Chapter 2
The briefing room was thick with tension, the kind that always came when Malakai’s name was mentioned.
Draugr had spread the photos across the scarred wooden table, grainy shots taken by our men tailing a demon courier to one of their warehouses.
The black sprawl of the building was familiar; it was one of Malakai’s nests.
But that wasn’t what caught my attention. One photo, it was off-centre and poorly framed, showed the rooftop. A figure crouched low, shadowed, barely visible in the grain. You couldn’t see the face, not really. Just the shape of a body bent forward, watching.
“Another one of ours?” Viking asked, his voice edged with impatience.
“No,” Draugr answered, shaking his head. “None of our men were positioned there.”
“Then maybe one of Malakai’s,” Roman said, leaning forward, his jaw tight. “Checking perimeters, making sure no one gets too close.”
But something inside me rejected the thought before it even finished leaving his mouth. My hand closed over the photograph, dragging it closer.
It was nothing more than a shadow. An outline. But still…something about it called to me. A pull in my chest that I didn’t understand, one that made my pulse thrum harder than it had in decades.
“No,” I said flatly, my voice final. “Whoever this is, they’re not his.”
Roman’s eyes cut to mine. “And you know this how?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t explain it, not without sounding insane.
There was no logic here, no clean line of reasoning I could lay out the way I usually did.
There was just the call. The undeniable, gnawing sense that this person mattered.
That whoever was crouched on that roof was about to change everything.
“I want the rooftop first,” I said, standing from the table.
Draugr’s brow furrowed. “Volken…”
“I’m not asking,” I snapped, sharper than I meant to. The photo crumpled slightly under my grip. “I’ll take Jericho and two others. We will be quiet. If they’re one of Malakai’s, I’ll bleed them on the spot. If they’re not…”
I let the sentence die, because I didn’t have words for what I felt. Only the certainty that I needed to find out.
The photo burned in my hand.
It shouldn’t have meant anything. A grainy shot, half-shadow, just a silhouette crouched low on the rooftop. No face, no details, nothing tangible to latch onto. And yet my gut twisted, coiled, like something had reached through the paper and wrapped its fingers around my throat.
I wasn’t a man who believed in instincts without evidence. Strategy ruled my decisions. Cold calculation. I didn’t flinch at shadows or let emotions dictate my moves. But this…this was something else.
My brothers were still arguing, voices blending together, but I barely heard them. My eyes stayed locked on the blurred outline. The faintest curve of a body bent forward. Watching. Waiting.
A stranger. And somehow, I knew they weren’t a stranger at all.
Draugr’s voice cut through. “We should hit the warehouse before sunrise. It’ll take at least three squads.”
Roman nodded slowly. “Agreed. We go in with numbers. But first, we scout the perimeter…”
“No,” I cut in sharply. My tone snapped their attention like a whip. “First, I take the roof.”
Viking cocked a brow, smirking like he was waiting for me to crack. “The roof? What, you seem obsessed brother?”
I ignored him. “Something’s off. Whoever’s up there isn’t Malakai’s. I want them in my hands before we move on the site.”
Roman’s dark gaze lingered on me. Assessing. He knew me well enough to hear the edge in my voice, the rare note of something that wasn’t cold strategy but something…sharper. More desperate.
He didn’t push. He just gave one clipped nod. “Fine. But don’t waste time.”
My fist tightening around the photo until the paper crumpled into a ball. Already, my body itched to move. To close the distance. To see what was driving me.
The night air outside was sharp, laced with rain and earth. The Escalade’s engine rumbled low as I slid into the backseat, Draugr decided to accompany me instead of Jericho, he is now at the wheel, two of our men in the second vehicle following close.
The ride was silent. Draugr never filled the quiet with meaningless words, and I wasn’t about to start. But my mind wasn’t still.
The photo replayed behind my eyes. The angle of the crouch. The strand of hair spilling from under the cap, the faintest glint of light catching it. My jaw clenched hard enough to ache.
Why did it matter? Why the fuck couldn’t I let it go?
I’d faced demons, slaughtered armies, dismantled entire families who thought they could stand against us. Nothing rattled me. Nothing got under my skin. But this…this shadow of a person had cracked something open in me that I didn’t recognize.
It was madness. Or maybe something worse.
“Your head’s not here,” Draugr rumbled finally, his eyes still fixed on the road.
My gaze slid to the dark glass of the window, the city bleeding past in streaks of light and shadow. “It’s exactly where it needs to be.”
He didn’t argue. Draugr rarely did. But his silence was weighted, like he knew something had shifted in me, and he was waiting to see what it was.
I closed my eyes briefly, exhaling slow. And still, behind the lids, I saw that figure on the rooftop. The pull in my chest only tightening, demanding, insistent.
Whoever it was, it wasn’t part of Malakai’s group. The person wasn’t just another pawn in this war.
No…she was mine.
I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did.
And tonight, I’d find out who my mate is and why she was so careless to put herself in such danger.
The roof was slick with mist when I pulled myself over the ledge, the night air sharp in my lungs. My boots landed silent on the concrete, and my eyes locked instantly on the shadow ahead.
