Lucas fixated on the monitor, his gaze unwavering as Jake positioned her for the camera. His body tightened, a dull ache pulsing within him as Jake's fingers gently separated her delicate folds, revealing her completely. He understood Jake's intentions. Jake had sensed his inner turmoil, his carefully constructed composure crumbling. Though he usually excelled at masking his emotions, presenting a stoic facade, Jake possessed an uncanny ability to perceive others' true feelings, and he saw right through him. Jake was also aware of his tense exchange with Lila the previous day. His actions were a gesture of support, and despite his reservations about Jake pushing their shared companion too quickly, he found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the screen as Jake displayed her before the camera, ensuring every detail was visible. He groaned, a sensation of fullness building within him, almost painful. The scene before him felt surreal, like a dream unfolding, because he had f
Lila's New LifeA week passed quickly, and Lila's existence in the brothers' residence settled into a consistent pattern. Each morning, she would awaken to find Jake bringing her breakfast. He would engage her in conversation and spend some time with her before departing for his work. Upon his return in the evening, he would dedicate the remainder of the night to being physically close to her and conversing with her. She was acclimating to this routine, which, for the moment, was acceptable. Jake required her complete focus and consideration whenever she was awake. The remaining hours were spent in a state of light sleep, particularly after she took her medication. On the nights following Jake's departure, Lila consistently sensed an unseen presence within her room, observing her and occasionally making physical contact. She was always aware that it was Lucas. He consistently visited her during the darkest part of the night and departed silently, like a phantom. On certain occasio
Not entirely accurate. She still had everything stored on a server located in a city east of their location. But she doubted she would be able to travel there soon. So, in the meantime, whenever she was awake and Jake wasn't present (which was infrequent), she seized the opportunity to explore the house. She spent some time in Jake's room, examining the contents of his computer, which she found intriguing. That was the extent of her exploration. --- "You're snooping." Lila stiffened but didn't turn around. "I'm just looking." "Looking through my personal files?" Jake's tone was amused as he leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. She smirked, clicking through a few folders on his computer. "If they were truly personal, you'd have a better password." Jake walked over, resting a hand on the desk beside her. "You cracked it that fast?" She shrugged. "You used your birth year. How original." He chuckled, shaking his head. "And? Find anything interesting?" Lila tapp
Lila’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, her pulse steady despite the storm raging inside her. The screen before her flickered, revealing rows of surveillance footage, all of them focused on one subject—her.“So, this is what you do in your free time?” Her voice sliced through the silence, controlled yet laced with mockery.Behind her, Lucas’s presence loomed. She didn’t need to turn around to know he was there. She had felt him before she had even entered the room, his energy like a force of gravity pulling her in.He stepped forward. “You shouldn’t be here.”“And you shouldn’t be watching me.” Lila’s gaze remained fixed on the screens, refusing to give him the satisfaction of meeting his eyes. “You’ve got quite the collection. Every move I make, every breath I take, you’ve recorded it.”Lucas’s tone was unreadable. “You sound surprised.”Lila let out a dry laugh. “I knew you were obsessed, but this? This is another level.” She leaned back against the desk, arms folded, tilting her
"You killed my father."The words landed like a blow, sharp and precise. Lila watched as Lucas froze, his body tensing against her own. His eyes, usually so unreadable, flickered with something unspoken—shock? Confusion? Guilt? She couldn’t tell, and that only fueled her anger.Lucas didn’t step back. He stayed exactly where he was, his grip on the wall firm, caging her in. "Say that again," he demanded, his voice eerily calm."You heard me," she hissed. "You killed Anthony Liams."Lucas’s expression didn’t change, but something in his gaze darkened. "Anthony Liams?" he repeated, as if testing the name on his tongue."Don’t pretend you don’t remember him," she snapped. "You executed him. Like he was nothing. And now you act like—""I’ve killed a lot of people, Lila," he interrupted. "That name doesn’t mean anything to me."Her heart pounded in her chest. Was he lying? Or did she truly mean so little to him that her father’s death was nothing more than a forgotten detail? The thought
