Chapter 1
“Kneel.”
I looked up just as Sirius Blake stopped in front of one of the alphas from my year.
“You’ve gone too far this time, Blake,” the guy said through gritted teeth. “Was I supposed to stay quiet after Stacy stole my project?”
Sirius didn’t raise his voice.
“So let me get this straight,” he said, his tone almost unnervingly calm. “You’re accusing the Black Clan heir’s fiancée of being a thief?”
The alpha visibly paled.
“That’s... not what I meant.”
“Then I’m waiting for a public apology.”
“Blake, I—”
“Kneel.”
The single word landed like a sentence.
For several long seconds, the alpha stood frozen, his jaw locked so tightly I thought he might crack a tooth.
Then he slowly lowered himself to one knee.
I wasn’t surprised.
Picking a fight with Sirius Blake was one of the quickest ways to destroy your life.
Stacy immediately slipped her arm through her fiancé’s, a smug smile spreading across her flawless face.
Once again, she’d gotten away with everything.
God, I hated that arrogant omega.
I’d spent the last two months trying to find an opportunity to get close to Blake, but she never left his side. Stacy hovered around him like a guard dog, making sure no other omega came within breathing distance.
“We need to knock her off that pedestal,” Erica muttered beside me.
“What are you suggesting?” I asked. “Walk over there and rip all her hair out?”
“I’ve got something better.”
The dangerous sparkle in her eyes instantly put me on alert.
“We film you kissing Sirius, then leak the video into the university group chat.”
I stared at her.
“Have you completely lost your mind?”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.”
“You want me to kiss Blake.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s basically suicide.”
Erica rolled her eyes.
“Please. He’s not going to kill you over one kiss.”
I let out a dry laugh.
“Did you already forget what happened last week? He nearly broke a sophomore’s arm because the guy accidentally touched his car.”
Her smile faltered for only a second.
Lately, Sirius Blake had become even more unpredictable than usual. The only thing keeping him under control was the university itself. Neutral territory. Clan laws still applied here, but open violence wasn’t tolerated.
Outside these walls...
That was another story.
I looked back at him.
Even from across the courtyard, he commanded attention without trying.
His black shirt stretched across broad shoulders and a powerful chest. Every movement hinted at the hard muscle beneath the fabric, while the veins running along his forearms made it painfully obvious that strength wasn’t something he needed to prove.
He looked every bit the predator he’d been born to be.
No wonder half the omegas on campus were hopelessly obsessed with him.
I’d been watching him from a distance ever since the semester began.
Long enough to understand one thing.
Sirius Blake wasn’t just dangerous. He was the kind of man who smiled right before ruining someone’s life. Kiss him?
Absolutely not.
The idea was insane. Or maybe...
Maybe Erica had a point.
If I played this right, I’d finally get close to Blake—and at the same time humiliate Stacy.
Two problems solved with one reckless decision.
By eight that evening, Erica and I were hiding outside the university gym.
“Sirius always trains alone on Thursday nights,” she whispered.
“How do you even know that?”
She flashed me a smug grin. “Trade secret.”
The heavy metal door stood slightly ajar. We peeked inside.
The enormous gym was almost empty, with only a handful of lights illuminating the weight area in the center of the room. Sirius was there, completely alone. A loaded barbell rested across his shoulders as he finished another set, the muscles in his back flexing beneath bronzed skin with every controlled movement.
“Go,” Erica whispered.
“Wait.”
“No waiting.”
Before I could protest, she shoved me forward. I stumbled several steps into the gym before stopping abruptly.
My eyes caught the tattoo covering Sirius’s back—a black dragon with its wings spread across his shoulders and its scaled tail disappearing down the center of his spine. Every clan heir received the mark of their Beast on their eighteenth birthday, a unique symbol reflecting their instincts, strength, and nature. I’d never really wondered what Sirius’s Beast looked like before.
Now I couldn’t look away.
The dragon seemed almost alive. For one irrational moment, it felt as though it was watching me, silently warning me to turn around while I still could.
I almost listened.
Then I reminded myself why I’d come here. Opportunities like this didn’t come twice.
The barbell hit the rack with a metallic clang that echoed through the empty gym. Taking a steadying breath, I closed the distance between us until only a couple of feet remained.
“Sirius?”
He turned.
Before I could lose my nerve, I rose onto my toes and pressed my lips against his.
The kiss lasted barely a second—just long enough for his gray eyes to darken.
I pulled away at once and turned to leave, but I never made it.
His hand closed around my wrist, and the next instant my back slammed into the cold concrete wall hard enough to drive the air from my lungs. Before I could even gasp, his mouth crashed down on mine.
It wasn’t a kiss. It was an assault.
There was nothing gentle about it. His lips claimed mine with ruthless certainty, demanding surrender instead of asking for it. So much for my first kiss.
Every instinct screamed at me to push him away, yet my body betrayed me. Heat flared deep inside my chest, my pulse racing so wildly it drowned out every coherent thought. Fear tangled with something I couldn’t name, something forbidden that seemed to awaken beneath my skin.
Then, just as abruptly as it had begun, he pulled away.
His gaze dropped to my neck, then lower, stopping at the open neckline of my blouse. The expression in his eyes shifted in an instant. First came shock. Then fury.
Without warning, he seized the front of my blouse. Buttons flew across the floor as the fabric tore apart, and the crushing force of his aura seemed to fill the entire gym. My knees nearly buckled beneath me, and only his grip kept me from collapsing.
I instinctively clutched the torn fabric together, desperate to cover myself, but my hands were trembling too violently. He didn’t seem to notice. His eyes remained fixed on the exposed skin above my heart.
“What the hell...” he growled, his voice low and dangerous. “How is this even possible?”
His fingers tightened painfully around my arm as he lifted his eyes to mine.
“Do you have any idea...” he said quietly, “...what you’ve just done?”
