Alina

"You don't belong to him, Alina. You never will. Because I saw you first."

Atlas's words hung in the darkness like a threat. I could barely make out his silhouette in the moonlight streaming through my small window, but I felt his presence like a weight on my chest.

"Get out of my room," I whispered, my fingers instinctively touching the silver chain at my throat.

"Your room?" Atlas laughed softly. "Nothing in this house belongs to you, little dove. Not even you."

"Ares said.."

"Ares says many things. He promised another girl protection once too." His voice turned cold. "She ended up six feet underground."

Before I could ask what he meant, footsteps thundered down the hallway. My door flew open, and Ares filled the doorway like an avenging angel. Even in the dim light, I could see the fury radiating from him.

"Get away from her," he said, his voice deadly quiet. Atlas stood slowly, deliberately casual.

"Just having a conversation with our houseguest."

"At three in the morning? In her bedroom?"

"Time moves differently when you're getting to know someone." Atlas smiled that devil's grin. "We were discussing the past. How history has a way of repeating itself."

Something dangerous flickered in Ares's eyes. "Get. Out."

"Make me, brother."

The words were barely out of Atlas's mouth before Ares moved. He crossed the small room in two strides, grabbing Atlas by the front of his shirt and slamming him against the wall. Pictures rattled on their hooks.

"You don't touch what's mine," Ares snarled.

"Like you touched what was mine?" Atlas shot back, shoving Ares hard enough to send him stumbling backward.

They collided in the center of the room, a tangle of fists and fury. I pressed myself against the headboard, watching in horror as they destroyed everything in their path. The small dresser toppled over. The mirror above it shattered.

"Stop!" I screamed, but they didn't hear me. Or didn't care.

Atlas caught Ares with a vicious right hook that split his lip. Blood spattered across the white walls. Ares retaliated with an uppercut that sent Atlas crashing into the window. The glass cracked but didn't break.

"Enough!" The voice that cut through the chaos wasn't mine.

Patricia stood in the doorway, her gray hair in curlers and a robe clutched around her shoulders. But her voice carried more authority than I'd ever heard from her.

"Both of you, out. Now."

"Patricia.." Ares started.

"Don't you 'Patricia' me, boy. I've been cleaning up your messes since you were in diapers." She pointed a bony finger at the door. "Out. Before you wake the entire household."

Atlas straightened his shirt, wiping blood from his nose. "This isn't over," he said, looking directly at me.

"Yes, it is," Ares replied, but Atlas was already gone.

Ares lingered, his gray eyes finding mine across the destroyed room. "Are you hurt?"

I shook my head, not trusting my voice.

"Good." He started to leave, then paused. "Tomorrow, we need to talk."

After they left, Patricia helped me clean up the worst of the damage. We worked in silence until she finally spoke.

"They've been fighting over girls since they were sixteen," she said, sweeping up glass. "But never like this. Never with such... violence."

"What did Atlas mean about history repeating itself?"

Patricia's hands stilled on the broom. "That's not my story to tell, child. But I will say this, the Sterling boys have always been cursed when it comes to love. It destroys everything it touches."

The next morning, Ares summoned me to his study. The room was all dark wood and leather, filled with books that looked like they'd never been read. He sat behind a massive desk, a cup of coffee growing cold at his elbow.

"Sit," he said without looking up from the papers spread before him.

I took the chair across from him, acutely aware of the silver chain around my throat. In the daylight, it felt heavier somehow.

"Do you know what Sterling Industries does?" he asked.

"No."

"We own things. Companies, properties, people's livelihoods. My father built an empire from nothing, and when he dies, it will pass to his heir." Ares finally looked up, his gray eyes unreadable. "But there's a condition in his will. The inheritance goes to whichever son marries first."

My stomach dropped. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Everything." He stood and walked to the window, hands clasped behind his back. "Atlas and I have been competing for that inheritance our entire lives. Every decision, every relationship, every breath has been calculated to prove we're worthy."

"That's horrible."

"That's business." He turned back to me. "Three years ago, we both fell for the same girl. Elena Morrison, daughter of one of Father's business partners. Beautiful, intelligent, everything a Sterling bride should be."

The name hit me like a physical blow. Elena. The girl they'd been arguing about the night I overheard them.

"What happened to her?"

"She chose Atlas." The words came out flat, emotionless. "They were engaged for six months. Planning a wedding that would have made Atlas the heir to everything."

"But?"

"But she died in a car accident two weeks before the ceremony." Ares's jaw tightened. "Atlas blamed me. Said I caused it somehow. We haven't spoken civilly since."

"Did you? Cause it, I mean."

For a long moment, he was silent. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

"I loved her too. But I would never have hurt her."

"Atlas thinks you did."

"Atlas thinks many things. Most of them wrong." Ares moved back to his desk, picking up a small velvet box I hadn't noticed before. "Which brings us to why you're here."

"I don't understand."

"My father is dying, Alina. Cancer. The doctors give him six months, maybe less." He opened the box, revealing a ring that probably cost more than most people's houses. "He's accelerated the timeline. Whichever son marries first gets everything. The company, the properties, the power."

The room started spinning. "You can't be serious."

"Atlas is already looking for a suitable bride. Some senator's daughter with the right bloodline and political connections." Ares pulled the ring from the box, the diamond catching the morning light. "But I have something he doesn't."

"What?"

"You."

The word hung between us like a death sentence.

"I can't marry you," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "I don't even know you."

"You know enough." He moved around the desk, stopping in front of my chair. "You know I protect what's mine. You know I keep my promises. You know I'm offering you something no one else ever has."

"A loveless marriage to a man who sees me as property?"

"Security. Legitimacy. More money than you could spend in ten lifetimes." He held out the ring. "And protection from a world that would destroy you without a second thought."

"I won't do it."

"Yes, you will." His voice was gentle but implacable. "Because the alternative is watching Atlas inherit everything and then systematically destroy everyone who ever mattered to me. Including you."

"He wouldn't.."

"He killed Elena, Alina. Maybe not with his own hands, but he killed her as surely as if he'd pushed her off a cliff." Ares knelt beside my chair, his gray eyes burning into mine. "Do you really want to find out what he'd do to you?"

The room tilted sideways. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision.

"She's mine," I heard Ares say, but his voice sounded far away. "I'm marrying her."

Then everything went dark.

I woke up in a different room, this one ten times the size of my servant's quarters. Silk curtains, marble floors, furniture that looked like it belonged in a museum. And on my left hand, a diamond ring so large it hurt to look at.

"Finally awake, I see."

I turned to find Atlas sitting in a chair by the window, his face a mask of cold fury.

"Where am I?"

"The master suite. Congratulations, little dove. You're now the future Mrs. Sterling." His smile was razor-sharp. "Though I wonder how long that title will last."

I sat up too quickly, the world spinning around me. "I didn't agree to anything."

"Unconscious consent is still consent in this family." Atlas stood, straightening his jacket. "My brother has always been efficient when it comes to getting what he wants."

"I won't go through with it."

"Of course you will. Because if you don't, I'll make sure everyone knows exactly what kind of girl my brother picked up off the streets. How long do you think it would take for someone to track down your colorful history with foster care?"

The threat hit its mark. I thought about newspaper headlines, reporters digging into my past, the whole world knowing about Mrs. Henderson and her boyfriend and all the other horrors I'd tried to forget.

"You're a monster," I whispered.

"I'm a Sterling. It comes with the territory." Atlas moved toward the door, then paused. "Enjoy your engagement, little dove. Because I promise you this, you'll be his bride, but I swear on our mother's grave, I'll make you a widow.”