Professional,she reminded herself desperately.This is a professional conversation about a serious security breach.
“How long?” His voice was low, controlled, but she could hear the anger underneath.
“Months. Maybe longer. The code is sophisticated—designed to stay hidden, only activate periodically, avoid detection by standard security sweeps.” She pulled up another screen. “The insertion point used administrator credentials that shouldn’texist. Someone created a ghost account with full access privileges.”
“That’s impossible. Only the Alpha and the pack elders have authority to create administrator accounts.”
“According to traditional protocols, yes. But traditional protocols assume everyone with access is trustworthy.” She turned to face him, and immediately regretted it. He was too close, his jaw tight with anger, his eyes flickering between brown and gold in a way that made her heart rate spike. “The backdoor was planted by someone who either had those credentials or found a way to bypass the authentication entirely.”
“You’re saying someone in my pack?—”
“I’m saying someone exploited weaknesses in your traditional systems. It might be internal. It might be external. I can’t tell yet.” She held his gaze, forcing herself to stay focused despite his distracting proximity. “What I can tell you is that your existing protocols weren’t protective enough. All that trust in tradition, all that skepticism about modern methods, and meanwhile, someone was stealing information right under your nose.”
His expression darkened, but not with the defensive anger she’d expected. Instead, he looked… thoughtful. Troubled.
“The elders won’t want to hear this.”
“The elders don’t get a vote on reality. The breach exists whether they acknowledge it or not.”
“You don’t understand pack politics?—”
“I understand security.” She cut him off, her own frustration rising. “I understand that someone is actively probing your network. I understand that the new systems I’m building couldbe compromised before they’re even operational if we don’t address the existing vulnerabilities. And I understand that tradition alone isn’t going to protect your pack from enemies who don’t play by traditional rules.”
They stared at each other, the tension between them shifting from professional to something more charged. She could see his wolf in his eyes—that golden flicker that meant his control was slipping—and she felt an answering heat building in her own chest.
Not now,she told herself.This is important.
“What do you need?” he asked finally, his voice rough.
“Access. Full access to all your systems, including the ones the elders have been protecting from outside review. I need to trace the breach back to its source, and I can’t do that if I’m working blind.”
“The elders will fight you on this.”
“Then fight them back,” she said sharply. “You’re the Alpha. Act like it.”
His eyes flared gold, his jaw tightening—and then, unexpectedly, his lips curved into something that might have been a smile.
“You don’t back down, do you?”
“Not when I’m right.”
“Even when you’re challenging an Alpha in his own territory?”
“Especially then.” She lifted her chin. “Someone needs to. Your pack is in danger, Adrian. Real danger, not the hypothetical corruption the elders keep warning about. Modern problemsrequire modern solutions, and tradition alone isn’t going to save you.”
The silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken things. Last night’s kiss hung in the air like a third presence, impossible to ignore but equally impossible to address when there were more pressing concerns.
Finally, he nodded.
“I’ll call a meeting with the elders this afternoon. You’ll present your findings.” His hand came up, and for one heart-stopping moment she thought he was going to touch her face. Instead, he gripped her shoulder—a firm, almost professional gesture that somehow felt more intimate than a caress. “Prepare your evidence. And kitten?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t hold back. They need to understand exactly how serious this is.”
He released her shoulder and stepped back, creating distance that felt both necessary and wrong. She watched him go, her laptop forgotten on the desk, her mind spinning with security protocols and pack politics and the lingering warmth where his hand had been.
One problem at a time,she told herself.Fix the security breach. Save the pack. And then figure out what the hell is happening between us.
