Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Alpha's Prisoner : Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 136

Ryker POV — "How Much Is Left to Risk"I found the schedule Owen had drafted three days after the great hall announcement, and I rejected it before I'd finished reading the second line."She can't be in the command room during active planning sessions," I said, sliding the paper back across the desk. "Owen, we agreed. Rest. Minimal stress. That's what Zara ordered.""I didn't put her in the command room during active planning sessions," Owen said patiently. "I put her in the strategic review, which happens after the fact, summarizing decisions already made. She reviews outcomes. She doesn't sit through the tension of live operational discussion.""It's still the same room. The same subject. The same—" I stopped myself, aware I was arguing against a distinction that, phrased that plainly, sounded thin even to me.Owen watched me with the particular patient expression he'd worn more often these past weeks, the look of a man who understood he was standing between two people he respected

(Maya POV) — "Someone Close"Owen asked for all of us this time — not just Ryker and myself, but Rodriguez and Tanaka in person rather than through the secure video link we'd relied on for months, both having traveled to Shadowpeak specifically for this meeting. He'd given no further explanation beyond the time and the location: the small, windowless room beneath the command center that we'd built specifically for conversations too sensitive even for our rebuilt, restricted channels.I settled into one of the chairs, feeling the particular heaviness that had become normal these past weeks, Ryker beside me with his hand resting lightly against my knee. Rodriguez and Tanaka took the remaining seats, both their expressions carrying the same tight, braced quality I recognized in my own reflection most mornings now.Owen stood at the room's single table, a folder closed in front of him, and did not sit down."I want to say this plainly, without easing into it," he said. "I know who's been

Ryker POV — "Rebuilding From the Center"The task force that gathered in the command room three days after Dara Holt's confession bore little resemblance to the one that had assembled there for over a year of careful, collaborative investigation. Rodriguez and Tanaka sat across from me, their expressions carrying the particular exhaustion of leaders confronting a genuine institutional wound rather than simply an external threat. Owen stood at the room's head, a revised organizational chart displayed on the screen behind him, considerably sparser than anything we'd operated under throughout this investigation's previous development."We start here," Owen said, gesturing toward the simplified structure. "Not because I believe everyone we've lost from this circle was genuinely compromised, but because I believe we need to rebuild trust methodically, from a foundation we can actually verify, rather than attempting to simply patch the structure that failed us."