Lucas reached for the next door , his knuckles rapping against it for the third time, the sound echoing in the stillness of the cabin. Jake watched from his position across the room, his eyes darting between the door and the window, scanning for any movement. The tension had been building for what felt like hours, a slow burn that threatened to consume them. Every inch of the house seemed to hold its breath, like a predator waiting to strike.“Nothing,” Lucas muttered, stepping back from the door with a frustrated sigh. “She’s not in there.”Jake’s gaze flicked over to Loren, who had been systematically checking the other rooms. She gave him a quick shake of the head, signaling that nothing had changed. The cabin remained eerily silent, the thick scent of dust and abandonment lingering in the air. It was as if time had stopped here, frozen in some moment long past.“Should we check the basement?” Loren asked, her voice calm but taut with the same underlying anxiety that Jake was feeli
Lila POV Lila (Flashback Perspective)The moment the call disconnected, I knew I had to move—fast. Time was against me, and I had a sinking feeling that it was already too late. I quickly shoved a few essentials into a bag—clothes, cash, ID—but I didn’t dare look at anything that might tie me to this place any longer. It wasn’t safe. Not anymore. They were coming. I could feel it. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my heart raced as I looked around the room. The place that had been mine—where I thought I was safe—now felt like a trap. “Think, Lila. Think,” I muttered to myself, trying to push the panic back down. I grabbed my backup drive, checking it one last time to make sure my data was secured. “Okay, that’s done. Now get out.”I could feel the weight of the world pressing down on me. Every second mattered. But the thought of leaving this place behind, of leaving everything behind, stung. I didn’t want to go, but I had no choice. I had to keep moving. I couldn’t le
Lila POV (The Flashback)I could feel the pull of my wolf inside me, thrashing against the cage of my control, as if it could sense the gravity of what was happening. I clenched my fists, trying to silence the guilt gnawing at my insides. If the bomb detonated now, Lucas would be injured. Maybe worse.The thought of him in pain—the kind of pain I knew I could prevent—sent a sharp pang through my chest. I hated it. I hated the weakness, the way my wolf’s instincts made me feel so vulnerable, so exposed. I cursed under my breath and fought to push the emotions aside. I couldn’t let myself be distracted by them. Not now.I glanced back toward the house, my mind racing. The plan had been to destroy everything—everything that could link me to the brothers, everything that could expose me. The bomb was my last resort. If it went off, it would wipe everything clean.But there was Lucas.Every instinct in my body screamed at me to stop him from getting too close. To keep him out of the house.
“What do you mean?” Loren coughed as he stepped over a broken piece of wood, his clothes coated in dust and ash. Jake ignored him, his gut twisting. Something wasn’t adding up. The explosion—it had been too precise. Too controlled. If this was just a desperate escape attempt by Lila, then why did it feel like they had walked straight into a setup? “She’s not stupid,” Jake said, running a hand through his hair, his mind racing. “She wouldn’t have let this happen by accident. Which means…” He trailed off, his stomach sinking. “Which means what?” Loren pressed, wiping soot from his face. Jake turned toward Lucas, who lay unconscious in the car, his breathing shallow but steady. He was hurt, but he was alive. That was all that mattered for now. But something about this entire situation gnawed at him. “What if this wasn’t just her running?” Jake finally said, voice tight. “What if someone else is pulling the strings?” Loren stiffened. “You think she’s working with someone?” J
“Lucas?”The voice sounded distant, muffled, like it was coming from underwater. His body felt heavy, his limbs unresponsive. A dull, throbbing pain pulsed through his skull, each beat sending sharp jolts down his spine.“Lucas, can you hear me?”He forced his eyes open, blinking against the harsh light. The ceiling above him was unfamiliar—plain white, no cracks, no familiar marks. His mind scrambled for clarity, but everything was tangled in a thick haze.A shadow moved beside him.“Fidel?” His voice came out hoarse, strained.“Yeah, I’m here.” Fidel leaned closer, his expression tense. “Don’t try to move too fast. You took a pretty bad hit.”Lucas groaned, attempting to lift his head. A wave of dizziness crashed over him, and he collapsed back onto the bed. His stomach churned.“What… happened?” he managed, his throat dry as sandpaper.Fidel hesitated. “You don’t remember?”Lucas shut his eyes, reaching inward for his wolf’s presence—only to be met with silence.Panic flickered thr
Lucas’s head spun with the weight of the news.“Three days... Three days I’ve been unconscious and no one thought to wake me?” Lucas’s voice was a mix of frustration and disbelief.Jack stood there, his arms crossed, looking more tired than Lucas had ever seen him.“You were in bad shape, Lucas,” Jack said softly. “We couldn’t risk moving you.”But Lucas wasn’t listening anymore. His mind was racing, trying to piece together the aftermath of the explosion.“Where is she, Jack? Where is Lila?” His voice hardened, the pain he’d felt from being kept in the dark now erupting into raw desperation.Jack’s gaze shifted briefly to the ground, his eyes clouded with something Lucas couldn’t quite read.“She’s in another room.” Jack hesitated, his voice lowering. “She was closest to the explosion, Lucas.”Lucas’s heart slammed in his chest.“Who was the second closest?” he demanded, already fearing the answer.Jack hesitated a moment longer, his eyes narrowing. “You.”Lucas felt as though the fl
