MasukKatie’s POVA week.It had been a week since that night—the night where fire and shadows blurred into one, where Vladimyr’s patience shattered and Lucifer claimed me with no restraint. Little bursts of giggle suddenly escaped from me.It has been a week ever since my wolf had purred herself hoarse in smug satisfaction. A week since I woke up with my nightdress in tatters, my throat sore from screaming his name, my body deliciously wrecked… only to find my mate missing the very next morning.Not gone, exactly. Just dragged.By the twins.I still remember blinking awake, reaching across the furs for the warmth that should have been there, only to meet cold sheets. My heart had dropped—an irrational, foolish panic clawing at me until I caught the muffled shouts and laughter echoing from the sparring grounds below.Peering out the window, I found them.Vladimyr, my one and only, my eternal mate—the very same man who had sworn the night before that I would not walk for days—was flat on hi
Katie’s POVAfter the twins left, all I could hear was the sound of my own heart beating ever so loudly..The door clicked shut, muffling Tori’s dramatic groaning and Rori’s muttered curses about never recovering from trauma. What remained was the hiss of the hearthfire and the thundering rhythm of my own heart.Lucifer hadn’t moved.He was still sprawled like a devil incarnate across my bed, chest gleaming, hair a tousled crown of black fire. His bloody gaze tracked me where I stood clutching the blanket around myself, his smirk lingering, patient, infuriating. My skin still tingled where he had pinned me. My lips ached with the ghost of his mouth.“Where were we, little wolf?” His voice was a velvet snarl, a reminder, a threat. He sat up slowly, rolling his shoulders, and the heat in his gaze seared me. “Ah. Right.” His tongue swept over his lower lip. “You were trembling beneath me, begging without words, hmm?”I swallowed hard. My body answered him before my voice did—my thighs pr
Katie's POV For a heartbeat, no one moved.The air was heavy with the torn threads of desire, the crackle of something unfinished, something unbearable. My chest rose and fell too fast, too hard, the ragged edges of my nightdress clinging to me in tatters. Vladimyr—no, Lucifer—still held me pinned, blood red eyes glinting in the firelight like molten embers.And then came the shriek.“VLAD!” Tori’s voice hit a pitch high enough to crack stone.I turned my head just in time to see her clap her hands over her eyes, cheeks flaming scarlet as she half-stumbled, half-tripped back. “Oh devils above—Sebastian was right, I should never ever barge in—oh no, oh no—”Rori, in contrast, froze like a deer caught in torchlight. His mouth opened. Closed. Then opened again. “Wh—what—” His voice cracked. He rubbed his eyes furiously, as if that might change what he was seeing. “Nope. Nope. Did not see that. I—” He made a strangled sound somewhere between a squeak and a groan and a gagging one. “—I’m
Katie's POVThe fire was low in the hearth, casting the chamber in amber shadows. His arm around me was heavy with exhaustion, yet I could feel the tension thrumming beneath his skin—like a bowstring stretched too tight, aching to be loosed.I told myself I would let him rest. That tonight, of all nights, he deserved nothing but peace. Yet every inch of me trembled with the simple fact of him—his scent of dark earth and frost, the unyielding line of his body pressed to mine, the heat of his breath ghosting over my temple.His heartbeat beneath my ear was steady now, but when I shifted just slightly, testing the air, it stumbled.“You.. are not sleeping,” I whispered.“No,” he admitted, his voice a low rasp that stroked across my spine.My wolf stirred inside me, ears perked, tail curling. She knew. Oh goddesses this bloody wolf of mine knew.I lifted my head to meet his gaze. His eyes caught the firelight, molten shades of crimson and pale flame. For years, I thought I’d never see t
Katie's POVThe teleport brought us back into the castle halls in a rush of light and breath. The walls of stone—cold, familiar, and steeped with memory—seemed almost warmer now, as though the keep itself recognized him. Vladimyr’s return pulsed through these corridors like a heartbeat restarting.The twins still clung to him, though their excitement had shifted from tears to restless energy. Tori in particular bounced on her heels, tugging at his sleeve.“You owe me, big brother,” she declared, her eyes bright with mischief. “Years of missing birthdays. You’re not allowed to just vanish and come back thinking a hug fixes everything. I want a spar tomorrow. No excuses.”Rori smirked faintly, leaning back with his usual quiet poise. “Not just Tori. Me too. Don’t think you’ll get away with hugging us into silence.” His voice softened only slightly as he added, “We thought you were gone. You can’t imagine—”Vladimyr cut him off gently, brushing his thumb across the boy’s temple like one
Katie’s POVThe world blurred the instant their small bodies collided with him.Tori’s shriek still rang in the air as she buried herself against her brother’s chest, clutching him as if he would vanish again if she dared to loosen her grip. Rori clung too—quieter, but no less desperate—his slim fingers fisting into Vladimyr’s coat with the kind of ferocity only Victoria’s twin brother could have.I stumbled back a step, half from surprise, half from the sheer sight of it—Vladimyr standing there with both of his little siblings latched onto him, his usually dark, forbidding form softened into something painfully human. His eyes… oh, those mixed bright and blood red eyes that so often flashed hunger or authority, now trembled.His arms rose slowly, hesitantly, as though he feared this wasn’t real. But once they finally locked around the twins, the dam broke.A sound tore out of him—not quite a laugh, not quite a sob. Something raw, jagged, undone. He pressed his face into Tori’s hair,







