The snow crunched softly beneath my boots as I stepped past the line of men, every instinct in my body screaming at me to stop. To hide behind them and stay where it was safer. Instead, I forced my body forward, lifting my chin and raising my eyes to the leader standing across from me.
The change in him was instant.
The rigid authority he wore like armor cracked, then fell away entirely. The man's alpha posture faltered, just a fraction, but enough to notice. His eyes widened, and his hand twitched at his side, then stilled, like he didn’t trust himself to react. His mouth parted, breath catching in his chest.
He didn't move a muscle.
Didn’t issue an order.
Didn’t look at the men beside him.
He only stared at me.
The silence stretched, heavy and fragile, as though any sound might shatter whatever was happening between us. His gaze traced my face slowly, searching, cataloging, as if he were afraid to blink and find me gone. Recognition warred with disbelief, awe with something dangerously close to grief.
I felt it then. The pull. Not like the bond I shared with my alphas, but something older and deeper. A thread I hadn’t known existed tightening around my ribs.
His breath left him in a rough exhale. His voice, when it came, was barely there. Stripped of command. Stripped of certainty.
“Isabel?”
The name hung in the air between us, fragile and irreversible.
To be continued…
Epilogue
“Where the fuck are they?!” I snarled, hurling the classified box across the room. It smashed into the wall, narrowly missing Zolkos.
He didn't flinch.
Just stood perfectly still, expression unreadable, eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
“It appears they have fled,” he said calmly. “And they took the omega with them, sir.”
“Took her where?” I demanded.
Zolkos turned his head toward an alpha soldier standing nearby.
“The hounds tracked them as far as the old base, sir,” the alpha reported, his voice tight. “It looks like she went into heat there. We discovered a makeshift nest.”
“Fuck!” I roared, grabbing a chair and slamming it into the wall. It shattered on impact, splintering into useless pieces. “We were waiting for her to go into heat. We needed more slick samples, Zolkos!”
He finally looked at me then.
Cold. Calculating.
“You assured me your sons were under control,” he saidevenly. “That they would fall in line when necessary.”
Something inside me snapped.
I crossed the room in two strides and slammed him into the wall, my hand closing around his throat. The impact rattled the wall, but Zolkos didn't cry out. His pulse beat steadily beneath my grip, infuriatingly calm.
I leaned in close, growling low. “You were supposed to be watching them. Making sure they were compliant.”
My fingers tightened just enough to make the point clear.
“They were your responsibility,” I continued. “Every move. Every thought. And now they’ve gone rogue, taken the omega, and crossed the fucking wall!”
