C6

"Ebu, you're staring at the monolith like it's a pyre waiting for a spark. You’re an Adeyemi; you’ve survived the Northern winter. You can survive a desk job."

"It’s not the job, Helena. It’s the scent. The entire tower smells like the Okoye family. It’s suffocating."

"Then don't breathe it in. Breathe in your goal. You want the Archives unlocked? You want the truth about the toxin? Then get inside and keep your eyes open. Ifu doesn't know you’re hunting him yet."

"And if he does? If the 'invitation' was just a way to keep his enemies within reaching distance?"

"Then you make sure he never gets close enough to see the pup in your belly. Go. Be the wolf he thinks you are."

The Okoye Moon Dominion Tower was a structure of obsidian and cold, white light. It didn't just pierce the sky; it seemed to drain the warmth from the air around it. I stood on the curb, the heavy, biting wind of the Northern reaches whipping through my coat.

I was Ebu Adeyemi, not Ebu Whitlock. I had to remember that.

The security gate recognized my bio-signature—Ifu had seen to that—and hissed open. The lobby was a cathedral of power, all marble and silence. I walked toward the lift, my pulse a frantic, irregular drum in my chest.

Two pink lines. A legacy of blood and a secret growing in the dark.

"Miss Adeyemi? The Prime Alpha is expecting you on the top floor."

The lift ride was a vertical ascent into a rarefied world. When the doors slid open, the floor was silent. An assistant with eyes that flickered with low-level glamours led me to the executive suite.

"He's waiting," she murmured, then vanished.

The door to the inner sanctum was massive. I pushed it open.

Ifu was standing by the glass, looking out over the sprawl of Valemont. He looked different than he had on the transport—he was wearing a high-collared tunic of dark, wolf-hide leather, his scent thick with cedar, cold air, and something dangerously sweet.

He turned. His eyes met mine, and for a split second, the polished mask slipped. He looked at me—not as an employee, but as the only thing in the room that held his interest.

"Ebu," he said, his voice a low, gravelly hum that vibrated in my marrow. "You came."

"I needed the position," I said, my voice firmer than I felt. "And you seemed... eager to have me."

He crossed the room. He didn't offer a hand to shake; he stood in my personal space, his size eclipsing the light. The scent of him was maddening. It brought back the heat of the transit chamber, the weight of him, the way he’d whispered into my ear while his knot tore through my defenses.

"Eager is one word for it," he said, his gaze dropping to my stomach before snapping back up. I froze. Did he know? Had he smelled the change in my biology? "You’re an Adeyemi. It’s only right you serve in the Dominion."

"My father didn't serve," I said, testing the water.

"Your father was a fool who believed in boundaries," Ifu replied, his voice devoid of warmth. "I believe in unification."

He gave me a tour, but it was just a pretext to keep me close, to watch the way I flinched when he moved. He led me through the offices, his brothers—the arrogant Lucien and the brooding Zane—watching from the boardroom. They were predators, every one of them.

Then came the test.

He locked the door to an office—my office—and dropped a runic ledger onto the desk. "Audit this. Find the leak in the Darkwater Freight Dominion accounts. If you’re as sharp as your bloodline suggests, you’ll find it before sunset."

I sat. I worked. My fingers danced over the runes. Within an hour, I’d found the discrepancy—a massive embezzlement scheme filtered through a shell charity: The Silver Crescent Foundation. The very place that had ‘disposed’ of my parents’ estate.

I looked up to tell him, but found him leaning over me, his hand resting on the back of my chair, effectively caging me.

"Efficient," he murmured, his breath brushing the nape of my neck. My skin broke out in goosebumps. "But be careful, Ebu. Looking too closely at a ledger can sometimes lead to a very short life."

Before I could answer, the glass door rattled.

A man in a sleek, grey coat stood there—Detective Rowan Black of the Valemont Watch. He held a badge that shimmered with anti-glamour wards. Behind him were two enforcement wolves.

"Prime Alpha Okoye," Black said, his tone mocking. "I hope I’m not intruding on a private briefing."

Ifu straightened, his presence instantly expanding until the room felt like it was shrinking. "Detective. You are, as always, an annoyance."

"I have a warrant for the Darkwater audit files," Black said, his eyes flicking to me. "It seems someone is laundering funds into black-market wolfsbane."

Ifu didn't blink. "You have no jurisdiction here."

"I have the backing of the Elder Council," Black countered, stepping into the room. "And I have a witness who says an Adeyemi was seen near the blood-archives the night the records were wiped."

My heart stopped.

Ifu looked at me, a dangerous, possessive smirk playing on his lips. "She’s a new hire, Detective. She’s only here to track numbers, not ghosts."

"Is that so?" Black moved toward me, his eyes narrowing as he caught the scent of something—perhaps the faint, lingering trace of the Okoye alpha, or the scent of a new life beginning to bloom in me.

Ifu stepped between us, his hand moving to the small of my back, his touch branding me. "Take your investigation to the lobby, Rowan. Before I decide that your intrusion is a threat to my pack-peace."

Black held the stare for a long moment, then tipped his hat. "Careful, Okoye. You’re playing with a bloodline that was extinguished for a reason."

He turned and left.

I was left alone in the room with Ifu, my pulse hammering against my ribs, the scent of cedar and dominance overwhelming.

"You heard him," Ifu whispered, leaning down until his lips were inches from my ear. "He thinks you’re a ghost. I know you’re something much more complicated."

He turned me in the chair so I was facing him. His eyes were burning, searching mine, and for a second, I thought he would drag me out of the office and into the dark.

"Why?" I asked, my voice barely a thread. "Why hire me? Why put a target on my back?"

"Because," he said, his hand sliding up to my jaw, his thumb tracing my lower lip, "I find it much more entertaining to have my prey sitting at my own table."

I shivered, terrified and electrified. I had come here to take them down, but as Ifu looked at me, I realized the trap wasn't just mine. I was the one who had walked into it, carrying the only secret that could destroy us both.