Chapter 1
Chapter One: The Man Who Knew My Name
The first rule of surviving the galaxy was simple.
Never trust an Alpha.
The second rule was even simpler.
Never let anyone know what you are.
I had broken the second rule three minutes ago.
I was currently working on breaking the first.
“Do you know how much trouble you’re in?”
The man standing across from me had the kind of face that made people stupid.
Sharp jaw. Perfect features. Pale silver eyes.
An Alpha.
I knew because his scent filled the small interrogation room, heavy and suffocating. Most people would have lowered their gaze.
I stared directly into his eyes.
“Not really,” I said. “You haven’t given me a number yet.”
His expression didn’t change.
That was the problem with military Alphas. They were trained not to react.
Fortunately, I had spent most of my life learning how to make people react.
The man placed a data tablet on the metal table between us.
“Seraphina Veyne.”
My fingers went still.
Only for half a second.
But he noticed.
Of course he noticed.
I leaned back in the chair and smiled.
“That’s a very dramatic way to introduce yourself.”
“I didn’t introduce myself.”
“No?” I tilted my head. “Then I suppose you’re just a very confident stranger who knows my name.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Seraphina Veyne. Born on Veyra-9. No registered citizenship. No official family records. Multiple identities across seventeen systems. Wanted for theft, smuggling, illegal weapons trafficking, corporate espionage—”
“Alleged.”
“—and the destruction of a private research facility.”
I sighed.
“That one was definitely me.”
His hand moved toward the weapon at his side.
Interesting.
“Careful,” I said. “If you shoot me, you won’t get what you came for.”
For the first time, something flickered across his face.
Not fear.
Interest.
That was worse.
I hated it when people became interested in me.
Interest always came before questions.
Questions always came before cages.
And cages...
Well.
I had never been good at staying inside them.
The Alpha leaned forward.
“Where is the device?”
I smiled.
“Which one?”
“The device you stole from the Helix Consortium.”
“I’m a little offended you think I only stole one thing.”
His jaw tightened.
I had been in this room for twenty-three minutes.
Twenty-three minutes since the Imperial soldiers had dragged me off my ship.
Twenty-three minutes since they had taken my weapons, searched my clothes, scanned my blood, and discovered something that made the entire room go silent.
I hadn’t forgotten the look on the technician’s face.
The moment the scanner had finished.
The color had drained from his face.
Then he had whispered something into his communicator.
“Confirm the sequence.”
After that, they had brought me here.
No explanation.
No charges.
Just a room, an armed Alpha, and a question about a device I had stolen two nights ago.
I crossed my arms.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The Alpha studied me.
“Your blood was scanned.”
There it was.
The words I had been waiting for.
My smile disappeared.
“Was it?”
“Your genetic signature does not match any registered species.”
“I’m a very rare person.”
“Your genetic signature does not match any known species.”
I leaned back slowly.
The room suddenly felt colder.
“Maybe your scanner is broken.”
“It isn’t.”
“Maybe your scientists are incompetent.”
“They aren’t.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
The Alpha stood.
He was tall.
Too tall.
The kind of tall that made enclosed spaces feel smaller.
His uniform was black, decorated with silver insignia I recognized immediately.
The Imperial crest.
I had seen it on wanted posters.
On warships.
On the bodies of people who had resisted the Empire.
Imperial Commander.
I had never met him before.
But I knew his name.
Everyone did.
Kael Draven.
The Empire’s most dangerous weapon.
A man who had crushed three rebellions before he turned thirty.
A man who had never lost a battle.
A man who supposedly had no weaknesses.
I looked him up and down.
“Commander Draven.”
His eyes sharpened.
“You know who I am.”
“I know who everyone important is.”
“And yet you stole from the Helix Consortium.”
“I steal from everyone important.”
His expression remained cold.
But his scent changed.
Only slightly.
A darker note beneath the Alpha pheromones.
Anger.
I smiled again.
“Did I hurt your feelings?”
“No.”
“Shame.”
The door behind him opened.
A soldier stepped inside.
“Commander.”
Kael didn’t turn.
“What?”
The soldier hesitated.
“There’s been an incident in the medical wing.”
My stomach tightened.
I didn’t know why.
Then the soldier continued.
“The Omega prince has arrived.”
Kael’s expression changed.
Barely.
But it changed.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
The Alpha’s eyes moved to me.
And suddenly, I understood.
This wasn’t about the device.
It had never been about the device.
I stood.
The cuffs around my wrists were magnetic.
Cheap.
I could have broken them if I wanted to.
But I didn’t.
Not yet.
“What does an Omega prince want with me?”
Kael stared at me.
For the first time since I had entered the room, he looked almost uncertain.
Then he said something that made the blood freeze in my veins.
“He asked for you by name.”
My heart stopped.
No.
That wasn’t possible.
Nobody knew my real name.
Not anymore.
I had buried Seraphina Veyne years ago.
The girl who had existed before the laboratory.
Before the blood.
Before the screams.
That girl was dead.
I had killed her myself.
And yet someone had just walked into an Imperial facility and asked for her.
I looked toward the door.
“Who is he?”
Kael didn’t answer immediately.
Then, from somewhere beyond the room, I heard a voice.
Smooth.
Elegant.
Amused.
“Seraphina.”
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
The voice continued.
“It’s been a long time.”
I stared at the open doorway.
A man walked into the room.
He was beautiful.
Not in the way ordinary people were beautiful.
There was something unnatural about him.
His silver-white hair fell around his face. His skin was almost translucent beneath the harsh lights. His eyes were a strange shade of violet.
He wore a dark royal coat embroidered with gold.
The symbol on his collar was one I recognized.
