
The dimly lit hallway stretched ahead, silent except for the pounding in Nathan Cole’s chest. His fingers twitched around his phone, the text from Sophia Miller still glowing on the screen.
“Come over tonight. I want you.”
His heart had soared when he read it. After everything he had done for her, after waiting for so long, she was finally ready to take their relationship to the next level.
But now, standing at her door, something felt wrong.
The sounds from inside made his stomach churn—low moans, the creak of a bed, and a man’s deep chuckle.
Nathan’s breath hitched. His grip tightened on the doorknob.
No… it can’t be.
He hesitated, his mind warring between denial and the harsh reality slamming against his ears. His body moved before his mind could stop it.
BANG!
The door burst open, slamming against the wall.
The scene before him shattered every illusion he had ever held.
Sophia was sprawled across the bed, her naked body tangled with another man’s. The same woman who had never even let him hold her hand in public was now wrapped around someone else, moaning his name.
Nathan’s breath left him in a sharp exhale. The air felt thick—too thick to breathe.
Sophia’s head snapped toward him, her blue eyes wide with shock.
“Nathan?!”
The man beside her barely flinched, lazily turning his head to look at him.
A face Nathan recognized instantly—Lucas Reed.
Rich. Arrogant. A walking red flag.
Lucas smirked, propping himself up on his elbow. “Oh, man, this is awkward.” He didn’t even bother covering himself, completely at ease, as if Nathan was the intruder.
Nathan’s mind reeled. His voice came out hoarse. “You… you sent that message?”
Lucas grinned. “Guilty as charged.” He stretched his arms like a man waking up from a nap. “Figured it’d be funny. And damn, was I right.”
Nathan’s hands clenched into fists. “You set me up? Just to humiliate me?”
Lucas let out a mock gasp. “Oh no, poor little Nathan. Fooled by a text message. What’s next, you gonna cry?”
Nathan’s gaze flickered to Sophia. His girlfriend. The woman he had loved. The woman he had sacrificed so much for.
Her expression shifted. The initial shock faded, replaced by something much worse—indifference.
She let out a sigh, running a hand through her tousled hair. “Honestly, Nathan, you should’ve gotten the hint by now.”
His body went rigid. “What?”
She sat up, pulling the sheet around herself, her lips curling in disdain. “You really thought I was serious about you? That we had something real?”
Nathan took a step forward, his voice breaking. “Sophia, I—”
Lucas snorted. “Wow, buddy, you’re really out here embarrassing yourself.” He threw an arm around Sophia’s shoulders. “Hate to break it to you, but she was never into you. She just needed something from you.”
Nathan’s breath came in sharp bursts. His head spun.
No. That’s not true. She… she cared about me.
Didn’t she?
Sophia’s gaze turned cold. “Nathan, I was with you for one reason.”
He swallowed. “What reason?”
She tilted her head, her smile sharp. “Your bone marrow.”
His entire world stopped.
Sophia’s voice was casual, as if she were discussing the weather. “I knew yours was a match. And I knew you’d do anything for me. So, I played along. I let you believe we were something we never were.”
Nathan staggered back as if she had slapped him.
“You…” His throat felt dry. “You used me?”
Sophia rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. Don’t act so surprised. Did you really think someone like me would actually be with you?” She laughed. “God, Nathan, you were so easy.”
Lucas chuckled. “Man, I almost feel bad for you. Almost.” He smirked. “But hey, look at it this way—you helped save her life. That’s gotta count for something, right?”
Nathan’s hands trembled. His chest burned, not just with rage, but with something deeper—betrayal.
“I gave you everything,” he whispered.
Sophia yawned. “And now you’re useless to me.”
Lucas grinned. “Face it, pal. You were never the main course—just a free appetizer until she got to the real deal.” He leaned in and whispered mockingly, “And trust me, I’m the five-star meal.”
Nathan’s vision blurred with fury. The humiliation was suffocating.
Then, Lucas’s smirk widened. “Oh, and by the way, your parents? If they were alive, they’d be so disappointed.”
Nathan’s body stiffened.
Lucas continued, his tone dripping with arrogance. “Oh, wait—you don’t have parents, do you?” He let out a laugh. “Man, no wonder you’re so desperate for love. You cling to it like a stray dog waiting to be adopted.”
Nathan saw red.
Before he knew it, his fist collided with Lucas’s face.
A satisfying crack echoed through the room as Lucas fell back, clutching his nose. “What the fu—”
But Nathan wasn’t done. The rage that had been simmering for months—years—boiled over. He swung again, and again, landing blows fueled by heartbreak and fury.
Lucas grunted, blocking a few hits before catching Nathan’s wrist.
“You little shit—”
BAM!
