MasukThe interrogation room of the Rurik mansion was not a place used frequently. Alexei did not like bringing problems into the house. But that night was different.The woman was sitting in front of the table, her hands bound behind the chair. There were no more hospital staff, no busy corridors, no open doors. There, she had nowhere to look for help. Alexei entered alone and closed the door behind him, and the click of the lock seemed much louder than it should have.She raised her eyes, her face pale.“Where are we?”Alexei walked to the table and placed a file on it.“In my house.”She swallowed hard, her fingers closing tightly.“Why? Why did you bring me here?”“Because you drugged my mate inside a hospital.” Alexei pulled the chair and sat in front of her. “And I don’t usually let that kind of thing slide.”The woman looked away, and Alexei rested his elbows on the table.“So let’s start again.” He opened the file, but did not look at it. “Your name.”She remained silent, her lips p
Alexei only left the woman when he was certain she would not be able to leave the hospital without someone noticing, and then he went to Carla. He found her in one of the rooms reserved for observation, surrounded by a medical team.She remained asleep, her face peaceful, her breathing regular, and for a moment Alexei felt his chest tighten with a mixture of relief and fury. Relief because she was alive, fury because someone had dared to touch her.“Is she all right?” The question came out harsher than he intended.One of the doctors raised her eyes from the chart, her expression professional.“She’s stable. Her vital signs are normal, and there are no signs of neurological complications.”“What happened? What did they give her?”“She was sedated. Someone administered a sedative substance intravenously.”Alexei’s fingers slowly closed at his sides, but his voice remained controlled, almost cold.“Any serious reaction? Anything that could leave aftereffects?”“No. The dose does not app
Alexei walked down the corridor beside her without saying a word. The woman kept her arms close to her body, trying to look calm, but the tension in her shoulders was obvious to anyone who knew how to observe.There were still staff moving around. Nurses entering and leaving rooms, doctors crossing the corridors, people talking. Everything continued functioning normally, and that should have been comforting. For her, perhaps it was. For Alexei, it was merely convenient.From the moment he had entered the hospital that morning, he had observed everything: the rooms, the doors, the corridors, the exits, the blind spots, the cameras, the positions of the security personnel, who answered to whom.He knew that place better than she imagined — not because he worked there, but because Carla worked there, and because after the kidnapping, Alexei never again left Carla in a place he did not know.He stopped in front of a door. The sign indicated a small room used for internal meetings, and it
Carla was exhausted. It was not just the ordinary tiredness of a long shift — the last few days had been far too heavy, and her body seemed finally to be collecting everything she had been ignoring. She entered the rest room accompanied by her colleague and left her bag on a chair, her shoulders slumped.“I just want to sleep for a few minutes. Before the shift swallows me again.”“Then sleep.” The woman answered with a soft smile. “I’ll stay here and wake you when it’s time.”Carla nodded without questioning. There was no reason to. She had known that woman long enough to trust her. They had shared shifts, conversations, bad coffee, and endless hours inside that hospital.She was just a colleague, a friend, someone Carla would never have imagined needing to distrust.“You’re really very tired.” The woman commented, observing Carla’s pale face.“I am.” Carla sat on the sofa and rested her head against the backrest, closing her eyes. “I think if I close my eyes, I won’t wake up again.”
The next morning, Carla woke up early. So did Alexei — not because he had slept particularly well, but because his body seemed to have forgotten how a full night of sleep worked ever since Boris had died.Still, there was something different about that morning. Perhaps because, for days, he had not woken up thinking immediately of corpses, clans, or Konstantin. Carla was at his side, and that was enough.The drive to the hospital was quiet, and Carla spent most of the way looking out the window while Alexei drove with one hand on the wheel, his eyes on the snow-covered road.“You’re quiet.” She commented, turning toward him.Alexei glanced at her quickly before returning his eyes to the road.“I’m driving. I need concentration.”“You can do two things at once. You always could.”“I can.”“Then? Why are you so quiet?”A small smile appeared on his face.“I’m thinking about you. That’s all.”She observed him for a few seconds, and a smile answered his.“That was surprisingly romantic.”
The afternoon had already begun when Alexei returned to the office.Carla had insisted that he eat something during lunch, and he obeyed—more or less. He ate enough so that she could not accuse him of ignoring basic needs, and returned to the room as soon as they finished.Now, a few hours later, the table was covered with documents: maps, reports, old clan records, information on territorial movements, names, addresses, photographs, and an absurd amount of notes that were beginning to occupy even the spaces where the bottles of drink normally sat.The room was silent. Alexei preferred it that way; he did not need noise, he needed to think. He sat in front of the table and ran his eyes again over the open map before him, his fingers tracing the lines that marked territories and borders.Konstantin was not a man who simply appeared anywhere. He was a Supreme Alpha—he had territory, allies, structure, men, and, above all, years of experience in hiding what he truly did. Alexei would not
“This is going to be a problem, Alpha.”The Lycan murmured in his mind, its voice low and drawn out, like a warning whispered through clenched teeth.Dmitry didn’t respond. He moved his wrist discreetly, checking his watch as if trying to remind himself that time still followed rules. It was an exc
The large meeting room at Rurik Motors exuded power. The floor-to-ceiling glass windows offered a privileged view of Moscow, while the dark wooden oval table dominated the center of the room. The black leather chairs, the discreet shine of the metal details, and the absence of any decorative excess
The glass-walled room on the top floor of Rurik Motors offered a silent spectacle of Moscow at night — cold, pulsating, and indifferent. Dmitry stood before the wall of glass, shoulders straight, a lit cigarette between his fingers, releasing the smoke with the same slowness with which time seemed
Standing in front of the imposing Rurik Motors building, Susan tried to ignore the wave of anxiety that was overtaking her. She took a deep breath and adjusted her glasses on her face before entering the building.The mirrored facade reflected the gray sky, giving an even more austere appearance to







