Jenna's limbs tangled with those of her coven members on the forest floor, their bodies gleaming with ritual oil beneath the waxing moon, whispered incantations rising with the steam of their mingled breath in the cool night air.
Her body arched like a drawn bow, each release crashing through her in waves that matched the ancient rhythm of their chanting, until she lost count of where one ended and the next began, her consciousness dissolving into the collective magic that pulsed between them like a shared heartbeat.
She might have seen it too late. A dagger was produced out of nowhere by one male member, and another man held her down by the neck.
She screamed but it got lost in the cacophony of desire.
**
Three days earlier.
Helena was having a training session with Stephen and Shawn.
She was getting her ass handed to her.
Stephen and Shawn converged on her from opposite sides, Stephen's muscled form a blur of controlled aggression as he feinted left before striking right, while Shawn's leaner silhouette dropped low, sweeping her legs out from under her with brutal efficiency that sent her crashing to the mat with a painful thud that knocked the breath from her lungs.
"That's unfair." A familiar female voice said from behind them.
It was Jenna.
"What's unfair?" Stephen asked not even looking behind him but watching Helena get herself up.
"Two against one." Jenna replied.
She stood side by side with Helena.
Helena smiled.
Shawn scoffed. "You don't have your Phoenix powers any more."
"And I don't need them." Jenna said.
The men and women took up fighting positions.
The battle began with a heartbeat of stillness before erupting into chaos—Jenna launching forward with unexpected speed, her copper hair whipping behind her like flames as Stephen barely dodged her precisely aimed kick to his solar plexus, while Helena seized the momentary distraction to drive her elbow toward Shawn's temple, their bodies a violent dance of muscle and momentum against the backdrop of the training room's harsh fluorescent lights.
They were almost evenly matched now.
Almost.
Shawn attacked Helena but Jenna pushed her out of the way sustaining an injury from him.
Stephen pivoted on his heel and drove his shoulder into Jenna's sternum, a brutal collision that sent her sprawling backward across the training mat, her copper hair fanning out around her head like spilled blood as the impact forced a strangled gasp from her lungs.
It was two against one again, and Helena found herself caught in a vicious crossfire—Stephen's fist connecting with her ribs in a burst of white-hot pain while Shawn's arm locked around her throat from behind, cutting off her air until dark spots danced at the edges of her vision and her knees buckled beneath her, sending her crashing to the mat in humiliating defeat.
**
After the battle.
Helena was crying in the shower while Jenna did her best to comfort her doppelganger.
"It's okay." Jenna smiled. "If it's any consolation, we both lost."
Helena continued sobbing. "I broke their hearts now they've broken me."
"They haven't succeeded, love."
**
Two days earlier.
Frost crystallized on the university's gothic archways, turning stone sentinels into glittering guardians as students hurried across the quad with hunched shoulders and visible breath, their footsteps crunching against the silver-dusted pathways while distant laughter echoed from warm-lit dormitory windows that punctuated the otherwise ink-black campus night.
In Helena's shared dorm room however, the temperature was more than warm.
Holly and Jake were busy kissing on the former's bed. Helena was busy reading a novel.
They stopped.
"You sure you don't want to join us?" Holly asked seductively.
Jake had a wanting grin on his face.
Helena shut off her bedside lamp. "Good night."
Their moans made Helena feel even lonelier.
**
One day ago.
Ray and Drake stood in the gleaming glass-and-steel lobby of Only Furs headquarters, the company's silver wolf emblem catching the morning sunlight as it towered twenty feet high behind the reception desk, their reflections fractured across the polished marble floor that stretched through the cavernous space where security personnel in crisp black uniforms moved with practiced vigilance among the hushed employees hurrying to their departments.
It was a sunny morning but the mood inside Ray's office was solemn.
"What are going to do about Priya?" Drake asked.
"We wait." Ray said.
**
Present day.
Jenna woke up to see her assistant Athena's face.
"W-what happened?" Jenna asked.
The early morning sun sliced through the half-drawn blinds like a golden blade, sending needles of light directly into Jenna's pupils and forcing her to squint against the intrusion as her throbbing head protested the day's unwelcome arrival.
"You were almost killed, Jenna." Athena said taking a seat next to her boss.
"Where are the assailants?"
"I killed them before they could get to you."
Jenna gulped. Why does this feel like it's only just the beginning.