All Chapters of Marked for Betrayal: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

POV: AlexThe grave looked peaceful. Beneath the tall pines, bathed in soft silver light, Aretha’s final resting place seemed untouched by everything that had gone wrong. The marble headstone gleamed faintly, engraved with her name, the pack crest, and the words she once told me to remember:“Loyalty first, love second. Always.”I crouched beside the grave, brushing pine needles from the stone.My coat was damp at the knees, but I didn’t move. Didn’t care."Aretha," I said quietly. "I don’t know what I’m doing anymore."The wind stirred the trees, and the forest seemed to hush around me."I tried to hold it together after you died. For the pack. For the council. But truth is… I’m still bleeding.”I exhaled slowly.“There’s a woman in my territory. I don’t know what to call her. A weapon? A mistake? A curse? She was sent to kill me. And I’m… drawn to her."My voice caught. I rubbed a hand over my face."I kissed her. I didn’t plan to. Didn’t want to. It just happened. And the worst par

POV: The BrokerThe chamber was bathed in cold light, sterile and silent, except for the rhythmic drip of condensation hitting the floor near the far wall. A flat-screen monitor flickered above a long table where I sat, alone, save for the shadow that stood just outside the reach of the light.Footage played without sound. A forest clearing. Three of my men—expendable, nameless—stood across from her.Zero.Or the version of her that existed now. She was thinner, a little slower, the uncertainty in her posture revealing the cracks in my design. But even broken, even fragmented, she moved with the grace I had spent years perfecting.She still had the instinct to kill. She just didn’t know why.I paused the video as Alpha Moore entered the frame, his movements precise and controlled, the power in his stride unmistakable. The wolves I sent didn’t stand a chance. Two were down in seconds. One would recover with scars, both physical and psychological.I leaned back in the chair, steepling m

POV: Mia (Zero)The moment the message lit up on the bracelet, I felt something shift inside my head.Not a whisper.Not a memory.A rupture.I stumbled back from Alex, hand still clutching my wrist, the small screen on the moonstone flickering before fading to black. But it wasn’t gone. The damage had already been done.My breath caught.It began in my chest—a sharp throb of heat—and then it hit my head like a lightning strike. I dropped to my knees with a gasp, my body folding into itself. My pulse roared in my ears. Something unseen twisted behind my eyes, digging through the fog I’d been trapped in.Alex was beside me in seconds.“Mia!” His voice cut through the static in my brain. “What’s happening? What did they do?”I couldn’t speak.The pain wasn’t physical. It was like a dam breaking. The flood inside me wasn’t water. It was noise, light, fragments of language, images flashing like gunfire.A hallway with white walls. Echoing footsteps.A table with restraints. Metal, cold, s

POV: Mia (Zero)I stood outside his office for almost ten minutes, holding the folder.My hands had stopped shaking, but only because they’d gone numb. My body felt disconnected from itself, like I’d stepped outside my skin and left the real Mia behind somewhere between the archive shelves and the moment I saw his name on the page.Alexander Moore.The man who saved me.The man who held me when my memories came back.The man who might have helped create me.I raised my hand to knock, then let it fall. Instead, I turned the handle and walked in.He was behind the desk, bent over a report, a pen twirling between his fingers. His tie was undone, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He looked up when I entered, and for the first time, I couldn’t read his expression.“Mia,” he said. “I was about to come find you.”I didn’t speak.He frowned, standing slowly. “What is it?”I crossed the room and dropped the file onto his desk. The pages fanned open, and the top sheet—the one with his signature—

POV: Mia (Zero)The moment the words left his mouth “Protocol Red” everything inside me turned.Not metaphorically.Literally.The muscles in my back clenched. My spine arched like a bowstring drawn to breaking. A ringing started in my ears, rising to a scream only I could hear. My vision went double, then narrowed to a single blood-hued tunnel. I staggered back from Eric, my breath caught in my throat like my body no longer recognized how to breathe.He was smiling.“Still works,” he muttered. “You were always the Broker’s favorite.”I couldn’t speak. My jaw locked. My limbs jerked once, then again. My heart pounded so violently it felt like it was trying to punch its way out of my chest.The code was active.I didn’t know how it worked.But it was working.A firestorm lit my veins. The instinct to kill surged up from the base of my skull, consuming everything else in its path—logic, fear, reason. It didn’t matter that I knew Eric was the traitor. Didn’t matter that I hated him.Beca