"Nothing will go wrong," I lie with eight centuries of practice. "I'll be with you every step of the way, Maya. Guiding you, protecting you, ensuring your success."
The last part, at least, is true. I'll do everything in my power to keep her alive through the transformation. Whether that's enough... seven graves suggest it might not be.
But Maya doesn't need to know about the failures. Not yet.
"I should probably get some rest," she says, though she makes no move to step away from me.
"Yes," I agree, though every instinct demands I stay, start the seduction immediately. "Tomorrow we begin your real education."
I head for the door before I do something that will ruin the careful approach I've planned.
"Sweet dreams, little scientist. Tomorrow changes everything."
The door closes behind me with a soft click, leaving Maya alone with promises of enhancement and transformation. She believes she's embarking on the academic opportunity of a lifetime.
She has no idea she's signed her own death warrant.
I lean against her door for a moment, fighting the urge to go back inside and begin her seduction immediately. My cock aches with need, thick and heavy between my legs. The prehensile length stirs restlessly, responding to the memory of her scent, her proximity, the way she unconsciously leaned into my touch.
Eight centuries of control, and this slip of a girl has me rock-hard from nothing more than standing near her.
The memorial garden gleams white through the window of my study as I settle at my desk, adjusting myself in my chair as my arousal refuses to fade. Seven failures haunt the moonlight, seven women who weren't strong enough to survive what I'm planning for Maya.
But Maya is different. Her compatibility readings, her virgin biology, the desperate hunger that makes her grateful for anyscrap of recognition—all of it marks her as my best chance for success.
My last chance, before my court dies completely.
I palm myself through my clothes, imagining how she'll respond when she discovers what claiming by a Vine Court alpha truly means. The way her eyes will widen when she sees my inhuman anatomy, the shock and fascination that will war in her expression as she realizes the prehensile length can move and stroke exactly where she needs it most.
I just have to keep her alive long enough to find out whether human resilience can succeed where Fae strength failed.
Seven graves whisper warnings in the darkness.
One more candidate sleeps peacefully in luxury, dreaming of academic glory.
Tomorrow, I begin the process that will either save us both or add an eighth headstone to my collection.
The hunt is over. The real work begins now.
CHAPTER 7
MAYA
I wakein the most luxurious bed I've ever slept in, silk sheets cool against my skin and morning light filtering through windows that overlook impossible gardens. For a moment, I forget where I am—forget that I'm no longer Maya the struggling graduate student, but Maya the research fellow in a palace that shouldn't exist.
Then I remember King Thorian's words from last night, and my stomach flutters with nerves and anticipation in equal measure.
A soft knock interrupts my thoughts. "Dr. Nakamura?" A gentle voice calls through the door. "His Majesty requests your presence in the laboratory when you're ready."
His Majesty. I'm still getting used to the idea that the gorgeous professor I've been fantasizing about is actually a king. A king who wants to transform me into something extraordinary.
I dress quickly in one of the simple but elegant dresses that appeared in my wardrobe overnight—deep blue fabric that makes my skin glow and fits perfectly despite no one taking my measurements. Everything here is like that, impossibly perfect in ways that should probably worry me more than they do.
The laboratory Thorian leads me to takes my breath away completely.
"This is incredible," I whisper, turning in a slow circle to take it all in.
If I thought my university lab was cramped and outdated before, this makes it look like a medieval dungeon. Soaring ceilings disappear into flowering vines that provide natural light alongside crystal fixtures that pulse with their own gentle glow. Equipment I've only read about in journals fills workbenches carved from living wood, and specimens float in preservation chambers that seem to maintain themselves through pure magic.
