Fangs and Loyalty

Mia wasn't sure what she expected when Alexander Dusk told her she'd be shadowing his inner circle for her first "assignment." Maybe a sleek boardroom full of well-dressed sociopaths. Maybe some twisted, underground gathering where everyone wore black and pretended to be human.

What she didn't expect… was a rooftop garden.

The wind swept through rows of blood roses and night-blooming jasmine. Soft string music drifted from unseen speakers, the city below buzzing like a quiet threat. And in the center of it all stood four people—no, vampires—each of them more unnerving than the last.

They turned in unison when Dusk and Mia arrived, like wolves acknowledging the return of their alpha.

"You brought a mortal?" the tallest of them asked, voice rich with disdain.

He looked like a sculpture—carved from obsidian, with eyes like cooled lava and a face too sharp to be anything but supernatural. A single silver ring pierced his eyebrow, and his tailored suit clung to a body that moved like it remembered war. "How quaint."

Mia instinctively took a step back.

Alexander didn't flinch. "Be nice, Vale. She's my guest."

"Guest?" the woman beside Vale hissed, circling Mia like a predator. Her skin was pale gold, her lips stained crimson, and her eyes… her eyes were ancient. "She smells like questions."

"She's here to learn," Dusk said simply.

"And when she learns too much?" Vale asked, stepping closer to Mia, face inches from hers. "Do I get to clean up your mess again?"

Before Mia could respond, someone else interjected.

"That's enough."

A woman stepped from the shadows—tall, statuesque, with short silver hair and a voice like silk wrapped around steel. She moved without sound, her eyes unreadable.

"Don't mind them," she said to Mia. "They don't like change. And you, dear girl, are a lightning bolt in a glass house."

"Mia, this is Arabelle," Alexander said, his tone softer. "She's my oldest advisor. She doesn't trust easily… but she's rarely wrong."

Arabelle offered a slight nod. "He rarely invites anyone this close. That makes you dangerous."

Mia felt the weight of their eyes on her—measuring, dissecting. Not just vampires. Not just monsters. Soldiers. Strategists. Sentries. And yet, even with their cold glares and subtle threats, there was something they all shared, something beneath the surface:

They would kill for him. Die for him. Bleed for him.

She spoke carefully. "You're all so protective of him."

Arabelle tilted her head. "Wouldn't you be, if you owed your eternity to a single man?"

"You think loyalty is weakness?" Vale scoffed. "It's survival. Dusk built this empire from ashes. He tamed the city. Made peace among the old bloodlines. Without him, Nocturne would be a graveyard."

"And yet here you are," Mia said, meeting Vale's gaze, "threatening to make me part of that graveyard."

A pause. Then—

Vale smirked. "Maybe you're not so breakable after all."

Dusk stepped between them. "That's enough posturing. Mia's under my protection. Any hand raised against her will answer to me."

Mia's breath caught.

The other vampires bowed their heads—not out of fear… but reverence.

"Understood," Arabelle said, her voice carrying finality.

They dispersed, melting into the shadows like ghosts, leaving Mia and Dusk alone under the moonlight.

"Still think you're in over your head?" he asked, that teasing curl to his lip.

Mia looked out over the edge of the rooftop, the wind stirring her hair.

"I think I just met the wolves," she said quietly. "And you're the only thing keeping them from tearing out my throat."

Alexander Dusk stepped beside her, his voice low, almost intimate. "No, Mia. You're wrong."

She looked up at him.

"I'm the one who taught them how to bite."