Chapter Four
THE HIDDEN PANEL SLID shut behind Hexius with the stealthy efficiency of advanced preter engineering, sealing him inside a room that didn’t officially exist. No blueprints filed with the city.
No contractor records. Just thirty feet of reinforced steel and silence, buried in the heart of his penthouse like a secret wrapped in glass and money.
This wasn’t the kind of study that appeared in architectural magazines.
No leather-bound classics or crystal decanters catching light from tall windows.
The walls were lined with gun safes and weapon racks, each piece meticulously maintained and ready for use.
A katana hung beside tactical body armor.
Throwing knives shared space with encrypted communication devices that could reach any snow leopard territory in under sixty seconds.
All of it, the natural outcome of a pack lifestyle dedicated to training for war even before the human race forged their first sword.
Because for the snow leopards, the rule was simple, three words that he first heard from his grandfather.
Trust. No. One.
The massive tactical table dominated the center space, its surface scattered with intelligence reports, territorial maps, and photographs that would make L’Alliance representatives very uncomfortable if they knew they existed.
Snow leopards had never joined the supernatural United Nations for a reason.
They preferred to handle their own problems their own way.
Hexius stepped between the weapon racks and intelligence displays, each item positioned exactly where it needed to be.
Everything had its place. Everything served a purpose.
Unlike the rest of his life, which seemed to be spiraling into complications he couldn’t solve with superior firepower and ancient training.
His encrypted phone sat silent on the metal surface where he’d left it. The display showed seventeen missed calls, all to the same number.
She had never refused his calls before, but she did so now. For three days and counting. Too bad for her, that would never be enough to deter him. Some conversations needed to happen whether she wanted them or not.
A soft knock interrupted his brooding, three quick taps followed by two longer ones.
The code meant intel, not emergency. Hexius touched the panel beside the hidden door, and it slid open to reveal Ajax, one of his most reliable lower-ranking pack members.
The younger man’s nervous energy filled the doorway like static electricity.
“Report,” Hexius said without preamble.
Ajax stepped inside, the door sealing automatically behind him. “Ms. Hondros maintained her usual routine until approximately fourteen hundred hours. Then something changed.” He paused, swallowing hard under his alpha’s steady golden stare. “Your brother paid her a visit.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Hexius didn’t move, didn’t speak, but something in his stillness made Ajax take an involuntary step backward.
“Go on.”
Relief flooded Ajax’s system. For a second there, he had been worried that his alpha would forget not to shoot the messenger.
“He’s listed as an executive producer on the film she’s working on. Used that access to get her alone.” Ajax pulled out a tablet, swiping to a series of surveillance photos. “They were in conference room B for approximately twenty-three minutes. She came out looking...upset.”
Hexius studied the images with the detached focus of a hunter analyzing prey patterns. Samira’s face in the final photo showed the same carefully blank expression he remembered from six years ago, and it was that of someone trying very hard not to feel anything at all.
“Did you get audio?”
“Negative, sir. The room was soundproofed, and we couldn’t risk getting closer without compromising the operation.”
“Anything else?”
“She went home immediately after. Hasn’t left her apartment since.”
Hexius inclined his head, and Ajax bowed, correctly interpreting this as a silent dismissal from his alpha’s presence.
Hexius’ mood turned brooding as he found himself alone with questions that multiplied like shadows in candlelight.
Why Samira?
That was the question he’d never thought to ask six years ago. He’d assumed his brother’s choice was random, some business arrangement between old families, the kind of political maneuvering that kept their kind’s secrets safe while cementing useful alliances.
But what if it hadn’t been random at all? What if there was more to his brother wanting him to marry Samira than just jealousy?
Hexius moved to one of the secured file cabinets, entering a code that would trigger an explosion if entered incorrectly. Inside, nestled between psychological profiles of vampire leaders and detailed maps of Fae territories, was a thin folder marked with Samira’s name.
He’d started the file after receiving the compatibility report from Concord Agency. Standard protocol: know your potential assets, understand their vulnerabilities, maximize your leverage.
He had gotten Ajax to look into her family background, and he had been surprised to find out that Vaughn had reached out to the Hondros’ patriarch shortly after Samira’s flight to the States.
Unfortunately, that was all Ajax had been able to unearth, and it was frustrating as hell, not knowing what Vaughn and Samira’s grandfather had spoken about.
Hexius’ lips pressed together as he studied the sparse collection of documents making up Samira’s file. It was disconcerting, to realize how little he actually knew about the woman whose virgin blood might make him the most powerful snow leopard in five centuries.
