Savage Fortune

The sleek black car hummed along the rain- slick streets of Valebridge, shadows danced across its polished windows. Lucien Vale's voice was clipped, barely contained beneath layers of inherited authority. "I told you, Father-I will choose when I'm ready." The voice on the other end crackled with age and power. "And your readiness has cost us decades. The council expects a union before the Blood Moon. House Antheron's heir is willing. Her bloodline is pure. She already agreed." Lucien leaned his head back against the leather seat, jaw tight. Noble blood from another life..... ancient era. All contracts and convenience. No love. "She doesn't know me," Lucien said flatly. "And I won't tie myself to someone because ancient laws demand it." A pause. Then the final blow. "Then you perhaps deserve the crown at all." The car pulled up in a busy crosswalk. Lucien didn't wait for his driver. He pushed the door open mid-call, stepping onto the soaked pavement, the call still crackling in his ear. "We're done here," he muttered. And then-the collision. A blur of red hair and canvas tote slammed into him with a thud. The phone clattered to the ground. Mira, arms full of rain-speckled sketches and wilted plant samples, sprawled on the sidewalk, blinking up at the stranger who knocked the air out of her lungs. Lucien's wolf surged beneath his skin. "Are you hurt?" His voice dropped instinctively, soft but commanding. He was already kneeling, extending his hand. Mira sat slowly, eyes narrowing at his impossibly expensive coat and the way he looked at her-not with concern but with something else. Recognition? "I.....I'm fine, "she said, brushing her cheek. "But you owe me a coffee. And maybe an explanation for the body slam." Lucien stared at her, momentarily forgetting the bloodline, the curse, and the heir waiting for his acceptance. He didn't know her name. Didn't know her story. But the wolf inside whispered. Mine.