Page 72 of Knot Heirs: Serenity's Reign

The acrid smell of burning metal and scorched concrete filled Serenity's lungs. Her ears still rang from the explosion that had decimated her father's office building. A building she'd only just learned was hers.

Darius's hand gripped her upper arm with bruising intensity.

"We need to move. Now."

Serenity recoiled from his touch, but her legs threatened to buckle beneath her.

"I can walk on my own."

Ronan appeared through the haze, his jaw set in a hard line as his gaze swept the perimeter.

"This wasn't random," he growled. "Someone knows."

"Knows what?" Serenity demanded though the answer seemed horrifyingly obvious. Someone knew who she was. What she was. The heir to the Vale Empire. An unclaimed Omega.

Darius released her arm only to position himself between her and the burning building. "We can't separate. Not anymore."

"Like hell we can't," Serenity snapped, though the quiver in her voice betrayed her bravado. "I'm going to a hotel."

"A hotel?" Ronan barked out a humorless laugh. "You think walls and a goddamn front desk will keep you safe after this?" He gestured toward the flames licking up the side of the structure that had been her father's legacy.

Darius's scent spiked – sharp, territorial, the Alpha pheromones washing over her in waves that made her dizzy.

"My place has the best security. We go there."

"Your security didn't stop someone from planting a fucking bomb," Ronan countered, his own Alpha scent rising to clash with Darius's. "She comes with me. My compound has a private entrance and exit, underground parking?—"

"And it's known to every criminal in this city," Darius cut in. "My penthouse is?—"

"More exposed than a glass-walled shower," Ronan finished. "We need somewhere unexpected."

Serenity pressed her palm against her forehead, trying to think through the haze of competing Alpha pheromones.

"Stop it," she hissed. "I'm not a chess piece for you to move around."

"We share her," Darius said suddenly, his voice dropping to a dangerous pitch that made Serenity's spine straighten. "A joint residence. We both protect her."

Ronan's eyes narrowed.

"Share? You think I'd let my Omega?—"

"I'm not your anything," Serenity interjected, but her protest felt hollow even to her own ears. Her Omega instincts, damn them to hell, were responding to the protectiveness radiating from both men.

"Unless you want another bomb," Darius pressed, "we combine resources. My tech, your manpower."

The air shifted then – a subtle change that Serenity felt before she saw the cause. A black Bentley had pulled up silently to the curb twenty feet away. The driver's door opened, and afigure emerged with the unhurried confidence of a predator who knew the hunt was already won.

Lucian Blackthorn.

He moved through the chaos like it parted for him specifically, his tailored suit somehow untouched by the ash falling like snow around them. His amber eyes scanned the scene methodically – assessing damage, cataloging threats, calculating angles – before settling on Serenity with laser focus.

"Gentlemen," Lucian said, his rich voice cutting through the tension. "I see we've had an exciting evening."

"Blackthorn," Darius acknowledged stiffly.

Ronan just growled, a low rumble in his chest that made Serenity instinctively take a step back.

Lucian's gaze flicked to the burning building, then back to Serenity. Something in his expression shifted – so subtly she almost missed it. Concern? Calculation? Both, she decided.

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