The Arachnid by I.V. Ophelia

Here is a summary with spoilers for The Arachnid by I.V. Ophelia

It has been two years since Alina has left her life in England. Now, inn Buffalo, Alina, a human Host, runs an apothecary and leads a women-led Nest made up of Hosts and Vipera. The group survives by capturing and draining Vipera men for blood, venom, and medicine, turning violence into a system of survival and income. While it seems Alina has had quite the life change, she struggles with addiction to venom and recurring nightmares, while the threat of corrupted Vipera grows around them. Alina also wants to make sure those in her nest are taken care of, she has grown quite close to Edith and Phoebe. She hopes that with two years behind her, her past of Luka and Silas won’t catch up to her. 

Years earlier in England, Silas and Luka used Alina’s experimental venom to poison and massacre a powerful Vipera Nest, destroying the existing order. Silas brands Luka and forces him into an alliance to build a new system based on merit rather than bloodline. By using the venom, both become hunted and are forced to relocate, eventually choosing New York. Silas knows that Alina is somewhere in New York, and is still fully obsessed with Alina, viewing her as both a weapon and a necessary part of his vision; he tells Luka not to find her, but wants to find her himself. 

In Buffalo, Alina’s Nest continues its operations, but the violence and pressure begin to take a toll. Corrupted Vipera increase in number, forcing the women to hunt and eliminate them while fearing becoming like them. Relationships within the Nest strain under stress, especially between Alina and Phoebe, and among other members dealing with trauma and survival. Alina continues to use the Venom as an injection to numb the pain. 

Silas and Luka arrive in Buffalo. Luka starts to look around and finds a Vipera named Edith. He tricks her into learning about Alina, and finds out where she is located, and he tells Silas. Silas begins targeting Alina and her household, and starts stalking his pray. On top of that, Silas reveals that he has spent his time becoming a powerful head of the Nest in New York City. After stalking Alina, she finally catches on and finds Silas. He tells her that he knows of her nests problem; that the Vipera men are having a problem with the failed turnings and their starvation. Thus causing a safety issue for her and the girls in her nest. Silas offers a deal; protection for the nest as long as Alina says yes to his marriage proposal. Alina says no fast, but Silas tells her to stop and think about it for a while. 

Meanwhile, Luka found that he likes to spend time with Edith, she is like a lost puppy to him, a soul who needs a friend, and he wants a friend. Edith works at the hospital, so Luka pretents to be her assistant so he can be with her. Though he does like to be around her, he also finds it very useful to be around her as Edith has a very loose mouth and says a lot of things about Alina, the posion, and her nest. 

Silas and Alina start their cat and mouse game, Silas likes to stalk Alina, but Alina has come to play as well and often sneaks into Silas’s room while he sleeps to leave gifts behind. Silas falls more and more in love with her. Though the game comes to a stop when Silas goes to stalk Alina and finds her in a state; she has almost overdosed on the venom. He takes her back to her nest so they can help her. Though he was worried about her, soon as Alina is back to normal, she is ready to play the game again, and goes righ tback to finding Silas and even attempting to kill him at one point; which turns into the two of them sleeping together and Silas being able to have a power play over Alina. 

Annoyed that Silas won that night, she goes home, only to have her nest there waiting for her; and they are scared. They want her to accept the terms that Silas gave her, because they want his Nest’s protection. She goes to his place, gun in hand, and makes a demand. She will marry him, but she and all of her nest get full security. Silas says yes, and then proceeds to show her a house that he already purchased for her and the girls. They start to prepare the move; and within the week all the girls are moved in. The two nests then start to interact; which also meant that Alina seeks Luka for the first time since their fight. She and him have a little tiff for everyone to see. Luka is able to sit back and watch everything, he sees how Alina works, and how her nest works. 

Days go by where the two nests learn to integrate. And days go by where Alina learns to live with Silas and Silas gets to learn all of the little things about Alina. He takes her to the market, where she tries to spend a lot of his money, which he encourages her to do. He realizes he just wants to make Alina happy. Alina still has issues with the poison, and Silas even finds her in a state of a stroke; which scares him immensely and he doesn’t know what to do with her, especially because now he has properly declared his feelings for her. 

Once Alina has been healed, she and Silas head out to a masquerade hosted by another Nest. On the way there, Silas officially asks for her hand in marriage; to which Alina says yes. The two finally solidify their relationship together and Alina makes Silas promise that he will never betray her again. At the masquerade, Alina uses her perfected poison to destroy a powerful Vipera, solidifying her reputation and increasing attention on her. The event escalates tensions between Nests and confirms her role as both a threat and a target. 

Things in Buffalo worsen when there is an attack and one of the girls gets attacked and Adeline is killed. Everyone in the nest starts to worry and panic. They no longer feel safe being in the nest and don’t believe that Silas can offer the protection he originally offered. Luka is there trying to manage everything, but none of the girls want to hear what he has to say either; Edith has been working in the hospital the whole time. Essentially, Luka remains conflicted within the alliance (and it doesn’t help that he is also in a blood lust and has been waiting for real human blood), Phoebe struggles with jealousy, and Edith becomes increasingly unstable. Without Alina there, the Nest is slowly falling apart. 

Luka starts to worry about Edith, as she has been acting odd and he hasn’t seen her in some time. He decides to go visit. Silas and Alina have also made it back, and their first stop is to the hospital, where it looks like something bad went down. Upon inspection, it seems as someone has gone on a spree and tried to turn humans into Vipera but failed and killed them instead. It was Edith, and she feels no remorse for her actions at all; she sees it as an act of mercy. Edith then starts to lunge for Alina, but Luka gets their first. He kills Edith, seeing it as a mercy, knowing that the Edith he once knew is already gone. To Silas’s horror, Edith still got a hit in, her knife struck true and hit Alina hard enough to start crumbling to the ground. Alina knows that she is dying, she knows that the nest has fractured and that the nest, and herself, might not be coming back from this.