THE DEVIL MAFIA'S HUSBAND

Rain was falling hard over Velthorne City. Thunder cracked like a gunshot, and the black iron gates of Veyre Mansion stood like the gates of hell itself. Adrian stood in front of them, soaking wet, holding a small torn photograph in his shaking hand. In the photo was a woman he had never met. A woman with his eyes. His mother. For twenty-one years, he had asked one question: _Who am I?_ The orphanage told him nothing. The files were burned. The only name anyone whispered was one name: *Veyre.* So he came here. To the house everyone in the city feared. To the house of the man they called The Devil. He pressed the bell. Nothing. He pressed it again, harder. The gate finally opened with a loud creak, and two huge men in black suits blocked his way. Guns at their sides. Faces like stone. "Who are you?" one growled. "Do you know whose house this is?" Adrian swallowed hard. His voice shook, but he did not run. "My name is Adrian. I... I need to see Lucian Veyre. It's about my mother. I think... I think he knew her." The two men looked at each other and laughed. "Kid, everybody wants to see the boss. Leave before you get yourself killed." "I am not leaving!" Adrian shouted, rain running down his face. "I have walked for three days to get here! Please! Just tell him... tell him my mother's name was Elena." The moment he said that name, the air changed. The laughter stopped. The guards went pale. Because inside the mansion, on the third floor, behind the bulletproof glass of his office... Lucian Veyre had just frozen. He was not human. He could hear a heartbeat from a mile away. He could smell blood, fear, rain... And now, he could smell _him_. His hand, the hand that had signed death orders without shaking, was shaking now. "Elena's son," he whispered. "He's alive. After all these years, he finally came to me." For 21 years, Lucian had kept a promise. A promise he made to Elena on the night she died. _Protect my son. If anything happens to me, find him._ And now that son was standing at his gate, in the rain, demanding to see the Devil. Lucian stood up slowly. His black suit, his cold eyes, his aura that made even mafia kings bow... all of it cracked for one second. "Bring him in," he said into the intercom, his voice low and dangerous. "If one drop of rain touches him again, I will kill every man at that gate." The guards stiffened. They had never heard the boss sound like that. Adrian was brought inside, dripping wet, confused and scared. The mansion was dark. Huge. Candles everywhere. Portraits of men with black wings. The smell of roses and blood. And then, at the top of the grand staircase, he saw him. *Lucian Veyre.* Tall. Black hair. Eyes like red wine and darkness. A scar on his jaw. A ring with a black diamond. He looked like a king. He looked like a monster. Adrian's heart started beating too fast. Why did his chest hurt? Why did this stranger feel so familiar? Lucian walked down the stairs, slow, like a predator. He stopped just one step away from Adrian. He looked at Adrian's face. The same eyes as Elena. The same stubborn chin. But there was something else. Something only Lucian as a vampire could sense. _Mate._ His soul was screaming: _Mine. Mine. Mine._ Adrian stepped back. "Don't... don't come closer. Who are you? Did you know my mother?" Lucian's eyes softened. A softness no one alive had ever seen. "My name is Lucian Veyre," he said quietly. "I knew your mother, Elena. Very well." Adrian's breath caught. "Then... tell me. Who was she? Why did she leave me? Who is my father? Why did she tell me to find you?" Lucian looked at the photograph in Adrian's wet hand. His jaw tightened. "Your mother did not leave you, Adrian. She died protecting you. And before she died, she made me promise one thing." "What promise?" Adrian whispered. Lucian leaned closer, his voice low, possessive, and broken at the same time. "That I would protect you with my life. And that I would never let the people who killed her find you." Silence. The candles flickered. Thunder roared outside. Adrian's photograph slipped from his hand and fell to the floor. "So... you are not my father?" "No," Lucian said. "I am something else." He picked up the photograph and gave it back to Adrian, his fingers brushing Adrian's hand. That small touch made Adrian's whole body shiver. "I am the man who has been waiting for you for twenty-one years. And now that you are here, Adrian..." Lucian's red eyes glowed in the dark. "I am never letting you leave ."