural, impossible heat was swallowing me whole.

Thorne quickly reached out to me just as my knees gave out, catching me effortlessly in his arms.

‘’Call an ambulance,’’

I heard him shout to someone nearby.

Then everything went black.