Chapter 3 - Chapter 2: The Predator’s Morning

The morning sun at Saint Jude's University was too bright, too clinical, and far too loud. For **Seraphina Rossi**, it felt like a spotlight on her skin, exposing the secret she had carried home from The Neon Viper.She sat in the back of the "Introduction to Political Power" lecture hall, her fingers trembling as she tried to take notes. But the ink on the page looked like the dark veins of a serpent, and the professor's voice was drowned out by the echo of a low, gravelly chuckle.*"Most people just watch..."*Sera's thighs brushed together under her pleated skirt, and she gasped softly, the friction sending a jolt of heat through her that made her feel sick and electrified all at once. She was a Rossi. She was a virgin. She was supposed to be thinking about her father's expectations, not the way a girl in leather had looked while claiming another woman in a bathroom stall.The heavy double doors at the front of the hall creaked open.The lecture didn't stop, but the energy in the room died. Students who had been whispering fell silent. Heads bowed. It was as if a physical weight had entered the room.**Lyra Vane** walked down the center aisle.She wasn't wearing a school uniform. She wore a pair of faded black jeans that clung to her legs like a second skin and a vintage band tee that was thin enough to show the shadow of the tattoos on her ribs. She didn't look like a student; she looked like an apex predator who had accidentally wandered into a sheep pen.Behind her, **Jax** followed, his eyes scanning the room with a cold, mechanical precision that Sera didn't recognize as "military," only as "terrifying."Lyra didn't look toward the professor. She didn't look for an empty seat. She climbed the stairs toward the back row—straight toward Sera.Sera's heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic, trapped bird. *Don't look up. Don't look up.*The seat next to her, which had been occupied by a terrified freshman only seconds ago, was suddenly empty. The boy had practically bolted the moment Lyra's shadow fell over his desk.Lyra slid into the chair. She didn't pull out a notebook. She didn't even have a pen. She just leaned back, stretching her long legs out under the desk, and turned her head.The scent hit Sera first—expensive tobacco, cool rain, and a hint of that same bourbon from the night before."You're in my seat, Princess," Lyra remarked. Her voice was a low vibration, private and dangerous, meant only for Sera's ears.Sera finally looked at her. Lyra's eyes were bloodshot at the edges, the sign of a night spent in the dark, but they were sharp. There was a faint, purple bite mark on the side of Lyra's neck—a "gift" from Raven."There are... there are fifty other seats, Lyra," Sera whispered, her voice cracking.Lyra leaned closer, her shoulder brushing Sera's. The contact felt like a live wire. "But they don't have the view I like." Her gaze dropped to Sera's lips, then lower, to the pulse jumping frantically in Sera's throat. "You didn't sleep much, did you? Those dark circles under your eyes... were you thinking about me?""I was thinking about how much I despise people like you," Sera snapped, a spark of Rossi pride flaring up.Lyra's smirk was slow and cruel. She reached out, her fingers grazing the underside of the table, inches from Sera's knee. "Liars are my favorite kind of girl, Seraphina. They're so much fun to break."She leaned in even further, her lips almost touching the shell of Sera's ear. "Tell me... does your daddy know you spent your night watching a 'menace' like me work? Does he know his little bird is already dreaming about leaving the cage?"Sera went rigid. "Don't mention my father.""I'll mention whoever I want," Lyra purred. She reached over, her hand closing over Sera's on the desk. Lyra's skin was hot, her grip firm and calloused. She began to trace the lines of Sera's palm with her thumb, a slow, rhythmic movement that was devastatingly erotic in the middle of a silent classroom.Sera tried to pull away, but Lyra's grip tightened just enough to keep her there. It was a power play, a public claim that no one else in the room dared to challenge."I have a lot to teach you this semester, Princess," Lyra whispered, her eyes dark with a promise that had nothing to do with politics. "And none of it involves a textbook."Lyra finally let go, leaning back and closing her eyes as if she were going to sleep, leaving Sera breathless, confused, and deeply, dangerously aware that her "innocent" life had ended the moment that door clicked shut last night.High above them, in the back corner of the room, Jax caught Lyra's eye for a split second. He gave a single, imperceptible nod.The infiltration had begun. And the target was already trembling.