2
Cal
Three blue-collar vampires and two human women in a cabin, and I’m the fifth wheel.
Rook has Kylie.
Kane has Blair.
Both of my brothers have found their fated mates. Meanwhile, I’m sitting at the kitchen table with a set of brake calipers pretending that counts as a personality.
I turn the metal over in my hands, cleaning parts that don’t actually need cleaning, while the rest of the room carries on behind me.
Blair and Kylie are curled together on the couch whispering about something that makes them both laugh. The sound fills the cabin in a way that still feels strange after the past few weeks—light, normal, and the kind of peace we haven’t had since this whole mess started.
Kane stands nearby, watching Blair like she’s the only thing in existence, their fated mate bond practically humming in the air.
Across the room, Rook leans against the wall, pretending not to listen while his mate Kylie elbows Blair and whispers something that sends them both into another round of laughter.
Even my eldest—and very much grumpiest—brother Rook looks relaxed. Honestly, that in itself is a miracle. Between the three of us, we’ve stacked enough bodies to get the vampire elite hunting us.
All in the name of saving Kylie and Blair.
The elites thought my brothers’ fated mates were theirs to auction, claim, breed, and drain. Both of them are blood of the three —the most highly coveted human bloodlines by the vampire elite.
Obviously, we disagreed, and now the elite want us dead.
They already burned down our homes in Concordia. Destroyed my mechanic shop too. Every piece of the life we had before this mess is gone.
But they still haven’t found this cabin—the little slice of serenity residing deep in unexplored forest that we built with our own bare hands.
It’s our permanent home…for now. Or at least until we can figure out our next move.
Earlier today, I went with Kane and Blair so she could see her family in a quiet park outside Boston while I ran surveillance. If any of the elite’s gofers had been anywhere near that place, I would’ve smelled them.
Blair’s parents still think she’s in New York with an elite vampire named Damien Snow.
The only problem with that story is Damien Snow is currently dead. Kane handled that personally.
Nonetheless, that lie is being fed to Blair’s family by that slimefuck elite gofer Holland—the same bastard who tried to lure Kylie into the elites’ little viper nest and drugged Blair to deliver her to Damien’s penthouse.
Honestly, I’d love to rip Holland’s head off myself, but I’m pretty sure Kane and Rook would fight me for the privilege.
When Blair finished talking to her parents today, she made a choice to continue to keep them in the dark to protect them. Which means her family still believes she’s being courted by an elite.
They have no idea she’s hiding out in a cabin with three blue-collar vampires the elite want dead.
And somehow, despite everything, tonight actually feels calm.
Kane glances at Blair. She catches him staring and rolls her eyes like she’s already exhausted by his existence. But she also smiles too.
Of course Kane grins like a damn idiot. I swear, their version of foreplay is something I’ll never understand.
I shake my head and return my attention to the caliper in my hands, though most of my focus isn’t actually on the metal.
Part of my brain stays locked on the outside world at all times—tracking distant engines on the highway miles away, the wind moving through the trees, the occasional rustle of animals in the woods.
Super hearing—it’s my power—is great when you’re trying to stay alive, but it also means peace is mostly an illusion.
Still, for the first time since this whole mess started, my brothers actually look happy.
Which is probably why the knock on the door feels like someone dropped a grenade in the middle of the room.
The sound cracks through the cabin, and everyone freezes.
Rook looks up, and I’m already on my feet, while Kane follows my lead to the front door.
No one ever comes to this cabin. Besides us, no one should know it’s here.
A second knock follows the first, and my senses sharpen automatically. I listen past the wood and glass, searching for the familiar chaos of multiple heartbeats or footsteps or weapons shifting.
But there’s only one set of footsteps.
Both of my brothers glance over their shoulders to make sure Blair and Kylie are still on the couch, and concern is clear on both women’s faces.
Without a word, Rook and I move closer to the door with Kane. Three brothers in one line, shielding the women behind us.
Rook pulls the door open, and one singular man stands on the porch.
He’s tall, expensively dressed, and has pepper-gray hair combed neatly back. His glowing green eyes move slowly across the three of us, like he has all the time in the world and we’re just the people he’s been looking for.
And he’s smiling with the confidence of a man who believes he’s untouchable in a way that only a very old, very powerful elite vampire would.
Because that’s exactly what he is.
