All Chapters of Mated To My Captor: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

 Reyes's car turns off Crane Street and disappears and I am standing in the warehouse doorway watching the space where it was when my phone buzzes in my hand.My father's name on the screen.I look at it for long enough that Kira, who is behind me at the table, says, "Dante."I answer it."Kastor called me," my father says. "He told me what Juniper brought to him tonight. I need to know what you have."I step back inside and pull the side door closed."Everything?" I say."Everything," he says.I sit down on the edge of the table and I tell him everything.I start with the warehouse because it is concrete and present, a building he can locate on a map, and I describe the freight elevator and the second floor and the annotated floor plan of the summit venue with load-bearing points marked in red in handwriting I recognized from seventeen years of birthday cards, and I hear my father breathe in when I say that

In the memory I’d pulled from Leo’s dying mind, Elias had been a shadow given form, a man who moved with a terrifying, calculated stillness before he ended my brother's life. But as Sage scrolled through the public records she’d managed to scrape together, that monster disappeared."He’s a ghost, Kira," Sage whispered, her voice cracking the silence. "I’ve gone through five years of digital footprints. According to the city, Elias Blackwell is a registered librarian in the mid-district. He’s donated to historical societies. He’s attended city council meetings about street lighting and zoning laws. He looks like the kind of man who would apologize for taking up too much space on a sidewalk.""He’s not a librarian," I said. My voice sounded thin to my own ears, like paper being torn. "Leo didn't die because of a librarian. He died because he found the bomb. He died because Elias Blackwell is the head of The Cleansing.""I know that," Sage said, hitting a key with enough force to make th

The warehouse was colder now that the initial shock of Selene’s arrival had settled into the grim reality of her transcripts. We were all huddled around the glow of Sage’s workstation, the blue light making Selene’s pale face look like carved marble. She was still standing near the bag she’d brought, her fingers nervously picking at a loose thread on her oversized jacket.Dante stepped away from the table, moving into the space between us and the new arrival. He didn't look at the maps or the plans. He looked directly at Selene, his eyes dark and weighing."You realize what happens the second you provide us with these transcripts," Dante said, his voice flat and devoid of the comfort he usually reserved for those he trusted. "This isn't just a disagreement over a betrothal anymore, Selene. You are handing us the blueprint to destroy your mother’s life’s work. You are putting yourself directly against Lyra. If she finds out you were the leak, she won't see a daughter. She’ll see a trai

 The digital tether snapped with a sharp, clean click. I dropped the phone onto the velvet-covered table immediately, the screen going dark as the encrypted connection dissolved into the ether. I didn't give Dante the satisfaction of a lingering goodbye, nor did I give Sage the extra seconds she would need to burrow through the layers of ghost servers I’d constructed. I knew exactly how capable she was; I had watched her grow from a curious girl with a knack for logic into the finest digital architect the Silvercrest pack had ever produced. Even a second too long was a vulnerability when dealing with a mind like hers, and I had no intention of being cornered or traced before the pieces were fully set. Every move from this point forward had to be surgical, calculated, and absolute. I stood in the center of the building, the air here smelling of damp stone, ancient dust, and the sharp, metallic tang of the essence jars being moved in the levels

 The warmth of Dante’s hand over mine was the only thing anchoring me to the present, a stark contrast to the cold, rain-slicked glass of the warehouse window. The stillness we had found was fragile, a thin membrane separating us from the violence Silas had promised. I could feel the rhythmic pulse of Dante’s heart through his palm, steady and resolute, even as the world outside prepared to burn. I pulled my gaze away from the skeletal remains of the Ruins and turned to face him fully. In the dim, blue-tinted gloom of the warehouse, his features were a map of shadows and sharp edges. He looked like the Alpha he was born to be, but in his eyes, I saw only the man who had just admitted he wanted to be better. "Dante," I said, my voice barely a whisper, yet it felt loud in the heavy silence. "If it comes to it... if the summit is falling and the ritual is starting, and you have to make a choice, what will you choose? me