5

The room was too quiet. Too still.

Except for him.

Lucian.

The man who had saved me. The man who had bitten me.

He stood near the fireplace, his broad frame bathed in flickering light, casting deep shadows across his face. His silver eyes gleamed, unreadable, as he watched me with the kind of calm that set my teeth on edge.

I hated that he looked so at ease, like none of this had affected him. Meanwhile, I was standing there—barefoot, disoriented, my skin humming with something foreign and wrong—and he had the audacity to look bored.

I clenched my fists. “Who the hell are you?”

Lucian tilted his head slightly, like I was something mildly interesting, but not urgent. “I could ask you the same thing.”

My breath hitched. Not the answer I wanted.

“Don’t play games with me,” I snapped. “You dragged me here. You—” My throat tightened, a sharp ache pulsing deep inside me. I swallowed hard. “You did something to me.”

Lucian exhaled, rubbing his jaw. “You say that like I had a choice.”

“Did you?” I took a step forward, ignoring the strange weight of my own movements. My body still felt off. Too light, too aware. “Because last time I checked, I didn’t ask for this.”

His gaze flicked over me, assessing, calculating. “Would you rather I had left you in that alley? Bleeding out? Because I can assure you, the alternative would have been far less pleasant.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, my mind flashing back—the golden-eyed man, the bite, the burning.

I had been dying.

But that didn’t mean I wanted… this.

My jaw tightened. “So what, you just decided to turn me into—” I stopped, unable to say the word.

Lucian’s lips quirked. “A vampire?”

The word hit me like a slap.

My chest squeezed. My fingers trembled.

“No,” I whispered. “No, that’s not—”

My voice cracked, my breath catching. I pressed a shaking hand to my chest, feeling nothing. No heartbeat. No steady rhythm beneath my ribs.

Cold realization settled over me like a suffocating fog.

I wasn’t human anymore.

I wasn’t me.

I lifted my gaze, eyes burning. “What did you do to me?”

Lucian sighed, his expression shifting—just a flicker, a ghost of something unreadable. Then it was gone, replaced by that same infuriating calm.

“I did what I had to.”

I let out a sharp laugh, bitter and hollow. “That’s not an answer.”

Lucian studied me for a long moment. Then, with slow, deliberate movements, he leaned against the wooden desk near the fireplace, crossing his arms over his chest.

Fine. He wanted to play it cool? I could, too.

I straightened, lifting my chin. “If you’re not going to give me real answers, then I’ll find them myself.”

I turned toward the door.

And in the next instant—he was there.

Blocking my way.

I froze.

I hadn’t even seen him move. One second he had been across the room, and the next—he was right in front of me.

My pulse should have spiked. My breath should have caught.

But there was no pulse. No breath.

Just a strange, electric awareness curling in my stomach.

Lucian’s voice was soft, but firm. “You’re not going anywhere.”

I hated how steady he sounded, how completely in control he was while I was falling apart.

I swallowed hard. “Watch me.”

I tried to step past him, but the second I moved, his arm shot out—fast.

Instinct kicked in. I reacted before I could think, twisting sharply, knocking his arm away.

The force of it sent me stumbling back, my body too fast, too strong.

Lucian’s gaze darkened, something flickering in those silver eyes. “You’re already adapting.”

I barely heard him.

Because I had felt it, too.

The way my body had moved—fluid, unnatural, something more than human.

Panic flared in my chest.

This wasn’t me.

I pressed a hand against the doorframe, swallowing down the nausea rising in my throat. “I can’t do this.”

Lucian exhaled sharply. “You don’t have a choice.”

I turned to him, my voice shaking with rage and fear. “You don’t get to decide that for me.”

His eyes flickered—just for a moment. Then he straightened, his expression hardening again. “It’s already decided.”

Something inside me snapped.

I stepped toward him, ignoring the way my body still hummed with new strength. “You don’t even care, do you? You don’t care that I didn’t want this. That I didn’t choose this.” My voice rose. “You think you saved me? You ruined me!”

Silence.

A long, heavy pause.

Then—Lucian moved.

Not fast. Not aggressive. Just… deliberate.

Until he was close. Too close.

I refused to back down.

Even when he leaned in slightly, voice quiet, but edged with something sharp.

“You think I wanted to do this?”

His words sent a chill down my spine.

His silver eyes burned into mine, his voice dropping even lower.

“You think I wanted to be the one to save you?” A bitter smile touched his lips. “Because I didn’t.”

I clenched my jaw. “Then why—”

“Because if I didn’t, they would have taken you.”

The world tilted.

I blinked. “What?”

Lucian didn’t move. “You weren’t just some random girl in the wrong place at the wrong time.” His voice was flat. Certain. “They were hunting you. Specifically.”

My stomach dropped.

“No,” I whispered.

“Yes,” he said simply.

I shook my head. “That’s not—”

“They knew what you were before you did.”

Ice filled my veins.

I forced myself to meet his gaze. “What do you mean?”

Lucian exhaled slowly, as if weighing his words.

Then—

“You’re the first Omega vampire in centuries, Elle.”

The room spun.

I swayed slightly, my hands gripping the doorframe too tightly. “That—” I swallowed hard. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Lucian’s gaze didn’t waver. “Doesn’t it?”

I shook my head. “I was just—” My voice wobbled. “I was just normal.”

Lucian watched me, his expression unreadable.

Then, softer—

“You were never normal.”

A shudder ran through me.

I didn’t want to believe him.

But deep down, I already knew.

I had always felt like I didn’t belong. Like there was something different about me, something waiting just beneath the surface.

And now—

Now it had been unleashed.

I sucked in a shaky breath, my mind spinning.

Lucian took a step back, his voice quieter. “You don’t have to believe me yet. But soon, you won’t have a choice.”