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Centered in the headpiece of the fireplace mantel, I discovered a stone symbol. Several snakes slithering toward each other, forming an almost spiral-shaped circle.

The others must have spotted it too, but no one said anything. When I turned around, I noticed that all four of them were looking at me expectantly.

“Guys... No...” I began to laugh nervously and tucked my loose brown strands of hair behind my ear. “You can forget that.”

I stepped back and watched as Larissa looked away, caught off guard. But then Miles stepped forward to the fireplace and touched the snakes.

“Something tells me that here...” he began, but Julie, who was leaning further into the fireplace, touched a spot that couldn't be seen from the outside, and suddenly, there was a loud noise, as if stone was moving on stone. “...is something, and I was right.”

Emely rolled her eyes, and Miles turned his head toward her, whereupon her expression changed abruptly, and she eventually stepped around him to squat down next to Julie. I did the same.

“What did you do?” Emely looked into the fireplace, confused.

“I touched this snake here. It is a moving mechanism.”

Why was there a snake in the middle of the fireplace?

“You guys should check this out…”

I walked over to Miles in the far corner of the room, past a massive old globe and a palm-like plant that, I now realized, had concealed a corner leading behind a wall.

A wall behind which a stone bookcase…

My jaw dropped.

…had slid aside.

Chapter 23

Nash

There’s a Darkness in This Town

Secession Studios, Greg Dombrowski

In front of my father's study, I straightened my shoulders.

Here, I couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Here, I was the son of the Alpha.

I knocked.

“Come in,” my father's focused voice rang out, and I quietly entered the study.

I wasn't surprised to see my father at the chess table, even less so to see the Russian Alpha sitting opposite him, both engrossed in a game.

“You said it was urgent?” I began, trying to focus only on my father, but then I noticed someone standing next to his bookcase.

His short, straight blond hair was neatly combed, as always, and he was wearing a white shirt and black suit pants, along with a luxury silver watch.

Why was that bastard back from the golf club so early?

I tried not to let my resentment for Mikhail Rolanow show.

We shared one thing, and that was the burden of our future title. Only we both dealt with it very differently. He would undoubtedly become Alpha.

“As we know, the number of Ruisangors on campus has increased,” Dimitrio spoke for my father and made his move.

I had never liked this game and was glad that Father had now found someone else to spend his late afternoons with in front of this board. Perhaps it was the political discussions that were part of our games that I disliked so much. Mikhail seemed to enjoy them.