The seventh floor of the Blair Construction headquarters offered a view of Uptown that Nicole usually found satisfying. Today, however, it felt like looking at a cage full of restless animals. She watched the humans below with a mixture of pity and burgeoning irritation. They moved without purpose, littering the streets her forefathers had paved with literal blood and sweat centuries ago. To Nicole, they were ungrateful guests in a city that belonged to the night.
"They act like beasts, yet they claim to be civilized," she muttered, her breath fogging the glass. Her internal wolf paced behind her ribs, a restless white shadow that hadn't been allowed to hunt in far too long. Being a mixed-blood was a constant exercise in restraint. She had the territorial aggression of her father, the Alpha King Michael Blair, and the cold, calculating hunger of her mother, the Vampire Queen Alex.
The office door opened, and the scent of anxiety preceded her assistant. Belinda walked in holding a thick cream envelope, her heartbeat thumping a frantic rhythm that Nicole could hear from across the room. It was the sound of a rabbit nearing a wolf.
"Is this a bad time? I could come back later," Belinda asked, her voice trembling slightly.
Nicole turned, her gold eyes flashing with a predatory light before she reigned it back. She didn't want to scare the woman. Belinda was efficient, even if she was currently terrified of being fired before her maternity leave. Nicole took the envelope, her fingers brushing the paper. The name on the return address made her lip curl in a silent snarl. It was April Lyon.
"April doesn't know when to quit," Nicole said, opening the invite to a twentieth birthday gala. The rivalry between the Blairs and the Lyons was legendary, a business war that spanned decades, but April's latest attempts to defame the Blair legacy were crossing a line.
"She is hosting a party for her daughter," Nicole noted, her eyes narrowing as she felt a strange, magnetic pull toward the date on the card. It was a sensation she could not explain. It was a tugging at her soul that her wolf suddenly responded to with a low, interested growl.
"Shift my meetings, Belinda. I am going to this party," Nicole commanded, grabbing her bag. "And go home early. You are stressed, and it is making your blood smell sour."
As Nicole headed for the elevator, she ran into the one man who could still make her feel like a child. Her father, Michael Blair, stood there tall and imposing, yet there was a weariness in his eyes that Nicole had not seen before.
"You need to find your mate, Nicole," he warned, his voice a low rumble. "The moon is coming up again. Do not run away this time. If you do not complete the bond, the pack will think you are weak."
Nicole stepped into the elevator, the doors sliding shut on her father's grim face. She did not believe in the destiny of the Moon Goddess or the Alpha bond. She believed in power. She believed in control. She had no idea that in just a few hours, she would walk into a ballroom and meet a human girl named Lina whose scent would shatter every bit of control Nicole had spent twenty-five years perfecting.