The leak

"I want everyone who knew she was coming here," Cael said. "Every name. Tonight."

He wasn't shouting. That was the thing about him I was already learning. The quieter his voice got, the more dangerous the temperature in the room became. Right now his voice was very quiet.

Lena already had her phone out. "I have six people who were briefed on the relocation. Four security staff, my assistant, and Marcus on the legal team."

Pull their communications. All of it. Tonight.

Already started.

I stood near the doorway of the main room and watched them work and did not feel like an outsider in the way I'd expected to. I felt like a person in the middle of a situation that required clear thinking, and clear thinking was something I was actually good at.

"What about the man who met me at the door when I arrived?" I asked.

Both of them looked at me.

He knew my name before I said it. He reached for my bag. He'd been standing there waiting specifically for me. I kept my voice even. He's one of the six?

Lena's expression didn't shift but something behind her eyes sharpened. "Reid. Yes."

I'm not saying it was him. I'm saying he's worth the same scrutiny as the others.

Lena nodded once and typed something. I had the feeling she had already thought of it and was noting that I had too.

Cael was watching me from across the table. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, which was unusual for me. Most people had readable faces once you knew what to look for. His was like trying to read a page through water, the shapes were there but nothing resolved cleanly.

You should sleep, he said.

"You said we'd go through your files on Aldric tonight."

"That can wait until morning."

You told me everything that affects me comes from you directly. This affects me. I walked to the nearest chair and sat down. I'll sleep when we're done.

Another one of those almost-smiles. There and gone.

He sat down across from me and Lena set a tablet between us on the table. What came next was an hour of the most unsettling reading I had done since nursing school, and that included a module on catastrophic trauma care.

Aldric Morse was fifty-one years old and had led the Eastern Coalition for fourteen years. In that time, three pack members who had publicly opposed him had died in circumstances that were ruled accidental. One had been a young woman, twenty-four, who had reportedly threatened to go to the human authorities about pack operations. Her death was recorded as a hiking accident.

Two of Cael's business partners had pulled their contracts with Sinclair Industries in the same month eighteen months ago, both citing unspecified concerns. Neither would explain further.

And four years ago, one week before Cael's father collapsed at a pack summit, Aldric had pushed through a procedural motion that ensured a rapid succession vote rather than a standard mourning period.

I set the tablet down.

"He's been planning this for years," I said.

"At minimum," Cael said.

"And the fertility clinic. If he engineered the mix-up, that means he had someone inside the clinic. Someone with access to donor records and procedure scheduling and sample processing." I thought about it. "That's not a quick operation. You don't buy that kind of access in a week."

Cael leaned forward slightly. "What are you saying?"

I'm saying he wasn't responding to your campaign. He was already positioned. Whatever he planned to do with that clinic, he had it set up well before the Alpha King vote became urgent. I looked at him. "Which means you weren't the only target. Or the original one.

The room was quiet for a moment.

"She's right," Lena said from across the room. She was looking at her own screen and not at either of us, but her voice had shifted in a way I noticed. "I've been looking at the clinic's donor program records. Cael wasn't the only pack-affiliated individual using that clinic. There are two others in the Pacific Northwest region."

So it wasn't specifically about me, Cael said.

"It became about you when the error landed on my file," I said. "But the infrastructure was already there. He was running a longer play."

Cael looked at me for a moment with an expression I couldn't name. It wasn't a surprise exactly. It was something quieter than that.

"You're good at this," he said.

I'm good at problems that need to be solved with limited information and no time to be precious about it. I stood up because I was tired and my back ached and I had processed enough for one night. "It's basically nursing."

I picked up the tablet and handed it back to Lena.

In the morning I want to talk about the clinic doctor, I said. Dr. Piper Cross. If Aldric had inside access, it ran through someone with authority over sample processing. That means either her directly or someone who reported to her.

Lena looked up at me fully for the first time since I'd arrived. Not warmly. But with something that felt like the beginning of being taken seriously.

"I'll pull her financial records," she said.

I nodded and walked toward the door.

"Ella."

Cael's voice. I stopped.

"Thank you," he said. "For not leaving tonight when he called."

I turned just enough to look back at him over my shoulder. He was still sitting at the table, the lamp light catching the edge of his jaw, and he looked, just for that one second, like a man who was not used to being grateful and was figuring out how to hold it.

"I told you I'd call him if I needed to," I said. "I didn't need to."

I went upstairs.

I was almost at my door when my phone buzzed. A text from Theo, sent forty minutes ago that I hadn't seen.

*There's a guy outside my building. Big. Hasn't moved in an hour. Should I be worried?*

I typed back: *No. He's one of the good ones. I'll explain everything tomorrow.*

Three dots appeared, then: *Ella what did you do?*

I almost smiled.

Then a second text came through, from the same unknown number Aldric had called from.

Just four words.

*Think about it. Tonight.*