Watched

Chapter 25

The feeling had been there for days before I finally admitted it.

Someone was watching me.

I stopped halfway down the garden path and scanned the hedges, the windows above, and the empty stretch of lawn beyond the roses.

Nothing moved.

A faint rustle came from behind me.

I turned sharply.

Only wind stirred the flowers.

I told myself I was imagining things. The old book, Sable's revelations, and the possibility that my blood held a secret older than Blackthorn itself had left me jumpy. Every shadow seemed suspicious. Every unfamiliar sound made me look over my shoulder.

But the feeling wouldn't go away.

Someone was watching me.

And I was beginning to suspect that my instincts were trying to tell me something my mind wasn't ready to accept.

I found Roman in his study an hour later.

He was standing beside his desk, reading a report, when I entered.

"I think someone is watching me."

He looked up immediately.

"What happened?"

"Nothing specific. That's the problem." I closed the door behind me. "I've noticed movement near the garden, shadows outside the windows, and the feeling that someone is nearby whenever I turn around."

"How long has this been happening?"

"A few days."

His expression hardened.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I thought I was imagining it."

He set the report aside.

"You don't have to prove you're afraid before I take you seriously, Mira."

Something in my chest loosened, though the fear remained.

He crossed the room and reached for the telephone.

"Security," he said when someone answered. "I want the east wing checked immediately. Every window, every entrance, and the entire garden. Look for signs of tampering. Nobody enters or leaves that section without being logged."

He listened for a moment.

"And keep this discreet. I don't want rumors spreading through the household before we know what we're dealing with."

He ended the call and turned back to me.

"Did you notice anything else?"

"Sometimes I feel as though someone is standing outside my bedroom window at night."

His face changed.

"Why didn't you tell me that first?"

"Because I didn't want to sound paranoid."

"Mira, someone making you feel unsafe in your own room isn't something you need to apologize for."

He reached for my hand, then stopped, giving me the chance to decide whether I wanted the contact.

I took it.

His fingers closed around mine.

"Let's find out what's happening."

The security team arrived within minutes.

Roman stayed beside me as the guards spread through the east wing. Two checked the garden entrances while another pair inspected the ground-floor windows.

I watched them move through the house, trying to ignore the growing awareness that the place I'd begun to consider safe might not be safe at all.

A guard approached from the corridor.

"Nothing unusual on the east wall, Alpha. No broken locks or obvious signs of entry."

"Check the bedroom windows individually," Roman ordered. "Don't assume the entire wing is secure because the doors are locked."

The guard nodded and disappeared down the corridor.

A few minutes later, another voice called from the stairs.

"Alpha, you need to see something."

We followed him to my bedroom.

One of the guards was crouched beneath the window, examining the latch. A narrow scratch ran along the metal, and a section of the wooden frame showed fresh disturbance beneath the paint.

My stomach tightened.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Possible tool marks," the guard replied. "Someone may have tried to manipulate the latch."

"May have?" Roman repeated.

"The marks are consistent with an attempt to force or test the mechanism, but we can't determine exactly what happened from this alone."

Roman crouched beside him.

"Could someone have opened it?"

"It's possible. I can't confirm that yet."

I stared at the window.

Someone might have stood outside while I slept.

Someone might have watched me move around my room, listened to my conversations, or waited for an opportunity to enter.

I stepped backward.

"Why would anyone do this?"

Neither Roman nor the guard answered.

But my thoughts had already returned to the old book.

The word Moonborn.

The missing pages.

The possibility that my blood belonged to something people had spent generations trying to erase.

I couldn't prove the surveillance was connected to any of it.

Still, the thought wouldn't leave me.

"What if they weren't looking for something in the room?" I asked.

Roman turned toward me.

"What do you mean?"

"What if they were looking for me?"

His jaw tightened.

He rose slowly.

"Secure this window. Have the frame examined before anyone touches the damaged section again. I want photographs and a complete report."

Then he turned to the remaining guards.

