PROLOGUE: FRACTURED INNOCENCE.

THE BROKEN MAN: Asher

The smell of smoke and sweat clung to my skin like a blanket. I was ten years old, but at that moment, I felt like I'd been born a thousand years ago. My eyes, once bright and full of wonder, had witnessed the unthinkable.

I huddled in the corner of our cramped, dingy apartment, my ears ringing from the sound of my mother's screams. My father's face, twisted in a snarl, loomed over me like a ghost. I trembled, my small body wracked with sobs, as I watched him deliver blow after blow to my mother's fragile form.

My sister, Emily, just six years old, clung to me, her eyes wide with terror. I wrapped my arms around her, trying to shield her from the horror unfolding before us. But I couldn't shield her from the truth: our parents were monsters, and we were their prey.

In that moment, something inside me shattered. The innocence of childhood, the trust in those who were supposed to protect me – all of it was reduced to rubble. I knew, in that instant, that I would do anything to keep Emily safe. Anything.

Then, suddenly, he wafted into my life. I knew how to love Emily and protect her, but loving someone else? I didn't even know how to love myself. Yet, when he does these little things to me, I start to wonder. I only know one way to love, and while he may have burrowed deep into my being, he might not have truly glimpsed the devil lurking just beneath the surface of my gaze.

He provoked me, taunted me, and as I realized that my love could go beyond boundaries, the hunter became the hunted. I broke him and captured him. He claimed he wanted me; well, now he has my full attention. Let’s see how he can endure the seduction of a damned soul.

******

THE HAND OF DEATH: Kaidën

I was only six years old when my world began to crumble. It felt like any other day, filled with the innocent joys of childhood—playful laughter, bright colors, and the promise of adventure. But that day, everything changed, swallowed by an overwhelming fear that crept into my heart like a dark shadow. My father, in his misguided attempt to make me into the man he wanted, brought home the giant dogs.

They were enormous, hulking beasts, their growls echoing in my small, fragile mind. To me, they were not just dogs; they were nightmares made flesh. The moment he locked me in the bedroom with them, my innocent bubble of childhood shattered, leaving me with nothing but shards of terror.

The fear I felt for even the smallest dog had now escalated into a paralyzing dread of these monstrous creatures that circled me, their eyes gleaming with an unsettling mixture of curiosity and hunger. Day and night, the torment continued. My father believed that by facing my fears, I would emerge stronger—a man. But as hours turned into days, and days into weeks, something inside me began to break. The laughter that once filled my room was replaced by silent tears and the haunting echoes of my own screams.

In my desperate struggle against the encroaching darkness, I fought to hold onto the remnants of my sanity, but the walls of my childhood were closing in around me. The love and protection I craved from my father twisted into a grotesque game of power and control. As the giant dogs loomed closer, I realized that the true monster wasn't just the beasts outside; it was the man who had locked me away with them.

But then my father died and I thought it was over, and for a short while it was, until she married him.

I stood frozen, my small hands clenched into fists as I watched my stepfather's twisted game. He'd promised my mother a "special night," but I knew better. I'd seen the way he looked at me, the way he made me feel dirty and small. My mother's laughter, high-pitched and manic, grated against my skin as she handed me over to him like a sacrifice.

As the darkness closed in, I felt a spark ignite within me. A flame that would one day consume everything in its path. I knew, in that moment, that I would make them pay. All of them.

*****

Two souls, shaped by their suffering, were meant to cross paths in a complicated dance of shadows and longing. Their connection was a mix of darkness and desire, where the lines between love and redemption would be tested to their limits.

As their destinies became intertwined, the difference between hunter and hunted started to fade. They found themselves navigating a perilous path filled with impossible choices, where every step forward was fraught with danger.