The smell of stale coffee and burnt toast clung to the precinct break room like a permanent stain. Leo Raine leaned against the chipped counter, cradling a lukewarm mug, his five o'clock shadow scratching against his jaw. His bad knee throbbed with every shift of weight, a leftover souvenir from last week's chase.
He flicked his gaze to the newspaper spread across the table. The headline screamed in bold, black font: THE WORLD BELONGS TO HIM. Beneath it, a glossy photo of Adrian Kael—"The Emperor Alpha"—smiled with that cold, polished perfection the media loved to worship. Leo scoffed, shoving the paper into the recycling bin with more force than necessary.
Power. Leo hated it. Not the measured, earned kind, but the raw, suffocating power that crushed everything beneath it. He knew it personally. The memory of his father's heavy hand pressing his mother into silence resurfaced like a ghost. He wasn't just a detective who saw hierarchy every day; he was a son who had witnessed a woman shrink under an Alpha's shadow.
The blaring TV in the corner caught his attention. The anchor's voice trembled with awe—or fear—reporting Kael's latest acquisition: a multinational energy conglomerate. A myth made real. Satellites, weapons, finances—all under his control. "A puppet master with presidents and kings in his hands," Leo muttered, shaking his head.
He pulled on his jacket and slung the service pistol onto his hip. On the streets, power wasn't about money or titles; it was measured in the glint of a knife, the smell of cordite, the will to stand your ground. Leo's will was forged in fire, tempered by scars no headline could ever show.
The TV flickered, switching to a split image: a satellite view of a military base on one side, Kael's unreadable face on the other. The headline read: MILITARY APEX: KAEL TAKES COMMAND.
Leo didn't give it a second thought. He had a stolen car ring to bust. Powerful men, distant emperors, mythic Alphas—they were a distraction, not a threat. At least, that's what he told himself.
But even as he stepped into the brisk city air, the pulse of neon and engine fumes wrapping around him, a sliver of unease crawled up his spine. He could feel the city watching him—watching the Alpha he thought he could ignore. And somewhere in the shadows, a ghost waited, a storm ready to strike.