Le-ww0224-1

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.

Chapter 1 Maya “I’m sorry, Ms. Cole,” the woman at the counter repeated for the third time, like sorry could put a roof over my head. “Your dorm assignment was… displaced.” “Misplaced,” the guy beside her corrected under his breath. “Displaced,” she insisted, smiling through her teeth as if smiling could file paperwork. “The point is, the room you were promised is unavailable.” “The point,” I echoed, because apparently we were playing a game, “is that I’m standing here with two suitcases, a scholarship, and exactly forty-two dollars until my first stipend hits, and you’re telling me I’m homeless on day one?” Her smile widened a millimeter. “Not homeless. Call it… creative housing.” I blinked. “Is that a new major?” Behind me, someone snorted. In front of me, the woman sighed in a way that said I was the fiftieth problem she’d handled today and the only one that persisted this long. The thing was, I was already two weeks behind in the semester, because it cost me a tooth and a literal toenail on a site I wished never to visit again, to buy my ticket to come here. Another delay was not what I needed right now. The receptionist clicked across her screen, as she tapped her nails. I tried to stare at the sunlit lobby of Blackridge University’s Housing Office just to distract myself while she checked. It really was a beautiful campus and everything I ever dreamed of. And although I was transferring in my third year out of four, I was grateful that I’d have two years at my dream school. That is, if this issue is resolved and I get a place to rest my head. “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “I transferred late because I had some issues and my internship officially starts tomorrow. Admissions fast-tracked me, and housing was confirmed. I sold my soul to a color-coded spreadsheet—” “Which we appreciate,” she murmured. “—and I don’t have anyone in this city. Or… at all, really.” It slipped out before I could stop it. “So if you could just… ‘creatively’ house me in a room with four walls, that would be amazing. The janitor’s closet would suffice until a student or two decides college is not their cup of tea and decide to drop out prematurely.” She snorted, but I was dead serious. She opened her mouth to respond with another apology, I’m sure, but her obnoxious sounding telephone rang, and she grabbed it without a second thought. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but she ‘yeah’ and ‘uh-huhed’ through the entire thing while my anxiety ate me whole. When she finally ended the call, she gave me a look of complete relief, that I was sure had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her just wanting to get rid of me. “So, turns out, we can place you,” she said finally, and my heart skipped in joy. “At Blackridge House, off-campus.” My relief and celebration was cut short. “The alumni guest house?” Her colleague coughed. “The Alpha House.” I laughed, because the alternative was fainting. “Right. The Alpha House. Is that some type of weird way of saying some frat house or something?” The receptionist’s colleague gave me a confused look, but she shot him a glare that seemed to communicate something that I didn’t understand, because he burned bright red and ducked his head as if he realized something that I couldn’t place. “It’s not a frat house,” the lady said. “and it’s not what you applied for, but it will do for the first semester at least, and it’s free.” Now that caught my attention. “It’s a formal courtesy for the displacement,” she added, sliding a carbon-copy form toward me. “Housing covers the rent, utilities, and a transport stipend for this semester, on us, because the mistake was ours.” “Free?” I echoed. “No catch? No human-sacrifice system that I don’t know about?” “Free. No catch,” she said, and the smile finally looked like policy instead of pity. “We messed up your placement, so the university makes it right.” I hummed and I stared at the address on the paper she handed to me. “Any surprises I should know about?” I asked tentatively. Her smile seemed strained now. “It’s either this,” she said, printing the keycard, “or a hotel for three weeks at your expense.” Forty-two dollars, a Dominoes gift card and two fake silver earrings was not going pay for that. I bit my cheek and took the key. “Creative housing it is,” I said. She smiled genuinely this time as her eyes caught someone behind us. “Elise!” she called, waving over a girl with glossy hair, a pressed polo, and the kind of planner that could run a small country. I liked her already. Elise reached the counter in three crisp strides. Up close, she smelled faintly like citrus and old books. “Please,” the receptionist said, relief leaking into her tone. “Could you show Ms. Cole to Blackridge House?” Elise’s smile held, but something akin to shock flickered in her eyes before she schooled it smooth. “Of course.” She turned to me, extending a hand. “Elise Hart. Campus ambassador and chronic overachiever.” “Maya,” I said, shaking it. “Same, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, the overachiever part… Not the ambassador because obviously I wasn’t here to be an …“ I coughed to hide my embarrassing rambling. “Nice to meet you.” “Same.” Her smile seemed real, and her fingers were cool and firm. She tipped her head slightly—just a subtle lift of her nose, like she was… sniffing me? My stomach dropped. Great. I must’ve smelled like a bus-station chic. I should’ve bought the travel-size perfume instead of the emergency ramen. We set off, the afternoon sun sliding warm across brick paths. Blackridge unfurled around us. It was mostly old stone halls, glass windows, and beautiful ivy climbing along the bricks. Elise moved at a purposeful clip that said she didn’t believe in being late to anything, ever. “Quick hits,” she said. “Dining hall coffee is a cry for help, the library closes at midnight but not really, and if you hear the bell tower at three a.m., you didn’t.” “Didn’t what?” “Exactly.” She flashed me a grin. “Your internship’s in Comms & Policy, right? I’m in that program too. I’ll see you in Professor Lang’s seminar and at work tomorrow.” Relief loosened something in my chest. “So I’ll know one person in the room who can probably perform CPR on my social awkwardness.” She laughed. “I can. Also on actual people.” She glanced over, friendly and curious, that tiny nose-lift again like a reflex. “New perfume?” “New city,” I deflected, and she let it go. We crossed a footbridge where a small stream sat, and passed a lawn where a frisbee nearly decapitated me. Elise didn’t break stride, and I respected that. “Almost there,” she said, nodding ahead. I nodded as we continued. “Are there rules?” “Oh yes,” she said without looking away from the hill. “Rule one: Don’t die.” I shot Elise a look. She didn’t look like she was joking. “Half humor,” she said brightly, then lowered her voice. “Some houses like their privacy.” The house appeared like it had been set down by a hand that did not accept ‘good enough.’ It was massive, antique, but beautiful. It’s structure was like most of the University’s, but there was something distinct about it that made it seem almost… homely, yet repulsive to intruders. My feet stopped. “That’s… a house.” “Mm-hmm. Welcome to Blackridge House.” “What’s the cost for a night at a hotel here again?” Elise’s smile tilted. “Good luck.” I did a double-take. “You’re not coming with me?” “Oh, no.” She tapped the face of her watch. “I have a lab. But I’ll see you in seminar and at work tomorrow, yeah?” “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow.” She squeezed my forearm—quick and warm—and peeled away the way she’d arrived: neat, efficient, and a little too observant. I dragged my duffel up the front steps. Housing had promised to send my suitcases by car, which was either very kind or them laundering their guilt. The door was unlocked, which felt like either a trap or confidence. I chose confidence because I had to choose something. The foyer was cool, quiet, the kind of put-together that whispers don’t touch. Low voices threaded in from deeper inside. Male voices. I followed them. I turned into the living room and stopped so fast the duffel thumped my calf. Three men looked up at me from three separate places. One stepped out from the hallway still wet from a shower, a white towel slung low on his hips, and water sliding in clean lines over his chest. Across the room, another stood at the entrance to what seemed like the kitchen, in an apron that definitely wasn’t his, oven mitt on one hand. And the third was kneeling on the rug with a screwdriver and the gutted belly of a robot vacuum between his knees. Nobody spoke. Neither did I. By the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised by the news as I was. “Hi,” I said, because my mouth was a traitor. “Creative housing?” Chapter 2 Maya An overpriced hotel was really looking good right now. “I come in peace,” I called, because I wanted to live, “and also with paperwork.” The first to move was the one who looked like he’d been carved out of shadow and expectations. He was tall, had broad shoulders and dark hair, pushed back with ruthless efficiency. His gray eyes watched me like they’d already assessed all my flaws and filed them alphabetically. The scar through his eyebrow should’ve made him prettier; it made him colder. And he was shirtless… Very, very shirtless. My eyes did a terrified hop from abs to ceiling, then to the floor like I’d stared straight at the sun. I could feel the heat crawling up my ears and cheek. I shifted from my right leg to the left, hoping with everything in me that he didn’t just see that. “Lost?” he said. “Placed,” I said, holding up the keycard. “By Housing.” His gaze flicked to the card, then to me, to the duffle bag on my shoulder, then to my face again. He didn’t smile. The way he looked at me was cruel and clinical… like he was cutting me raw with teh sharpness of his gaze. Something in my shoulders pulled tight like I’d been called to stand still while someone measured me. I watched the calculations happening in his head—subtle shifts in his jaw as if he were sorting me into a criterion. “We’re not a dorm,” he said flatly. “So I hear.” I gulped, shifting the weight of the bag to my next thigh. “And apparently also not a sorority.” That part wasn’t supposed to be heard, but they all seemed to hear it just the same, all three rewarding me with different looks, ranging from disapproval to downright humor. I didn’t even know I said that so loud. The joke caught on a dry throat, and I cleared it once before my mouth remembered how to behave. The other man who just ditched his apron, leaned on the doorway, dark curls messy and blue eyes bright with the sort of trouble that didn’t apologize afterward. He grinned when I looked up, and it lit the room. “Welcome to the fortress, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m Caden. He’s Ty,” he said, motioning to the shirtless super model still glaring at me. “Don’t mind the glower,” he added softer, but evidently wanted him to hear. “It’s chronic.” Ty didn’t look away from me. “Tylon,” he corrected mildly. “And no.” His words came out clipped and controlled, like he was barely restraining himself from growling or something. A small tick in his jaw said the correction wasn’t negotiable. “No… what?” I asked. “No, you can’t stay.” “Fun story,” I said, smile bright and completely fake. “I actually don’t want to stay here. But if I don’t, I stay nowhere. And I have to be at the Comms & Policy internship building at eight a.m. bright-eyed and not smelling like a bus station tomorrow morning. So unless Housing intends to bunk me in a filing cabinet—” “Let me see the authorization,” Ty said, cutting me off with his palm out. I handed it over. He read the memo about temporary placement, capacity issues, and needing their compliance. He went very still with the paper steady in one hand, his shoulders squared, and his eyes tracking down the text like he was checking for a loophole. Whatever it said, his jaw ticked once, and he passed the card back. “Temporary,” he said. “Thrilling,” I replied. Caden moved towards me and took my duffel bag, and the relief was instant. “I’ve got it,” he murmured as the strap slid off my shoulder under his hand, and his fingers brushed mine in a quick, reassuring caress. He wore an easy grin, easy posture, and even gave me a little shoulder bump that said it would be fine even if nothing else seemed so. For a reckless second, I almost believed it. He had that type of effect, it seemed. “We can put