LOGINThe big reveal! If you were Alessi, what would you do~? PS: Apologies for the late update! I was out all day with suuuper bad signal. Hope you enjoyed this one tho. x And should there be other late updates, I promise I'm getting to it! Holidy rush and all haha appreciate each and every one of you so much <3
ALPHA LUCA The gates recognize me before the guards do. Steel unfolds with mechanical grace, ancient stone walls rising like a memory I never asked to revisit. The Moretti estate looks exactly as it always has. It was immaculate, imposing, perfect in the way only something carefully curated can be. That’s what unsettles me. Nothing here ever looks wrong. My driver doesn’t ask questions. He never does. By the time the car comes to a stop beneath the sweeping archway, my chest is already tight, my blood humming faintly beneath my skin like it knows I’ve stepped into a cage disguised as a home. The door opens. And of course, almost like clockwork… “Alpha Luca.” Frederik stands at the base of the steps, black tablet already in hand, expression strained somewhere between relief and tightly leashed alarm. He looks exactly the same as always: tailored suit, immaculate posture, eyes that miss nothing. But I caught it. The subtle flicker of surprise he doesn’t quite man
ALPHA LUCA I’ve learned there are two kinds of silence. The first is empty. It’s absence, ignorance, the kind you can excuse. The second is deliberate. It’s calculated. It’s deadly. I recognize the second the moment Gavin’s face appears on the secure video channel, shadows cutting sharp lines across his features, his golden eyes dulled with exhaustion and something worse… knowledge. After Gavin left, we tried our best to follow through with the data my uncle gave us, but our bodies wouldn’t let us. We had to go back to the house and rest even for just a little. Harley appeared on the screen, hunched forward, forearms braced on the table like he’s physically holding himself together. The faint tremor in his hands doesn’t go unnoticed. Neither does the tightness in my own chest, the familiar burn that crawls up my spine like my blood is trying to claw its way out. We’re all deteriorating. Together. Gavin doesn’t waste time. “My father is alive.” The words land like a cont
ALPHA GAVIN I don’t want to leave. That’s the first thought that claws through me as I step away from the SUV, the cold night air slicing into my lungs like punishment. Every instinct in my body screams that I should stay right where I am, shouldn’t take my eyes off the road, the laptop, the last fragile thread tying us to Alessi. But my phone is buzzing again. My mother. Of course it had to be her. I let it ring once more, jaw clenched, chest tight enough it hurts to breathe. Harley’s words echo in my skull… ‘We don’t have hope yet. Just a direction.’ And Luca… Luca barely managed to stay upright when I climbed out of the car. I look back at them. Harley is hunched over the hood, hands braced like the metal is the only thing keeping him standing. His scent is sharp, erratic, like fear and fury tangled with something darker. Luca is pale, lips tinged blue, one hand pressed to his ribs like he’s holding himself together by sheer force of will. They’re getting worse.
ALPHA HARLEY My fingers drum the steering wheel so hard the leather is starting to peel. Gavin is pacing behind the hood of the SUV like a predator seconds from snapping steel in half, phone crushed in his hand. And Luca? He’s staring at the single, blinking red point on the tablet in his lap, Alessi’s last known location. It burned itself into the hollow pit already forming in my chest. The abandoned service road. The place where her signal vanished. Where she vanished. My wolf claws at my skin, frantic, sick. I swallow the metallic taste rising in my throat. “Run it again.” Luca’s breathing hitches. It was shallow, uneven. He doesn’t look at me when he taps the keys, a thin sheen of sweat covers his brow. The illness is hitting him again. Harder than before. “Harley,” he murmurs, “I’ve run it six times. It’s the same.” His voice cracks into a rasp. “She was taken and it stopped there.” My vision closes to a pinprick. My hands are shaking again, I believe another sym
The world comes back in pieces. First there was sound, then there was pain. A low mechanical hum fills my skull, steady and cruel, like a heartbeat that isn’t mine. My mouth is dry. My tongue tastes like metal. When I breathe, I smell antiseptic, bleach, and blood. My blood. Something pricks the crook of my arm. I try to move, but leather straps bite into my wrists. Panic blooms in me immediately. Where the hell am I? My chest rises too quickly, and the heart monitor beside me explodes in frantic beeps. The sound shreds the silence. The lab. The white walls. The light that was too bright to be real. And then, as if a ghost cutting through fog, someone whispers. “You’re real.” The voice is hoarse, trembling, small enough to shatter if I breathe too loudly. My body stills. My vision swims, focusing on a glass divider across the room. Behind it… No. That’s… She’s… Me?! The girl staring back has my face but clearly not my life. Her skin is pale and bruised, her lips crack
The bathroom at the gala was all marble and gold mirrors. Too clean, too perfect, too much like everything else in this town that didn’t belong to me, that I didn’t belong to. I gripped the sink and tried to breathe, but the words of doubt just flooded my head. Not good enough. Not worth it. Nothing. No one. I’ve always been no one. Frantic, I pulled my locket out from beneath my dress, a small silver heart that had survived my childhood. One of the few things from my parents that I’d managed to keep. My hands were shaking. I opened it and looked at the tiny photo of us smiling at the camera, but then it fell. The locket slipped from my fingers and clattered against the marble floor. Somehow, the back panel popped open. There, inside, was a small piece of paper, yellowed with age, with a number scribbled in my mother’s handwriting. My heart stopped. I stared at it for a moment, wondering what it meant and what I should do when I finally had the courage to pull out
It was a dream. But it didn’t feel like one. I was standing in a forest. It was bare, wintry, and quiet. The trees stretched high and skeletal, their branches like cracked fingers against a gray sky. A hush blanketed everything, not peaceful, but heavy. It was still. Too still. My breath c
Harley dropped me off at the house and mumbled something under his breath about having to do something else and that he’ll be back later. It was obvious he was just avoiding trying to face what happened in his car and honestly, I didn’t mind it because I couldn’t deal with it right now either.
A few days had passed since the Alpha showdown, and the boys, to their credit, had dialed back on the testosterone just enough to let me breathe. Which meant it was the perfect time to go back to work. Ambriz Animal Care was still my happy place even with the loud barking, unstoppable meows, sti
I didn’t mean to run. Not really. I didn’t even pack a bag nor leave a note. Hell, I didn’t even put on shoes. All I knew was that something inside me snapped when Gavin said the bond could destroy me. All of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe so I ran. Down the stairs, out the side door, throug







