Problems to be solved.
Kai's jaw works.
His hands clench and unclench at his sides.
For a moment—just one moment—he looks like the boy he must have been before his family broke him. Vulnerable.Hurt.
Then the mask slides back into place.
Colder than before.
Deadlier.
He looks at Seraphine's unconscious form—at the Omega who just exposed the truth that might save all our lives, who danced in front of her enemies' cages, who fought and bled and nearly died to give us information she didn't have to share.
"Make sure she stays alive."
The words are clipped.
Final.
Then he turns and walks away, his footsteps echoing through the empty theater as he disappears into the darkness.
"Kai—" Blaze starts.
"Let him go," Jett says quietly. His fingers are on Seraphine's pulse, monitoring. "The antidote is slowing the poison, but she needs real medical attention. We need to move her."
I look down at the girl in my arms.
My pen pal.
My bonded Omega.
The heir to a legacy my pack was sent to destroy—by a man who wanted to destroy us too.
She saved us.
Without knowing who we were.
Without owing us anything.
She danced in blood and revealed truth and nearly died for a pack she had no reason to trust.
And now Kai?—
Kai is planning something.
I can feel it through the bond. The cold, calculated fury building in our pack leader. The shift from shock topurpose.
Whatever he's going to do, whoever he's going to become in the aftermath of this revelation?—
It's going to be ruthless.
It's going to be devastating.
I gather Seraphine closer, pressing my lips to her forehead, feeling the weak flutter of her pulse against my palm.
"Stay with me, Sweetness," I whisper. "Stay with us. There's so much more revenge to witness."