her in the sunroom,” he said as he tossed it over his shoulder. “We are not putting a stranger in the sunroom,” Tylon said. “Guest suite, then,” Caden said, without turning. “Not the guest suite.” There was a light chuckle, and it was then that I remembered the third man who was still kneeling in front of the broken vacuum. He brushed off his jeans as he stood, and I realized right there and then that i was placed in a house with three Greek god-looking men to live with for a whole semester, or more. God, help me. He looked younger than Caden and Tylon, but he wasn’t any less magnificent. They were all handsome in their own way, and I had no idea if there were anymore. His hazel eyes glittered with a mixture of indifference, but feeding into Caden’s humor. “Library couch?” he offered. “Stop helping,” Tylon growled. “Hi,” I said to the third one, seizing the gap. “I’m Maya, by the way. I’m very organized, I clean up after myself, I label things in a way that is helpful and not creepy, and I make coffee that will make up for the awful one they make here, apparently.” Something like humor touched his eyes. “Leonardo. Leo for short,” he said. “Coffee is a strong argument.” Ty’s gaze cut to me, then to the ceiling, then back like he was considering letting me stay and throwing me out. “I will take this up with the heads, but for now, house rules,” he said finally. “No parties without agreement. No guests without notice. No entering rooms that aren’t yours. No going downstairs after midnight.” Caden glanced back. “That last one isn’t real.” “It is now.” Leo leaned against the doorframe where Caden previously was, with his hands in his pocket. “She’s clearly capable of handling herself. No one’s scared of your scowl, Ty.” “She should be. She’s human,” Ty said. “‘She’ is standing right here!” I huffed, hating that the conversation seemed to be flying over me. “And are you insinuating that you’re not? What are you? Some super-human just because you seem to wear a permanent scowl and bossy pants?” I heard Caden draw a sharp breath, and Leo’s eyes widened. And suddenly, I felt like I just crossed a line. But I wasn’t about to let him treat me like some incompetent child, just because we were forced into something that none of us were ready for or wanted. But what the hell can I do about it? Absolutely nothing. So we just had to live with it. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and I didn’t miss the way Caden edged towards me, as if he was preparing to jump in front of me should Tylon leap. He didn’t crowd me… just angled himself a breath closer, like a steady heat at my side and a buffer if I needed it. Weirdly, that tiny, ordinary detail calmed me more than anything. But instead, Tylon simply mumbled, “Just remember the rules,” and left. “Right,” Caden said after a beat. “That settles it. Sunroom it is.” Rule number one: Don’t die. Got it. Chapter 3 Maya “This is you,” Caden said, showing me into the sunroom. There was glass on three sides of the room, a low bed, and yellow curtains that made the room even brighter. “It’s… a greenhouse with delusions of a bedroom,” I said before I could stop myself. But he laughed, the kind of laugh was warm and makes a place feel less like a stranger. “Technically it’s a room,” he said, dropping my bag at the foot of the bed. “But your description has better PR.” He didn’t leave. Of course he didn’t. He leaned a palm on the doorframe and looked around like he was measuring whether the light would bother me at dawn, whether the latch would stick, whether I cared. That last one, I wasn’t sure about. “You keep a planner,” he said, tipping his chin at the one tucked under my arm. “Color-coded.” “It’s how I know what to panic about,” I half-joked. “Red is due now, orange is due an hour ago, yellow is me pretending it can wait.” “And blue?” “Blue is coffee.” “Then we’ll get along,” he mused, evoking another real laugh from me. I had a feeling coffee wasn’t the thing that would make us get along. He stepped in, close enough that I caught the clean, warm smell of his soap and something sharper that wasn’t cologne. He reached for the curtain chord just as I did, and his hand grazed mine. He didn’t move away quickly, but he didn’t make it a moment either, and both choices said he knew exactly what he was doing. “We’ll get you a blackout shade if the sunrise is too much,” he said in a cool, chill voice that made me see another part of him. “Or you can juts come to my room.” I snorted and gave him a pointed look. “How many girls have you given that speech to?” “Two,” he said lightly, then held my gaze. “Counting you.” I shouldn’t have smiled. But I absolutely did. A soft knock hit the doorframe behind him. Leo entered with towels, some sheets and blankets and one of my two suitcases. “These just arrived,” he said, rolling in the second behind the first. “And I got you these just in case none was in here.” “Thanks,” I said, taking them. His fingers brushed mine, brief and warm, much like when it happened with Caden. But with Leo, I couldn’t quite tell where he stood. He hadn’t been downright cold like Tylon, nor openly welcoming like Caden. He just seemed… polite. Like he was doing the bare minimum because he was stuck in this situation too, and not because he actually wanted me here. Still, I appreciated the gesture, and I smiled just the same as I pulled away my hand. Caden’s gaze cut to the motion. “That a tattoo?” he asked, eyeing my wrist. “It was a drunk mistake on my sixteenth birthday,” I said, just as lightly, because that was the story, I’d told myself for four years. “My best friend and I got matching ones, except hers didn’t… stick. Long story.” “Short version?” Caden asked. “I woke up with it. She didn’t.” They shared a look I couldn’t translate. It wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t nothing. “It’s a wolf,” Caden said, the playfulness thinning but not gone. “That’s an interesting choice.