SELENE
The warehouse doors groaned open like they remembered me. The moment Rafael and I stepped inside, the entire room shifted. Twenty-plus hardened Black Vipers; killers, smugglers, men who feared almost nothing froze mid-conversation. Eyes widened. Chairs scraped back. Someone actually dropped their cigarette.
“Selene,” one of the older lieutenants breathed, like he’d seen a ghost. “f**k me… she’s really back.”
A ripple of murmurs spread through the room, growing into something close to reverence. These men had known me before I left. They remembered the woman who used to stand at Rafael’s side without flinching, the one who could slit a throat with a smile and still make their boss laugh in the middle of a bloodbath.
One by one, they stood. Heads lowered slightly. Respect. Not fe
