“A Dangerous Proposition”

The words hit me like a bullet.

“It was never Ivy. The real target was Damian.”

My breath catches, my entire body going still as Xander’s revelation sinks in. But before I can even open my mouth—

A loud, blaring alarm fills the penthouse.

Shit.

Red warning lights flash across the room, casting eerie shadows against the walls. Footsteps pound outside the locked door—Damian’s security team.

I whip my head back toward the balcony—but Xander is already gone.

He’s disappeared into the night, vanishing like a ghost, leaving no trace of his presence behind.

It’s like he was never even here. I don’t have time to process what just happened.

The bedroom door slams open.

Damian storms in first, his face sharp with fury and suspicion. His sharp blue eyes scan the room, locking onto me immediately.

He already knows. Someone was here. And I helped them. His jaw clenches as he steps toward me. “Who was here?”

I force my expression to stay blank. “No one.”

His eyes darken. “Selene.”

There’s a dangerous edge to his voice, the kind that sends a shiver down my spine.

I cross my arms. “Don’t you have security cameras around here? Let me guess, they’ve been compromised. Your security is slipping, Calloway. Maybe you should focus on that instead of interrogating me.”

A muscle in his jaw twitches.

Before he can say anything else—

Ivy walks in.

She’s dressed in silk, her blonde hair falling in soft waves, but the thing I notice first is the bandage wrapped around her side.

A reminder that she should be dead. A reminder that I was supposed to kill her. But someone else tried first.

And that means there’s more going on than I realized.

Ivy’s sharp green eyes flick to me, then to Damian, before she finally speaks.

“We need to talk.”

****

The penthouse is eerily quiet.Damian sits near the fireplace, his hands clasped in front of him, his expression unreadable. Ivy sits across from me, too calm for someone who was almost assassinated less than 24 hours ago.

She doesn’t look afraid. I watch her carefully as she stirs her tea, her movements slow and deliberate.

Then, finally, she speaks.

“This isn’t the first time someone has tried to kill me.”

My fingers tighten around the edge of the table. “I know.”

I was supposed to be the one to kill her. But now that someone else is trying, I need to know why.

Ivy looks at me, tilting her head slightly. “Do you know why Damian and I are getting married?”

I cross my arms. “Because of power. Because of money. Because that’s how people like you and Damian survive.”

She smiles—but there’s no warmth in it.

“It’s more than that, Selene.”

Damian doesn’t speak.

He just watches Ivy, his expression tight, closed off. Like he’s waiting for her to say something he doesn’t want me to hear.

Ivy leans forward slightly, resting her chin on her hand. “If Damian doesn’t marry me, he loses everything.”

My stomach tightens. “What do you mean ‘everything’?”

Ivy exhales, setting her teacup down. “His power. His inheritance. His very existence.”

My breath catches. No. That’s not possible.

Damian Calloway isn’t just anyone. He’s the most powerful Alpha in the city. If he loses everything, what does that mean for him?

I force myself to stay calm. “Why? What makes you so important?”

Ivy smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

“Because I come from a bloodline tied to something greater than you could ever imagine.”

The words send a chill through me.

Damian still doesn’t say anything. Which means it’s true.

Ivy watches me carefully, like she’s waiting for me to put the pieces together. Like she’s enjoying this. And then—she leans forward and pulls down the collar of her dress, revealing her shoulder.

I freeze.

Because there—on her skin—is a scar.

A scar that is identical to mine.

A mark.

My pulse stops.

I reach up without thinking, my fingers brushing over my own mark—the one I’ve had since childhood, the one I never understood.

And now Ivy has the same one?

No. No, that’s not possible.

I shake my head. “What the hell is this?”

Ivy simply smirks.

“You tell me.”

I stare at her, my mind racing.

“How do we have the same mark?” My voice comes out rough, uneven.

Ivy tilts her head.

“That’s for you to figure out.”