Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Lucifer
I opened my eyes as the car turned the third corner.
The street scenery slid past at a steady pace.
We'd left the human district far behind.
Gray daylight filtered through the branches of the roadside trees, breaking into fragments that slipped across the window.
My glands still throbbed at the nape of my neck.
That night's drug-induced vertigo seemed to keep tightening my temples, but I knew—that wasn't what kept cycling through my mind.
It was that scent. Lily and bay leaf.
Five months.
Five months since that night. The more I closed my eyes, the clearer the details became—the moment she entered, the lily and bay leaf pheromones flooded my nostrils. My wolf howled. She's ours.
She was still asleep when I took the call.
Curled on the sofa, hair scattered across my pillow, breathing steady.
Elder Asia's voice came through the receiver, speaking way too fast. "Your Majesty, East City—there's been another incident.
The Butcher Squad struck last night. Four pure bloods dead, including an earl. "
My grip on the phone froze.
"The Elder Council needs to convene immediately," Ria said. "Where are you? You have to be there. The earl's family is already making a scene. The guard commander can't handle it. If you don't show up, every noble in Silver pine will lose it."
"Understood." I hung up and looked down at her.
I wanted to stay. I wanted to wait for her to wake, tell her who she was, tell her I'd come back for her.
But the Butcher Squad couldn't wait. Four pure bloods.
An earl. If the panic from East City spread across Silver pine, everyone would be watching me—the king—to see if I could actually control the situation.
I stood, pulled the blanket over her, and adjusted the air conditioning to a comfortable temperature.
First time taking care of someone. That was all I could think to do.
I kissed her forehead. When my lips touched her skin, she nuzzled unconsciously into my palm.
3 AM. If I moved fast, I'd be back before she woke.
"Wait for me," I whispered.
Then I left.
The meeting ran for four hours. The Elder Council descended into chaos.
Three widows sobbed outside the door. The guard commander got reamed out, head bowed.
Some demanded we lock down East City. Others feared a lockdown would trigger mass panic.
I sat at the head of the table, heard everyone out, and made the call.
Deployed the guard teams, doubled patrols. Then rushed back to that suite.
She was gone.
I'd been searching for her for five months.
I went through every employee file from that bar.
The floor manager said someone had called in sick that night—a temp student worker filled in.
Didn't even have a formal personnel record.
I remembered her crying that she needed to go to school, and I couldn't help pinching the bridge of my nose. I was such an asshole.
I checked surveillance from every street near the bar. Bad angles or broken cameras.
I couldn't find her.
But I couldn't forget her scent. Lily and bay leaf, layered beneath lavender and sandalwood. Without the bond, without kissing her deep enough, I never would've caught it. For five months, I'd walked every street in Silver pine Kingdom. Passed hundreds of women. Not one matched.
Marcus glanced at me in the rear view mirror. "Your Majesty? You don't look well."
"I'm fine."
"We're still tracking down the one who drugged you that night." He paused. "Whoever did it was a professional. Cleaned up every trace before leaving."
"Keep looking." I suppressed the rage building inside. Someone had the audacity to drug me—a direct challenge to my authority.
"Also," Marcus flipped a page in his file, "the Guard Station is just ahead. The commander said the Butcher Squad files are ready. You can pick them up when we arrive."
I grunted, about to close my eyes, when my nostrils caught something.
Faint. Barely there. Like the last shredded remnant carried from far away on the wind, mixed with street dust and exhaust. But I still caught it. My body moved before my brain could—hand already on the door handle.
"Stop the car."
"Your Majesty—" The driver panicked.
"Stop the car!"
The tires screeched against pavement. I shoved the door open and jumped out.
The driver yelled. Dangerous, but I didn't care.
Wind rushed into my lungs. I stood in the middle of the sidewalk like a beast catching the scent of prey, searching in every direction.
Lily and bay leaf. No mistake. Close. Very close.
And the direction of that scent—I whipped around to look at the gray-white doors of the Guard Station behind me.
She'd been here.
I quickened my pace across the street and pushed through the glass doors. White ceiling lights made the whole space feel cold. Two she-wolves at the front desk had been leaning against it, chatting quietly. They looked up when the door opened.
The one on the left was chewing on a pen cap—her pen dropped the second her eyes landed on me.
