Y A N AI stare at Mikhail in disbelief, not sure if I heard him correctly. I turn to him sharply, expecting him to face me, but he keeps his eyes fixed on Gwen, who blanched at his words.“When is it going to be?” he asks casually. “Is it a formal event? Is there a dress code?”Gwen opens her mouth to answer, but it’s clear that everything has taken her aback because she keeps closing it again. She turns to me as though to ask for help, but what the hell can I offer her? I got nothing in mind.“Well, it’s a simple gathering at home,” she just says in the end. “No dress code or anything. Just a gift for the birthday girl.”She lets out an awkward little laugh that sounds even more awkward when no one joins her. Mikhail just nods and says, “Sure! We will be there. See you.”With that, he takes my hand and we go downstairs. Jane comes to ask him about the building, and I don’t know what they talked about, because I begin to zone out right then and there.The only time I gather my wits i

Y A N A“I love you.”The words are enough to freeze me, but what nearly stops my heart is the look that Mikhail is giving me right now.Full of softness. Full of care. Full of what looks like longing.“Mikhail,” is the only thing I can say, which is pathetic because god knows I want to say more. He slowly lets his hands drop, releasing me and leaving me with a bereft feeling. To shake it off, I just decide to drive. “Where do we go?”Fuck. I’m messing this up by averting the topic.“Take me home,” he says simply, looking relaxed and not at all bothered.Throughout the ride, none of us speak. I just take him to his house like he requested. But as I park right in front of the wonderful home, I just decide that I need to say something. Anything to address the situation.I know that he probably doesn’t mind. It doesn’t look like he wants to talk about it now, but still I say, “We can talk about it if you want.”He turns to me. “Do you?”I nod.“Then come with me.”With that, he climbs ou

M I K H A I L"What does that mean?" I ask, my gaze traveling from Uncle Amos to Evan, who both look like they want nothing to do with anything I'm going through. "What do I do?""It means that she will be your slave forever," Uncle Amos says after a beat. "It means that she is under your control, and she will bow to every single thing you do. Whether you like it or not."I know that he's not lying. I know that something like this has been done before, and that's why he knows and is telling me now.But the denial I feel in my veins is impossibly strong. Not only do I not believe it, I don't want to believe it. I simply refuse to recognize that I messed up Yana's life just by biting her in the neck.I hate it.I hate myself for it.I don't even want to begin to think of what I did, the extent of damage that I did."But it can't be that bad," I whisper. "Surely it can't be like that. Surely there has to be a way."Uncle Amos just looks at me sadly. "We will try, but we will have to see.

M I K H A I LMy blood freezes. "No. Don't do that."But all the dread and the warning in the world can't stop Kingsley from feeling the urge that I know too well: doing harm.Normally, it passes when I remind him that it's never a good thing to do, that it's something that would only get us in trouble and not lead to anything good. He would understand immediately and know that even though we have the most power, we are also the most vulnerable.Lycans have been dwindling for centuries. Our population just . . . refuses to grow the way it used to, the way it should. It's almost like the world itself wants us to be gone, which I know is something that scares us a lot.But finishing off Humans to get the upper hand is not what we're here for."Back off, Kingsley," I warn him as I feel his aggression starting to rise. “Do not do this.”“Why not?” he just asks, his voice almost crooning, almost like he wants to tease and taunt me. “Why not do the very thing that we are born to do?”With t

Y A N A The next few days are wonderful, which are not expected at all. After the incident in Mikhail’s house, we became closer than ever. Every day for the past week, he dropped by the apartment to bring flowers and food for me and my friends, as well as the workers who are still trying to fix all the damages done to the apartment. But yesterday, it was time to go. “I really wish it didn’t have to be this way,” Deborah told me as she watched us load all of our stuff into the truck. “Is there no chance of you staying?” As she said that, she was also wiping some very fake, very dry tears from her heavily done eyes. I wanted to roll my eyes but I stopped myself. We all knew that the only reason she didn’t want me to leave was because she got some pretty fat checks from Mikhail, who was also there while we were preparing to move. Instead of walloping Deborah like I so badly wanted to, I just smiled at her and patted her back. “I don’t think there is a chance for that, but we might b