Page 1 of Celestial Alphas

Prologue

SEVERI

Everything screams “I’m better than your race” in this shitty, bright and rich city. I aimlessly wander around the frigid office, which is a snug room filled mostly with a supercilious desk that no doubt cost thousands. The rich wooden desk matches the endless bookcases, the rich brown leather chairs, and the old navy rug under my muddy boots. It smells like the potted plant in the corner, which is half-dead. I use one of my powers to make it grow and heal, turning the brown leaves into a vibrant green and blooming a white peace lily flower in the centre. The fragrance of the flower chases away the stale smell in here as the door slams open behind me, and an angry Nexus stomps in.

My body tenses. “Where’s the daughter?” the Supreme Alpha growls, his new title thanks to me, and the fucker seems to have forgotten that tiny fact. He looks at me like I’m a young kid unable to follow commands. Little does he know he is the pawn in this game, just as much as I am. We both always have been, but the queen is on the board now, and it’s time to make sure she lives at the end. “I know your kind struggle with self-control, but I don’t want Annie hurt. She is a powerful bargaining chip, even with her father dead.”

I cock my head to the side; my dark hair is cut short now, and I’m not sure I like it. “She won’t be a problem. Annie will be kept alive and well.”

His shoulders drop in his pricey dark suit. I would put money on him actually caring about Annie.Interesting.He sits down, the most powerful man in Starlight City, and he doesn’t look it. He looks like a complete and utter asshole. But one that will be useful to me…for now. This dipshit can get me near her, without those stupid other mates in the way. They are as good as dead when I track them down. They didn’t protect her. The fucking fools. “Good. I want weekly photo updates of her. I’ll let you into the prisons once at night to visit Gwenieve, like you desire, but do not kill her.”

I nearly blanch at the thought. Kill her? Fuck no. I’m not a danger to her here, but she hates me, and she should. Fuck, I hate myself for the past. For not being stronger.

The asshole is still talking. “You’ll get about two free hours, but only up to the trial, which is next week. After the trial, they’ll decide to kill her because there won’t be another option. She is too dangerous to our kind, and we never take change well. Once they see the footage of the house and the warehouse…and the murders, nothing will change their mind.”

They won’t get that far. No one will. The asshole continues, “I’ll make it look like she’s dead, then you can have her. We both agree that she’s better off with you. For our plans going forward it has to be like this. But, in exchange for her, you will wear a rune from me that keeps Starlight and its people safe from your kind. You can have everything else, but our city is untouched.”

I smirk, leaning on the wall in the shadows. “As long as she is mine and you make sure she hates the others…then we have an agreement. She’s my mate.”

“She’s a Nexus, and your kind do not have mates with us.” He can’t hide the disgust in his voice, even when the fucker is lying. He knows the truth, and all the lies in this city are disgusting.

“You sure that’s all she is?” I walk over, pressing my fists on the table as I lean down. “Careful labelling my mate…she is far more than you know.”

His eyes flash with fear, and I know it’s enough to make him second-guess hurting her. It’s the best I can do for now. She hates me. She’s always going to fucking hate me because she doesn’t know the truth, but some time with her…perhaps she will…fuck, I don’t know. I walk to the door, but he stands from his seat. “Wait!” I look over my shoulder, boredom etched across my face, a look I’ve perfected. “I’ll need the Vian that you promised. I have several councilmen that could do with being disposed of overnight, as they are asking too many questions. They have interesting powers that you might make use of if you want to do it yourself.”

He is vile. Betraying his own kind. I don’t let him see my true feelings on the matter. “I will send my commanders. They always like to collect powers, and I’m picky.”

The fucker doesn’t let me leave. “Does your father know you’re here? He hates our kind, but you working with me was always a bit of a surprise, boy.”

My blood runs cold at the thought of my father. If he knew I found Gwen again…game over for all of us. We are all lucky he doesn’t watch me that closely anymore. “No. But he would do anything to get to her, and he will be happy when I bring her to him.”

It’s just a lie. Everything I say is a fucking lie. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t lie. One day, she’ll know the truth, and then it won’t matter. It can’t. This can’t be all for nothing. “I’ll be back at nightfall.” I walk to the door and let a power I picked up years ago pull me through time and space likestepping through a door, until I’m outside the city limits. I stand on a hill, watching the massive city stretched out for miles in the burning sunlight that affects my kind but not me. The city is beautiful… Shame it will be nothing but dust soon.

