Chapter 1: The Alpha Upstairs
Chapter 1: The Alpha Upstairs
The house was too quiet.
Celeste Monroe stood in the marble entryway of the Hart family mansion, her suitcase still in hand. Her mother had already disappeared into one of the lavish side rooms with her new husband, leaving Celeste alone with echoing silence and the scent of polished wood and old money. She was used to small spaces—her life until now had been cramped apartments, creaky floors, and city noise. This place felt... cold. Polished. Lifeless.
She wasn’t scared. Not really.
Just uncomfortable. Like she'd stepped into a movie she wasn’t cast in. Like the set was real, the camera rolling, but no one had handed her a script.
Everything echoed here. The ticking of a distant grandfather clock. The creak of the high walls adjusting to the wind. Her own breath.
She shifted her weight, her boots squeaking slightly against the pristine marble. The house didn’t even smell lived in. Just expensive.
Footsteps echoed down the grand staircase.
Celeste froze.
She didn’t have to look to know who it was. She’d seen him before—at school. Heard the whispers. Felt the way the hallway shifted when he walked through it, like the energy in the air bent around him.
Kael Hart.
Her new stepbrother.
The most popular boy at Ridgewood High.
The most dangerous.
Some said he was expelled once—for what, no one knew. Others claimed he had been in a fight so brutal, it landed two other students in the hospital. There were rumors that he ran with a gang. That he lived alone. That he howled at the moon.
Of course, those were just stories. Right?
When Celeste finally turned her head, she saw him at the base of the stairs, shirtless, wearing dark joggers and boots. His body was all lean muscle, tattoos curling over his chest and arms like vines across stone. His storm-gray eyes landed on her, sharp and cold.
“So,” he said, voice low. “You’re the new stray.”
Her mouth opened. Closed.
Then she found it.
"Celeste," she said. "I’m—"
“I know who you are,” he cut in.
He walked past her, his scent lingering like smoke and leather. She didn’t move until he was halfway down the hall. Her skin prickled where the scent had passed.
“Your room’s upstairs,” came his voice, flat and indifferent. “Across from mine.”
She turned slowly.
“Try not to scream at night. The walls are thin.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He disappeared into his room, the door clicking shut behind him.
She stood in the foyer for another full minute before daring to move.
---
The room was huge.
Celeste sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the door across the hallway. His door. She hadn’t unpacked. She didn’t even feel like she was supposed to be here.
The wallpaper was pale gray with silver accents, the comforter a soft blue trimmed with white lace. It was too perfect, too untouched. Like no one had ever lived here.
Kael Hart wasn’t just a school legend—he was a walking warning sign. Girls talked about him in whispers, like he was something dangerous you couldn’t help wanting to touch. Like a fire you knew would burn you but still wanted to hold anyway.
And now she lived under the same roof as him?
God help her.
She got up, wandered to the window. The garden below shimmered in the moonlight, flowers blooming despite the fall chill. The sky was velvet black, stars scattered across it like diamonds. The moon hung low and full. Watching.
She closed the curtains quickly.
---
That night, she couldn’t sleep.
She tried. Closed her eyes. Counted sheep. Nothing worked.
2:13 a.m.
The hallway creaked.
She sat up in bed, heart stuttering.
Something felt... off. Like the air had shifted. Like the house was holding its breath.
She got out of bed quietly, padded across the floor, and opened her door just a crack.
Kael Hart was standing in the hallway.
Shirtless again. His chest rising and falling like he’d been running.
And his eyes—
They glowed.
Not from the light. Not a reflection.
They glowed with an unnatural golden hue, wild and untamed.
She gasped.
He turned, staring at her like she’d stepped into his dreams.
“Celeste,” he breathed.
She stepped back. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he walked toward her, slow and controlled.
When he entered her room, the air thickened. She backed up until she hit the wall.
“Kael, you’re scaring me.”
“You feel it too,” he said, voice deep and rough.
“Feel what?”
“This heat,” he growled. “This pull. I thought I was going crazy until you moved in. But now—”
He placed his hand on the wall beside her head.
“You’re not just some girl. You’re my—”
“Don’t say it,” she whispered.
He smirked, but his eyes darkened.
“Mate.”
The word hit her like a thunderclap.
“No,” she said. “No, this is insane. You’re my stepbrother.”
“We’re not blood,” he said, voice sharp. “You think I wanted this? I fought it. But the bond doesn’t care.”
She ducked under his arm, bolted from the room.
Down the stairs. Into the garden. Cold air hit her lungs, and she finally breathed.
Moments later, the door creaked open again.
Kael Hart stepped into the moonlight.
He didn’t come closer. Just stood there, looking... lost.
“I won’t force it,” he said. “I’m not that kind of monster.”
She turned to look at him.
“Then what are you?”
He didn’t answer.
Just stared up at the full moon.
And whispered, “Something I wish I wasn’t.”
Celeste shivered. And not from the cold.
Because deep down, beneath all the logic and fear, something in her had stirred too.
Something she couldn’t explain.
A fire.
A bond.
And it scared her more than anything else ever had.
But even scarier?
Part of her didn’t want to run.
[End of chapter]
