Elara's pov
"I can't pay it, Elara."
My father's voice was a ghost of what it used to be. Thin. Brittle.
He didn't look at me. He couldn't. He just stared at the contract where the ink was pulsing.
Blood-binds don't care about bank accounts. They care about DNA.
"How much?" I whispered. My hands were shoved into my pockets so he wouldn't see them shaking.
I tried to be the fixer, the one who always found a way, but the air in the study was getting too thin to breathe.
He finally looked up. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with a terror I had never seen before.
"Everything. The house. The company... Your future, Elara."
He pushed the glowing parchment toward me. "The Valerius Pack. They've reached the gates."
The name made my stomach turn. Lucian and Killian Valerius.
They weren't just billionaires, they were a catastrophe in tailored suits. The tabloids called them the Twin Kings Of The North but the underworld knew the truth.
On their twenty-fifth birthday, Lucian had walked into the pack's inner sanctum and gutted his own father to take the throne, while Killian stood at the door and made sure no one escaped the carnage.
People like us didn't survive people like them.
I reached for my laptop, my fingers fumbling. "I'll find a loan. The offshore accounts—"
"They don't want the money anymore, Elara." My father's voice cracked. "Read the bottom. Read what I signed away."
I leaned in, my eyes stinging as I read the pulsing ink.
Section 4: In the event of fiscal default, the debt shall be secured by the delivery of a compatible biological anchor.
Duration: One solar year. Requirement: Succession.
"Succession?" My voice was a tiny, broken thing. "He wants... a child?"
The heavy oak doors of the study didn't open. They were thrown aside.
The air in the room died instantly. It became heavy. My lungs seized as the temperature plummeted, frosting the windows.
Two shadows fell across the floor. Identical. Towering. Terrifying.
Lucian and Killian Valerius didn't announce themselves. They simply occupied the space, two mountains of dark, predatory power.
"Elias."
Lucian's voice was a low vibration that rattled the bones in my chest. He stood in the center, his charcoal suit well pressed, his presence like a wall of ice.
"Please," my father gasped, shrinking into his chair. "The shares are stabilizing. Just one week—"
"The shares are worthless," a second voice rasped.
That was Killian. He stood half a step behind his brother, his suit jacket unbuttoned, his tie loosened as if he were ready for a fight. Unlike Lucian's icy composure, Killian looked like a storm looking for a place to strike.
They both stepped into the light. Their eyes were molten silver, swirling with a storm of gold.
They didn't look at my father. They both looked at me.
"The debt is five hundred million," Lucian stated, his gaze weighing me down.
He was the Alpha, his power was burning him alive, and I could feel the desperate, volatile heat radiating off him.
"But we've decided we like the interest better," Killian added, a dark, jagged smirk pulling at his lips.
I tried to find my voice. "We... we can pay. Three hundred thousand by tomorrow. Please."
Lucian turned his head just a fraction. He pinned me to the floor with a look. "And you are?"
"Elara," I whispered. "I handle the books."
Killian laughed, a low, dangerous sound. "Elara. The one with the compatible bloodline. The one who thinks she can bargain with beasts."
They stepped closer. In sync.
I wanted to run, but I was frozen. Paralyzed by the sheer gravity of the men who had murdered their own blood to wear a crown.
"You are a Suppressor," Lucian whispered, now so close I could feel the furnace-heat of his skin.
"You know what happens when an Alpha's power burns too hot," Killian whispered into my other ear, his breath hot against my neck. "When the monster inside wants to tear the world apart."
They were flanking me now. The ozone scent was overwhelming.
I couldn't even begin to describe how damn fast my heart was beating
"My beast is starving, Elara," Lucian said, his silver eyes locking onto mine.
Lucian reached out, his large, calloused hand gripping my chin. His thumb traced my lower lip, sparking a strange, unwanted fire against my skin.
At the same time, I felt Killian's hand rest heavily on my shoulder.
"She has the scent," Killian growled to his brother, his eyes dark with a different kind of hunger.
"The only thing that can quiet the noise," Lucian agreed.
"I am not a tool," I tried to say, but it came out as a weak plea.
"You are a debt," Lucian corrected. He let go of my chin, and I nearly fell. "And also the vessel for the next Valerius Alpha."
Killian leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. "He needs you to breathe, little leash."
The room spun. My legs finally gave out, and I sank into a chair.
"One bag. Five minutes," Lucian commanded, checking a gold watch. "If you aren't in the car, I burn this house with your father inside it."
"And I'll enjoy watching it burn," Killian added with a wink that made my heart stop.
I stumbled upstairs, my vision blurred. I grabbed a duffel bag and shoved things in blindly. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. That girl who handled the books was dead.
I ran back down. My father was sobbing. I didn't hug him.
"If I don't go, they'll kill you," I whispered to the empty hallway.
I walked out the front door.
The grey SUV was waiting with the twins leaning against the door. Lucian was checking his watch. Killian was twirling a silver coin between his knuckles.
"Four minutes and thirty-five seconds," Lucian noted. "Efficient."
"I like her already," Killian murmured, opening the back door. "Get in, little leash."
The door slammed shut. The child locks clicked.
Lucian got into the driver's seat. Killian slid into the back beside me, his thigh pressing firmly against mine.
"You're shaking," Lucian said, watching me through the rearview mirror.
"I'm just... cold," I lied.
Killian reached out, his hand circling my wrist like a shackle. "You're lying. You're terrified."
He pulled my arm toward him, forcing me to look at the silver flashing in his eyes.
"Listen to me, Elara," Lucian said from the front. "My power is at its breaking point. Your scent... will be the only thing keeping me from tearing this city apart."
"You stay in our sight," Killian whispered, leaning closer until I could feel the heat of him. "In his bed. And by the end of this year, you will be carrying the Valerius heir."
"Your bed?" I choked out. "Please, the contract said proximity—"
"Proximity is required," Lucian growled as he slammed the car into gear. "The moon is full in forty-eight hours. If I lose control, I'll kill everyone in that house we just left."
"Do we have a deal, Elara?" Killian asked, his grip tightening.
I looked at the monsters in their suits.
"I... I don't have a choice."
"Correct."