Eira POV
Eira walks into The Meridian Hotel and immediately knows something is wrong.
The ballroom is beautiful. Crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling like captured stars. Gold everywhere. Expensive people in expensive clothes. Waiters moving through the crowd with champagne and expensive appetizers that Eira couldn't afford to eat alone.
But there's something off about all of it. Something wrong with the people.
They're too beautiful.
Not normal beautiful. Impossible beautiful. The kind of beautiful that belongs in magazines or movies. The women have skin like porcelain. Flawless. Perfect. The men look carved from stone. Angles and strength and power. And their eyes. Every single person's eyes are too sharp. Too focused. Too aware of everything happening around them.
This isn't a normal charity gala.
Eira moves through the crowd trying to be what she's always been. Invisible. Forgettable. The kind of person you look right through without seeing.
It's what she does best. She's spent her whole life disappearing into backgrounds. Making herself forgettable. She knows how to be unnoticed. How to blend in. How to exist in a room without anyone actually noticing she's there.
A woman with golden eyes catches her staring. The woman smiles and it looks predatory. Like she's watching prey. Like she can see something in Eira that Eira can't see in herself.
Eira's stomach drops and she quickly looks away.
She picks up a champagne flute from a passing waiter. Takes a sip even though she doesn't like champagne. It tastes expensive and bitter and wrong.
She tries to look like she belongs here. Tries to blend in with the beautiful paranormal elites.
She doesn't belong here.
The people around her are talking about things that make no sense. Territory. Packs. Shifting. One man mentions something about scent markers and his friend laughs like it's inside joke between them.
Pack. Shifting. Scent.
The same words that were in her mother's medical files. Files that made no sense. Eira found them in her mother's desk after she died. Medical records for a doctor who specialized in something called paranormal physiology. Notes about bloodlines and genetics and things that couldn't possibly be real.
Eira thought they were her mother's jokes. Some kind of fantasy fiction her mom was writing to pass the time in the hospital. Now she's starting to wonder if they were something else entirely.
She moves deeper into the crowd trying to process what's happening around her.
Then everything stops.
The air shifts. It's like electricity running through the room. Like the entire atmosphere just changed. Everyone pauses for just a second. Like something shifted in the world itself.
Eira feels it hit her like a wave.
Across the room, a man looks up.
His eyes find hers and they lock.
He's the most dangerous thing she's ever seen. Tall. Broad shouldered. Built like he could destroy buildings with his hands. His suit is black and perfect and expensive. His dark hair is messy in a way that probably takes hours to style.
But it's his eyes that make her heart stop.
Stormy grey. Pure predator. Ancient and knowing. And they're looking directly at her like she's something he's been searching for his entire life. Like she's the answer to a question he's been asking forever.
Her instinct screams at her to run.
She doesn't run yet. She just watches him.
He doesn't move immediately. Just stares at her like he's committing her face to memory. Like he's solving a puzzle. His expression changes from confusion to recognition. Like he figured something out. Like something clicked into place inside him.
Then he starts walking toward her.
Not slowly. Not fast. Just steady and purposeful. Like he knows exactly where she is and where she's going. Like he has all the time in the world to reach her.
Eira's breathing gets faster.
Other people are watching now. She can feel the attention shifting. The beautiful people with the sharp eyes are noticing the man. Noticing her. Noticing whatever is happening between them.
Noticing her for the first time in her life.
The man gets closer.
He's even more dangerous up close. His eyes are still locked on hers. She can't look away. Can't move. It's like his gaze is holding her in place. Like he's pulling something out of her.
When he reaches her, he doesn't say hello. Doesn't introduce himself. He just looks at her like he's trying to figure out what species she is.
"You smell like nothing," he says.
His voice is low and rough and it makes something inside her wake up. Something that's been sleeping her whole life. Something that's been waiting for this moment.
"Excuse me."
"Your scent. You don't have one. That shouldn't be possible."
Eira has no idea what he means. Nobody's ever talked to her this way. Like she's something to study. Something to understand.
She takes a step back.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I should go."
She turns and walks away fast.
She doesn't run yet. Just walks through the crowd moving away from him. Moving toward the bathrooms. Moving toward any exit. Moving toward anywhere that man isn't standing looking at her like she belongs to him.
Behind her she hears him moving. Following.
She walks faster.
That's when she makes a mistake.
She looks back over her shoulder to see where he is.
Their eyes meet again and the connection is so strong it physically hurts. It's like something inside her is being pulled toward him. It's terrifying. It's irresistible. It's wrong.
Eira breaks into a run.
She pushes through the crowd. Through clusters of beautiful paranormal elites. Toward the elevator bank at the far end of the ballroom.
She can hear him behind her. Not running. Just walking fast. Confident. Like he knows she can't escape. Like he's done this hunt before.
The elevator doors are opening in the distance.
She runs for them.