FAZER LOGINCameron didn’t answer immediately. He just watched me. Still. Focused. Dangerous in that quiet way of his that always made the room feel smaller.“That reaction is exactly why I didn’t want to say it out loud in the hallway.”“Good instinct,” Cameron said absently. His attention never left me. “Explain.”I moved toward the desk again, pulling one of the archive folders closer as I spoke.“Elias survived too long underground without support,” I said. “Food, water, access codes, medical supplies. Someone kept him alive.”Cameron nodded once. “I reached the same conclusion.”“Then there’s the drawer.” I tapped the edge of the file lightly. “It wasn’t hidden properly. It stood right on the sight.”Mara snorted softly. “Which sounds ridiculous considering it was hidden inside a creepy underground archive vault.”“But not enough,” I continued. “Not if the goal was permanent concealment.”Cameron’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You think the files were planted for discovery.”“I think someone wan
The hallway outside the archives felt too warm after the cold underground air. Or maybe it only felt that way because my nerves were still stretched too tightly beneath my skin.Mara walked beside me in silence for exactly twelve seconds. Then she muttered, “So. That was horrifying.”I snorted softly despite myself.“Insightful.”“I’m serious.” She adjusted the ice pack against her shoulder with a grimace. “Your pack has secret sleeper wolves, illegal conditioning experiments, dead children buried in forests, and apparently somebody murdered Cameron’s father.”“When you say it out loud like that, it really ruins the atmosphere.”“The atmosphere was ruined when Elias started speaking like a possessed military manual.”Fair.The upper corridors were quieter this late at night. Most of the pack had already retreated to their quarters, unaware that the foundation beneath Blackridge had just cracked open. Or maybe not unaware. Maybe some of them knew exactly what was happening.That though
Nobody spoke after that. The archive seemed to inhale around us.Even the guards near the door had gone perfectly still, like instinct alone told them they had just heard something they were never supposed to hear."So they killed him." The words kept echoing in my head.Cameron’s father hadn’t died because of politics. He had been removed. Because he knew. And somehow, impossibly, Cameron stayed standing through that revelation like the floor beneath him hadn’t just cracked open.Only his eyes betrayed him. I didn't saw grief., but calculation. Fast. Cold. Dangerous.He was already rebuilding the past in his head. Reexamining every story. Every missing detail. Every silence that had never made sense before.Elias shifted suddenly in the containment chair. The restraints rattled softly. Instantly every guard tensed. Cameron’s attention snapped back to him.“Easy,” he said.The command settled through the room automatically. Controlled. Firm. And Elias obeyed. That frightened me more t
By the time we secured Elias, the archive no longer looked like a records room. It looked like a battlefield. Shelves lay twisted across the floor. Papers covered the stone like snowdrifts. One wall had cracked where Elias slammed into it, exposing dark lines beneath the concrete.And in the center of it all sat a man who should not have existed.Elias leaned against the reinforced containment chair Cameron’s guards had brought down from the upper level. Heavy steel restraints locked around his wrists and chest - not because Cameron believed Elias was a monster, but because nobody in the room trusted whatever had been built inside him. Not even Elias himself.He sat bent forward slightly, breathing unevenly. Human again. Mostly. But every now and then his fingers twitched like invisible strings were pulling at them.Mara stood near the broken shelves with an ice pack pressed against her shoulder, glaring at anyone who looked at her too long.“I’m fine,” she snapped for the fourth time
The moment Cameron stepped into the archive, the entire room changed. Even my wolf felt it. The pressure of an Alpha rolled through the broken shelves and scattered files like a storm front. Heavy. Controlled. Ancient in a way power rarely was anymore.Elias froze. Not for long. But long enough for me to notice. His body had moved with relentless precision since the moment he broke. Every reaction immediate. Violent. Programmed.Now there was hesitation. Small. But there.Cameron noticed it too. Of course he did. His gaze swept over the room once - Mara against the wall trying to catch her breath, me still in wolf form between Elias and everyone else, overturned shelves scattered across the floor. Then his attention settled fully on Elias. And stayed there.Elias twitched violently. Like something inside him had just received conflicting orders. “Command presence identified,” he said. The mechanical tone was back. But weaker now. Strained.Cameron stepped forward slowly. Not threaten
Clara POV “Command recognized.”The voice that came from Elias wasn’t his anymore. It was smooth. Flat. Too precise. Like it had been carved out of him and replaced with something that didn’t breathe.Mara took a step back. “Clara… that’s not him.”“I know,” I said. But it was still his body. And that was the problem. “Elias,” I said sharply. “Stop.”His head tilted slightly, as if evaluating me. Not seeing me. Processing me. Like I was part of a problem he was trying to classify.Then something inside him snapped. It wasn’t loud. Just… wrong. His fingers twitched violently at his sides. Once. Twice. Like two instructions fighting for control of the same muscle.“Elias!” Mara raised her voice.That was the mistake. His attention shifted instantly. And the restraint vanished. He moved too fast toward her. Mara barely had time to step back before he was on her.“NO!”I moved on instinct, but I was still human. Too slow.Elias grabbed Mara by the arm and slammed her into the metal shelv
Airports always smell like lies and coffee.Too clean. Too bright. Too many people pretending they’re not about to lose something - time, sleep, control. Tonight this airport felt worse. Charged. Like the air itself was holding its breath.My wolf hated it. "Too open." she muttered, pacing my spine
The Alps rose to meet us like ancient sentinels. Jagged. White-capped. Beautiful in a way that didn’t ask permission to be dangerous.The jet cut through the clouds with quiet confidence, banking just enough that the mountains filled the window - vast, immovable, utterly unimpressed by human ambiti
The airport wasn’t an airport. Not really.No crowds. No announcements echoing over tinny speakers. No blinking departure boards screaming destinations to anyone who cared to look. This place existed to move people who didn’t want to be seen, and planes that didn’t want to be remembered.Concrete.
The noise swelled again. Voices overlapping. Outrage dressed as diplomacy, curiosity sharpening into something predatory. Adrian drifted away from the center, already satisfied. He’d thrown the stone. Now he wanted to watch the ripples.We didn’t follow. We regrouped.Damon appeared at my right wit







