Ella

I had it all.

A home, a family, men who loved me, a best friend who'd die for me.

And then, I lost it.

They say it only takes one minute for everything to change irreparably, and after the life of horrors I've experienced, I know that better than anyone. But I got comfortable. I felt safe, and now, they're gone.

Maddox, Gage, Stone, Nyxon, and Hunter. My missing pieces, the tape that held me together while I fractured. The men who taught me love and reminded me how to breathe.

Sixty seconds is all it took for my present to be taken from me and to be thrown back into the trenches of my past.

Sixty seconds is all it took for the other half of my soul to bleed out in my arms.

Sixty seconds is all it took for my entire world to shatter.

Now I'm alone, hurt, and confused without the men I love to keep me safe. They're missing, Hunter is gone, and I have no choice but to save them myself or risk losing everything I never knew I needed.

I've lived my life being the pawn on everyone elses chess board, destined to break at the enemy's hands.

I had to crash in order to burn, and with their help, I was able to evolve and resurrect, leaving the broken girl I once was behind for good. The question is, will I fail to save the men I love and ruin my family name once and for all, or will I prevail and become the queen I was always meant to be?

Nyxon

My brothers and I are hardened criminals–gangsters. We have a reputation as the ruthless men who run the city, ruling it with an iron fist.

But the thrones that we sit upon are built of lies. Greed. Destruction. Devastation. Our veins burn with the carnage of our pasts, the sins we've been forced to commit.

It's why I refused to let her in. Why I pushed her away, keeping her at a distance instead of loving her the way I desperately wanted to.

Isabella Hudson. My Thumbelina. Mi Reina.

The woman who saved my life all those years ago on that bridge. The woman who captivated me with one look, one smile, and one word.

Stay.

I never thought I'd see her again, but fate had other ideas, placing her directly in not just my path but my brother's as well.

Like soldiers amid battle, we've fallen. She's captured us, weaving the five of us into her tapestry as though it's where we were always meant to be. She is ours, and we are hers.

Faithful, willing, devoted.

Isabella chose to remain in our lives; danger be damned. And now, the war is at our doorstep. The demons are in our beds. It's not in our nature to submit to captivity, but with her on the outside and us in our enemys clutches, we have no choice but to let our queen reign.