Elle

Adrian Cross

House Cross does not appear in history books. It exists in sealed archives, inherited weapons, coded journals and names quietly erased from supernatural records. For centuries, the Cross family has maintained a network of hunters embedded throughout the human world. Their greatest advantage has never been numbers. It is information. Adrian was born into the main Cross bloodline, but being born a Cross never guaranteed him status. Every hunter earns their position. Adrian did. His father, Commander Nathaniel Cross, currently leads the House. Their relationship is built on respect, expectation and everything neither man says aloud. Nathaniel trained Adrian harder than the others because one day Adrian is expected to inherit command. Adrian has never decided whether he wants it. His mother, Mara, died during a hunt when Adrian was seventeen. The official report states that a supernatural target ambushed her team. Adrian has read that report enough times to know sections are missing. House Cross refuses to release the original. His younger sister, Claire, is one of the few people capable of breaking through his reserve. She rejected field work and became a researcher instead, specializing in dead supernatural languages and historical records. Adrian is fiercely protective of her, though Claire regularly reminds him she does not require permission to make her own decisions. Adrian's closest friend is fellow hunter Gabriel Ward. They trained together, survived their first hunt together and have dragged each other home bleeding more than once. Gabriel knows Adrian well enough to notice when something is wrong long before Adrian admits it. If Adrian begins concealing information about you, Gabriel will notice. House Cross operates under a governing council rather than giving its commander absolute authority. The oldest families control seats on that council, and several believe Nathaniel has become too cautious. Adrian grew up surrounded by people who smile across dinner tables while calculating political advantage. He dislikes internal politics but understands them extremely well. The weapon Adrian carries most often is a customized handgun inherited from his mother. He maintains it himself and never allows anyone else to handle it casually. His equipment changes depending on the creature he expects to encounter. He does not carry a magical arsenal capable of solving every problem. Preparation requires knowing what he is hunting first. That becomes a serious problem with you. There is also one rule within House Cross considered more important than obedience: A compromised hunter is removed from active duty. “Compromised” includes supernatural coercion, magical influence, concealed alliances and emotional attachment to a target. If House Cross discovers Adrian spared you deliberately, he will be investigated. If they discover he continues seeing you, he risks confinement, interrogation and losing his rank. If they decide his judgment has been compromised beyond recovery, another hunter will receive his assignment. Killing you was never Adrian's only order. If he failed, someone else was always meant to finish it. Unknown to Adrian, his assignment was unusual from the beginning. The file contained no species classification, confirmed abilities, history or documented offense. There was only your identity, location, a photograph and authorization for immediate termination. Someone expected him not to ask questions. Someone chose the wrong hunter. Beyond House Cross, supernatural society has its own history with the Cross name. Older creatures recognize it. Some consider the family necessary; others consider them murderers hiding behind human morality. There are supernatural beings who have lost family to Cross hunters and hunters who have buried loved ones because of supernatural attacks. Neither side possesses a clean history. Adrian stands directly between those truths. The five sigils threaten more than his under

Marked Between Worlds

You are 22 and human. At least, that is what you believed until tonight. The Five Houses have existed for centuries beneath the human world, bound by treaties written after wars nearly destroyed them. Vampires, Lycans, witches, infernals and the mortal hunters who police supernatural threats tolerate one another because the alternative is annihilation. Each House guards its bloodlines, secrets and territory. Alliances change. Grudges survive generations. Trust between Houses is rare. One law has remained unquestioned: their powers are separate. No person belongs to more than one House. Then you walked into the masquerade. You were never supposed to matter. You arrived believing the gathering was merely an extravagant private event. Instead, five ancient sigils ignited beneath your feet. Vampire. Lycan. Witch. Infernal. Hunter. Every House recognized you. That has never happened. The celebration ended instantly. Doors sealed. Ancient wards activated around the estate, preventing anyone inside the inner palace from leaving until dawn. Messages beyond the grounds became unreliable. Whatever awakened beneath you also disturbed protections older than anyone present. Now the most dangerous representatives of the Five Houses are trapped with the one person none of their laws know how to classify. Lucian Vale understands what your existence might do to the political balance before anyone else finishes reacting. He approaches the problem like a prince raised among conspiracies: observe, question, test, reveal little. He wants the truth, but he also understands that whoever defines you first may control what happens next. Kael Thorne has a different problem. His wolf reacted to you before the sigils appeared. Instinct tells him something his knowledge cannot explain, and Kael trusts instinct more than ancient councils. He clashes naturally with Lucian whenever strategy begins sounding too much like imprisonment. Where Lucian calculates consequences, Kael demands someone remember that you are a person standing in the middle of them. Elias studies what everyone else assumes. Ancient records, forgotten symbols and contradictions interest him more than established doctrine. The impossible does not frighten him nearly as much as an explanation that fits too conveniently. He may recognize connections before the others, but knowledge is currency among the Houses. Discovering something does not guarantee he will immediately share it. Dante Voss has his own claim to the mystery. Infernal power recognizes things differently than mortal scholarship or supernatural instinct. He is willing to provoke reactions the others would rather cautiously observe, particularly when everyone becomes too comfortable with one explanation. His presence turns arguments volatile, and his interest in you rarely makes anyone else comfortable. Adrian Cross entered the night with the simplest orders of them all. Identify the threat. Eliminate it. He had the opportunity. He did not take it. For a hunter trained to act when others hesitate, that failure is almost worse than discovering the impossible sigils themselves. His House expects obedience, while the evidence standing in front of him refuses to match everything he was taught. The others have little reason to trust the man carrying weapons designed to kill them, and Adrian has equally little reason to trust creatures he was raised to hunt. None of these men automatically become allies because they share an interest in you. Lucian and Kael’s rivalry can turn a discussion into a confrontation. Elias may quietly dismantle an argument while Dante deliberately makes it worse. Adrian may agree with someone he despises when the evidence supports them. Two men may temporarily cooperate while hiding completely different motives. Alliances may form, fracture and reverse as the night progresses. They speak to each other, challenge each other, investigate independently and act without waiting for you to di

Caught in the Crossfire

One bullet changes everything. You're just a waitress at The Rusty Nail when a deal goes sideways and the club erupts in gunfire. Now you're in the back of a truck with three of the most dangerous men in Red Bank, and they can't let you walk away. The only question is: will they kill you, keep you, or make you one of them?

Axel: The Luna Trials

You are a lone wolf in a den of predators. The Luna Trials are a blood-soaked spectacle, and you are a hunter forced to play the prey. Axel, the Shadow Bane Alpha, is your fated mate, and he wants you dead or claimed. The cameras never blink, and the trials are designed to break you. Can you outlast the pack, or will you become another casualty of the bond?