Chapter 5

The heavy steel door of the Blackwood Vault didn't just shut; it sealed with a vacuum hiss that seemed to suck the very oxygen out of my lungs.

Fifty feet of reinforced concrete and lead shielding now stood between us and the New York rain. The silence down here wasn't the peaceful kind; it was heavy, ancient, and thick with the scent of stagnant secrets. Blue emergency lights flickered to life along the ceiling, casting long, distorted shadows that danced across the stacks of wooden crates and modern server racks.

I leaned against the cold metal of the door, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Beside me, Elias was already moving, his tactical flashlight cutting a clean white path through the darkness as he scanned the perimeter.

And then there was Julian.

He stood in the center of the chamber, his silhouette massive against the dim light. He wasn't moving. He was just... breathing. The sound was ragged, a predatory animal trying to pull itself back from the edge of a frenzy. The Alpha presence he radiated was so thick I could almost taste it—a metallic, sharp tang of ozone and raw, unbridled fury.

"Lockdown is complete," Julian said, his voice dropping into a register that made the floorboards vibrate. "Level Five. We’re off the grid. No signals in, no signals out."

"Good," I rasped, pushing off the door. My legs felt like lead, but I forced myself to walk toward the central desk. "Then we have exactly four hours before the Order’s thermal scanners realize the Maybach was a decoy and they start looking for the ventilation shafts."

Julian turned slowly. The blue light caught the gold in his eyes, making them look like twin embers in the dark. He looked at me—really looked at me—in a way he hadn't been able to in the boardroom.

"You're a ghost, Elara," he whispered. He started toward me, his pace slow and deliberate. "I’m standing five feet away from you. My wolf is screaming, clawing at my chest because it knows you’re here. But my nose... my nose tells me the room is empty."

I didn't back down. I opened my briefcase, the glow of my laptop screen illuminating my face. "Your nose is obsolete, Julian. Welcome to the new world."

"Is that what you call it?" He stopped just outside my personal space, his heat radiating through my blazer. "You think you can just delete five years of history with a few signal dampeners? You think I don't remember the way you used to smell like crushed mint and summer rain?"

"That girl died in the mud, Julian. You saw to that personally." I kept my eyes on the screen, my fingers flying across the keys as I began to bypass the Vault’s internal security logs. "Now, if you want to survive the night, I suggest you stop reminiscing and start explaining why the Silver-Bullet Order has a high-frequency tracker tuned to your family’s specific DNA."

Julian’s jaw tightened. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Liar," I snapped, finally looking up. "I saw the logs before the comms went dark. Someone has been accessing these archives from a remote terminal for months. Someone with Alpha-level clearance. Was it Isabella? Did you give her the keys to your soul along with the engagement ring?"

Julian slammed his hand onto the desk, inches from my laptop. The force of it cracked the plastic casing. "I didn't give her anything but a contract! The merger was supposed to protect the pack's borders! We were losing land, Elara. The humans were encroaching, the Council was breathing down my neck because I didn't have a 'Luna' to stabilize the pack's frequency..."

"So you chose a predator to replace an Omega," I finished for him, my voice dripping with venom. "Efficient. Very 'Blackwood' of you."

"I did what a King has to do!" Julian roared, his voice echoing off the lead-lined walls. "I chose the pack over my own heart! Do you have any idea what it’s like to feel the bond snap? To wake up every morning feeling like half of your soul has been cauterized? I did it for them!"

"And look where it got them," I said, gesturing to the security monitors. "Your pack is being hunted by mercenaries. Your boardroom is a nest of traitors. And your 'Luna' is likely the one who signed the check for the sniper who just tried to put a silver bolt through my brain."

Julian flinched as if I’d struck him. The anger in his eyes flickered, replaced by a raw, bleeding vulnerability that he tried—and failed—to hide.

"I never mated with her," he whispered.

The words hung in the air, heavy and unexpected. I froze, my fingers hovering over the keyboard.

"What?"

"The engagement... it was a formal arrangement only," Julian said, looking away from me, his gaze fixed on a dusty crate in the corner. "I couldn't do it. Every time I got close to her, my wolf would recoil. It knew she wasn't the one. I’ve spent five years sleeping in a separate wing of the estate, paying her off with stock options just to keep the Council quiet."

I felt a strange, cold sensation in my chest. Not pity—I was far beyond pity—but a sense of tragic irony. "So you’ve been living a lie while I was building an empire out of the truth."

"I thought you were dead, Elara," he said, stepping closer, his voice dropping to a low, broken hum. "I went back to that river. Every day for a month. I searched every inch of those rapids. When I found your dress caught on the rocks... I stopped breathing. I really did."

"And yet, you still married the company," I said, hardening my heart. "Don't ask for my sympathy, Julian. I don't have any left. I used it all up trying to stay alive in the Wastelands."

I turned back to the monitor, but Julian wasn't finished. He reached out, his hand hovering near my shoulder, hesitant, as if he were afraid I’d vanish if he touched me.

"I can still feel you," he murmured. "The bond is broken, the scent is gone... but there’s a hum. A vibration in the air when you’re near. You say you’re a ghost, but you’re the most real thing in this room."

"Alpha," Elias’s voice cut through the tension like a blade. He was standing by the secondary vault door, his head tilted. "We have a problem."

I shook off the spell of Julian’s voice and looked at the screen. The thermal sensors on the street level were glowing white.

"They're not trying to find the ventilation shafts," I said, my blood turning to ice. "They’re not even looking for us anymore."

"Then what are they doing?" Julian asked, his Alpha instincts snapping back into place.

I enlarged the image. A massive, industrial-grade truck was backing up toward the substation entrance. On the back was a pressurized tank labeled with a chemical warning symbol I recognized all too well.

"Nitrogen," I whispered. "They’re not going to shoot us. They’re going to flash-freeze the entire substation. They’re going to turn this vault into a tomb and wait for the concrete to become brittle enough to shatter."

Julian’s face went pale. "They’ll kill everyone in the building. There are human janitors up there. Civilians."

"The Order doesn't care about collateral damage, Julian. They want the 'Alpha Prime' and the 'Ghost.' And they’re willing to freeze a city block to get us."

The first hiss of the gas echoed through the vents. The temperature in the vault began to drop instantly, a thin layer of frost blooming across the glass of my laptop.

"We have to go deeper," Julian said, grabbing my arm. This time, he didn't let go. "The Seventh Level. The old catacombs."

"You said those were a death trap!"

"They are," Julian said, his eyes glowing with a fierce, desperate light. "But they’re the only place in New York that isn't on a map. If we stay here, we’re ice. If we go down there... we might just find a way to kill them all."

I looked at his hand on my arm. For the first time in five years, the touch didn't make me want to run. It made me want to fight.

"Elias, grab the gear," I commanded, shutting my laptop and sliding it into the shielded briefcase. "Julian, lead the way. But if you try to use that bond to control me in the dark, I’ll leave you down there for the rats."

Julian’s grip tightened, but his expression was almost a smile—a dark, predatory thing. "Fair enough, Elara. Let’s see if your technology can handle the dark.