Mates weren’t meant to be shared. At least, that’s what he had always believed.But as the words sank in, a strange realization settled over him—he didn’t feel the jealousy he had expected. No rage. No possessiveness. Just an overwhelming sense of connection.“Say something,” Jake muttered, his jaw tightening.Lucas exhaled sharply. “I don’t— I don’t understand. How is this possible?”Jake’s expression darkened. “It’s not unheard of. In our family, having two mates isn’t impossible. It’s rare, but it happens.”Lucas’s mind raced back to the stories his father used to tell him, about the legends of wolves with more than one destined mate. He had dismissed them as myths. But now, standing here, facing this impossible truth, he realized those myths had just become his reality.“And you’ve felt it too?” Lucas finally asked.Jake nodded once. “From the moment I saw her lying there after the explosion, something inside me shifted. It was like losing her would destroy me. And now... I don’t
"I won't let him get away with this," Jake said, his voice thick with anger. His eyes were fixed on Lila, who lay motionless in the bed, her once lively presence now replaced by a quiet stillness that seemed unnatural. Lucas stood by her side, gripping her good hand with a tenderness that betrayed the depth of his feelings. His gaze never left her face, even though the sight was almost too much to bear."I know," Lucas replied, his voice strained but resolute. "But we need to focus on her right now. We can’t do anything if she’s not okay." Jake’s jaw tightened. “I’ve never felt this helpless. Watching her like this, it feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.”He took a step closer, his anger simmering beneath the surface, threatening to explode. His fists were clenched at his sides, but he did nothing with them. Instead, he let the rage build. "Lawrence is going to pay. For this. For everything. He won't get away with hurting her like this."Lucas turned his head slowly, meetin
...Her vision darkened at the edges. Her muscles slackened.The poison was winning.But she’d stopped the countdown.She’d stopped her.And that was worth every drop of blood.“I thought you were smarter than this,” Arika’s voice cracked through the silence like a whip, low and bitter. “But you’re still just the broken girl who doesn’t know when to give up.”Lila barely had time to look up before she heard the click.Arika had drawn a second weapon—a sleek silver-plated handgun—and was aiming it straight at her.“Guess what this one’s loaded with,” Arika sneered. “Silver. Custom made. Just for you.”Lila’s instincts screamed. Her own weapon trembled in her bleeding hand as she forced herself upright. Her breath was sharp, her body sluggish. But her mind? Sharp. Deadly.She raised her gun to match Arika’s.Both women locked eyes, frozen, guns trained on each other in the flickering red light of the destroyed container. Sparks flared behind them, the silence stretching tight like a live
Arika collapsed to her knees, hands trembling. “It was supposed to end. I needed it to end.”Lila stared at her for a long moment. The woman before her wasn’t just a villain. She was broken. And dangerous.But she was also her sister.“I’m not giving you the keys,” Lila said softly. “And I’m not letting you destroy this.”The red glow of the screen illuminated both their faces—sweat, grime, blood.It was over.But it wasn’t.Not even close.With a sudden, primal scream, Arika lunged upward, throwing herself at Lila with bone-snapping force.Lila staggered, taken off guard by the sheer desperation behind the charge. Arika’s elbow jammed into her chest, sending her reeling against the grated floor of the container. Sparks showered around them from dislodged cables. A warning alarm somewhere nearby wailed, short and sharp.Arika didn’t stop.She pounced again—this time, tackling Lila to the ground. Both women hit the metal floor hard, their bodies tangled in fury and pain. The detonator
“You’re insane, Arika. You know that, right?”“Insane?” Arika’s voice oozed with mockery. “Please. That’s such a civilian diagnosis.”Lila’s fists clenched as she took another step forward, her eyes locked on the massive screen overhead—00:09:56. The red numbers blinked with a deadly calmness, each second ticking away a piece of her resolve. Beneath the screen, her servers stood like monuments to everything she’d fought for. Wired with explosives.“You’re going to kill us both,” Lila spat, her voice shaking with fury. “All of this—just to prove a point?”“Oh no, darling.” Arika twirled the sleek detonator in her hand, its silver surface catching the dim light. “Not to prove a point. To make one.”“You planted explosives on the servers!” Lila’s voice rose, ragged. “Are you listening to yourself?”Arika chuckled softly, stepping aside to reveal a clearer view of the blinking red lights wired into each server unit. “I told you this was always bigger than us. You just didn’t want to belie
