Semua Bab Three Billionaire Alphas on Their Knees: Bab 31 - Bab 40

The first morning after the alarm was lifted. The special monitoring corridor at St. Cross headquarters had finally returned to its usual quiet. The heavy security door of the isolation room rose with a low mechanical groan, and Darcy stepped out in her heels.She had barely slept all night, but her face showed little fatigue. Only her amber eyes burned colder than usual. Along both sides of the corridor stood employees and old board informants, the same people who had whispered yesterday about her being "unprotected" and "bound to fall." The moment their eyes met hers, they dropped their gazes, not daring to breathe too loudly.The Second Elder's monitoring permissions had been temporarily frozen; he was now undergoing internal questioning. As for the PR Executive Archive Node 4 exposed last night, the associated accounts had been sealed, but the true operator remained hidden in the shadows. The matter was far from over. But at least the deadly blade from last night had failed to tou

Just past 6:30. The air after the rain carried the damp scent of earth and pine needles, drifting in through the slight gap in the floor-to-ceiling windows.Darcy stood at the main control panel, the blue glow from the terminal casting a cold sheen across her face. Out of habit, she ran a routine inspection on the territorial internal network before leaving. Her fingers moving lightly across the virtual keyboard, like playing a silent tune.A faint data disturbance flickered unexpectedly.Darcy's hands stopped mid-motion.It wasn't an access request to Kingston's core database. It was a historical cross-reference query from a boundary node.Fifteen minutes ago, someone had pulled up Maeve's old traffic violation record from eight years ago on the North Barrens border.Eight years ago. She had just clawed her way out of the frozen North, soaked and caked with mud. Maeve had pulled over in a beat-up cargo truck on that muddy highway and flagge

The smell of disinfectant in the territorial central hospital's special examination area was laced with a faint, cold orange blossom scent. The corridor beyond the glass door was unnervingly quiet, the usual bustle of the hospital replaced by a stillness that felt deliberate.Darcy sat before the polished glass examination table. The pre-check progress bar on the screen slowly inched toward completion. Following the permanent residence update she'd completed yesterday, she needed to finalize one last biometric authentication today. The process should have been routine. A simple blood draw, a signature, and she'd be done.But the appointment interface was too clean.Clean like a path that had been deliberately cleared, waiting for her to step into it.

When Darcy woke, the searing pain in her left shoulder was gone.Gone so completely that the skin against the sheets felt cold, almost numb. The air still held a faint, damp trace of fir. The room was quiet, the only sound the soft hum of the air conditioning.She tried to move her right index finger. Her joints ached with the dull stiffness of poor circulation. Following her wrist, she saw her fingers still locked in a tight grip. The cuff of a dark gray cashmere sleeve crumpled beyond recognition.All night, her fingers had been clenched around it.She didn't need to look to know who sat half a foot away. The weight of his presence was unmistakable, even without opening her eyes. The ease of it. The way her nerves had been forced back to calm without any medication, just the nearness of another person's body heat. It sent a cold chill down her spine.Darcy released the cuff as if burned.The moment her fingers let go, a chill spread across

Darcy stepped into her office and hung her handbag on the hook. The small wooden wolf charm on the zipper swung with the motion, its rough grain pressing against her fingertips with a faint, grounding texture. She'd almost forgotten she'd clipped it there last night.The skin on her neck where his canines had pressed still burned. Last night's air in the car had been too thick, too close. When Asher had forced himself to pull his teeth back, the pressure of his hand on her waist had been almost bruising. Even now, the fabric of her shirt against that spot carried a phantom weight. She could still feel the heat of his breath, the restraint that had cost him everything.She hadn't been marked, but her body had memorized the exact moment he stopped. The breath against her neck. The pressure at her waist. The restraint in the last second before his teeth touched skin.Darcy tugged at her collar and sat down at her desk. Her fingers had barely touched her phone when