"Check the garden. Every path, every bench, every place someone could hide something without being seen."

The garden had begun to feel like mine.

It was where I went when the mansion became too crowded, when Roman's presence felt overwhelming, or when I needed a few minutes to think without someone asking whether I was tired.

Now I followed the guards between the rosebushes with Roman beside me, wondering whether the place had ever truly been private.

"Nothing near the fountain," one guard reported.

Another checked the low stone wall.

A third moved toward the bench where I'd spent several afternoons reading.

"Alpha."

The guard's voice stopped us.

He was kneeling beside the bench, examining a disturbed patch of soil.

"What did you find?" Roman asked.

The guard carefully brushed away the loose dirt.

A small metal device lay beneath it, no larger than a coin.

I stared at it.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Roman crouched without touching the object.

"Don't handle it," he told the guard. "Photograph its position and have the security technician examine it."

The guard complied.

When the technician arrived, he placed the device inside a protective evidence container and began examining its exterior.

"Looks like a tracking device," he said after several minutes.

My mouth went dry.

"A tracker?"

"That's my preliminary assessment. I need to inspect it properly before I can confirm its capabilities."

Roman's voice dropped.

"Can it tell someone where Mira is?"

"Possibly. Depending on the model, it could transmit location data or operate through a nearby receiver. I need to identify its components before I can tell you exactly what it does."

"Then identify them."

The technician continued his examination.

A few minutes later, he looked up.

"I can confirm that the device has recently been active. I can't establish how long it's been here or who placed it."

"Can you identify the recipient?" I asked.

"Not yet. We'll need to examine its communication components and any available records."

I looked at the patch of soil where it had been buried.

Someone had hidden a device in the garden where I spent time alone.

Someone had possibly tampered with my bedroom window.

And I had spent days telling myself I was imagining the feeling of being watched.

"Roman," I said quietly.

He turned to me.

"What if this has been happening longer than I realized?"

He didn't offer a reassuring answer.

Instead, he looked toward the mansion.

"Then we need to find out how long."

We returned to the study with the tracker secured in its evidence container.

Roman called the head of security and ordered a review of the recent access logs, including records for the east wing, the garden entrances, and the service corridors.

I sat across from his desk, trying to make sense of everything.

"The break-in," Roman said.

I looked up.

"What about it?"

"The documents taken from the study. The surveillance. Now this tracker."

He paused.

"We've been treating these as separate incidents because we haven't had enough evidence to connect them."

"But you think they might be connected now."

"I think we need to investigate them together."

I looked at the container on his desk.

"Someone has been collecting information about me."

"Possibly."

"Roman, the device was buried in my garden. Someone tampered with my bedroom window. If the stolen documents contained information about my family, then whoever took them might have been trying to learn more about me."

His gaze sharpened.

"That's possible. But we don't know what the intruder was looking for, or whether the same person was responsible for every incident."

I appreciated that he wasn't pretending to have answers.

It didn't make the situation any less frightening.

"What if they already know something about my blood?"

Roman's expression changed.

Neither of us needed to say the word that had been haunting our conversations since Sable opened the old records.

Moonborn.

The ancient book had suggested that someone might recognize the return of a forgotten bloodline.

But a suggestion wasn't proof.

We had no evidence that the person who planted the tracker had ever seen the book, knew about my test results, or understood what my blood might mean.

Still, I couldn't ignore the possibility.

"Whatever they're looking for," I said, "I don't think this is random."

Roman leaned forward.

"Neither do I."

The head of security arrived with a preliminary report.

"We've reviewed the access records for the relevant areas. There are gaps we need to investigate, including entries that don't identify a clear reason for access."

"How many?" Roman asked.

"Three entries require further review. We haven't established whether any of them are connected to the damaged window or the device."

"Who authorized them?"

"We're checking that now."

Roman's expression turned cold.

"Until we know more, restrict access to the east wing. Anyone who needs to enter must be cleared by you or me. I want the access records preserved, and I want a complete report on everyone who has handled security equipment in this section."

