MasukWhen Carla woke up, the first thing she heard was the silence. Not the heavy silence of the Demidov mansion, loaded with questions and fear. It was a different silence — domestic, interrupted only by the wind swaying the trees outside the window and by the distant song of a bird hidden among the pines on the property.She remained still for a few seconds, simply breathing. Her own body still remembered that she had been very close to death. The weakness lessened each day, but it remained there, discreet, like a scar that still needed time to fade.The doctors said the recovery was excellent, that she had been lucky, that Pavel’s antidote had worked perfectly. But her body knew the truth: she had been minutes away from no longer existing.She slowly turned her face. Alexei was still asleep.It had been a long time since she had the chance to observe him like this, without him noticing. Asleep, he looked younger. The lines of worry disappeared, his brow stopped remaining slightly furrow
Night already covered Moscow when the cars left the Demidov mansion. No one spoke much. After everything that had happened in that hall, even the silence seemed tired.Alexei drove without hurry, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the gearshift. Carla remained in the passenger seat, her face turned toward the window, watching the city lights pass like small golden blurs. Recovery still left her quieter than usual — her body still remembered the poison, the weakness, the near-death — and he took advantage of that to avoid any conversation he didn’t know how to answer. Or, perhaps, any conversation he didn’t want to answer.She cast a discreet glance at him, her brown eyes tracing the profile of her boyfriend.“Does it hurt?”Alexei didn’t even need to think.“No.”The answer came automatic. Natural. As natural as breathing — that old reflex of pushing any worry away before it could take root. Carla simply nodded and looked back out the window. She didn’t insist. She knew him w
The Demidov mansion had never felt so silent.Alexei had always hated silence. It was in silence that thoughts grew too loud, that the memories he spent the entire day smothering found space to scream. For years, he had learned to fill any empty space. A joke, a provocation, a smile.Anything that kept people from noticing when something inside him was breaking.But that night there was nothing left to fill. He was sitting on the floor of the great hall, exactly where he had fallen hours earlier. Carla remained beside him — her body still recovering from the poison, and the afternoon had been far too long for someone in that condition. Dmitry also refused to leave, and Boris watched his grandson in silence.None of them wanted to leave him alone.And perhaps that was precisely the problem. Because for the first time in a long while, Alexei realized that everyone was looking at him as someone who needed to be saved. He hated that feeling. He had always been the one who ran to save — Dm
Feliks remained for a few seconds looking at the place where the portal had disappeared. The entire hall continued submerged in an uncomfortable silence, as if no one had the courage to be the first to admit that what had just happened had truly occurred.He had already faced creatures capable of splitting mountains, had seen Boris bring down a Lycan with nothing more than the pressure of his own aura, had witnessed Dmitry fight like a true god. But none of that — none of it — compared to the sensation he had just experienced.It had not been fear. It had been powerlessness. For the first time in his life, Feliks felt that if that man decided to kill him, he would not even be able to lift a finger to try to stop him.He took a deep breath, ran a hand through his dark hair, and looked at Boris, then at Anatolie, and finally at Dmitry.“Okay… can someone explain what the fuck that was?”No one answered immediately. Feliks pointed to the empty space where the portal had appeared.“Who wa
Carla still held Alexei in her arms when the silence of the great hall was broken. Not by footsteps, not by a door opening, but by reality itself.The space in front of them seemed to tear slowly, as if an invisible fabric were being opened by hands that did not belong to that world. A circle of darkness took shape in the air — deep and absolute, reflecting no light. The floor trembled beneath everyone’s feet, and the weight that descended upon the hall was immediate.It was gravity, authority, as if the world itself had recognized the arrival of someone above any known hierarchy.Boris instinctively tightened his grip on the handle of his cane. Anatolie remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the portal. The Demidov brothers — Yuliam, Feliks, and Andrey — took a step back. Even Dmitry felt his instincts scream not to advance.From the portal emerged a tall man. His black hair was combed back, contrasting with his bronzed skin. The long black overcoat moved slowly, though there was no
Susan had gone out to the garden in the late afternoon, taking advantage of the first day in weeks when Carla had managed to walk without tiring after only a few minutes. The sun was beginning to set behind the pine trees, painting the snow in shades of orange and pink.Demyan ran across the grass holding a small wooden wolf that Marina had carved for him, laughing so loudly that even the birds perched in the trees took flight.The boy had boundless energy, and seeing Aunt Carla recovered seemed to have restored the joy that had been suspended during the days of illness.Carla was sitting on a stone bench, still a little thinner after everything that had happened, but slowly regaining the healthy color in her skin. She wore a thick coat over her shoulders and watched the boy with a tired but genuine smile.Susan observed her friend with a discreet smile. It was still strange to think that, only a few days earlier, she had believed she would lose her. The black poison, the blood, the d
“This is going to be a problem, Alpha.”The Lycan murmured in his mind, its voice low and drawn out, like a warning whispered through clenched teeth.Dmitry didn’t respond. He moved his wrist discreetly, checking his watch as if trying to remind himself that time still followed rules. It was an exc
The large meeting room at Rurik Motors exuded power. The floor-to-ceiling glass windows offered a privileged view of Moscow, while the dark wooden oval table dominated the center of the room. The black leather chairs, the discreet shine of the metal details, and the absence of any decorative excess
The glass-walled room on the top floor of Rurik Motors offered a silent spectacle of Moscow at night — cold, pulsating, and indifferent. Dmitry stood before the wall of glass, shoulders straight, a lit cigarette between his fingers, releasing the smoke with the same slowness with which time seemed
Standing in front of the imposing Rurik Motors building, Susan tried to ignore the wave of anxiety that was overtaking her. She took a deep breath and adjusted her glasses on her face before entering the building.The mirrored facade reflected the gray sky, giving an even more austere appearance to







