Leah's POV
The limousine door hissed open, releasing me into a hurricane of camera flashes. Miami's salt-rotten breeze tangled with the stench of money and gardenias as I stepped onto the crimson carpet, Rafael Laflamme's final creation clinging to my thighs like a lover's last breath. The dress was a funeral shroud in reverse - black silk devoured by blood-red crystals, cut low enough to make the paparazzi forget their own names. Four tall, dark male models flanked me, their hollow-cheeked perfection a living barricade. I'd chosen them for their vacant eyes. Men who looked at nothing saw nothing.
Whispers followed like gnats. Who is she? I smiled behind the lace mask, its spiderweb patterns itching my scars. Let them wonder. Let them choke on their own curiosity.
The ballroom swallowed us whole, chandeliers dripping light onto a thousand masks - feathers, gold leaf, animal snarls. I tasted champagne on the air, acidic and false. The first waltz began its predatory crawl across the strings when he appeared.
Wolf mask. Shoulders like a mountain range. A walk that made even the violins hesitate.
He parted my models like wheat, cologne punching through the perfume -Tobacco Noir, Lucas's brand. My pulse stuttered. For years I'd dreamed of that scent clinging to my sheets, my throat, my claws I used to penetrate his chest.
"Mrs. Winters." The wolf bowed, voice gravel wrapped in velvet. "Shall we?"
His hand closed around mine before I could refuse. The dancefloor became a cage. He moved like liquid, all coiled danger, his thumb tracing the scar beneath my glove.
"I really like your mask," I said, tilting my head. "It's very…feral."
His laugh vibrated against my collarbone. "You'd prefer the face beneath it."
"Are you sure it's not another mask underneath it?"
He spun me violently, the world blurring into streaks of gold. When his lips brushed my ear, I smelled blood beneath the cologne. "Very clever, sweetheart. But men like me don't hide. We haunt."
Antonio Cosa. Eldest son of the Cosa crime dynasty. Professional widow-maker. I let my body go slack against his, a marionette with cut strings. "Disappointing. I'd hoped you'd be taller... And quieter."
His grip tightened. "Your husband must be a quiet man."
"Oh, he adores silence." I pressed closer, nails digging through his tuxedo shirt. "Because dead men rarely chatter."
The music died. I slipped from his arms into Liam's trembling ones. My driver-turned-plague-doctor smelled of sweat and spearmint gum, his Adam's apple bobbing like a hooked fish. "Gee, Leah," he hissed, steering me toward the terrace, "Tony Cosa's goons are eyeing me like a free buffet."
"Relax." I traced the beak of his mask, its silver edges biting my fingertips. "You're here to look pretty and drive fast. No bullets required."
Fireworks detonated above the bay, painting Liam's mask in corpse-light greens. He held me like I might shatter, all clumsy reverence, his palm damp through the silk. I leaned into his shoulder - warm, alive, ordinary. The kind of boy who still believed in rescue.
Memories flickered with the pyrotechnics like a freakshow - The Old King at his death bed. Blood permeating Lucas' chest. Lucian's silent scream while staring at me through the window. And Jalin. And Finn. A lifetime of men building cages with their dying breaths.
"Can you hold me tighter?" I murmured.
Liam's breath hitched. His arms cinched around me - sweet, suffocating pressure. For three heartbeats, I almost felt human. Then Antonio's laugh cut through the night, sharp as a scalpel.
"Sentimental and lonely, Mrs. Winters?" His hands ripped me from Liam's grasp, spinning me toward the balcony's edge. The ocean roared thirty stories below. "Let's discuss why a Russian arms dealer's bastard daughter is wearing a dead man's dress to my family's masquerade."
The fireworks popped in the distance, a jagged symphony drowning out the world, and I felt my pulse quicken, a predator's rhythm thudding in my scarred chest.
I smiled, letting the lace mask slip, exposing my furry wolf face, a grin that wasn't human, wasn't safe. The shift started - a prickle under my skin, a delicious ache as my jaw stretched, teeth sharpening into jagged points. My eyes burned, flaring amber, wolfish, and I felt the beast unfurl inside me, clawing free. Antonio's smirk twitched, then crumbled, his face slackening into dumb confusion before terror sank its hooks in.
"What the…?" His voice cracked, a pathetic whimper.
I licked my fangs, slow and deliberate, tasting the air, and let a hiss slither from my throat. "You've had too much to drink, Mr. Cosa," I said, my words a guttural snarl, thick with menace. "How could anyone in this world have the face of a wolf and speak in human's tongue?"
His eyes bulged, whites flashing like a cornered animal's. "You… your face… the face of a... wol...!" he stammered, stumbling back, hands scrabbling at the railing. The wood groaned under his weight, and I took a step forward, my shadow swallowing his in the crimson moonlight. I was a nightmare made flesh, and he knew it.
He kept retreating, feet clumsy, breath ragged, until his heel caught the edge. Time stretched thin, a heartbeat suspended - then he flailed, a strangled yelp tearing from his throat as he toppled over. The sea roared below, a hungry maw, and he vanished into its churning black jaws.
I snapped back to human in an instant, the wolf melting away like smoke, leaving my face smooth, innocent. I lunged forward, hands outstretched, clawing at the empty air where he'd been. "Help!" I screamed, shrill and desperate, the sound shredding my throat. "Help! Someone fell from the building!" Then I let my knees buckle, collapsing in a heap, eyes fluttering shut as I slowed my breath to a faint whisper. The perfect faint, a damsel's collapse.
Footsteps pounded closer, and strong arms snatched me up before I kissed the floor. "Leah!" Liam's voice cut through, tight with panic, his grip fierce around my waist. His hands shook, just enough to tell me he cared, and I stayed limp, a rag doll in his hold.
The Cosa family's bodyguards stormed in, boots thundering, voices barking over each other like rabid dogs. "What happened?" one snapped, his shadow looming over me.
I stirred in Liam's arms, letting my lashes flutter open, my voice trembling just right. "He… he was still drinking and talking to me," I gasped, clutching at Liam's shirt. "Then he took a step and… and fell into the sea! Please, save him!"
The guards surged to the railing, peering into the abyss below. A cry ripped through the chaos - "Quickly, find the boat! Notify the boss! Tony slipped into the sea!" - and the air thickened with their panic, sharp and electric. Liam pulled me closer, his breath hot against my ear. "You okay?" he whispered.
I nodded, weak and wobbly, leaning into him like he was my lifeline. But inside, my mind was a steel trap, cold and clicking, every piece falling into place.