Closer now. The scent hit me first…wild, sharp, threaded with something sweet. She was definitely not demon. She was human. But not ordinary as she had the kind of scent that set fire to my veins.
She shifted, another strand of honey-coloured hair escaping the cap pulled low over her head, catching the faint light of the moon.
“Not the smartest hiding spot,” I murmured from behind her.
Her body jerked, almost slipping off the ledge, but I quickly clamped a hand around her wrist, steadying her. I hear her breath catch as she spins towards me.
Honey eyes flicked up, wide and startled, pinning mine for the first time.
And just like that, everything seems to click into place. The pull wasn’t imagined. The hunger tearing through me wasn’t madness.
I was right, she is my mate.
The word thundered in my head with a finality that stole the breath from my chest.
My fangs ached, pushing sharp against my gums. My body moved before thought, before reason, every instinct demanding I close the space between us, drag her to me, keep her where nothing and no one could ever reach her.
She froze under my stare, but it wasn’t fear that struck me most, it was the way her chest rose and fell like she felt it too. The bond. The spark.
“Who the hell…” her voice was like a calm break of waves on the sand.
“You’re careless,” I snap. “Spying on Malakai alone. Do you have a death wish, or are you just reckless?”
Her beautiful eyes widened in surprise. “I…I don’t even know who you are.”
“You don’t need to.” I argue. “All you need to know is that you’re mine now.” I hear Draugr surprised intake of breath from behind me.
“Yours?” Her voice shook, but not with fear which surprises me.
“Yes.” There was no hesitation, no flicker of doubt. “You don’t belong here. You don’t belong to anyone else. From this moment onwards…” I state. “…you are mine.”
Her lips parted, defiance and panic warring in her expression. But I barely heard her.
Because in that moment, all I could think was that Malakai was somewhere in that warehouse below. But my war had just shifted as my mate was standing on this roof, too close to danger.
Every nerve in my body screamed at once, a primal urge tearing through me. Mine. The bond snapped taut in my chest like steel wire, and the thought of her slipping even a foot closer to Malakai’s reach made my vision haze red.
“Fuck… we need to go; they’ve heard us,” Draugr grunted behind me, already snapping into action. His voice was steady, but I caught the shift in his weight, the way his hand went to his weapon. He was ready for blood.
Runa’s head turned sharply, honey-gold hair catching in the moonlight as she glanced over her shoulder to the alley below. I saw the decision in her body before she even moved, her knees flexing, her shoulders angling, that reckless instinct to bolt.
Not a chance.
I surged forward, faster than her human eyes could track, my arm wrapping around her waist. She gasped, a sound that cut straight into my chest, and then I had her slung over my shoulder, her slight weight nothing compared to the need ripping through me to get her out.
“Put me down!” she shouted, fists beating against my back, legs kicking. Every thrash of her body set my blood on fire, the fight in her only making me tighten my hold.
“Cover us,” I barked over my shoulder to Draugr, my voice low and lethal.
Already he was speaking into his comms, sharp orders slicing through the night.
“Move in. Now. Breach and burn. Full sweep.” His words were followed instantly by the crackle of acknowledgement and then the low thuds of boots hitting pavement as our men descended on the warehouse like wolves loosed from their chains.
Gunfire split the air a heartbeat later. Muzzle flashes lit the shadows below, shouts rising from the Irish stationed around the doors. Draugr moved at my flank, his blade already slick as he cut down the first fool who lunged from the fire escape, keeping my path clear.
Every step off that roof felt like walking a knife’s edge.
I could protect myself; that wasn’t the concern.
The weight of her against me, fragile compared to the enemies swarming below, made the blood in my veins turn molten with fury.
I couldn’t fight the way I wanted with her in my arms. And if one of them slipped past Draugr… if one of them touched her…
The growl clawed up my throat before I could stop it.
“Put me down!” she screamed again, twisting hard enough that for a moment her teeth grazed my shoulder through my shirt. The sting barely registered, but the sound of her voice cracked through me like a whip.
“Enough.”
My palm came down on the curve of her ass, hard, the sharp crack ringing against the night. She shrieked, stunned into stillness, her body freezing against mine.
“Still,” I snarled, my voice a guttural growl that rumbled deep in my chest. “You fight me again, and I’ll make sure you regret it.”
The warning wasn’t for her mind…it was for her bones, her blood. I felt it reverberate through both of us, that instinctual command of a predator who’d found what was his. And she must have felt it too, because though her breath came quick and hot against my back, the wild thrashing quieted.
The Escalade loomed ahead, black and armoured, doors already thrown open.
Draugr’s men poured fire into the alley, cutting down anything that tried to close the distance.
My brother himself dropped the last Irish at the foot of the stairwell, his blade flashing once more before he was at my side, eyes scanning, always watching.
“Go,” he ordered, voice like iron. “I’ll hold the line.”
I didn’t hesitate. I shoved into the SUV, lowering her just enough to slide inside before climbing in after, keeping my body between hers and the chaos outside. My heart hammered, not from exertion but from the gnawing fear still clawing at my insides.
Because tonight I’d come within a breath of losing her before I even had the chance to claim her.
And that thought would haunt me until every last enemy who dared get close was dead.