登入MATTHEW"I keep informed about the families who access our medical resources," he said. "I told you that. It's part of how the Alpha King's office ensures we're providing actual value rather than bureaucratic service." He paused. "Is that concerning to you?""It raises questions," I said honestly. "About the scope of your monitoring and what triggers that level of personal interest."He nodded as if this was a reasonable response, which it was. "Fair. I'd ask the same thing in your position." He leaned forward slightly. "Matthew, I'm here because I want to offer something concrete. The Alpha King's office has resources that extend beyond medical access. Intelligence resources, security resources, the kind of apparatus that a pack Alpha managing an internal challenge and an external threat simultaneously might find useful." He paused. "I'd like to make those resources available to you. Formally. As an extension of the relationship we began when we approved your entry."I looked at him.
MATTHEWI looked at her for a long moment. I thought about Dr. Martinez's assessment—the coercion hypothesis, the possibility that Mia was a lever being used by someone else, the behavioral escalation that didn't fit her established patterns.I thought about the frightened thing I'd seen in her expression, one second before she'd closed it off."I won't call the police today," I said. "But Mia, hear me when I say this. If you come near Theo again—if you approach him, follow him, use anyone else to get access to him—I will stop being merciful. I don't care what else is happening in your life. He is off limits."She looked at me with an expression I couldn't fully read. Something that was more than hurt and less than anger. "You're choosing a dead woman over me," she said quietly."I'm choosing my son," I said. "And yes, I'm choosing Bianca's memory. Because whatever I failed to give her when she was alive, I can at least do right by what she left behind." I moved to the door and opened
Chapter 193: Making Plans Against ClarissaARIABut the room was quiet in the way I needed it to be, and the performance was absent in the way I needed it to be, and I was tired in a way that had nothing to do with sleep and that the specific quality of this room was, for reasons I was not going to examine directly, doing something to.I stayed.We were quiet for perhaps ten minutes. The wind outside moved through another cycle. Somewhere in the building's depths, the afternoon routine made its sounds."The Covenant," Jayden said.I looked at him."You've had it for a week," he said. "You've been thinking about it in that specific way you think about things — where it's in a separate room behind your eyes and you're running it at the same time as everything else." He wasn't accusing. Just reporting what he'd observed. "Is it what you hoped it was.""It's more," I said. "And more complicated.""More complicated how.""There's a provision that could be used to challenge the Blackthorn l
Chapter 182RIVERAHe sat up. "Why?""Because I want to make sure you're safe while I figure out what's going on.""Is the lady downstairs dangerous?"I thought about how to answer that."I don't know yet," I said. "But I want you safe while I find out. Can you do that for me?"He nodded. Already swinging his legs off the bed, already moving to the door with the serious efficiency of a child who'd been given a task he understood was important."Three knocks," he said. "And you say it's you.""Exactly that," I said.I watched him lock the door. Heard the click of it."Daddy?" His voice through the door."Still here.""Find her," he said. "Find the real Mummy."I stood in the hallway outside his locked door and breathed for a moment.Bianca was not in this house.The woman downstairs was a doppelganger—built from her hair and her memories and whatever Voss's practitioners could distill from those things into a convincing physical replacement. Good enough to fool a hospital colleague. Go
Chapter 181Rivera POV And I had sat across a kitchen table from a woman who wasn't Bianca and told myself I was tired.My son had known in Silver Moon.I'd known something was wrong tonight and had explained it away.The wrongness I'd felt at the kitchen table—the absence of the particular gravity that existed between Bianca and me, the thing that was made of time and honesty and the specific history of two people who had seen each other clearly. The absence of the breathing-out sound when she'd held Louis at the end of his bath.I hadn't known what I was feeling. Louis had known exactly what he was feeling and had named it with the precision of someone who'd been paying close attention to the right things.I put my hand on his shoulder. He was tense under it—the tension of a child who'd been carrying something too heavy for several days and was waiting to find out if the adult could take some of the weight."You did right," I said. "Telling me.""Is Mummy okay?" he asked.The quest
Chapter 180Rivera POV And I had sat across a kitchen table from a woman who wasn't Bianca and told myself I was tired.My son had known in Silver Moon.I'd known something was wrong tonight and had explained it away.The wrongness I'd felt at the kitchen table—the absence of the particular gravity that existed between Bianca and me, the thing that was made of time and honesty and the specific history of two people who had seen each other clearly. The absence of the breathing-out sound when she'd held Louis at the end of his bath.I hadn't known what I was feeling. Louis had known exactly what he was feeling and had named it with the precision of someone who'd been paying close attention to the right things.I put my hand on his shoulder. He was tense under it—the tension of a child who'd been carrying something too heavy for several days and was waiting to find out if the adult could take some of the weight."You did right," I said. "Telling me.""Is Mummy okay?" he asked.The quest
Chapter 91MATTHEWIt looked exactly like Bianca. Same height, same build, same way of moving—The woman disappeared around a corner before I could see her face clearly.My hands were shaking. My chest felt tight.That couldn't have been her. Bianca was dead. I'd seen her death certificate, watched
Chapter 84 RIVERA I stood in my home office at eleven PM, staring at surveillance reports that told me nothing new about Thorne Lockwood, when my phone buzzed with a text from Klaus. *Drinks. Tomorrow night. 8 PM. The usual place. No excuses.* I typed back: *Can't. Louis has school the next
Chapter 85RIVERA"We have a betting pool going," Mikael added. "Klaus thinks you'll propose within six months. I'm betting a year. Elijah thinks you're too emotionally constipated to ever actually commit, and Roy is withholding judgment until he completes his research on your relationship patterns
Chapter 82BIANCAEach case was different, challenging, requiring the full range of skills I'd spent years developing. And each successful treatment felt like proof that I belonged here, that I was genuinely good at this work. And this was something that I was starting to believe in.By noon, I was