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’ve always liked dogs.” Leo’s mouth did a small twitch. Caden looked amused. “But I really am a cat person, so I don’t completely understand.” Caden looked actually wounded for one second, throwing his hand to his chest with a dramatic gasp, then he grinned. “Blasphemy.” “Tragic,” Leo said in a deadpan tone, and it made me laugh because maybe he did have a sense of humor too. Ty’s appeared in the doorway, his attention fixed on his phone, and, thankfully, fully clothed now. “Training is at dawn,” he said. “And we tighten rotations this week.” “Because of the Council?” Leo asked, almost conversational, which told me it wasn’t. Ty’s thumb paused over his screen. “Because of the Council.” Caden’s eyebrows flicked up. “We’re not supposed to say the quiet parts out loud in front of the new civilian.” “I’m not fragile,” I said, even though the word Council slid under my skin like ice. Blackridge’s glossy brochures didn’t mention councils, plural or singular. Orientation had whispered about an old advisory body that “oversaw” and “guided” and probably hosted charity galas with bad appetizers. But it more sounded like a club with dues and a dress code, not a reason to tighten rotations like we were on a ship heading into a storm. Ty didn’t correct me. He didn’t confirm me either. He just lifted his gaze to mine long enough to check something I couldn’t name, then walked on. Caden shifted like he was about to follow, then noticed something on my clothes. I followed where his eyes landed, seeing a loose thread where the hem of my shirt had snagged on the bed frame. He crouched, met my eyes, and kept a respectful half-step of space. “May I?” he asked with his palm up, as if waiting for my permission. I was taken aback by the sudden gentleness, but soon realized he was trying to help. “Tell me if this is too close,” he added, voice lower at the edges. The ridiculous part was my pulse answering before I did. I nodded. He angled sideways so I wasn’t boxed in. Hie eyes stayed on the fabric as he freed the snag with careful fingers. Even so, with him that near I could count his breaths. The space between us felt warm and very specific. From somewhere I didn’t see, he produced a safety pin and tucked the loose stitch inside the seam. “You carry those around?” I asked. “I have a complicated relationship with buttons,” he said, hands steady while he pinned the split. “Better?” “Better,” I said, and it mattered more than it should have. He looked up and held my gaze a minute longer than necessary, then was the one to look away first. Air I didn’t realize I’d been holding actually moved. Leo had been quiet in the doorway. His gaze tracked the whole exchange. It looked like a warning. Caden’s answer was a microscopic shrug that said ‘relax, it’s nothing.’ He rocked back on his heels and gave me space again. Leo’s eyes was still tracking the movements, but he said nothing before leaving. Odd. He was an odd one. “Thanks again for everything. You’ve been kind and welcoming,” I said as I plopped in the surprisingly comfy couch across from the bed. Caden smiled as he leaned against the doorframe again. “Anytime,” he grinned. “And my bedroom door is open if you want to take me up on the offer of—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as I hurled a cushion at him, sending him scurrying away. I chuckled. Idiot. Chapter 4 Maya I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent need to pee. I padded to my bathroom door, twisted the handle, and felt the lock catch. How I managed to lock myself out of my own bathroom? I had no idea. I tried again because hope is stubborn at one a.m., then tried the classic shoulder nudge that only worked in movies. The door held. Of course it did. Huffing, I decided that I’d just have to find another bathroom somewhere in this humongous house. I’d learn in the few hours I was here, that my room was on the third story of the house, along with the men’s offices. They all had an office for themselves, which was weird but oddly convenient, and another sunroom. No bathrooms. So, I ventured onto the second floor. The second floor was quiet, so I tried to be too. I tried one door and found a linen closet that smelled like lemon; another door that was locked, and a third that seemed like an empty bedroom. I huffed, losing patience and my ability to hold the pee, and then I pushed a door that wasn’t latched and stepped into a room that was not a bathroom. It was Tylon’s room. How I knew? Because he was there, but not asleep. A woman was braced on the edge of a neatly tided desk like the rest of the room, and she was butt naked. So was Tylon. It didn’t take me long to register what was happening, because it was happening right in front of me. I retreated a step and hid myself behind the cracked door, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her palms were flat against the desk, and Tylon had her ponytail wrapped around his knuckle, which caused her head to tilt and her back to arch. Her moans filled the room as Tylon gripped her hips, driving himself inside of her with a force and precision that made me gasp and wince at the same time. His body was a work of art, as I would have noticed today when I arrived. But seeming him like this was… different. His muscles were tight, his back was straight and sight of him this way made me almost quiver. His face was drawn taught, eyes squeezed shut with his bottom lip between his teeth. It made something in my stomach twist hard enough to make me mad at myself. My brain tried to file the scene under ‘privacy violation and leave,’ while some treacherous corner of me recognized the way skill looks when it doesn’t apologize. I was not jealous of her, I told myself. I didn’t even like him. I was a student who needed a restroom and a normal life. It didn’t matter that my mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin who never knew what that felt like. But seeing the skilled way he moved, and judging by the sounds she made made me want to feel it too. And gosh, I hated myself for it. I actually wished that the sudden warmth pooling at my thighs was pee, but I knew better. I wanted it. Or him. Or whatever the hell this was, but maybe it was the pee and fatigue talking. So I finally had the decency to do what i should have done from the beginning—leave. I began to back out, careful and quiet. But then he made a low, unguarded, sound, and my name fell out of it like a match. “Maya.” The woman’s head snapped up. And I stopped dead in my tracks as my entire stomach plummeted, and I think I actually peed a little bit. Yet, hearing him call my name in such a way—hearing him call my name at all, made