The Aster Dynasty.
An Omega royal family.
The man stopped in front of me.
His gaze moved over my face.
Not like he was seeing me for the first time.
Like he was confirming something.
I hated that look.
I hated him instantly.
“Prince Lucien,” Kael said coldly.
Lucien didn’t look at him.
His eyes remained on me.
I smiled.
It was the kind of smile that had gotten me into trouble more times than I could count.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Do I know you?”
For a moment, silence filled the room.
Then Lucien smiled.
It was a beautiful smile.
And completely without warmth.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“But I know you.”
The air changed.
His pheromones touched the room.
Sweet.
Warm.
Dangerous.
An Omega.
My body reacted before my mind could stop it.
My heartbeat quickened.
My skin heated.
Something deep inside me stirred.
I immediately stepped backward.
Lucien’s eyes widened.
Not because I had moved away.
Because of the way I had moved away.
His gaze dropped to my throat.
Then to my hands.
Then back to my eyes.
“What are you?” he whispered.
The question was quiet.
Almost reverent.
I hated it.
I had heard that question before.
Years ago.
In a laboratory.
A scientist had stood behind a glass wall while I sat strapped to a metal table.
What are you?
They had asked it while injecting me.
While cutting me open.
While watching my blood react to things that should have killed me.
I had been eight years old.
I hadn’t known the answer then.
I still didn’t.
But I had learned one thing.
People who asked that question never wanted to know the answer for innocent reasons.
I moved before anyone could stop me.
The magnetic cuffs snapped apart.
Kael reached for his weapon.
Lucien took a step back.
I grabbed the metal chair and swung it toward the nearest soldier.
He went down.
Kael’s hand closed around my wrist.
His grip was strong.
Too strong.
I looked down at his hand.
Then up at him.
“Let go.”
“No.”
I smiled.
“Wrong answer.”
I drove my knee into his stomach.
He barely moved.
My smile disappeared.
That was unexpected.
Kael looked down at me.
For the first time, I realized just how large the difference between us was.
He was an Alpha commander.
I was a woman who had spent the last fifteen years surviving in criminal territory.
I had survived worse odds.
I attacked again.
This time, he caught my arm.
His fingers tightened.
A sharp pain shot through my bones.
“Stop.”
“Make me.”
His eyes darkened.
The air around him suddenly became heavy.
The instinct inside my body reacted.
Something old.
Something buried.
Something that had never reacted to an Alpha before.
I felt it awaken.
A pulse beneath my skin.
Kael froze.
His grip loosened.
His expression changed.
Not much.
But enough.
He was looking at my arm.
At the place where his fingers touched me.
I pulled away.
“What?”
He didn’t answer.
Lucien was staring at me too.
His expression had lost all amusement.
“What happened?” I asked.
Neither man spoke.
Then the door opened again.
This time, nobody announced the visitor.
They didn’t need to.
The entire room changed.
The soldiers stepped aside.
Kael turned.
Lucien went completely still.
And I...
I felt something inside me scream.
A man entered the room.
He was dressed in black.
Not the black of the Imperial military.
Something older.
Darker.
His hair was long and dark, falling over one shoulder. His face was sharp and impossibly beautiful.
But it was his eyes that made my body forget how to breathe.
They were gold.
Not bright.
Not warm.
The color of an animal watching its prey.
He looked at Kael.
Then Lucien.
Then me.
And when his eyes met mine, the world seemed to tilt.
I knew him.
No.
That was impossible.
I had never seen him before.
But my body knew him.
A strange, terrifying certainty settled in my bones.
The man stared at me for a long moment.
Then he said:
“She’s alive.”
My heart stopped.
I didn’t know who he was.
I didn’t know why he had said those words.
But I knew one thing.
He had not been surprised to see me.
He had been surprised that I was still alive.
I reached for the knife hidden inside my boot.
The man noticed.
A faint smile touched his lips.
“Still carrying a blade.”
My hand froze.
The room went silent.
My blood turned cold.
Nobody knew about the knife.
Nobody knew about the second knife.
Nobody knew about the third.
I looked at him.
“Who are you?”
He took one step closer.
The soldiers around us lowered their weapons.
Kael’s expression became unreadable.
Lucien watched me with growing fascination.
And the stranger...
The stranger looked at me like he had known me long before I knew myself.
“My name,” he said, “is Azrael Noctis.”
The name meant nothing to me.
It should have.
Everyone in the galaxy knew the nameAzrael Noctis.
The king of the Noctari.
The last ruler of an ancient species believed to be extinct.
A monster.
A myth.
A king who had not been seen in public for over a decade.
I stared at him.
Then I laughed.
It was the only thing I could think to do.
“That’s impossible.”
His golden eyes darkened.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“It is merely inconvenient.”
I tightened my grip around the knife.
“Why do you know my name?”
Azrael smiled.
And for the first time in years, I felt something far more dangerous than fear.
Recognition.
Not from me.
From him.
“Because,” he said quietly, “your mother asked me to find you.”
The world stopped.
My mother’s name had not been spoken in fifteen years.
Not by anyone.
Not since the night she disappeared.
I had spent years believing she was dead.
Years convincing myself that I didn’t care.
Years burying every memory of her.
And now a stranger stood in front of me, claiming she had sent him.
My fingers tightened around the knife.
“That’s a lie.”
“Yes.”
The answer came too quickly.
I blinked.
Azrael’s expression remained calm.
“I am lying.”
For a moment, I didn’t understand.
Then he continued.
“Your mother never asked me to find you.”
My breathing stopped.
“She asked me to kill you.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
And somewhere deep inside my body, something ancient opened its eyes.
End of Chapter One
