Kill Me Alpha, Before I Do (Beast Of Flames Book 1) のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 111 - チャプター 120

 Romy povThe snow hit the thick glass panes of the Stormveil study with a heavy, wet sound, drifting high into the iron corners of the frame. The stone room stayed cold despite the massive oak logs splitting in the hearth, the heat failing to reach the far wall where the map table stood. My knuckles throbbed as I squeezed my fingers together, the leather straps of my gear digging into the skin.I pulled the heavy raven mask off my face. The silver wire caught on a clump of hair near my ear. I yanked it hard until the metal gave way, my red hair spilling over my shoulders in a messy tangle. I tossed the mask onto the dark wood floorboards, where it rolled twice and hit the brass leg of the coal scuttle with a dull clang.“Garrett was a core operator, Rowan, and he had absolutely nothing on him,” I said, my boots dragging against the rug as I walked from the window to the desk. My fingers tightened into fists until my nails left small whi

 Romy povThe next afternoon, the wind dropped, leaving the yard silent under a thick layer of white crust. I walked out to the vehicle garage to check the tire chains on the black SUV, my boots sinking three inches into the snow before I reached the rolling metal door.Aaron was sitting on an upturned plastic bucket near the oil bins, a small stone in his hand as he rubbed the edge of his hunting knife. He didn’t look up when the garage latch clicked, but his arm went stiff, the stone scraping against the metal with a sharp, screeching sound.“The truck is fine, Romy,” Aaron said, his voice dropping flat into the oil-stained concrete of the floor. “I finished checking the fluids an hour ago.”“You’ve been spending the whole day out here, Aaron,” I said, walking closer until my shadow fell across his boots. The smell of diesel oil and antifreeze was thick in the unheated building, mixing with th

Romy povThe cursor jumped twice, skipping a line before the next sentence came through.Whoever is running the Hunters has pulled the remaining field files into a physical vault inside the regional sector. My network cannot access them digitally from the city side.The text started to flicker as the signal dropped a bar.You are hunting a ghost who has the power to erase his own bloodline from the national registry. Be careful, Romy. The snake knows it’s being cleared from the dirt.I struck the return key with the side of my thumb, clearing the monitor until the screen went black and left the study in the dim light of the oil lamp. I turned my head back toward Rowan, the muscles in my face setting into a hard line that mimicked his own expression.“They’re hiding because they’re terrified, Rowan,” I said, my voice dropping until it was just a low whisper against the sound of the log splitting in the hearth. &l

Aaron povRowan let out a low, rough sound from the center of his chest that had nothing human left in it. He brought his right fist down onto the stack of records, the force of the blow splitting the cardboard folder and scattering the white papers across the floorboards.“Silas raised us after the winter treaty gathering, Aaron,” Rowan said, his grey eyes turning dark as he looked at the wall behind my shoulder. “He stood by the boundary gate and held my mother’s coat while we buried the guards from the southern ridge checkpoint. He was the one who carried my father’s old boots out of the fire.”“He was waiting for the high network to clear the remaining registry files, Rowan,” I said, my legs finally giving out until my knees struck the lower metal bar of the chair frame. “He wanted the western territory to become a blind zone so the syndicate could move the physical vault out of the sector.”Romy leaned over the zinc top, her hands pressing into the metal until her silver rings ma

Aaron povThe encrypted thumb drive pressed into the center of my palm as I placed it beside the tactical terminal. Moisture from my glove had gathered around the dark plastic casing, leaving three faint smears across the glass screen when I reached for the data port, and under the metal desk, the ventilation fan shifted into a higher setting and sent a thin cloud of warm dust across my boots.“These are all the internal Mercer files I could access,” I said, pushing the drive into the secondary slot. “Patrol routes, shift rotations, transport records. Everything Caleb has been moving through the western district for the past six months.”The terminal recognised the device with a soft chime. Lines of encrypted text spread across the screen before disappearing behind the loading grid. Rowan leaned against the side of the desk, close enough that the heavy wool of his sleeve brushed my shoulder when he bent toward the monitor. His fingers moved over the keyboard, entering the decryption