Test Results

Elena didn't ask for the test.

She asked for something better: the truth, in her own time, in a way she could control.

So when Lucas knocked on her door that night and said, quietly, "I've done something you won't like," she was almost relieved.

"You tested Noah."

"I took a hair from his comb. I'm sorry." Lucas stood in the hallway with his hands raised. "Adrian doesn't know yet. But I had to be sure, Elena. If someone is hunting your son, we need to know whose blood they're after."

"And?"

He took out a folded paper. Hesitated.

"I think you should read it."

She took it, and for a long moment she didn't open it. She already knew. She had known since the forest, since the moment Adrian's face went white. She had known when Noah's eyes first lit up in the lamplight.

But knowing and seeing were different things.

She opened the paper.

Probability of paternity: 99.9998%.

Father: Adrian Blackthorn.

She folded it closed. Her eyes were burning.

"Thank you," she said, in a small voice.

"Elena..."

"I need a minute."

Lucas nodded, understanding. He left her alone.

She sat on the edge of the bed, listening to Noah's soft breathing through the open door of the little room next to hers. Her whole body felt hollow.

Five years of silence, she thought. Five years of lying awake, practicing what I would say if I ever had to tell him. And now he has to learn it from a piece of paper.

A sound in the hallway made her look up.

She opened the door a crack.

Adrian sat on the floor outside her room, with his back against the wall and his legs stretched in front of him. He had taken off his jacket. His tie hung loose. He looked like a king who had abandoned the throne for the night.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Nothing."

"You're sitting in a hallway."

"It's a nice hallway."

She almost smiled. "Adrian."

"I couldn't sleep." He didn't look up. "I thought if I stayed close, I could keep watch."

"The guards are watching."

"Not the way I would."

Her heart did a strange, painful thing.

She slid down the door frame and sat on the floor across from him, the open doorway between them. The corridor light was dim and gold. For a minute, neither spoke.

"I was wrong about you," he said at last.

"You don't know that yet."

"I know it in here." He touched his chest. "The rest is just proof."

She looked down at the paper in her lap.

"Lucas ran a test," she said.

Adrian went very still.

"He didn't tell you."

"No."

"Do you want to know the result?"

A long, tight silence.

"No," Adrian said quietly. "Not from a page. If he's mine, I want to hear it from you. When you're ready."

Her eyes stung. She folded the paper small and put it in her pocket.

"I'm afraid," she admitted.

"Of me?"

"Of what it means if I say it."

"What does it mean?"

"That I'm choosing to trust you."

His voice dropped, soft and rough. "Then take your time. I've waited five years. I can wait another night."

A strange peace settled over them. She leaned her head against the door frame. He didn't touch her. He just sat there, steady and quiet, and for the first time she understood why people called Alphas protectors.

She was nearly asleep when the phone rang in his pocket.

He answered. Listened. His face hardened.

"What?" She sat up. "What is it?"

"The technician who ran Lucas's test," he said slowly. "A girl named Mara. She works the night shift in the Tower lab."

"What about her?"

"Lucas called her an hour ago to confirm the results. She never answered."

Dread crawled up Elena's spine.

"And?"

"Security just found her in the lab." He stood. His eyes were black with rage. "She's dead. Every file in the room was wiped before anyone could reach it."