They say you should never make deals with the devil.I never believed in devils until the night I met Lucien Black.
It started in a hospital hallway, beneath flickering lights and the smell of antiseptic. I was 19, broke, and holding the hand of the only person in the world who had ever loved me — my mother.
She lay motionless on the bed, breathing through a machine, her skin pale and stretched thin like tissue paper. Stage IV cancer. The doctors said we had weeks, maybe days.
Unless…
A knock on the door shattered the silence. I looked up to see a man in a tailored black suit standing like a shadow. Two men flanked him — tall, silent, dangerous.
But he didn't need bodyguards.
His presence alone sucked the air from the room.
"Miss Zaria Kane?" he asked. His voice was smooth — not kind, just… smooth.
I nodded slowly. My heart thumped.
"My employer would like a word with you," he said.
I stared at him. "Who's your employer?
He turned slightly. "Lucien Black."
My knees almost buckled.Everyone knew that name.Lucien Black — billionaire CEO of Black Enterprises, the man who owned half the city, and the one whispered to be more monster than man. Ruthless. Brilliant. Untouchable.
I followed the men out of the hospital room and into a waiting black SUV. The windows were tinted. The leather seats felt like money. The silence was deafening.
I should've been scared.
But I was already living in fear — of losing my mother, of being alone, of having nothing.
When we arrived, the gates opened like jaws, swallowing us into a world of marble floors, chandeliers, and silence. I was led to an office that looked more like a palace chamber — dark wood shelves, velvet curtains, and a massive glass wall overlooking the city skyline.
And there he was.
Lucien Black.
He sat behind a mahogany desk, dressed in a charcoal-gray suit, sipping whiskey like a man who had all the time in the world — and none for mercy.
I froze.
He didn't look up immediately. He just placed his glass down, then finally met my eyes.
His gaze was… unblinking. Piercing. Like he was reading my soul and finding it unimpressive.
"You look just like your mother," he said, finally.
My chest tightened. "You knew my mother?"
"In another lifetime."
A pause.
Then he leaned forward, folding his hands on the desk. "Let's not waste time, Miss Kane. I'm a busy man."
I stayed quiet.
"I know about your mother's condition. I know the hospital bills are overdue. I also know the doctors will stop treatment in seventy-two hours if no payment is made." I swallowed hard
"I can save her."
Just like that.
Just like God.
My breath caught. "What… what do you mean?"He reached into a drawer and pulled out a folder. "Sign this," he said, sliding it across the desk. "And your mother will receive full treatment. Private doctors. The best care money can buy."
My eyes fell to the papers. It was a contract.
A marriage contract.
My hands shook as I opened the folder. The name stared back at me like a curse:
Zaria Kane-Black.
"I don't understand," I whispered. "Why me? You don't even know me."
Lucien stood up and walked around the desk. Slowly. Like a lion.
He stopped right in front of me and said, "Because I need a Luna."
My heart skipped. "A what?"
"A wife. A woman to stand beside me. But not just any woman. You're not ordinary, Zaria. Not fully."
I frowned. "What are you talking about?"
He said nothing.
Instead, he leaned closer, and I caught a faint, strange scent — cedarwood, smoke… and something wild beneath it all. Something not human.
"I don't want love," he said coldly. "I want loyalty. Silence. Obedience. If you agree, your mother lives. If not…"
He walked back to his chair.
"She dies."
It was that simple.
That cruel.
I stared at him. At the contract. At the pen.
"Is this even legal?" I asked.
Lucien smirked. "Legal enough."
I was shaking. My vision blurred. I wanted to scream, to cry, to run.
But I thought of my mother — her weak hands, her soft voice, the way she used to sing to me at night when we had no light, no food, no future.
Could I really let her die?
"I… I need time," I said softly.
Lucien stood. Again.He walked to the window and stared out at the city like a god surveying his kingdom.
"You have until midnight," he said.
And then he added, almost as an afterthought: "But I don't like waiting."
The rest of the evening was a blur. I sat in a cold guest room, staring at the contract. Pages and pages of cold legal jargon. No affection. No promises. Just power.
At 11:59 p.m., I walked back into the office.
Lucien was still there. As if he hadn't moved.
He looked at the clock, then at me. "Well?"
I picked up the pen.
My hand trembled.
And I signed.
Zaria Kane… Black.
My soul didn't scream.
It wept.
Lucien took the contract, glanced at it, then tossed it aside like it was nothing.
"Welcome to hell," he said softly.
And just like that… I became his.