Page 1 of Fourth

Prologue

THE NIGHTconcealed him, just as it alwayshad.

Riv’En stood in the shadows near the engineering wing of the nearly deserted Berkeley campus, body coiled, breath silent. He was motionless, aghost etched in darkness, eyes locked onto the human female below.

Target: acquired.

She moved quickly, unaware—blonde hair spilling down her back, catching the faint amber glow of a flickering walkway light. Her steps echoed softly against the pavement, one hand gripping the strap of her backpack. Wide blue eyes flicked left, then right, scanning, but not seeing. Petite. Fragile-looking. Predictable.

But a flicker of something broke the pattern.

She hesitated—barely—glancing behind her with a crease between her brows. Not suspicion. Not certainty. Just a whisperof unease she couldn’t place. Atension she clearly didn’t understand. Her fingers tightened on the strap.

The odds of a clean extraction: 94.2 percent.

Riv’En’s fingers twitched once, calibrating timing.

Five steps. She adjusted her grip on the backpack, aslight hitch in her pace—fatigue, maybe. He tracked the shift, recalculated.

Four. Abreeze stirred her hair. She turned her head slightly, but then kept walking. No awareness. No suspicion.

He inhaled slowly.

Three steps until her life was forever changed. The echo of her next footfall cracked the quiet, sharp and singular. Still steady. Still vulnerable.

Two.

His heart rate slowed as his muscles tightened in anticipation, every fiber of his body aligning with perfect lethal intent. She was inches from the edge of everything she’d ever known.

One.

Just one step until she never made it home again.

He moved.

Silent. Meticulous. Inevitable.

He was Alpha Unit, assassin-class—engineered for exactness, bred for elimination, trained to leave no witnesses.Which meant the girl would not see him coming, not with his ability to camouflage himself. If he had been ordered to kill her, she would not survive the moment he struck.

But he had not been sent tokill.

He stared down at her, breath tight in his chest, the power of unspoken orders from Alpha Unit’s Third still echoing in his mind. One twitch of his wrist, one shift in intention, and she would begone.

She sensed him a split-second toolate.

Her body jerked, spine stiffening as her head whipped back—

He struck.

An arm locked around her waist with ruthless intent, the other snapping forward to pin her arms. She bucked, twisted, fought back like a wild thing. Elbows drove, feet lashed, nails raked. She snarled a half-formed scream, intense and guttural—

He clamped a hand over her mouth, but toolate.

The sound sliced through the air, sharp and bright—aragged, panicked cry that shattered the stillness like glass dropped on stone. It pierced straight through the darkness, lancing down his spine and igniting a primal urgency in his chest. Not a warning. Not a call for help. Aflare, fraught, unfiltered, and impossible to ignore.

It echoed off the surrounding buildings, far louder than it should havebeen.

Vexx.

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