"Your Majesty?" The one on the right recovered first, voice jumping an octave. "You—what are you—"
"I have an appointment with your commander." I'd been dealing with the Butcher Squad cases frequently. I needed to have a serious talk with the commander about how he was managing security. But right now, I only cared about one thing.
"The commander's on the second floor." She jumped up, fumbling for the walkie-talkie on the desk. "I'll notify him right away."
"No rush." I approached the desk, looking down at them. "Was there a woman here just now?"
The two women exchanged glances. The one on the left picked up her pen, voice still shaky. "Quite a few people came in this morning... What did she look like?"
I couldn't describe my mate's face. That night I'd never gotten a clear look—the lighting too dim, the drugs too strong. All my senses had focused on her scent and her body. And I'd left in such a hurry.
My wolf let out a cold snort, furious that I hadn't even looked at our mate's face.
"Young woman," I said. "Maybe twenty-two, twenty-three. Very young."
They exchanged another look. Different this time. The one on the right hesitated, then spoke carefully. "There... there was one. About half an hour ago. Brought in a baby."
My fingers tightened.
"What baby?"
"A baby boy." The one on the right said. "She said she found him on the street. Couldn't care for him. So she brought him here. Left in a hurry after dropping him off. Didn't leave any information."
"Where's the child?"
"In the nursery on the second floor. We just ran basic blood work—" She paused, voice dropping. "Not a pure blood. Tests showed werewolf genes, but the concentration's too low. Most likely a hybrid."
Hybrid. So the girl was human. That realization twisted something sharp in my chest—she was human; I was a werewolf Alpha. Half-blood conception rates were almost impossible unless—
She was my fated mate.
My wolf rolled violently inside me.
"Let me see the child." My voice came out tight, heart pounding. That was my child. Mine and hers.
They clearly hadn't expected that request. The one on the left opened her mouth. "Your Majesty, according to regulations, anonymous foundling records are confidential—"
"I said." My voice went cold. "Let me see the child."
The second-floor nursery felt warm. Sunlight streamed through the east-facing window. A light blue cotton sheet lined the crib. The small bundle lay right in the center. The only sound was my own carefully lightened footsteps as I walked in.
I stood beside the crib and looked down at him.
So small. All wrinkled, skin still flushed with that newborn red. His baby hair was light brown, plastered to his forehead. Eyes closed, sleeping soundly. Thin lips. A faint curve to his jawline. Though he hadn't grown into it yet, I could see it—that line belonging to a Hale Alpha.
Then he moved. His little hand emerged from the edge of the blanket. Clenched unconsciously.
The blood bond hit every sense like a red-hot iron. I froze completely.
My wolf let out a low growl inside me, shaking my ribcage. No blood test needed. No DNA comparison. My genes were already screaming—this was my pup. That woman's child. She'd gotten pregnant that night. Then given birth alone. Then left him here.
All by herself.
I stood in the nursery, sunlight warm on my shoulders—almost painfully bright.
But my mind kept replaying one image. A young woman, somewhere in this city, in a corner no one knew about, enduring hours of labor pain alone to deliver this child, then dragging her weakened body to hand him over to strangers.
I didn't blame her. A human woman giving birth to a half-blood child would be in terrible danger.
I only blamed myself for not finding her in time. For not protecting her and our child.
She hadn't even given me her name.
That woman at the front desk saying "she was crying really hard" stuck in my ear like a needle I couldn't pull out.
"This child," I spoke, voice hoarse enough that even I could hear something was wrong. "I'm adopting him."
The two women exchanged looks again. The one on the right spoke carefully.
"Are you... are you sure? Your Majesty, this child is a hybrid.
Given your family—" Silver pine was obsessed with bloodlines.
The class divide between wolves and humans was unhealthy—I'd always wanted to change it.
But the Elder Council kept blocking me, going on about "tradition. "
If they found out I'd adopted a hybrid, they'd refuse. But that would be easier to deal with than them knowing he was my biological son. They'd find ways to kill this stain on Hale blood. Besides, I wasn't about to let my own son get passed around and raised as a slave by those noble wolves.
"I'm adopting him," I repeated, looking down at the little thing in the crib, fist clenched tight. "Process the paperwork today."