Chapter

One

Monsters can be anyone—I know you just have to push a person far enough that they don’t know where else to turn but into the darkness awaiting them. I’ve been labelled a monster by everyone who knew the real me, and when it was screamed at me so many times, I began to believe it must be true. How can I be anything else? It began with my parents, and I knew it would never end. My Nexus is a monster, but Finnegan? He told me something else. He saw me; he saw everything I am capable of and what my monster likes to do, and he still kissed me. He saw the real me and didn’t screammonster.

I don’t know how to feel about that. I stare up at the ceiling for a moment longer, the nightmare I was held in drifting from my mind like claws detaching from prey, allowing it to slowly drag itself into the light. A bright white spotlight hangs right above the hard bed I’m lying on, burning into my eyes, and I smell like bleach as the confusion sets in. I’m not at the academy…or anywhere I know. My skin stings as I blink my eyes a few times to see a white ceiling with seven spotlights in a line above me. I sit up, rubbing my arm, and my dry mouth parts when I see the door.

It’s covered in black runes. Double doors, simple wooden doors, but they have hundreds of black runes painted on them. There isn’t a window; it’s just a concrete tomb and a bed with no mattress for me to lie on. Is this Finn’s room? Why the fuck would he live in something like this? Is it a safe house?

“Finn?” I question, reaching for him, feeling for the bond between us, but it’s gone. Instead, there is a buzzing noise in my mind, and even my Nexus seems pushed down under the weight of it. They are alive, all of them. I can feel it, but the bond is quiet for the first time in my life. My Nexus is dazed but there, slowly waking up like a storm drifting in off the sea. Someone has dressed me in a white jumpsuit and scrubbed me with bleach by the smell and feel of it. I remember seeing Finn, I remember him holding me, and then nothing.

How am I here? I reach for the rune that connects me to Onyx, but I’m just reminded that it’s gone. It’s just gone. Never thought I’d miss it. My heart is racing as I hear four clicks, four locks being undone, before the door opens and a familiar older man walks in with a cloud of “pretentious asshole” hovering around his dark thousand-pound suit and shiny-as-shit shoes. He is all pepper-grey curly hair, perfectly styled, and there isn’t a stain on him. The door swings shut behind him, and he cocks his head to the side. It reminds me of Onyx. “You’re Onyx’s father…”

“Smart,” he sighs. “And beautiful… I will begin this by apologising for the Nexus you have been born with. A terrible fate and not one I’d wish on my worst enemy. Your mates did the right thing by handing you over, Gwenieve Autumn. Now, I have questions about your upbringing and what your Nexus is capable of. The sooner you answer, the nicer I can make your new home for you. We can be powerful allies by the end?—”

“I know it was you,” I snarl, standing up off the bed, and I see him almost take a step back. He is scared of me, and a part of me hates that he knows enough to be scared. “Severi likes totalk. It’s kind of a really bad fucking habit of his. Chatters on and on, including telling me all about you and your plans, and how it was you letting Vian into the city to find me. How it was you that caused the murders. You’re working with them, and you made sure the Supreme Alpha ended up dead. The house bomb, the Vian, the dead are all your fault!” I shout, tears burning in my eyes as I think of Harry. Sweet Harry, who just began his life, who was the closest I ever got to a brother, is dead. He died in my arms because of this fucker. “When my Nexus is done, they won’t know what bit of your body is which.”

“Annie…you love her, right?”

I pause and my Nexus does, too.

“She is being held by the Vian, and one word from me…” He draws a line across his neck. He might as well draw a holy circle around himself because I won’t hurt him if it means hurting Annie. Fuck. “Besides…” He points up and I follow his direction to see where the spotlights are, tiny little lasers, sparkling out of the lights, and all of them are pointing right at my stomach. “You attack me, you’re dead. My name is Paavo Nieminen, and we can be allies if you are as smart as I suspect you are. Somehow, you’ve got that Nexus under control and managed to take out anyone that was a threat to you or others. I’ve watched the warehouse footage and seen exactly what you are. I’d hate to put you down.”

I want to laugh in his face, but I feel broken. I still huff at him. His grey hair curls like Onyx’s around his forehead, and his eyes are the very same in every sense. But Onyx is taller and not as lean as Paavo. It still hurts to look at him though, because I only see his son. His son who was stealing my heart like a thief, and when he got it, he crushed it and threw me away. “Hate to break it to you. It will take more than those to stop her.”

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