"Understood, Alpha."

The guard hesitated.

"There is one additional concern."

Roman's gaze sharpened.

"Go on."

"The device's construction is consistent with equipment used by a small number of allied territories. That doesn't establish where it came from, but it may help narrow the investigation."

"Which territories?" I asked.

The guard named three allied packs.

I recognized all of them.

They were territories Blackthorn had traded with for years. Their representatives attended council meetings, visited the mansion, and exchanged security information with Roman's administration.

I looked at Roman.

"People you trust."

"People I've worked with for years," he corrected. "That doesn't mean anyone from those territories is responsible."

"But someone could have obtained the device through one of them."

"Yes. Or through another source entirely."

He rubbed a hand over his jaw.

"We aren't accusing anyone until we have evidence."

I understood the reasoning.

I also understood what it meant.

If the tracker really had come from an allied territory, the investigation could reach far beyond Blackthorn's walls.

And if it hadn't, someone might have deliberately used unfamiliar technology to make us suspect our allies.

Either possibility was troubling.

"How many people knew about the abnormal test results?" I asked.

Roman looked at me.

"Sable, you, me, and the people directly involved in the testing. A few others know there were unusual compatibility results, but not the details."

"And how many people knew about the old book?"

"Sable brought it to me. You and I examined it together. The household staff weren't involved."

"Then we need to find out who had access to the study before the book appeared."

Roman nodded.

"I'll have security establish a timeline."

For the first time that evening, I felt something other than fear.

I felt determination.

Someone had invaded my privacy, and I wasn't going to let them turn me into a frightened prisoner in my own home.

"Don't make every decision for me while you're investigating," I told Roman.

His expression softened slightly.

"I won't."

"I mean it. I want to know what you discover, even if the answer is unpleasant."

"I understand."

"And if the evidence points toward someone you trust, I expect you to follow it."

He held my gaze.

"I will."

I wanted to believe him.

This time, I had a reason to hope he meant it.

Later that night, Roman walked me back to my room.

The damaged window had been secured, and a guard stood outside the door. Another was stationed at the far end of the corridor.

I should have felt safer.

Instead, I kept looking at the window.

Someone had been close enough to touch it.

Someone might have stood in the garden while I sat beneath the roses, believing I was alone.

I turned toward Roman.

"What happens now?"

"We find out who placed the tracker, how they gained access to the garden, and whether the window was used to enter your room."

"And if the same person was responsible for the break-in?"

"Then we investigate that connection, too."

He paused.

"Your movements will be monitored for your protection, but I won't turn your life into a prison. You'll know what security measures are being put in place, and we'll discuss any restrictions before they're imposed."

It was more than he'd offered me before.

I nodded.

"Good."

His hand brushed mine.

For a moment, neither of us moved.

Then I slipped my fingers into his.

I was still frightened. I still didn't know why my blood was different, why the old book described a forgotten inheritance, or who might be interested in me.

But I no longer had to pretend that the fear was imaginary.

Roman squeezed my hand gently before letting go.

"Get some rest. I'll be in the study if you need me."

He turned to leave.

"Roman?"

He stopped.

"Do you think this is connected to what Sable found?"

He looked back at me.

"I think it's too early to know."

It wasn't the answer I wanted.

It was the honest one.

After he left, I stood alone in the room, staring at the window someone might have tried to open.

Then I noticed something I hadn't seen earlier.

The guard stationed outside my door was speaking quietly into his radio.

I couldn't hear the words, but I watched his expression change.

He glanced toward my bedroom.

Then he looked down the corridor, as though checking whether anyone else was listening.

A moment later, he turned away and continued speaking in a lower voice.

Perhaps it was nothing.

Perhaps he was simply reporting the security arrangements.

But after everything that had happened, I couldn't ignore the uneasy feeling that settled over me.

Someone had found a way to watch me inside Blackthorn.

And until we knew how, every familiar face in the mansion looked a little less familiar than before.