something else inside of me melt. “What did you just call me?” The woman demanded, her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. He stopped as his eyes widened and his spine rigid. He pinched the bridge of his nose like pain and annoyance had just invaded his life. “It’s not—” He exhaled. “There’s a new tenant. She a human. Housing shoved her into the house today. It’s been… a distraction. I’ve been thinking of her, but not like that. Goddess, never like that.” I pretended it didn’t hurt. “But I’ve been thinking about how I fast we can get rid of her.” The word landed like a slap, and my lungs forgot their job. I was a distraction. An administrative error with a pulse. I stood there half in shadow, a stupid thief caught with nothing but my own embarrassment. The woman pulled herself upright with a practiced sort of grace, hair falling over one shoulder as she twisted to look at him. “I heard about that arrangement,” she said, cool again. “If she bothers you, I can deal with her.” Something changed in him so fast I felt it in the doorway. “You will not touch her.” The words were quiet, as if he’d swallowed the shout. But it was deadly. She blinked, taken aback, then lifted her chin and started dressing, each movement efficient, and irritated. Tylon turned away and reached for his trousers with the same grace he uses on everything. She fastened a button, and turned to him again. “Fine. Same time tomorrow?” “No.” He didn’t even look at her. “We’re done.” “That’s what you always say, Ty, but then you come calling again. It’s been three weeks and you called me tonight, didn’t you?” “It was a lapse in judgment. I needed a distraction from the distraction.” She was evidently pissed, but smirked anyway. “The human has really gotten under your skin, hasn’t she?” I didn’t mean to make a sound. But It slipped out anyway. It was a soft, shocked breath that gave me away. Two heads turned in the same instant. Tylon’s eyes found mine through the thin strip of open door, and the flash of fury there sent me stumbling backward into the hall. He shouted my name again, but this time, it was different from what I heard moments ago. “Maya!” Chapter 5 Maya I made it two steps before he was there, fast and unrelenting as his fingers closed around my wrist and yanked me back so hard, I thought my shoulder popped. I screamed, but he didn’t let go as he swerved me around to face him. His grip was strong and hard, speaking a message of his anger for itself. I felt the blood flow slowing, not quite pain yet, except it was already more than I could bear on a night like this. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He growled, and his voice was low but not quiet, the kind of control that vibrates. “I… bathroom.” I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence as my brain went blank. “I locked myself out. I wasn’t spying, I swear.” Down the hall, the woman had paused at Tylon’s door with one brow lifted, and her mouth tilted in a way that seemed amused. Like she had just won something I didn’t know about. Embarrassment was eating me whole, but fear and guilt was at number one. The point and truth of it all was, I really had no idea who these men were, and I had no idea what they were capable of. And the way he was looking at me right now brought back way too many childhood memories that I tried to bury. My breathing grew ragged and hard, and I knew what was happening. “You were told not to wander after midnight,” he growled. It wasn’t a question, and it landed like an accusation anyway. “I wasn’t,” I pleaded, and I heard the tremor in my voice as my heartbeat grew. “Please… let go.” My voice broke on the last word without my permission, small and ugly. Something changed in his face as if a wire inside had just come loose. His hand didn’t soften. But his is eyes did… just a little. “Tylon!” A new voice joined us in the hallway, and I glanced passed him to see Leo charging towards us. Sleep was still in his eyes, but also anger. “Let her go, Tylon!” he shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting her.? Tylon released me so fast I stumbled. But Leo reached me before the wall did and steadied me with arms. I leaned into that steadiness for a second because my body wanted to, whether from fear or warmth or plain relief… I couldn’t tell. The woman now wore a scowl as she glowered at me, specifically about Leo’s arms around me. “What the hell, man?” Leo didn’t raise his voice. He looked at my hand, and I looked too. A bruise would bloom there by morning in the shape of Tylon’s hand, no doubt. “Look at her wrist.” Tylon’s eyes flickered to my wrist, and I saw the guilt for barely a second before he masked it with indifference and annoyance. His throat worked before he answered Leo. “She was in my doorway,” Tylon said, and the anger was back. “She saw… Heard… I don’t even know how much she saw or heard.” Leo’s eyes trailed toward Tylon’s doorway, as if he was just seeing the woman. He didn’t even spare her that much of a glance as she smiled and wiggled her fingers at him in a suggestive wave. “How much does that matter?” Leo asked. “We live in a house with doors and locks. Close it.” “She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the first place. This is my house. If i want to keep my door open, I have all right to do so.” I wiped my cheeks because crying on my first night here was humiliating enough. “I came down to find a bathroom,” I repeated. “I locked myself out of mine, so I tried a few doors. I didn’t mean to…” I hung my head because I was, indeed, wrong for staying and I was embarrassed. “The bathrooms connect to the bedrooms,” Leo said to me in a gentle tone. “Except the powder room on the ground floor.” He tipped his head toward the end of the hall. “Use mine. It’s closer.” Tylon’s throat worked. