RidwanThe corridors were too quiet.The kind of quiet that didn’t happen naturally. It wasn’t peace…it was pressure. A silence so heavy it seemed to lean against my skin, making every muscle tense, making every sound sharper. My boots struck the polished floor in steady rhythm, each step echoing in the long, high-ceilinged hall like the tick of a clock counting down to something I couldn’t yet see.Roshan’s lockdown had been in place for hours now. The orders had been clear: no one in, no one out, until the intruder was identified. It was supposed to make the place safer. Controlled. Contained.But walking these halls felt less like security and more like a noose tightening…on her.And maybe on me.I could still smell her.That scent…soft, elusive, but with an edge. Like something untamed pressed into silk. It had caught me off guard earlier, slipping under my defenses before I could stop it, tangling itself into my senses until it lived there. The more I tried to push it away, the
RidwanThe air had changed.It wasn’t just the faint metallic tang of fear that came with the lockdown or the shifting shadows as guards moved through the hall … it was her.She was here again.The moment my eyes found her, something inside me moved like a tide pulled by a hidden moon. I shouldn’t have noticed her so quickly, not in a room full of restless people, but she was the only still thing. Like the eye of a storm. Standing apart, wrapped in shadows and soft gold light, with that same faint scent that had been clawing at the back of my mind since the summit.“Ridwan.”Roshan’s voice cut through my focus, sharp and quiet at my side. “You’re staring again.”I didn’t look away from her. “She’s… not like the others.”“She’s exactly like the others,” he said, tone clipped. “A distraction. And right now, in case you’ve forgotten, distractions get us killed.”My jaw tightened. He didn’t get it. He couldn’t feel what my wolf was doing … pacing inside me, ears pinned forward, every musc
ElmaThe hall felt smaller now, suffocating. The masks and laughter couldn’t hide the weight of the lockdown pressing down on us. Every exit sealed, every guard alert, every shadow a reminder that I was trapped.And yet… I stayed.Ridwan was close, too close, and every inch of proximity was a silent challenge. He moved like a predator, but one I didn’t want to evade…not entirely. My chest tightened, my wolf restless, sensing the threads between us taut and raw.“You shouldn’t linger here,” he murmured, voice low, carrying the weight of both warning and curiosity.“And leave?” I whispered, letting my eyes sweep the hall, scanning the exits. “When the hunt is just beginning?”He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he tilted his head, watching me like I was both prey and puzzle. The faintest curve of his lips tugged at something inside me I didn’t want to name.“You’re… unusual,” he said finally, voice just above a growl. “Not like anyone I’ve met.”I laughed softly, bitter but light. “Y
RoshanThe air inside the hall had shifted.I could taste it.Something in the rhythm of the crowd had broken…an unspoken warning threading through every breath, every heartbeat. It was like the music had changed, though the violins still played. The chatter felt forced. Laughter too sharp. And in the middle of it all, a single thread pulled my attention like a hand around my collar.Her.The woman in the pale mask.She stood so still…too still…while the rest of the hall moved around her like a tide. Not fidgeting. Not glancing away. Her gaze was fixed… on me. And she didn’t flinch when I looked back.Most people shifted under my gaze. They dropped their eyes. They lowered their heads. Instinct taught them to avoid challenging an Alpha’s attention for too long.But she… she held.Like she knew exactly how dangerous that was…and didn’t care.Then I noticed what made my teeth clench.Ridwan was in front of her.Too close.His head bent slightly toward hers, the way a man might lean to c
ElmaThe lock snapped shut somewhere behind me…a sharp, final sound, like a blade slicing clean through the night’s fragile calm.It wasn’t the noise itself that made my chest tighten, but what it meant.The pack was closing in.I could feel the shift in the air, subtle but undeniable. The laughter around me stuttered and faltered, like a candle struggling against a sudden draft. Shadows grew sharper, stretching longer, as if they’d suddenly remembered how to move on their own…alive, watching, waiting.I was trapped.Yet the crowd spun around me, a swirling mass of masked faces and whispered secrets…a delicate masquerade of safety where every glance was a gamble and every step a risk.And there he was.Ridwan.Across the glittering room, still as stone beneath the soft glow of chandeliers. Like a sentinel carved from shadow and moonlight. His eyes found mine through the mask…the dark depths holding storms and secrets I dared not read, but couldn’t look away from.The world narrowed un
ElmaThe air in the ballroom had shifted. I felt it before I saw the subtle hand gestures exchanged between Roshan and Ridwan, the way the guards along the walls suddenly became more alert.A quiet lockdown.My pulse picked up, drumming against my ribs like it was trying to escape before I did.They think they’re clever.They think I don’t see it.Roshan’s eyes swept over the crowd like a hawk circling prey. Not searching blindly…targeting. His movements were precise, controlled, the way a predator plays with its meal before the kill.And his gaze… it kept coming back to me.I turned slightly, pretending to admire the elaborate ice sculpture in the center of the buffet table. My champagne glass was cool in my hand, but the stem might as well have been a weapon. The urge to smash it, to create some kind of diversion, was strong.Not yet.I couldn’t run…not here, not in the middle of a masquerade where every eye was already sharpened by suspicion. Leaving now would look exactly like gui