Lucas’s fist slammed into Nathan’s stomach. Pain exploded through his body.
His knees buckled.
His vision blurred.
He had just donated bone marrow. His body was still weak.
Nathan lay on the cold floor, his breath ragged. Every part of him ached, but the pain in his chest—the betrayal—was far worse than the bruises forming on his skin.
Sophia stood over him, smirking, wrapped in a silk robe. Her once sweet voice was now laced with mockery.
"You really thought I loved you?" she sneered. "God, Nathan, you’re dumber than I thought."
Lucas let out a loud cackle, wiping the blood from his split lip. “Damn, babe, this guy really thought he was the main character.” He looked down at Nathan with amused disgust. “Hate to break it to you, buddy, but you’re not even a side character—you’re the background decoration.”
Nathan's fingers curled into weak fists. His whole body shook, not just from pain but from rage.
“I gave you everything,” he rasped, barely able to lift his head.
Sophia rolled her eyes. “Yeah? And I took everything.” She kneeled beside him, voice dripping with cruelty. “Your money, your love, your bone marrow—” she grinned, “and guess what? I didn’t even say thank you.”
Lucas burst into laughter. “Oh, man, that’s cold!” He nudged Nathan’s ribs with his shoe. “Face it, loser. You were nothing but a glorified organ donor. You really think a woman like Sophia would settle for a stray mutt like you?”
Nathan’s body tensed.
Lucas grinned. “Speaking of mutts, I hear orphans like you don’t even know where you come from. Makes sense—you’ve got that lost puppy look. All wagging your tail, hoping someone will finally love you.”
Nathan's vision turned red.
Lucas smirked, knowing he had struck deep. “But no one ever does, do they? Not your parents, not Sophia. You’re just some abandoned street dog begging for scraps.”
Something inside Nathan snapped.
With all the strength he could muster, he lunged. His fist collided with Lucas’s face, sending him stumbling back.
"You son of a bitch!" Lucas roared, wiping his mouth.
Nathan didn’t stop. He couldn’t. Every insult, every betrayal—it all exploded out of him as his fists rained down.
Lucas staggered, caught off guard by the sudden fury.
"That all you got?!" Nathan growled, panting. He grabbed Lucas by the collar, yanking him forward. "You think money makes you better than me? You think using people makes you a man?"
Lucas spat out blood, laughing. "No, dumbass. Winning makes me better."
BAM!
Lucas’s fist smashed into Nathan’s gut.
Nathan gasped, his body seizing with pain. He had no strength left.
His vision blurred.
Another punch.
Another.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
Lucas cracked his knuckles, standing over him. “Man, that was pathetic.”
Sophia scoffed. “Just leave him, Lucas. He’s not worth it.”
Lucas smirked. “Nah. I got a better idea.”
Nathan barely registered what was happening as they dragged him, his body limp.
The sound of metal creaking broke through his fading consciousness.
The sharp scent of blood and rotting meat filled his nose.
Then he felt it—the icy chill of metal bars against his skin.
His stomach dropped.
Sophia’s voice was light, almost amused. “Bye, Nathan.”
Click.
The cage door slammed shut.
Lucas grinned down at him. “Hope you make a good meal.”
Then—a growl.
Nathan’s eyes snapped open.
Dogs.
Not just any dogs. Starving. Savage. Wild-eyed.
Their fur was matted with blood, their ribs visible beneath their thin skin.
Nathan barely had the strength to move. His body was too weak, his vision fading.
His blood dripped onto the floor, pooling beneath him.
One of the dogs lunged.
A searing pain shot through his arm as teeth sank into flesh.
Nathan’s body convulsed.
His hand twitched.
His ring…
The metal glowed, pulsing, as if alive.
Then—
BOOM.
A force erupted from the ring, surging through Nathan’s body like a wildfire.
The pain vanished.
The weakness evaporated.
His eyes snapped open.
Something inside him had awakened.
The last thing he felt wa
s power—unlike anything he had ever known—flooding his veins.
Then, for the first time in his life, Nathan Cole smiled.

