Compartilhar

Terms of Exposure

last update Última atualização: 2026-01-12 13:04:01

The city looked the same.

That was the most unsettling part.

Traffic flowed. Screens blinked. People argued over coffee orders and missed trains and things that felt unbearably small now. Aiden walked beside Dante through it all with the strange awareness of someone who had just stepped out of a sealed room—air sharper, sounds louder, edges clearer.

“They let you go too easily,” Dante said.

“Yes,” Aiden replied. “Because holding me wasn’t the point.”

They crossed the street on a yellow light. Aiden didn’t rush.

“They wanted confirmation,” Aiden continued. “That I wouldn’t fold quietly once it was just me in the room.”

Dante glanced at him. “And you gave them that.”

“Yes,” Aiden said. “Which means the next phase won’t be hidden.”

Back at the apartment, Aiden didn’t sit down. He paced once, slow and deliberate, then stopped. The adrenaline had worn off, leaving behind something heavier but cleaner.

“They’re going to expose me,” he said. “Not legally. Narratively.”

Dante leaned against t
Continue a ler este livro gratuitamente
Escaneie o código para baixar o App
Capítulo bloqueado

Último capítulo

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Fault Lines

    The first betrayal didn’t announce itself.It arrived wrapped in courtesy.Aiden noticed it in the wording of an email forwarded to him by one of the new observers—polite, procedural, almost apologetic. The kind of message written by someone who wanted to be seen as reasonable even while repositioning a knife.We appreciate your willingness to engage publicly. However, certain disclosures may have exceeded agreed boundaries…Aiden read it twice, then set his phone down.“They’re shifting the ground,” Dante said from across the room.“Yes,” Aiden replied. “Which means the ground was never stable to begin with.”The night before had been loud with messages. This morning was quieter. That was how Aiden knew something had changed. Momentum didn’t vanish—it redirected. Someone upstream had tightened a valve.By midmorning, three invitations had been “postponed.” One observer had gone suddenly silent. Another sent a carefully neutral follow-up that said much more about what it didn’t ask.“

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Witnesses in the Room

    The forum did not look like a power.That, Aiden realized, was intentional.No elevated dais. No grand seals or flags. Just a long room with neutral walls, glass panels, and a circular table designed so no one sat at the head. The lighting was soft, almost deceptively calm, as if the space itself were trying to suggest reason before anyone spoke.Aiden arrived early.He wanted to see who came in before the room filled.Dante took the seat beside him without comment. Not protective, not distant—present. That mattered more than proximity.One by one, the observers filtered in.Journalists who hadn’t published yet. Analysts who didn’t work for any one institution anymore. Legal professionals whose careers had survived because they’d learned when to step sideways instead of forward.Witnesses.Julian entered last.He didn’t look surprised to see Aiden already seated. If anything, he looked irritated—not by the confrontation, but by the audience.“You made this very public,” Julian said, t

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Terms of Exposure

    The city looked the same.That was the most unsettling part.Traffic flowed. Screens blinked. People argued over coffee orders and missed trains and things that felt unbearably small now. Aiden walked beside Dante through it all with the strange awareness of someone who had just stepped out of a sealed room—air sharper, sounds louder, edges clearer.“They let you go too easily,” Dante said.“Yes,” Aiden replied. “Because holding me wasn’t the point.”They crossed the street on a yellow light. Aiden didn’t rush.“They wanted confirmation,” Aiden continued. “That I wouldn’t fold quietly once it was just me in the room.”Dante glanced at him. “And you gave them that.”“Yes,” Aiden said. “Which means the next phase won’t be hidden.”Back at the apartment, Aiden didn’t sit down. He paced once, slow and deliberate, then stopped. The adrenaline had worn off, leaving behind something heavier but cleaner.“They’re going to expose me,” he said. “Not legally. Narratively.”Dante leaned against t

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   No More Buffer

    The relocation was clean.That was the first thing Aiden checked—not the route, not the messages still coming in fragments, but the confirmation that Dante’s brother was physically safe. Doors locked. Location scrubbed. New identifiers active.Only then did Aiden allow the rest of it to register.“They moved faster than expected,” Dante said, standing by the window, phone still in his hand. “But not faster than us.”Aiden nodded. “Because we weren’t waiting for permission.”The apartment felt different now. Not tense—activated. Every object suddenly had a function. Every silence felt deliberate rather than empty.This wasn’t escalation-by-threat anymore.This was live.“They wanted leverage,” Dante continued. “They wanted me to hesitate.”“And did you?” Aiden asked.Dante met his gaze. “Not for a second.”The bond responded—not with heat, not with fear.With alignment sharpened into something dangerous.Across town, Julian stared at the updated report, the irritation he’d been suppres

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Overlap

    The response couldn’t be louder.Aiden understood that before he even sat down. Loud invited hierarchy. Loud created centers. Loud made things easier to map, easier to crush.What he needed now was overlap.He sent no announcements. Issued no instructions. He didn’t tell anyone to do anything. Instead, he shared context—just enough that people could see the pattern for themselves.Three short messages.Five shared documents.One quiet question posed in different ways:What do you still need to function if this disappears tomorrow?The answers came back unevenly, imperfectly, but honestly.Redundancy.Access.People, not places.Dante watched it unfold from the edge of the kitchen, arms folded, eyes sharp. “You’re not rebuilding the hub.”“No,” Aiden said. “I’m dissolving it.”By midmorning, the damaged space from the footage had already become irrelevant. Conversations rerouted. Meetings relocated without announcement. Tools were mirrored and passed along. No single node mattered enou

  • Alpha’s Enemy, Alpha’s Mate   Outside the Frame

    The city felt different the moment Aiden stepped outside the next morning.Not quieter. Not louder.Less filtered.No notifications were waiting. No subtle permissions granted or revoked overnight. The invisible guardrails he’d spent years navigating—sometimes fighting, sometimes exploiting—were simply… gone.He was outside the frame now.Dante noticed it too.“You’re moving differently,” Dante said as they walked. “Like you’re not anticipating friction anymore.”Aiden considered that. “Because there isn’t any predictable friction left.”“That’s worse,” Dante said mildly.“Yes,” Aiden agreed. “And also cleaner.”They passed a security checkpoint that had once slowed them every time. Today, no one stopped them. No flag. No pause. Just indifference.Aiden felt a strange echo in his chest—not fear, not triumph. Exposure.“They didn’t revoke anything publicly,” Dante said. “No statement. No notice.”“They can’t,” Aiden replied. “They don’t want attention on what happens when someone exits

Mais capítulos
Explore e leia bons romances gratuitamente
Acesso gratuito a um vasto número de bons romances no app GoodNovel. Baixe os livros que você gosta e leia em qualquer lugar e a qualquer hora.
Leia livros gratuitamente no app
ESCANEIE O CÓDIGO PARA LER NO APP
DMCA.com Protection Status