er

storm slowly bleeding out into the sterile air of the penthouse. I stood up from the Persian ru

left them, a gaping wound onto the silent hallway. I took a steadying breath, pushed the heavy oak slab until the electronic strike plate clicked, and then pressed the manual deadbolt. Th

r closet. Hidden behind a row of velvet hangers holding haute couture I despised, there was a small, lead-lined

ed on the f

my voice dropping to

mer Gamma of the Redstone Pack, didn't bother hiding her disgust. "That

mistress," I replied, the rigid line of my shoulders fi

e's drawing pictures of the moon in the living room. Thank the Goddess we kept her h

on my

grabbed the crimson silk gown he had forced me to wear at the last Full Moon Gala. Taking a pair of heavy fabric scissors

n't clothing. It was a sleek, military-grade encrypted solid-state drive. *Project Chiron*. Five years of my life's blood, the core of the secret

rs, I walked into t

my reflection. The long, waist-length hair Damien demanded I keep made me look like a f

dful of dark hair and

s littered the white marble like fallen shadows. What remained was a jagged, uneven bo

ring felt like a lead weight, a shackle binding

porcelain tiles with a sharp, final *c

o the eyes of the stranger in the mirror, the jagged ends of my hair framing a