CHAPTER 7: THE FIRST THREAT
1702 Words
POV: Alessia De Luca
“You’re either brave…”
Cassian’s hand remained beside her waist, heat radiated from his body unnaturally, predator heat, wolf heat.
His gold eyes burned in the darkness while the fortress alarms continued screaming somewhere below them.
“…or suicidal.”
The words slid slowly down Alessia’s spine, dangerously.
Every instinct inside her recognized the threat standing inches away, too powerful, too possessive, too close.
Yet somehow, she still refused to look away.
Cassian’s breathing remained rough, uneven, like the wolf beneath his skin was still fighting to surface completely.
His claws pressed deeper into the marble beside her head, stone cracked again.
Alessia’s pulse thundered painfully but not entirely from fear anymore.
That realization terrified her more than anything else.
Then suddenly, gunfire exploded somewhere beneath the fortress.
Cassian’s attention snapped away instantly, predator instinct.
The momentary distraction broke the suffocating tension between them.
Alessia stepped back quickly, distance.
She needed distance before her body forgot this man was dangerous.
Cassian noticed immediately.
Of course he did.
His expression darkened slightly, possessive irritation flickered briefly across his face before disappearing beneath cold control again.
Another gunshot echoed upward, followed by shouting.
Russian,urgent.
Cassian turned toward the lower corridors.
“The intruder’s still alive,” he muttered.
Then his gaze shifted back toward her.
Sharp, commanding.
“You stay in your room this time.”
Alessia crossed her arms slowly.
“You keep saying that like I obey you.”
His wolf reacted instantly to the challenge.
Gold flashed brighter beneath his eyes.
God.
He liked defiance far too much.
Cassian stepped toward her once more.
Slowly, dangerously calm.
“You’re confusing tolerance with permission.”
Before Alessia could answer, Nikolai appeared at the end of the corridor covered in blood.
Not his own.
“The tunnels are sealed,” he reported immediately. “But we found this.”
One of the wolves behind him dragged a dead man forward by the leg.
The corpse hit the marble floor hard.
Alessia stiffened instantly.
Eastern Syndicate tattoo, a black serpent carved into the man’s throat.
His chest looked shredded open, not by bullets but by claws.
Cassian barely glanced at the body.
“Search him.”
One of the wolves crouched immediately, ripping open the dead man’s tactical jacket.
Weapons,silver blades,poison capsules.
Then, a folded black envelope.
Nikolai handed it directly to Cassian.
The second Cassian opened it, the entire atmosphere around him changed.
Stillness, deadly stillness.
Alessia felt it immediately, danger.
“What is it?” she asked quietly.
Cassian didn’t answer at first.
His jaw tightened once.
Hard, then he handed her the note.
The paper smelled faintly like smoke and blood.
Only one sentence had been written across it in dark ink.
RETURN THE DE LUCA GIRL OR THE NEXT BODY WILL BE HERS.
Cold spread through Alessia instantly. War.
Real war, not whispered threats inside cathedrals anymore, not political tension disguised as diplomacy.
This was open aggression.
An attack this direct would ripple through every Volkov operation by sunrise. Eastern shipping ports, laundering fronts, Balkan protection networks, and black-market weapons routes would all brace for retaliation.
Cassian watched her reaction carefully.
“You understand now,” he said softly.
Alessia lifted her eyes slowly toward him.
“This isn’t about the alliance anymore.”
“No.”
The single word sounded like death.
Nikolai folded his arms nearby.
“Kozlov’s getting desperate.”
Desperate enough to risk destabilizing syndicate treaties, cartel negotiations, and millions flowing throughVolkov-controlled shell corporations across Europe.
Cassian’s expression remained unreadable.
“Desperate men make mistakes.”
“But dangerous ones first,” Nikolai replied grimly.
Alessia looked between them quietly.
Kozlov, The Eastern Syndicate leader, whose name had circled mafia conversations her entire life like poison, brutal, unpredictable, obsessed with territory expansion.
And now apparently obsessed with destroying this marriage alliance too.
Why?
That question settled heavily in her chest, because none of this made sense anymore.
If the alliance was purely political, why were syndicates reacting like this marriage threatened the balance of power itself?
And why had Cassian looked genuinely furious seeing her blood on that dress earlier?
Not politically furious, personally furious, dangerously personal.
Cassian suddenly looked toward the guards.
“Double security around the east wing.”
Nikolai frowned slightly.
“The council meeting starts in an hour.”
“I know.”
“You can’t bring her.”
Cassian’s gaze shifted slowly toward him.
The corridor temperature seemed to drop instantly.
Nikolai lowered his head immediately.
“My mistake, Alpha.”
Interesting, very interesting.
Cassian intended to bring Alessia into a syndicate council meeting already?
That wasn’t normal, even she knew that.
Mafia wives stayed ornamental, silent.
Beautiful decorations standing beside powerful men, but the wolves inside this fortress kept looking at her differently now.
Not just as a bride but as something becoming politically important.
Because whoever stood beside the Black Alpha stood beside an empire built on oil contracts, military brokers, private armies, and governments bought quietly through fear and money.