"You’re running yourself into the ground, you know that, right?"Jake barely acknowledged the voice behind him as he sprinted along the treeline, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The damp soil beneath his feet did nothing to slow him down, and the cool night air burned his lungs. He had been running for hours, pushing his body to the limit, but the weight in his chest never lightened."Jake." Lucas’s voice was firm now, cutting through the silence of the woods. "This isn’t going to change anything."Jake skidded to a halt, his hands resting on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. His brother’s figure emerged from the darkness, arms crossed, his expression unreadable."What do you want me to do?" Jake snapped, straightening up. "Sit inside and pretend everything’s fine? Because it’s not."Lucas let out a long sigh. "I never said it was. But exhausting yourself isn’t going to make it any easier."Jake wiped the sweat from his forehead and shook his head. "I don’t know how to dea
Jake flinched slightly but said nothing. Lucas remained calm, though his grip on the edge of the table tightened. "I’m not asking you to forget," Lucas said evenly. "I just want to talk." Lila tilted her head, studying him. "Talk?" she echoed. "Alright, let’s talk." She leaned forward slightly, her voice lowering. "Are you sorry for killing Anthony?" The question hit the room like a knife to the throat. Jake’s breath hitched, his fingers twitching against the table. Lucas didn’t move. For a long moment, he simply stared at Lila, his expression unreadable. Then, his jaw tensed. "No." Lila’s lips pressed together, and a cold, bitter smile touched her face. "Of course not." Jake shifted uncomfortably, his gaze darting between them. "Lila—" She held up a hand, silencing him. Her attention remained on Lucas. "I just wanted to hear you say it. Just in case I had any doubt left." Lucas inhaled slowly. "You asked for the truth." "And I got it," she murmured. She pushed h
Lucas didn’t flinch at Lila’s words, but the weight of them settled in the air between them. "Are you sorry for killing Anthony?" she asked again, her voice sharp, unyielding. Lucas exhaled through his nose, his expression unreadable. "I regret that he was your father," he said evenly. "But I don’t regret killing him." Lila’s nails dug into the edge of the table. "That’s not an answer." "It’s the truth," Lucas replied. "I won’t lie to make this easier." Lila let out a bitter laugh. "Easier? You think any of this is easy?" Jake’s eyes flicked between them, his grip on his fork tightening. He had known this conversation would be brutal, but he hadn’t expected it to feel like this—like something irreparable was breaking between them. Lucas met Lila’s glare head-on. "I avenged my parents. I did what had to be done." Her chest rose and fell with shaky breaths. "And what about me, Lucas? Did it ever cross your mind what would happen to me? That you weren’t just killing a man
“You’re sure this is where she came?”Jake’s voice cut through the howling wind, low and tense, barely audible over the shrieking gusts and biting snow. His eyes scanned the fractured skyline of the abandoned port, every sense on high alert.“Yes,” Lucas answered, brushing snow off the small tracking device clutched in his glove. The screen blinked weakly beneath a layer of frost, its signal sputtering in and out like a dying heartbeat. “She couldn’t have gotten far with that injury. This is where the trail ends.”“I don’t like it.” Jake’s nostrils flared, his wolf stirring beneath the surface, restless. “The air’s too still. Even the crows are gone.”“They don’t linger near death.” Lucas muttered, adjusting the rifle slung over his shoulder. His jaw was tight, eyes sweeping across the jagged silhouettes of forgotten shipping containers buried in snow. “Neither should we.”Jake crouched, brushing aside a layer of snow with his palm. “Footprints. Hers. But…” His hand hovered over a sec
“Come on, Lila—move!” Jake’s voice echoed, frantic yet distant over the static of her heart pounding. With every agonizing second that ticked away on the digital screen above the stolen servers, the container’s red countdown screamed at her: 00:00:01.Lila’s body, battered and seared with silver poison still burning through her veins, refused to yield to despair. Every muscle cried out in protest as she dragged herself across the cold metal floor, her cybernetic arm scraping along a jagged line of shattered concrete. The room was a chaos of scattered cables, twisted server racks, and shattered dreams—a grim battlefield illuminated by the harsh glow of the countdown timer still frozen at the edge between hope and oblivion.“Arika!” she rasped, voice strained with desperation, “I—”No answer came but the relentless beep of the timer.Arika lay crumpled nearby, blood trickling from her ravaged face, her eyes filled with a frenzy of rage and defeat. Lila’s vision blurred; all that mattere
...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.