It’s written all over his face. It emanates from his fucking royal blood. And it’s showcased in every inch of his expensive but completely-impractical-for-being-in-the-fucking-forest wardrobe.
“Hello, Rook. Kane.” His smile deepens as his eyes slide to me and flare slightly. “Calloway.”
A cold weight settles in my chest. He knows our names, but we don’t fucking know him.
“Who the fuck are you?” Rook asks without hesitation.
The man laughs, a full, amused sound that rumbles in his chest as his gaze moves slowly across us again—first Kane, then Rook, then me. “Lucian,” he declares. “Lucian Wrath. Vice President of the Elite Council.”
Fuck. They found us.
Something strange flickers across his face—not hostility, not approval, but something else entirely. Whatever it is, it sets every instinct in my body on edge.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Lucian adds quietly.
The words hang in the night air.
His gaze drifts past us toward the inside of the cabin before returning to our faces. “I knew you three would be the ones to change things.”
Lucian Wrath’s smile isn’t of the happy variety—it’s fucking ominous —and then, with two fingers to his lips, he lets out a low whistle from his mouth. The sound barely leaves his throat before the night explodes into chaos.
Men in black cars screech to a stop in the driveway and move more quickly than we can react to surround the house.
We’re fast, but so are they—because they’re vampires too. I recognize the sharp jaws and superior physiques, but even if I didn’t, they’re the ones we’ve been expecting.
This war we started is in full swing. The men we’ve killed demand to be avenged. The women we’ve taken—though bound to Slaters by the universe’s decree—they believe were promised to them.
By their code, we owe them our heads. This isn’t a slap on the wrist. This is high treason. Traitorhood. The worst betrayal possible.
If anything, I’m only surprised they didn’t find us sooner.
“Shit, Kane. Guard the back door. Now,” I command, desperate to put up some line of defense as we’re outnumbered at least three to one. But it’s too late. Men are in the house, in the back hall, and barging through the front door as we speak.
Kylie screams.
Blair cries out for Kane.
And as the only one of us with less to lose, I step in front of my brothers and their mates and ready myself for a fight. I’ll die if I have to—but they won’t. Their mates won’t.
I refuse to let that happen.
I’m on the first man quickly, taking him by surprise as I force him to the floor and put my knee to his neck, ready to break it. Blair screams, but before I can execute, I’m stopped by a blinding light in my eyes and a pulsing pain in my chest.
Fuuuuuck!
I’m not just weak—I’m practically paralyzed.
“Cal!” Kane shouts, charging toward me until he’s forced to hit his knees as well.
“Don’t!” I croak, trying to warn Rook as he tenses with offense.
The pain is all-consuming, and I look down at my limbs to make sure they aren’t being ripped from my body. Kane isn’t any better—he’s on the floor beside me, his jaw clenched and a vein popping from the center of his forehead.
“Kane! Oh my God, Kane!” Blair screams for him again.
“No, baby!” Kane says through gritted teeth. “Stay there, Blair!”
The pain rips through every cell in my body as Lucian casually moves toward me, nonchalantly stepping over the vamp I just took to the floor.
I scuttle back, trying to put distance between us, but he just stands there looking down at Kane, adjusting the sleeves of his black suit jacket with a smile.
In the light of the cabin, I can see him more clearly now and, though older, his features are still bright and sharp with youth. His green eyes radiate, and I know instantly that he’s the one responsible for our current pain.
“Stop!” Rook demands from behind me, his bark almost as fucking intimidating as his bite.
Lucian’s smile only deepens.
“Don’t, Rook!” I croak, holding the weight in my chest with all the strength I have. It feels like it could smother me—and I don’t even need fucking air.
Yep. We’re fucked.
Eventually, though, Lucian sighs. “But perhaps, more appropriate for this occasion…” He pauses and looks around the room at the vampires who are prepared to finish us off. “Gentlemen, please. If you’d leave us for a moment?”
They all retreat quickly, obviously at Lucian’s discretion for orders. I don’t know if they’re gofers or protection detail, but I can tell from the way my chest fucking cracks, this fucker doesn’t need either to get his point across.
As the last of the guys leaves the room, a vampire the size of a bear knocks a picture frame of the three of us as kids off the wall. It shatters when it hits the hardwood floor.
Lucian sighs again, and before I know it, the man is across the room with his throat in Lucian’s hand. “What did I say about unnecessary childishness, Lexor?”