《The Alpha's Lost Mate.》全部章節：第 21 章 - 第 30 章

Rowan Ashby"He's still there," I reported Miriam, standing at the apartment window at an angle that kept me out of the sightline from the street below. "Same position, hasn't moved in forty minutes."Miriam came to stand beside me, looked down without getting close to the glass. "Same car as this morning?""Different car. That's the problem." I moved back from the window. "The first car was Erik's man. I made that one within ten minutes of arriving. This one is someone else's. Clean plates, no obvious tells, just a man sitting in a car on a residential street for the better part of an hour.""What does that mean?""It means Gerald has more than one line." I pulled out my phone, took two photographs through the window at the angle that would give Lena the best resolution on the plates. "It means whoever this is, they're not connected to the network we've already identified."Miriam looked at me steadily. She was good in a crisis, Miriam. The kind of person who didn

Dominic Steele"Helena Voss," Lena repeated over the phone, her voice stripped of everything except information. "The car is registered to a property holding company she set up six years ago. It's her current legal name, her current address in the registration. She's been using Erik's network, not Gerald's. Separate line entirely.""They know each other," I said."I'm finding the connection now. It goes back further than Gerald. She was involved with the Steele family commercially before she married Richard. She may have had a relationship with Gerald that predates everything."I stood at the window of Richard's study, the house dark outside, the grounds empty. "Does Sophie know yet?""Lena sent her the message twenty minutes ago," Rowan cut in on the second line. "The woman hasn't approached the building. She's watching. Just watching.""Keep your eyes on her," I said. "Don't move on her yet. I want to know what she's doing before we spook her into doing it faster

Dominic Steele"You need to hear all of it," I said, closing the study door behind her. "Not the version that makes it easier to sit with. All of it."Sophie stood near the desk, arms crossed, already braced for something. She had that stillness she wore when she was preparing to absorb a blow without letting it show. I had learned to recognise it over the past three days. I hated that I had learned to recognise it."Tell me," she said.So I did."Gerald is going to take the question of Ethan's standing to a full council vote. Not the informal version from yesterday's meeting. A formal motion, on record, requiring documentation and proof of the bond." I kept my voice level, factual, the way I delivered anything that needed to be heard clearly rather than softened. "Aldric will support it. Two more council members are already leaning his way. If it passes, you'll be required to appear before the council, prove the bond publicly, and Ethan's status becomes a matter of

Dominic Steele"Everything's here," Lena said quietly, sliding the final folder into her bag as we walked toward the council hall. "Payment records, dates, cross-referenced with Mrs. Harrow's access logs, plus the two additional staff members. It's airtight.""You're certain about the second names.""Confirmed yesterday. One in housekeeping, one in groundskeeping. Both receiving secondary payments from the same property management shell Gerald used for Harrow." She matched my pace. "Three people inside this household, on his payroll, feeding him information for years."I nodded once, pushed open the heavy doors.The council hall was the oldest formal room in the villa, dark wood, high windows, a long table that had hosted every significant pack decision for four generations. Seven chairs around it, six already filled. Gerald sat near the centre, composed, a folder of his own in front of him, looking like a man entirely at ease with whatever was about to happen.Aldric sa

Dominic Steele"You're still up," I said, stopping in the kitchen doorway.Sophie stood at the counter, kettle in hand, water running over it longer than necessary, her eyes fixed somewhere past the window above the sink. She startled slightly at my voice, set the kettle down."Couldn't sleep," she said."Neither could I."The kitchen was dark except for the single light above the stove, low and amber, the kind of light that made the room feel smaller than it was, more private. I crossed to the counter, sat on the stool on the opposite side from her.She moved through the motions of making tea with the particular concentration of someone whose mind was somewhere else entirely. Mug, kettle, the small tin of loose leaves she'd apparently found in one of the cupboards. Her hands worked. Her thoughts clearly did not match the task."Long day," I said."Long week," she corrected.I almost smiled….We sat in the quiet for a while. The kettle ticked as it heated. Outside the