Chapter Thirty Seven: Broadcast and Bloodline

The central transmission hub hummed to life with a brutal, piercing whine, flooding the obsidian room with blinding lines of crimson diagnostic code.

Ren slammed his palm onto the main broadcast console, his eyes wide and bloodshot with manic energy. "Global feed is wide open, Mari. Every surviving comm-link, emergency terminal, and corporate bunker from here to the orbital shelf is tuned in. They're listening."

"Good," Mari spat, her voice a low, vibrating edge of pure, unbridled authority.

She stepped up to the master terminal, her skin still slick with the sweat and heat of her inner circle, her naked body gleaming under the harsh red glow of the monitors. Behind her, Adrian moved like a shadow, his massive chest brushing against her bare shoulder, his heavy hands coming down on her hips to ground her. Kael flanked her right, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his blood-stained knife, while Sera and Lena crowded in close from the left, their eyes locked on Mari with unblinking, feral worship.

Sera pressed herself flush against Mari’s side, a slender arm wrapping tight around her waist as her lips grazed the curve of Mari’s jaw, soaking in the frantic heat of her skin. Beside her, Lena sank to her knees right beside the console, her hands sliding possessively up Mari’s bare thigh, her touch a searing, intimate promise of devotion that kept Mari anchored amidst the chaotic surge of power.

Mari leaned into the pickup grid, her breath hitching as Lena’s fingers trailed higher, before letting out a cold, devastating laugh that echoed across every screen on the planet.

"Listen closely," Mari commanded, her voice cutting through the static of a dying world like a razor. "The High Council is dead. The corporate leash is snapped. From this second on, every grid, every gate, and every drop of power belongs to us."

Across the continent, millions of screens flickered, flashing her image—surrounded by her devoted, lethal pack—straight into the dark, terrified faces of the survivors.

"If you want to live in the new world, you bow," Mari snarled into the mic, a cruel, beautiful smile twisting her lips as Sera leaned in to trace the pulse hammering in her throat. "Or you burn."

Ren killed the feed with a violent slap of his fist, plunging the room back into a heavy, suffocating silence that lasted only a heartbeat before Adrian hauled Mari backward against his chest, burying his face in her neck with a harsh, ragged growl. Sera immediately moved with them, her mouth finding Mari’s in a bruising, possessive kiss, while Lena’s hands tightened on Mari's hips, pulling her down.

"Now," Adrian murmured against her skin, his hands gripping her thighs as he lifted her effortlessly back onto the edge of the console, his massive erection pressing hard and demanding against her once more, flanked on all sides by the frantic, hungry touch of his lovers. "Let them bow. We have a city to conquer."