Lila followed Arika up the ramp, her boots clinking softly against the grated metal, heart thudding louder with each step. Something in Arika’s voice lingered like smoke—too calm, too measured. She didn’t trust it. Not for a second.“You keep the data onboard?” Lila asked, eyes flicking to the wall-mounted surveillance cams. The ship’s interior was sleek but sterile, with black paneling and chrome fixtures. Cold. Like its owner.“No,” Arika said, stopping at a narrow corridor. “I keep my insurance onboard.”She keyed a code into the control pad, and a mechanical hiss broke the silence. A door slid open, revealing a freight elevator platform.“After you,” Arika said with a mock bow.Lila stepped in cautiously, hand still near her weapon. The platform hummed, descending smoothly into the ship’s belly. A few seconds passed in silence. Arika didn’t move. Didn’t smile.Then the metal chamber opened—and Lila’s breath caught.Rows of blinking machines lined the container-sized space. The ser
The Vault’s Truth:Arika’s voice cut through the still air like a blade. “You ever stop and ask yourself what the point of it all is?”Lila didn’t answer immediately. The faint hum of the servers was the only sound between them. Outside, the snow still howled, muffled through thick bunker walls. Her fingers hovered over the tablet screen, pulling fragments of data—locations, funds, faces of corrupt officials—but her mind was already one step ahead.“I used to,” she said finally, gaze still fixed on the display. “I used to think the world was rotten to the core. That maybe if I set a match to everything, it’d feel better.”Arika snorted. “It doesn’t.”“No,” Lila agreed, voice softer now. “It just burns you with it.”That silenced Arika for a beat. Lila glanced over, catching the flicker of doubt that cracked through her sister’s sarcasm.“You sound like one of those therapy podcasts the Alphas play for their anxious mates.”“I sound like someone who’s been burned before.” Lila turned o
Frostbite and Fireworks:"“You sure you’re not walking me into a trap?”Lila’s voice cut through the storm, low and razor-sharp, carried on the wind like a blade tossed by fate."Would I waste this much time just to kill you?” Arika replied without glancing back, her silhouette a blur through the thick curtain of snow. “Don’t flatter yourself.”"You’ve done worse for less."Lila adjusted the grip on her sidearm beneath her coat, every muscle coiled. “And you still haven’t answered how you got the servers out of here without leaving a trail.”"You'll see.”It wasn’t a tease. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise laced with something darker—familiar, dangerous, and maddeningly vague.The snowstorm howled around them like a feral thing, wind battering exposed skin and biting through layers as they trudged deeper into the derelict port grounds. Long-dead cranes loomed like rusted sentinels, skeletal and forgotten. The place reeked of salt, decay, and memory.Lila kept scanning—trees, rooft
The locket in Arika’s hand glinted one last time in the fading light before she tucked it into the folds of her coat, her fingers twitching as though the cold no longer bothered her—just the past that still clung to her skin.But Lila wasn’t finished.Not yet.She turned slowly, like a predator toying with a rival too confident for her own good. “You know,” she said conversationally, her voice laced with honeyed venom, “for someone who prides herself on good taste, I’m surprised you didn’t notice the warning signs.”Arika’s head tilted. “What signs?”Lila’s smile was all razor-edge charm. “Oh, just that Salicus was riddled with diseases. Biochemical ones. I should know—I left him with a few.”The blow landed with precision. A flicker of something passed through Arika’s expression—a stutter in her breath, a twitch at the corner of her mouth. She masked it quickly, but not quickly enough.“You’re bluffing,” Arika said, voice clipped.“Am I?” Lila stepped closer, letting her words drip.
Lila’s lips parted slightly, but no words came out. That sentence—so personal, so venomous—stuck in her like a blade wedged between ribs.Arika didn’t wait for her to recover. She turned and walked slowly toward the edge of the clearing, her fingers brushing the frost-covered rail of a long-abandoned cargo lift. The silence between them thickened.“I had a guest once,” Arika called over her shoulder, too casual. “You might know him. Salicus Grante.”Lila’s body snapped to attention.The name landed like a hammer.“You’re lying.”Arika looked back, one eyebrow raised. “Am I?”“Salicus is dead.”Arika gave a mocking little shrug. “Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night? Or just what you hope is true?”Lila took a shaky step forward. Her pulse thundered in her ears. “Where. Did. You. See. Him.”“Here. There. Doesn’t matter,” Arika said. “He’s a wanderer. A very persistent one. Had a few... interesting stories about you, too. I see where you get your taste in men.”Lila’s hands
Chapter Title: Blood Tides and Buried Truths"You look older than I imagined. The cold's not kind to you, huh?"Lila’s voice cut through the air, sharp as shattered ice.Arika smirked, slow and poisonous. “And you still greet people like you’re handing out ultimatums.”“I only greet the ones who fake their deaths and sell lies for a living.”Arika’s eyes flicked down her nose, unfazed. “Still bitter, I see. At least that hasn’t aged.”The wind between them twisted, biting through cloth and bone alike. They stood ten paces apart in the heart of the abandoned clearing, surrounded by cracked concrete and frost-covered crates. The silence of the ruin only emphasized how violently the past clawed its way into the present.“You died,” Lila said, voice low now. Controlled. “That’s what they told me. What you let them tell me.”“They weren’t wrong,” Arika replied smoothly. “Not entirely.”Lila scoffed. “You faked your death and vanished. What else was I supposed to believe?”“That I had a rea