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t explain. He looked at me like he was checking for injuries he couldn’t see and then looked away as if the act of looking had cost him too much. The woman, now fully composed, watched all three of us with that small, confident smile. “So,” she said to Tylon, “call me if you change your mind.” “I won’t,” he said, and it was final in a way that made her blink once. She slid past us with a rustle of fabric and the silent certainty of someone who knows she’ll get what she wants. Tylon didn’t look back as he went into his room and slammed the door. I flinched, but Leo was still holding me. I allowed it, and he guided me two doors down. It was tidy without being obsessive, unlike Tylon’s, but gave nothing away that hinted at his personality. No pictures, no posters. You would have thought he just moved in today too. He flipped on the light in the bathroom and stepped back so I could pass. “There.” “Thank you,” I managed, voice low and raw at the edges. I hesitated in the doorway because it felt wrong not to say something. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” I felt like I was five again, apologizing to those people… after already enduring their ‘punishment’. “You didn’t,” he said, and I almost believed him. “Don’t let him intimidate you. Ty is… Ty. He thinks protecting people and controlling them are the same thing. It’s his way, or no way. The situation isn’t ideal, but we all just have to work with it.” I nodded because anything more would have made me cry again. I closed the door with a ragged breath, and realized I didn’t even want to pee anymore. Chapter 6 Maya The sunroom was prettier at six a.m and tempting to stay and watch. But I needed my morning fuel, especially since I barely slept last night and today was my first day at my internship. However, Caden was already at the espresso machine when I went down for coffee. His hoodie sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair was damp from what seemed like an early-morning shower. He glanced back like I was right on time, but I didn’t miss how fast his hand went to the purple bruise forming on my hand. “Good morning stranger,” he said. “Coffee?” “Sure,” I said, as I approached him with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes trailed down my body, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks as he did. I completely forgot that I only packed shorts and tank tops as my night clothes. They were the only things I had. Last night I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even realized how minimally clothed I was. I shifted slightly behind the counter to hide the shadow of skin that was being revealed under the tiny blouse. I needed to get dressed soon, before the next two men came. He bumped my shoulder with his. I could feel his heat and humor, the exact dose I needed to feel like I could breathe again. “Sorry,” I mumbled, leaning over the counter as I sipped my coffee. “I don’t have anything better. Unless I’ll start wearing my work clothes to bed,” I joked. “You should.” That voice came from behind me, causing me to jump as I swerved around. Of course, Tylon stood in the doorway, eyes hooded and jaw tight as usual. He wore a black T-shirt, clean jeans and eyes that seemed like they were evidently awake longer than mine. It was then that I realised that Caden saw only a glimpse, but Tylon saw everything behind when I was leaning over the counter. His jaw ticked once, and his fists were clenched as if he was holding himself back from doing something. His eyes were anywhere but on me, and I knew that he saw everything. I mean, I wasn’t butt naked, but the shorts were very very… small. I burnt red. Looks like I need to put that $42 to good use and buy myself some pyjamas. He didn’t so much as glance back my way, his attention went straight to Caden. By the look on his face, I thouhBy the look on his face, I thought he was about to dish out some deathly threat at Caden. “You haven’t bought the groceries yet,” he said, taking me by surprise. “It your turn.” Caden’s mouth tipped but not into a smile. He had already seen the mark on my wrist, and he seemed to have known it was by Tylon’s hand. I could tell by the way his eyes had gone flat and careful and the muscle in his cheek had started doing its own thing. “Fine,” he said, voice even. “But I’m buying strawberry milk.” “I drink regular,” Tylon replied. “Exactly.” A pause stretched. Ty’s jaw ticked once. “I’ll do the shopping,” he said at last. “Pay the bills on time.” He left without another word, the air organizing itself in his wake. “You totally did that on purpose,” I said, half a laugh, half a question. Caden didn’t shrug it off this time. He looked at my wrist again, then at the doorway Ty had walked through. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night,” he said quietly. “Leo told me what happened. And I’m not surprised. Over the years I’ve known Ty, he’s…“ He sighed and shook his head, as if deeming it useless. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But if you ever need anything, knock. Don’t worry about the hour.” The apology surprised me more than it should have. “Thank you,” I said, soft because it mattered. I scuffed my thumb over the edge of the mug and tried to make my voice normal. “So… you’ve known him forever?” “We’ve known each other since we were kids. This is his house, and the school is located in his pa—” His eyes widened as if he saw something scary, then he coughed on the words. It was one of those fake coughs that suggested he was trying to hide something. “His what?” I pressed. He shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes were evidently trying to find a way to tell me. “His… Parents house,” he said as if he had a lightbulb moment. “Well, basically, the entire area is kind of owned by his parents. And the neighbouring… land is mine.” I didn’t understand the pause in his sentence, but I let it slide. “So you guys are basically some rich aristocratic families?” He had that thoughtful look again. “Yes, I guess you can say that. Why do you think it’s called the Blackridge house? It’s not names after the university, you know. More like the university is named after his family, centuries old.” “His name is Blackridge?” I asked as my eyes widened, and Caden nodded. “Oh damn. So, he can throw me out.” Caden threw back his head with a laugh. “No, princess. No, he can’t. It’s basically his house, but the directive came directly from the… heads.” “Like the council?” Yet again, I managed to put that shocked look on his face. I really should start making notes. But then he collected himself, as if remembering that they mentioned it yesterday. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “So, you do guys work for your families? Or do you just get everything handed to you?” His face went unnaturally still, and I seemed to have struck a nerve. I felt awful. Maybe I said it too harsh? Maybe I misjudged them? Maybe they don’t get handouts— “Yeah,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts. He looked down, evidently troubled by something. “Yeah, I work for my father.” Oh. So, he wasn’t offended about the handouts comment. Yet, it seemed he had a complicated relationship with his father. “I work for him alright,” he added with a humourless laugh. “Though I wished I didn’t.” I wanted to ask what kind of work he did, but I didn’t want to pry or push him farther into a hole he was evidently uncomfortable with. “So, what’s Blackridge like? Not the family. The university,” I asked, and I could see that he was grateful for the topic change.” “Oh, you’ll love it. You’re transferred, right? So you’re going into third year?” “Yeah,” I said, heaving out a breath. “But I’m not so much worried about school as I am about the internship. I need this to work out. My future and education depend on me being able to stay in this internship.” Caden drained his mug and threw it in the dishwasher before turning to face me again. “Well, from what I know, that program is full of preppy, geeky students. So, you should fit right—” I sailed a kitchen towel at him before he could finish, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You are of no help!” I managed through my laugh. He shrugged innocently as he backed out of the kitchen with his hands up. “It got you smiling though, didn’t it?” I opened my mouth to throw another rebut at him,but he was gone before I could. I rolled my eyes and finished my own coffee. Chapter 7 Maya “Maya! Wait up!” Elise’s voice echoed across the field. I turned as she jogged over, ponytail neat even while running, two folders clenched to her chest and a granola bar clenched between her teeth. “Late on your first day?” she said, as she fell in line with me. I checked my watch. “It’s not even eight yet.” “I know,” she mumbled as she finished her snack. “But Ms. Vale likes punctual. Preferably thirty minutes early. Preferably yesterday.” I snorted. “Noted.” “You slept well?” she asked with a curious glint in her eyes. “Define well,” I said, because three hours of lying very still doesn’t count in my view. “I’m functional.” “As are most of us. You get used to it.” I snorted again, but this time it was swallowed by a yawn. “You had coffee though, right?” “Of course. I wouldn’t be functional if I didn’t.” She threw back her head with a laugh. “Good. That’s ninety percent of the job,” she said brightly. We cut through the lobby of Comms & Policy, where the air smelled like paper and ink and ambition. I saw pictures on their website when I was signing up for the internship and scholarship, but it was nothing alike in person. And in the good way. Ms. Vale met us at the door with a handshake and a surprisingly welcoming smile. By the way Elise mentioned her, I thought I’d see an elderly woman with a bun too tight and a permanent scowl. But Miss Vale was kind eyed and young. “I heard abut the housing mishap,” she said as she pulled me away from Elise, who waved and went to her desk. “I personally take offence, given that I advocated for your arrival and comfort.” I had no idea how to respond to that. “It’s okay, really. The Blackridge house isn’t all that… bad.” “Well, if you need anything, report it to your team lead, then it will come directly to me, okay?” Relief flooded me. “Yes, thank you so much. When will I meet the team leader?” Before she could respond, a familiar face—which I didn’t want to be familiar one bit, step in front of me with a fake smile and three inch extension eye lashes. “Maya. So happy to you on the team,” she chirp with the most obnoxious attempt of friendlies. “Oh lovely. You’re here,” Miss Vale said. “Maya, meet Jamillia Phills, your team lead.” If my eyes could have popped out of my head, it would have already. “Jamille, you have already been prepped for Maya, but now you’re meeting her. It seems you two already know each other.” “We’ve ran into each other already,” Jamille said with calculating eyes. “Last night, actually.” I didn’t want to remember it. The way Tylon had her over his desk. The way he drove into her. The way she moaned his name. “Maya,” Jamille said, breaking me from my thoughts. “You look a little flushed. Are you okay to start today?” Ms. Vale glanced at me in concern. “Yes. I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I… It’s nice to formally meet your Jamille.” I extended my hand, but she barely brushed her nails across I t, before wiping it in her jacket discreetly. What a bitch. “Well, I’;; ;eave you guys to it. Jamille runs a wonderful team, and based on your letter, resume and interview, Maya, I know you’ll fit right in. Have a productive day!” And with that, Miss Vale was gone. Great. I head a feeling that Jamille was going to make my time here a living hell. I thought Caden said only nerdy people worked here! She looked so out of place, and the length of her skirt should have been illegal. “Morning everyone!” she said, getting the room’s attention. “Get to work!” Everyone looked at her as I would’ve too. Because everyone was already working. Expect me. So she ran through assignments with unqualified authority. She “couldn’t find” my network login, so I sat at a guest terminal half of the day. She “realized” my badge hadn’t been encoded and set it aside to “sort later.” She asked for a dry, two-paragraph brief, then rewrote it in front of three team members and called the spectacle a “teachable moment.” Elise drifted in and out like a guardian when she could, but she could only do so much and no more. I left for my first classes, which were great, and then returned as we were allowed and expected to. But apparently, Jamille didn’t get that rule, apparently. She accused me of skipping work, and threatened that she’d convince Ms. Vale to fire me if I didn’t make up the hours. So here I was, at seven-thirty, alone in the office doing unnecessary shit. This was the worst first day ever, and if I didn’t need it—if I wouldn’t have been homeless and broke without this, I would have left. “You’ll want a thicker skin,” she said as I got ready to leave. “This isn’t community college.” My eyes narrowed, and the words that erupted