Se connecterDominic's POV"I have been waiting for you to put those on my desk," Cain mentioned commandingly.I set the last item down, which was the prepaid phone, the cloth, and the filing signature printout, three objects in a line on the desk between us, the desk that smelled of old paper and black tea, thirty-two years of a man keeping something he should have said out loud.I sat down.I did not utter a single word. I only looked at him with the same gaze I had used on every person I had needed a complete truth from, without the managed patience, without the Alpha authority layered over it. Just me, looking at him, waiting.Cain looked at all three objects.He folded his hands.Then he looked up."Thirty-two years," he began, his voice carrying the weight of something that had been pressed down so long it had taken the shape of the container. "I have been carrying this for thirty-two years, Dominic. I want you to understand that before I tell you, because I need you to understand the weight
Scarlett's POV "Lilith's signature," I repeated into the phone I had taken from Dominic's hand. "On the criminal complaint filing," Callum confirmed. "I pulled the original document from the registry. The signature matches, the documents used to support the complaint, personal correspondence, internal pack communications, could only have come from someone with direct family access." I looked at Dominic. He looked back at me with the face he wore when something had arrived that he needed to process before he could respond to it, completely still, jaw set, eyes doing the work of a mind that had gone several moves ahead. "We will call you back," I told Callum, ending the call. I put the phone on the desk. "Lilith arrived five days ago," I said quietly. "Yes," Dominic replied. "The complaint was filed three days ago." "Yes." "Which means it was filed two days after she came home." I held his gaze. "Dominic. Are you thinking what I'm thinking at all? Don't you think someone used
Dominic's POV "It belongs to Cain," Reed's voice came through the phone. I took the phone from Scarlett's hand. "Say that again," I told him. "The second device," Reed repeated. "The one the prepaid phone messaged from the tree line. It is registered to Cain's account. His personal number is the receiving contact." A pause. "Dominic's name is saved as the contact label, but the device belongs to Cain." I looked at the cloth in my hand. Then I looked at Scarlett. "Stay on it," I told Reed. "Nothing moves without my instruction." I ended the call while I set the cloth on the desk. I picked up the formal letter Callum had brought up twenty minutes ago, the welfare investigation notification from the regional human governance body. Twenty-one days, inspectors. Three anonymous complaints, Morrow's public statement, and the community board photograph. I had been dealing with Morrow's instruments in sequence. I was done dealing with things in sequence. I called the briefing for ni
Scarlett's POV"You are staring at the ceiling again," Dominic said from the window."I am thinking," I told him."You do both with the same expression." He turned from the window. "Coffee?"He already had it. He crossed the room, sat on the edge of the bed, and held the cup out. I sat up and took it.This was the third morning I had woken up in his room. He was already dressed, shirt on but jacket still over the chair, that in-between state that belonged only to early mornings before the pack's weight settled fully on him. Still private and mine. I drank the coffee.He watched me with the patient attention he gave things he was not going to rush."Tell me something you have not told me," he said.I looked at him over the rim of the cup."About the first life," he added. "The parts you left out because they seemed too small."I looked at the window.They were neither too small nor too embarrassing. There was a difference. The large things had been survivable to say out loud. The smal
Lilith's POV"The intermediary is still inside the boundary," Reed told me, sitting down on the bench.He had come into the east garden fast, which meant whatever he had seen on the camera feed was not something that could wait for a comfortable entrance."You saw them on the northern corridor camera?" I asked."At the tree line," he confirmed. "For about four seconds before they stepped back." He looked at his phone. "Dagger has bikers moving to that section now. But four seconds is enough time to have already done whatever they came to do.""What would they come to do?"Reed looked at me. "That is what I cannot name."I looked at the garden wall and worked through it.The intermediary had introduced Baas to Morrow's team. They were inside this pack, which meant they had access to conversations, movements, and decisions. They had known about the criminal complaint when Baas did not, which meant their information channel to Morrow was separate from Baas's. They were still on the bound
Reed's POV I checked the second feed. The eastern access route, which seemed clear.Third feed…The ridge approach, was Clear."All three positions," I confirmed."All three," Dagger repeated.Morrow had pulled Collins back.He had heard forty-eight hours of a pack in legal difficulty, a certified copy facing procedural challenge, a surveyor's testimony under contest, and an Alpha running three steps behind three simultaneous legal fronts. He had heard it all through a device he believed was his and he had decided that with Dark Eclipse weakening, the physical occupation of the corridor was no longer necessary. The legal instruments would do the work. No need to maintain the operational cost of keeping Collins's people on the boundary.He had pulled them back.Which meant the northern corridor was clear.Which meant Dominic's bikers could move through it without opposition for the first time in weeks.Which meant the eastern territory, physically, was ours again.I looked at the clear
Scarlett’s POV.I didn't want to go. The goddess definitely knew I had no intentions of going, but Dominic always has a way of convincing.“You don't want me staying here?” I asked, my voice calm.“It's too early to raise suspicions, Scarlett.” He said, tying the rope to his pants.I pulled my shir
Luca's POV.I rolled on my side as our heavy breathing filled the room. Zara pulled the sheets over her chest, her breathing uneven like mine.“How was I?” She asked, a smile on her face.“The best as always.” The words came out of her mouth with little to no emotion.Although I was occupied in th
Scarlett's POV.I stood in front of Mama Roux’s wooden door, somehow contemplating if I should go ahead.Before getting the chance to place a knock, the door opened up, the old lady standing right in front of me.“I knew you'd be back, I just wasn't expecting you so soon.”I tilted my head a bit, “
Scarlett's POV.The sound of the music booming from all corners was almost deafening. My neon lights reflected brightly off the stage as I watched the strippers perform while stacking glasses.Zara,in all her beauty as they loved to hype, danced seductively with a smile on her face, pretending as t







