로그인THIRD PERSON'S POV.Twenty minutes later, the bathroom door opened, and steam rolled out into the bedroom. Brayden stepped out in a pair of gray sweatpants, a towel slung around his neck, his hair still dripping onto his bare shoulders.In his hand was a plain manila folder.Rhys was curled on the sofa in the sitting area by the window, his phone clutched in both hands, still waiting for Richard to reply. He looked up. And color drained from his face.Brayden walked over and held the folder out to him."This fell out of your bag in the car," he said. "When we dropped Richard off. I picked it up so it wouldn't get lost."Rhys stared at it.At the white label on the tab. At his own handwriting.ROWAN MELBOURNE.His hands didn't want to move. When they finally did, they were shaking. He took the folder and pressed it flat against his chest, as if Brayden might snatch it back."You..." His voice cracked. "You had it?""Don't worry." Brayden smiled. "I never opened it."Rhys let out a long
THIRD PERSON'S POV.Rhys was still pressing his fingers to his aching temples when he walked back into the bedroom. His work bag lay on the edge of the bed where he had left it. After the chase, the driver picked it up from the pavement outside the pharmacy and handed it back to him without a word, and Rhys was too shaken to even look inside.Since the day he moved to Crownfang Pack, Rowan's file had lived in the locked bottom drawer of his office desk. It was the safest place he had. But with everything happening lately, he had decided that morning to bring it home and hide it somewhere no one would ever think to look.He unzipped the bag and reached for the inner pocket.His fingers met nothing.Rhys frowned and pushed his hand deeper. Notebooks. Pens. His charger. A crumpled receipt.No file.His heart began to pound.He turned the bag upside down and shook everything out onto the bed. Notebooks slapped against the sheets. Pens rolled off the edge and onto the floor. His wallet. H
THIRD PERSON'S POV.Rhys barely stepped out of the shower when his phone started buzzing on the bathroom counter.Richard.He wrapped a towel around his waist and answered with wet fingers. "Richard? Are you home?""It's gone."Rhys froze. "What's gone?""The syringe." Richard's voice was tight and fast, nothing like his usual calm. "Your blood, Rhys. It's not in my bag. I've turned it inside out three times. I've checked my coat, my pockets. It's gone."The steam in the bathroom suddenly felt too thick to breathe."That's not possible." Rhys gripped the edge of the counter. "You put it in your bag. I watched you.""I know. I had it when we left your office. I'm sure of that." Richard exhaled hard. "But after the chase, I never checked again. I just grabbed my bag from the front seat and got out at my gate."Rhys closed his eyes.The front seat.The car, sitting on a busy street with all its doors flung open and the engine still running. The driver gone. Richard gone. Him gone. For ho
THIRD PERSON'S POV.The throne room had never been this loud at midnight. Ten ministers stood beneath the tall arched windows, half of them still in the clothes they had thrown on after their phones started ringing. Every one of them was holding a screen.And on every screen, the same video was playing.A narrow alley. Shaky, grainy footage. A man in a charcoal suit sprinting after a stranger. Then his body bowing, his clothes shredding, and a massive silver wolf tearing out of him and howling at the sky while somebody behind the camera screamed.Cedric held his tablet up so the whole room could see."Four million views," the Prime Minister said. "In three hours."Brayden was on the throne in a plain black shirt and trousers, his hair still damp, his jaw set like stone. Gina stood a step behind his right shoulder, her tablet clutched to her chest."Turn it off," Brayden said.Cedric didn't. "Alpha King, with respect, do you understand what you've done? The pack has watched its king tu
THIRD PERSON'S POV.Richard shoved the passenger door open and leapt out of the car."Rhys! Wait!"Behind the wheel, the driver froze."Luna? Luna!"He scrambled out, leaving the engine running, and ran after Richard.Ahead of them, Rhys tore across the pavement. His bag slipped from his shoulder and hit the ground. He didn't stop for it.Outside the pharmacy, the man in the brown jacket lifted his head from his phone.His eyes found Rhys.For one frozen second, they stared at each other across twenty feet of yellow streetlight.Then the color drained from the man's face. He dropped his shopping bag. A bottle of antiseptic burst against the concrete.And he ran."Stop!" Rhys screamed. "STOP HIM!"~~~~~Brayden stepped through the sliding doors of the supermarket with a plastic bag stuffed full of chocolate bars.He heard the scream before he saw anything.His head snapped toward the sound. The car was empty. All three doors hung wide open. And down the street, Rhys was running, Richar
RHYS' POV."There is fire on the mountain, Richard." I paced my office, my arms wrapped around myself."Rhys...""Brayden has been investigating." I spun to face him. "He told me he's been hunting the people who took me, Richard. And last night, I saw it with my own eyes.""Saw what?""The photo on his phone. A burnt card. Half the letters melted off." I pressed my palms against my eyes. "And he lay in bed beside me afterward like nothing in the world was wrong. Like he didn't know a thing.""Rhys.""What if he does know?" The words spilled out of me faster than I could stop them. "What if he knows what's going on in that facility? What if he knew all along, and he's just pretending? Smiling at me. Kissing me. Pretending he doesn't know what's right or wrong, while...""Rhys. Stop."Richard crossed the room and caught me by both shoulders."Listen to me," he said firmly. "That isn't possible.""How can you be so sure?""Because I've looked into Brayden more times than I can count. He'