in my mind to tell her would have most definitely gotten me fired. Still, I bit my tongue, pushed passed her and left the building. The cool air was welcoming. Campus at night was different from campus at day. I was offered transportation too, and it did come. But Jamille’s tactics made the shuttle leave me. I needed to talk to Miss Vale. But I couldn’t get to Miss Vale without Jamille. I had to find another way. Footsteps joined mine somewhere between the fountain and the oaks, but not closely behind. I got rid of my heels and walked barefoot. At this point, I had no dignity left part from the need to ease the ache in my feet. Another sound answered ruffled behind me. Now, I was completely alone on the dark path that led to Blackridge house, so it could be anything. I shifted the bag higher on my shoulder and kept a good pace. The steps behind me drew closer. The bush rustled, and that’s when I broke out into a run. But I wasn’t fast enough, and within seconds, I was tackled to the ground, and a hand was pushing something over my nose. I fought against the darkness. I really did. But it didn’t last. The last thing I saw was another body emerging before the world got dark. Chapter 8 Maya The cold from the ground did the waking for me. My cheek was pressed into damp leaves, with dirt stuck between my teeth as I swallowed. Rope burned at my wrists when I tried to move, and my ankles jerked and I slid forward, when I realized I was being dragged like luggage through mud. There were voiced around me. Three male voices. When I adjusted my eyes to the dark, I noticed that I was right. One was hauling me half consciousness through the forest by the rope slung over his shoulder, one walked ahead parting the bush, and the other one paced off to the side like he’d been assigned to watch the edges. I lifted my head and blinked past the blur. For one awful second my brain said names it shouldn’t. Tylon, Caden and Leo… because who else would be here at this hour. I didn’t know them, after all. I just spent one might with them. But then my eyes adjusted, and even though I didn’t know them long. I instantly knew that these men weren’t them. They were less bulk and more scrawny, their walk was different and even from behind, I knew it wasn’t them. No. These men weren’t the ones I knew. It was then that I realized that I was definitely and undoubtedly being kidnapped. Rule number one was not looking too possible right now. I pulled against the rope once my self preservation instinct kicked, catching their attention. They stopped, and the way they looked at me like I was a package instead of a person. “Up,” the one dragging me said, annoyed for some reason like he was the one being hauled in mud. I got my knees under me and pushed up on shaky legs. It was trees for miles. No campus lights bled this far. The ground sloped in a way that told me we weren’t on any paved path I’d seen. I had no idea where they were taking me, ho they were, and what they were going to do with me. “What do you want with me?” i asked, and my voice came out thin and frail. I coughed once and I tried again. “Why me?” The one with the beard glanced back but didn’t answer. “Orders,” the one pulling me said, as if that was an answer. Anger clawed at me. I tested the rope at my wrists, and felt as it bit into my skin. “Let me go!” I demanded, as I dug my heel into the ground, refusing to go further. “This is illegal!” “Careful, sweetheart,” the scouter mocked. “I’d hate to scuff the product.” I still stood firm. “I’m not anyone’s product, you asshole. If you don’t let me go, you will be sorry. My boyfriend doesn’t play.” I was bluffing. Of course I was, and apparently, they knew it too. “Shut up,” he said, in a bored tone before hauling me forward again. I tripped over my feet and fell face down into the mud. I winced as I felt a branch slice my cheek, and I spat out a mouthful of mud. I couldn’t let this happen. I needed to get out of this alive. Fumbling to get back onto my feet, I decided to devise a plan. A terrible one, but a plan just the same. I didn’t endure years of abuse to finally get into my dream school and die this way. I refused to. I increased my pace so that I was close enough to the guy dragging me. He glanced back and smirked. “Good, the faster you move, the better—” I didn’t wait fro him to finish. Instead, I lined myself close to him, then drove the point of my knee into his shin where there’s less meat. He swore and stumbled, and the rope at my ankles went slack. I turned into Beard Guy, threw my shoulder and balance into his ribs, and bought myself two free steps. The scouter grabbed my arm, and I swung my bound wrists into his jaw, felt the hit all the way to my elbow, and went for his groin. That one hurt. I made a run for it, but even I knew it was futile. Those hits weren’t even hard enough to keep them down for a minute. But not only did I hurt them, I pissed them off. A kick to my side sent me face down in the mud again with a wince. The air left me quick and hard. When I forced breath back into my lungs, the punch to my cheek came clean and hard, and I knew it would leave a bruise by morning. I spat blood into the leaves and saw scouter smile like he’d been waiting to like so something all night. He cocked his fist again, and I braced for impact. Except, he never landed it. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flash of a shadow, and he was being flung into a tree. The other two followed in similar ways. Bodies went down in a way that seem unnatural. It was way too fast… too clean. The shadow resolved into a person I knew. Dark curls always a little unruly, shoulders broad shoulders and those eyes. Except, Caden’s eyes, usually a bright, warm blue, looked near black in the thin light, all pupil, no ease. He came to me in two strides, turned me gently, and loosed the knot at my wrists effortlessly, like he’d tie his own knots in his days. “Hey,” he said, voice steady in a way that made me breathe. “You with me?” “I think so,” I managed to say. “Good. Don’t look.” Before I could ask what he meant, manly screams echoed through the trees, sent sleeping bird fleeing. And I realized that Caden wasn’t alone. Leo and Tylon were there too. They all came for me. I didn’t know why or how. But gosh, did I fall in love with them at the very thought.