Cassian turned back toward her.
“Get dressed.”
Alessia blinked once.
“For what?”
“The council meeting.”
Nikolai looked genuinely shocked this time.
Several guards exchanged uneasy glances too.
One muttered quietly in Russian.
Cassian didn’t even look at him.
“Say it louder.”
Silence.
Nobody repeated it, absolute authority.
Alessia studied Cassian carefully now.
“What exactly happens at this meeting?”
“Territories.”
“Weapons.”
“War.”
Simple answers, terrifying answers.
Cassian stepped closer again, close enough for his scent to invade her senses: cedarwood, smoke,wolf.
“You’re Volkov now,” he said quietly. “Which means every enemy I have will eventually come for you.”
The possessiveness beneath the words wrapped tightly around her chest.
Not if, when. Like he had already accepted violence surrounding her permanently.
Maybe he had.
“You sound certain I’ll survive this empire,” she said softly.
Cassian’s eyes darkened instantly.
“You will.”
The certainty in his voice sent heat flashing low through her stomach before she crushed it immediately.
No. Absolutely not.
She refused to become another woman hypnotized by dangerous men.
Cassian Volkov was still a monster, even if part of him protected her.
Especially then, because monsters who protected became monsters who possessed.
And Cassian already possessed too much.
The fortress suddenly shook faintly beneath their feet.
An explosion somewhere outside.
Nikolai grabbed his weapon instantly.
“East gate.”
Cassian moved immediately afterward.
Pure predator motion,fast,lethal.
He looked toward Alessia sharply.
“Inside the council chamber. Now.”
Again with the orders.
Alessia almost argued until another explosion thundered through the mountains.
This one was closer. The fortress alarms screamed louder instantly.
Wolves flooded the corridors below them armed with rifles and silver ammunition, war energy consumed the estate in seconds.
Somewhere beneath the fortress, encrypted command centers would already be sealing biometric vaults, activating surveillance grids, and tracking movement across Volkov territories through military-grade intelligence systems.
Cassian grabbed her wrist suddenly before she could move.
The contact froze her breath.
His gold eyes locked onto hers intensely.
“Stay near my wolves.”
Not:stay safe.
Not:please.
Still an order.
But beneath it, fear, tiny, deep hidden. Fear for her.
The realization unsettled her badly. Then he released her and disappeared down the corridor with terrifying speed.
Nikolai motioned sharply afterward.
“This way, Luna.”
Alessia followed silently through the fortress while chaos erupted around them.
Men shouting into radios, weapons distributed from underground vaults, half-shifted wolves sprinting through corridors.
The Volkov empire looked less like a luxury dynasty tonight and more like an army preparing for invasion.
They entered the council chamber minutes later. The room stunned her instantly, a massive circular war table, screens showing territory maps across Europe, weapon routes, port locations, names of syndicates marked in red.
This wasn’t a crime, this was military strategy disguised as organized power.
The Volkov Syndicate operated more like a shadow government than a mafia empire. Senators, shipping empires, cartel alliances, and private military divisions all flowed through the hands seated at this table.
Several Alphas already stood around the table arguing violently.
They all stopped when Alessia entered.
Silence spread immediately afterward.
One older wolf narrowed his eyes.
“She shouldn’t be here.”
Another nodded coldly.
“This is syndicate business.”
Nikolai shut the doors behind her.
“The Alpha disagrees.”
Nobody argued after that. Fear again.
Always fear where Cassian was concerned.
Alessia moved quietly toward the edge of the room, studying everything. The maps, the routes, the hierarchy. Learning, always learning because survival inside this empire clearly depended on understanding power before it destroyed you.
Then suddenly, the council chamber doors burst open violently.
Cassian entered covered in snow and blood.
Every wolf in the room straightened instantly, dominance slammed through the chamber like a physical force.
His eyes had returned gray now but the monster still lingered beneath them, dangerously close to the surface and if rival syndicates discovered the Black Alpha was struggling against the curse, underworld wars would ignite across multiple territories before dawn.
Cassian walked directly toward the war table without acknowledging anyone.
“Report.”
One wolf cleared his throat nervously.
“An explosive device detonated outside the eastern gates. Minimal structural damage.”
“Casualties?”
“Two guards were injured.”
Cassian’s jaw flexed once.
Not enough blood for Kozlov which meant this attack had only been a warning.
Cassian seemed to realize the same thing.
His gaze lifted slowly toward the security monitor screens lining the chamber walls.
Then froze.
The room went silent instantly.
Alessia followed his line of sight and felt her stomach drop.
Outside the fortress gates, hanging from iron chains beneath falling snow was the body of a massive black wolf.
Dead, skinned open across the stomach Its throat carved apart brutally.
A Volkov wolf.
A message.
Blood covered the snow beneath it like spilled ink, one sentence had been carved directly into the animal’s chest.
THE BLACK ALPHA BLEEDS NEXT.
For one terrible second, Alessia realized that if Cassian Volkov truly fell, the entire criminal economy would collapse with him.
- Writer
