chapter 2

The first thing Aiden felt was the cold.

The sheets beneath him were silk, smooth and expensive, but his skin burned with the ghost of heat — a touch that didn’t belong to him. His head throbbed, his body sore in ways he couldn’t name.

The chandelier above him flickered faintly, light reflecting off broken glass scattered near the bed. The faint scent of smoke, wine, and something deeper — darker — lingered in the air.

Pheromones.

And not just any — Enigma scent.

Aiden’s eyes flew open. He sat up sharply, chest heaving. The room was empty — quiet except for his breathing.

For a long moment, he didn’t move. His mind was blank, trying to fill the spaces that memory refused to give. Then it came in flashes — the party, the scent, the golden eyes, the heat that swallowed him whole.

“No…”

His voice cracked. “No, that can’t—”

He threw off the sheets and stumbled toward the mirror. His reflection stared back — messy hair, sweat-damp skin, and there, just below his collarbone… a mark.

Not just any mark.

An Enigma’s bite.

It wasn’t deep, but the scent embedded in it was unmistakable. Luzian Vale’s.

The breath left his lungs. His entire body tensed — every Alpha instinct rising, screaming against the humiliation that pulsed beneath his skin.

He slammed his fist against the mirror. It cracked, splintering his reflection into a thousand broken pieces.

“This can’t be real,” he whispered, voice shaking between fury and disbelief. “I don’t submit. Not to anyone.”

He pressed a hand to his neck — the skin was warm, tingling with a faint pulse of foreign pheromones. His body remembered what his mind refused to accept. And that broke something inside him.

He dressed quickly — the clothes scattered across the floor weren’t his, but it didn’t matter. He needed to get out. Now.

The more he tried to breathe, the more the scent suffocated him — faint but haunting. Luzian’s scent. It clung to his skin like a brand.

He glanced once more at the bed — wrinkled sheets, faint claw marks on the headboard, the evidence of everything he didn’t want to remember. His stomach twisted. He wanted to burn the entire room.

Pride was everything to him.

And it had been shattered.

No one could know.

Not his family.

Not the syndicate.

Not anyone.

He stumbled toward the door, slipping on the marble for a moment before catching himself. His heart hammered against his ribs as he stepped into the quiet hallway of the hotel.

He didn’t care whose place it was. He didn’t care what he left behind.

He just needed to run.

The city outside was still dark — dawn barely touching the skyline. He walked fast, then faster, then into a run, each step echoing with shame and fury.

By the time the sun rose, Aiden Roque was gone — vanished into the maze of streets, leaving behind the scent of regret and a bed that still carried the Enigma’s name.

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