Lucas' POV
The girl looked nervous as I hauled her into the Mediland's golden throat. The mall's fluorescence carved the girl into something spectral. She hovered between racks of silk and chiffon, fingers brushing fabric like she expected it to bite. The salesgirls' laughter hung sharp in the air - hyenas circling a limping doe.
To my surprise, my hearing was back. I could clearly hear what they were mumbling behind the racks.
"Look at her. Poor little rat. How could someone like her end up with Alpha Lucas?" a girl whispered.
"Gold digger. Social climber. Boot licker..."
"And cock sucker!"
They giggled.
I silently sighed and ignored them.
I looked at the girl. She looked overwhelmed. I knew she must have heard what they'd said. She lowered her head and stood there, looking lost.
I walked to her.
"Pick something," I said.
"I don't need anything..." the girl looked horrified at the price tags. "Could we please go somewhere else?"
I tilted my head. "Take whatever you like and go try it out in the fitting room. I'll be waiting here for you."
She took a glance at me as if she was begging, then she grabbed the first dress she touched and walked into the fitting room.
The salesgirls descended on me before the dressing room door clicked shut. Perfume and ambition. One traced the lapel of my coat with coral-tipped nails. "Alpha Lucas," she purred. "Let us…assist you properly."
Their hearts drummed in unison, ripe with want. I smiled, teeth dull against my tongue. They didn't know what teeth truly were.
A hinge creaked.
The girl stood framed in light, white cotton clinging to jutting ribs. It hung identically. Same uneven hem. Same way the sleeves swallowed her wrists whole.
My world tilted.
Memory flashed back.
Sunlight through curtains in the college library.
There she was. Leah. Emerging from the light.
"Is this seat taken?" she asked.
And without my answer, she put down all her books and sat on the empty seat next to me.
That was the first time I had met her. She came into my world just like that. Genuine. Intuitive. Warm.
Wearing the same fucking white dress.
I moved before the memory finished.
I had the girl against the dressing room wall before closing the door. Her skull cracked against the mirror. Fractured reflections watched us breathe.
"Who sent you here?" I pressed her.
"N-no one." Her pupils swallowed half her eyes. "I don't even know my name..."
"Stop lying to me!" The word dripped venom, but my other hand betrayed me, curling around her hip.
What the fuck is wrong with this girl?
What the fuck is wrong with me?!
Her pulse rabbited beneath my grip, that same wild rhythm Leah's heart drummed when I'd pinned her down.
She immediately understood what I wanted to do.
"Please..." Her fingers trembled at my belt buckle, breath hitching. "I'll be good. Whatever you need me to be-"
The heat of her palm seared through my shirt.
It'd been years since I'd let anyone this close.Yet she kept pushing. Begging.
A growl ripped from my throat as I spun her toward the fractured mirror, glass teeth biting into her cheek. "Last chance," I snarled, my grip tightening on her nape. "Who. Are. You?"
A kaleidoscope of broken reflections stared back - dozens of tear-streaked faces crumbling in unison. "I don't know!" Her broken sobs echoed. "Can't remember anything! Make me whoever you want, just please-"
"Are you a whore?" The word hissed through my clenched jaw as I twisted my hand in her hair.
"I'm not!" She bucked against me, wild animal panic in her eyes. "I'm just some amnesiac trapped in this endless nightmare!"
"Then why spread your legs to everyone passing by?" I ground her harder against the jagged glass.
"Survival isn't pride!" Her body shook like earthquake aftershocks. "I won't die here! Can't die like this!"
"Why?"
"Because I'm more than this!" Golden light erupted from her pupils - not the amber glow of regular lycans, but molten sunlight. The shockwave blasted concrete to dust, sending me skidding across porcelain shards as she vanished into the mall's neon maze.
All the salesgirls gaped as I emerged from the debris.
"For the damages," I muttered, tossing my black card on the counter. Their gasps faded behind me.
Leaning over the atrium's glass railing, I spotted her darting into an elevator 90 feet below. My knuckles popped as I loosened my tie.
Jorah materialized at my shoulder. "Alpha, your injuries haven't-"
Too late.
The dive should've shattered bones. Should've killed me. Instead, Italian leather soles kissed polished marble like a switchblade through silk.
Screams rippled through the crowd. I straightened my tie and cuffs, striding toward steel elevator doors hissing shut.
When they pinged open, she recoiled like a cornered hare. "Stop! I don't..."
I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around her. "I haven't done talking to you."
She struggled in my embrace, her small fists pounding against my chest. "Let go of me! You have no right to...mmph!"
My mouth crashed against hers before the protest formed. She fought for half a heartbeat before melting - not submission, but awakening. Electricity arced between our lips, mending fractures in my soul I'd forgotten existed.
Finn's POV
"Alpha, you seen this shit?" Cole shoved a tablet at me. The screen flashed footage of my half-brother locking lips with a woman in a packed crowd, his hand possessively gripping her waist.
I kept my face an expressionless mask, though my knuckles whitened around the edge of the seat.
"Word is," Cole drawled, swerving the limo through smoke-choked streets, "while you've been… preoccupied - pretty boy's been strutting in your suits, cruising your ride, entertaining your..."
"She's no one." I snapped the tablet shut, the crack of plastic echoing like a gunshot. "Just a whore."
"YOUR whore," Cole pressed. A reckless move, even for him. The rearview mirror caught his throat bobbing. "You really trust him? His bloodline's been licking Lycan boots for three generations. Mated to one, for fuck's sake. You think he'll flip on his masters to play rebel with us?"
"Who said anything about rebellion?" My voice dropped to a growl that rattled the bulletproof glass.
Cole's eyes darted to the mirror again, sweat beading at his temple. The acrid smell of burning sagebrush seeped through the vents. Outside, the Hollywood Hills burned crimson, flames licking the night sky like the gates of hell had cracked open.
"Then what's the play, Alpha?" His voice frayed at the edges. "What're we even..."
"I want to watch the whole damn world burn." I lit a cigarette, the flare of the match painting my face in hellish shadows. "And smoke this damn thing while it does."