Why did you choose her, brother? And how did you even find out about her?
The question dragged his thoughts back to the speed dating event three nights ago. He’d gone purely out of duty: check the compatibility claims, assess the asset, determine next steps. Simple reconnaissance, nothing more.
But then he’d seen her.
From across the crowded venue, his gaze had found Samira Hondros, and for a moment he’d wondered if there had been some mistake.
This couldn’t be the same colorless Greek heiress he’d dismissed without a second glance six years ago.
That woman had been pale, silent, forgettable.
A political pawn dressed in expensive clothes that hung on her like a costume.
This woman, though...
Her auburn hair caught the overhead lights as she laughed at something her companion said. She moved with confidence, gestured with her hands when she spoke, and when she smiled it reached her eyes.
Real. Alive. Free.
Maybe this was who she’d always been beneath her grandfather’s tyranny. Maybe he’d never seen the real Samira at all.
The crowd seemed to sense his presence before they saw him.
Conversations quieted. People stepped aside without being asked, creating a clear path through the room.
Some recognized the Leopard King from news photos, but most simply felt the weight of ancient predator instincts screaming ‘danger’ and ‘alpha’ and ‘move’.
He hadn’t intended to approach her table. Hadn’t planned to stay. But his feet kept moving, his attention locked on the woman who should have meant nothing to him.
Her curves were more pronounced now, her simple black dress emphasizing a figure that belonged to a woman, not the girl she’d been six years ago. These things...didn’t even register before. But they did so now, and the realization had his disconcert devolving into unease.
A movement caught his eye, Samira leaning forward to speak to the man across from her, and Hexius’ jaw tightened when he saw how this drew the man’s gaze to the fullness of her breasts.
Why do I even give a damn about these things?
Three days ago, he wouldn’t have cared if she dated every man in Hollywood. But now?
Rage simmered in his chest as some fool leered at his potential mate, and the fact that he felt this way pissed him off even more.
Hexius set down Samira’s file, his fingers lingering on the manila edge. After delivering his proposal in that sterile clinic room, his every instinct as an alpha had demanded that he press his advantage. To simply crowd her space and pin Samira with his gaze until she submitted to the inevitable.
Mine. Take her. Claim her.
But because discipline ran deeper than desire—to be ruled by impulse was a dishonorable act of weakness for snow leopards like him—Hexius had reined his urges in and instead placed his business card on the medical tray beside her.
Give it some thought before making your decision.
His jaw clenched as he remembered how much effort it had taken him to simply walk away at that point, and his mood only went from brooding to grim the moment he stepped out of his office.
Qu’est-ce que...
A scent stopped him cold, delaying him from heading back to the bedroom to shower off the day’s tension.
It was faint but unmistakable, drifting up from fifty floors below.
Comme c’est inattendu. How...unexpected.
He made a call to reception, and twenty minutes later, Hexius walked into his living room, freshly showered and dressed in dark jeans and a black V-neck.
His guest, on the other hand, was perched on the edge of his leather sofa like a bird ready to take flight, and she let out a strangled gasp upon catching his reflection on the balcony doors.
She turned around rather clumsily, and he almost raised a brow at the way her face immediately bloomed rose-petal pink from her collarbone to the tips of her ears.
The blush spread like watercolor on wet paper, and he found himself fascinated by the way it transformed her features from merely pretty to something that made his chest tighten.
All he’d done was walk into his own living room. His hair was still damp from the shower, droplets catching the light as they traced the strong column of his neck, but otherwise he was fully clothed and perfectly respectable. And yet...
She was staring at him like he’d emerged naked and still glistening with steam, and this innocent and unconcealed reaction of her.
..ah, how rigid his body was now, and only making things worse were how her sweet lips had parted, her breathing noticeably turning shallow.
And when he saw the way her tongue darted out to wet her lips. ..
Hexius gritted his teeth against the clamor of his body.
“M-Mr. Mercier!”
Her voice came out breathy, almost strangled, and the sound went straight through him like lightning.
“Surely we’re beyond formalities by now.” His tone was silky, but the way he found himself moving closer to her, it was more leopard than man, and in his eyes, Samira was now more prey than unexpected guest.
His words had her swallowing hard, the movement drawing his attention to the delicate line of her throat, and that was when he detected it. Another scent beneath the familiar one that had drawn him to her in the first place.
Ah.
That scent...complicated things.