Latest Chapter
Ch-223
Nathan had barely slept when Dante shoved the door open at dawn. His lieutenant’s face was grim, eyes blazing. “They’ve made a move,” Dante said. “It’s Harper.” Nathan was on his feet instantly, the last trace of exhaustion gone. “Where?” “Old tram depot, south line. Syndicate men staged a power outage, drew Harper in with a false Imperium relay signal. Roarke’s already tailing them.” Nathan’s mind worked faster than his pulse. A direct trap on Harper wasn’t reckless—it was calculated. The Syndicate had finally stopped chipping at the edges. They were cutting straight to his core. “Gear up,” Nathan ordered, already strapping on his sidearm. “If they’ve put Harper in play, they want me out in the open. Let’s give them the mistake they’re begging for.” --- The tram depot loomed like a skeleton of iron and glass, its windows shattered, the tracks rusting into weeds. Power lines dangled dead, swaying in the morning breeze. Nathan approached with Dante at his flank, their boots sile
Ch-222
The next node wasn’t hidden in the ruins of some forgotten quarter or stitched into shadows of abandoned warehouses. It pulsed at the heart of the city itself, inside a steel-and-glass tower where executives still sat in boardrooms, oblivious to the corruption threading through their walls. Nathan hated the exposure, but there was no choice. If the fragment bled unchecked in a place like this, thousands could unravel in hours. They slipped into the lobby under the guise of night cleaners, badges forged and uniforms plain. Dante pushed the mop bucket with a convincingly bored expression. Roarke trailed behind, all bulk and silence. Nyx carried her tablet slung low in a janitor’s cart. Miley kept close, her eyes wide, but steady. Nathan’s voice was low, steady. “Remember—precision. This isn’t a battlefield. Too much noise and the Syndicate will tighten the noose before we can move.” The elevators groaned upward. Floor by floor, the tension grew. By the twenty-third, Nyx’s device beg
Ch-221
They emerged from the subway into the industrial district, the sky above bruised with unnatural hues that shifted faster than weather should. Nathan didn’t look up; his focus was already on the next fragment. The last few nodes had left traces—resonance he could track, faint distortions in space-time, whispers of corrupted memories that clung to the air.“We’re running out of time,” Nyx said, scanning the abandoned factories. Her fingers hovered over the tablet as if feeling the pulse of the city. “The fragments are accelerating their synchronization. If they complete alignment…” Her voice trailed off, leaving the threat unspoken.Dante cracked his knuckles. “We’ve dealt with worse. Let’s just find it and smash it.”Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “Not smash. Contain. The energy isn’t just dangerous—it’s alive in a way. Force alone will make it worse. We need precision.”The team advanced cautiously. The district was eerily quiet. Windows of warehouses reflected the bruised sky in shards, giv
Ch-220
Nathan didn’t pause to savor the temporary victory. The streets had settled, but the pulse of the city still throbbed with corrupted echoes. Every alley, every rooftop, carried a memory of the unreal—footsteps that never existed, shadows that flickered where no one had stood.“Node stabilized,” Nyx said, her voice tight. “But that’s only one of six. The fragments—they’re moving. Each one trying to synchronize, rebuild the pattern.”Dante kicked a loose brick, sending it clattering into the gutter. “So we’re chasing ghosts across the city?”Nathan ignored the remark, scanning the map on his pad. The other nodes weren’t all in the city—they were scattered, each in zones where the fragments’ influence had warped reality enough to hide them from conventional detection. One in the subway lines under the East Quarter, one in a private art complex near the docks, another… and Nathan’s pulse went tight as he read the location.“Harper’s location,” he muttered. The pad highlighted the cafe dis
Ch-219
The fire in the warehouse smoldered behind them, thick smoke curling into the night, but Nathan didn’t allow himself a second to watch. His boots hit the wet pavement as they raced back through the streets, Dante covering their flank while Roarke scanned for tailing forces. The northern lights above had grown jagged, like veins of electricity crawling across the sky—unnatural, and resonating with a pulse Nathan could feel in his bones. He pulled out the small data pad he always carried, fingers flying across the interface. Every compromised feed, every suspicious movement across the city, every anomaly the Syndicate had engineered: it was all converging toward one point. He keyed in a sequence and the screen lit up with a 3D map of the city, overlays blinking red. Syndicate hotspots. Safehouses. Extraction points. And the glowing symbol that made his stomach tighten: Miley’s position, moving slowly through the crowd, unaware. “She’s still in the café district,” Nathan said. “Two blo
Ch-218
Nathan didn’t wait for the dust to settle before making his first move. By the time the council dispersed, he was already moving, pushing through narrow alleys behind the riverfront warehouses. The Syndicate’s grip on the city had always been obvious in shadows and whispers, but tonight it was bared like an open wound. His instincts told him the corruption he had just exposed was only a symptom: the disease ran deeper, coiling through the veins of the city like a parasite.“Keep moving,” he muttered to himself, jaw tight. The coded map he had stolen from the accountant wasn’t just a ledger. It was a blueprint—shipping routes, laundering nodes, hidden safehouses. A network spanning far beyond the docks.From the rooftops, a shadow trailed him. Nathan didn’t need to glance up to know. She’d been there since the council meeting—an unfamiliar presence, sharp and measured. He let her tail him, weaving through side streets deliberately, until he reached the rusted gates of an abandoned rai
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