Page 12 of Feral King

I step into the lobby of the Volkov building, where tough-looking men in suits with tattoos on their hands and necks are walking around.

I recognize them as Bratva soldiers. And they’re all looking at me.

No doubt they know what happened upstairs and know that I’m now a person of interest, someone they need to keep an eye on.

I pull my coat tighter and make my way to the doors, ignoring their eyes on me.

I’d come here tonight to prove that I hadn’t been erased. But between the champagne and Julian’s hand on my back, I feel like I’ve stepped into something way more than I’d bargained for.

I call a cab and quickly climb into it when it arrives.

I don’t stop shaking until I’m home.

CHAPTER 3

LYRA

The last time I walked through these doors, I was Alexander’s fiancée and the company’s best event coordinator, and even then, I didn’t quite feel like I was supposed to be here.

Now I’m neither of those things. But I’m back, nonetheless, my badge clipped to the lapel of a blazer I had to iron twice this morning because my hands kept shaking from nerves.

The elevator takes me to the thirty-eighth floor, the executive level. The doors open, and I’m immediately face to face with a young woman carrying a tall stack of folders. Her dark hair pulled back in a sleek ponytail. There’s an expression of cheerful chaos on her face.

“Oh, sorry! Shoot. I didn’t—” She backs up, putting some distance between us, then peers around the folders with brown eyes that are both warm and sharp. When recognition hits, she nearly drops her whole stack.

“Lyra?”

“Anya?”

“Oh. My. God.” Anya Volkova rushes over and sets the folders on the nearest desk, then turns back to me with a smile so wide, it nearly cracks her face. “You’re here! You’re actually here!”

“Not expecting me?”

“No. I mean, yes. I mean… well, Julian said that you were coming. But I thought there was nowayyou were going to get embroiled with the family again. Not after what happened.”

Anya Volkova is Julian’s half-sister and the youngest of the Volkov siblings. Unlike her oldest brother, Anya is warm, bubbly, and extroverted. I find it hard to believe they’re related.

“Well, what can I say? Your brother made quite a case.”

Did he? Or is it because his hand on the small of my back caused me to overlook how bad this idea actually is?

“Yeah, he can be pretty persuasive.” She puts her hands on her hips and looks around. “God, this place has been a disaster without you.”

“Wait, are you working here now?”

She smiles. “Sure am.”

“Since when?”

“Well, I’ve been working with Julian long distance for a while. But in person? Since he called me last night. He told me there’d been a last-minute staffing change, as he put it.”

“Sophia.”

She winces. “Yeah, I heard all about it. Apparently, she was kind of a you-know-what to you last night at the gala.”

“Something like that.”

“Well, whatever gets you back in the building.”