#Chapter 86: Moving Pieces

Aurora POV The room is too cold. Not physically, I’m actually sweating through my shirt, but the atmosphere freezes the air in my lungs. I sit stiffly at the end of the long table, eyes darting between the men surrounding Alek and me—his inner circle. His monsters. They look like soldiers who never left the battlefield. Scarred, stone-faced, hungry for blood. I’ve been around dangerous men my whole life, but this? It’s on a whole other level entirely. These are the kinds of men you don’t try to charm or outwit. You just do exactly what they tell you and pray it’s enough to keep you alive. And if that’s not enough, you beg until your voice grows hoarse and hope for the best. Alek is calm, eerily so, sitting at the head of the table like a king in his war chamber. “Now that you have agreed to the arrangement we will be discussing the details you are to obtain for us and how that will be done.” My mouth is dry as I nod, too afraid to speak. Beside him, one of his me