Chapter 1 The Glass Cage

The charity gala was killing me slowly.

I stood beneath crystal chandeliers, watching Chicago's elite circle like vultures in designer gowns. Same faces. Same lies. Same suffocating performance.

"Smile, sweetheart." Dad's hand pressed against my back. Commissioner Marcus Hart commanded rooms, but right now I wanted to scream. I'm Twenty-one and still his trained seal.

Mrs. Pemberton descended like a shark. "Alina! I assume you'll be following daddy into politics?"

Everyone assumed my future was set. Law school, prosecutor, political marriage. My glass cage was beautiful, but it was still a cage.

The bathroom mirror showed my storm-grey eyes and perfectly styled hair that felt like a prison. I was dying by degrees.

"There you are!" Chloe burst in like salvation. "Jesus, you look homicidal."

"I know," I said with frustration. "Just planning my escape from this tomb."

"Perfect." Her grin was pure mischief. "What if we actually leave?"

"Leave? To where?"

"There's this place-underground. It's a little bit dangerous, the kind your daddy definitely wouldn't approve of. The Inferno Club."

My pulse jumped. "What kind of place?"

"The kind where we'd use fake IDs, and nobody cares about your last name. Real danger, Lina. But when's the last time you did something just because you wanted to?"

Never. Every moment was controlled, scheduled, suffocating.

"I've got clothes in my car. One night where you're Alina, not Commissioner Hart's perfect princess."

The smart thing was to refuse. Good daughters didn't sneak out to underground clubs.

But I was tired of being good.

"How do we get past security?"

-----

Twenty minutes later, we stood outside a building with a single red door. No sign. Just bass thumping through concrete.

The bouncer's gold teeth gleamed. "First time? What's inside ain't for the faint of heart."

My heart hammered. This was insane.

Though it was exactly what I needed.

"Ready?" Chloe asked.

I nodded, though I wasn't sure for what.

The red door swung open.

Music exploded out-industrial beats, roaring crowd, something primal that made my blood sing. Smoke rolled past us carrying scents of sweat, leather, and danger. Heat spilled onto the room like an invitation to hell.

Through the haze, I caught glimpses of the world inside. Bodies pressed together. Energy that felt alive and wild and absolutely forbidden.

"Welcome to freedom," Chloe said.

I took a breath, tasting rebellion on my tongue.

Then stepped across the threshold into darkness.

-----

Heat and chaos swallowed me whole.

The Inferno pulsed with bass and sweat, every heartbeat syncing to something primal in the center. But it was the crowd surging toward the back that caught my attention.

"Fight night," a pink-haired girl explained. "You staying up here with tourists or going down to see blood?"

Down meant underground. Exactly where Commissioner Hart's daughter should never go. Where I should never go.

"Down," I said.

The staircase descended into a modern colosseum carved from Chicago's bones. Tiered seating surrounded a chain-link cage where two men destroyed each other while spectators screamed for violence.

I should have turned around.

Instead, I pushed closer, drawn to flames that promised to burn me alive.

"Next up, fighting out of the Iron Serpents MC... The Beast!"

The crowd exploded when he appeared.

Jaxon Ryder moved like violence personified. Six-four of lean muscle and predatory grace, olive skin gleaming, dark hair wild. But his eyes-gold and feral-found mine across the chaos.

The world went silent.

For one impossible heartbeat, electricity crackled between us like live wire. Then reality crashed back in waves of noise and heat.

The fight began. Jaxon moved like he had nothing left to lose, each punch carrying fury. He caught his opponent mid-swing, twisted, and slammed him against the cage wall so hard the metal groaned. When blood split his lip, he smiled.

That smile awakened something dark in my chest.

"Enjoying the show?"

I turned to find golden skin, long black hair streaked with silver, and tattoos that seemed to breathe against their flesh. This stranger's beauty was so devastating, it blurred the lines of man or woman and stole the air from my lungs.

"Maddox Cruz." He extended a hand I obviously shouldn't have taken-but I did. His nails were ink-stained, his smile too sharp to be safe.

"You're watching him like he's the most fascinating thing you've ever seen."

Heat flooded my cheeks. I tried to look anywhere but at Jaxon, which was impossible since he currently had a man in a chokehold. "I'm not-I was just-"

"Lying?" Maddox's grin widened as I sputtered. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Your poker face needs work, but your taste in men is excellent."

"You're one of them," I realized, grateful for the subject change. "Iron Serpents."

"Guilty. Though I prefer 'devastatingly charming.'" His thumb traced my knuckles, and I wondered if this was how mice felt before cats pounced. "He likes you."

"What?" My voice cracked like I was thirteen again.

"Jax isn't one for eye contact with crowds. But he's looking at you like he wants to know what you taste like." Maddox paused, tilting his head. "Also like he's mentally undressing you, but I thought I'd start with the romantic version."

Fire spiraled through me in ways that definitely weren't appropriate. My brain short-circuited somewhere between 'taste' and 'undressing.'

"I should go-" I managed, though my feet seemed to have other ideas.

"Should you? Or should you congratulate the winner?" His eyes glittered with challenge and something that looked suspiciously like amusement at my expense. "I dare you."

In the cage, Jaxon's opponent hit canvas hard. Over.

"Kiss the champion," Maddox whispered. "Old tradition."

My heart stopped. "I couldn't-" The words came out as a squeak.

"One kiss. What's the worst that could happen?" His expression was pure innocence, which made him approximately ten times more dangerous. "Besides, he looks like he might eat someone if you don't, and I'd prefer it not be me."

Jaxon moved to the cage edge closest to me. Waiting.

Smart would be walking away. Getting back to safety before anyone noticed.

But I was tired of smart.

"One kiss," I breathed.

Up close, Jaxon was overwhelming-sweat and violence clinging like cologne.

"You sure, princess?" His voice was gravel.

Princess. It sounded like a promise.

I reached through chain link to touch his face. His skin burned. When I brushed his split lip, he growled.

Then I pressed my mouth to his through the cage.

The world exploded.

Hunger. Violence. Everything forbidden. His mouth claimed mine with bruising intensity, and when his tongue swept across mine, I yielded without a thought.

The crowd roared around us.

We broke apart breathing hard, and I stumbled back-

Strong hands caught my shoulders, forcing me still. I spun into pale skin, raven-dark hair, and green eyes that cut through every defense. He wasn't just handsome-he was sculpted, godlike, terrifying in his composure.

'Easy,' he murmured, calm yet commanding. 'No need to run.'"

"Ronan," Maddox appeared at my side. "Perfect timing."

Three predators. I was trapped like prey that had wandered too far from safety.

Panic mixed with something else-excitement. Dark, dangerous excitement.

"What's your name?" Jaxon demanded through the cage, and I realized he was still catching his breath from either the fight or the kiss. Possibly both.

I should have lied. I should have made something up. Instead, my mouth betrayed me completely.

"Alina."

His expression shifted like storm clouds gathering. "Alina? Alina Hart."

Ice flooded my veins. He knew. Of course he knew.

"Well," Maddox said cheerfully, "this just got interesting."

"Miss Hart," Ronan's voice was winter-cold, "I believe we need to talk." He paused, and I swear I saw the ghost of a smile. "Assuming you're finished making out with fighters through cages."