“There’s a system here,” Dorian said over comms, breath steady despite everything.“Multiple terminals.”
“Hack into it” Victor replied from Command.“We want everything.”
One of the Gorillas moved a case into frame.A drive was slotted into the main unit.For a heartbeat nothing happened—then the data began to stream.Lines of code.File trees opening like wounds.Command hummed as their systems bit into the facility’s, pulling down everything it had tried to hide.
“And if whatever it is on these servers is so damn important that they surrounded it with an army,” Riley surmised out aloud.“Then why were the hybrids not there?”
Ivan smiled.“Another good point, Riley.You’ll put us out of a job soon.”
Riley leaned closer to the information that was streaming into the center, scanning what she could understand—logs, schedules, medical notes that made her skin crawl.The creation of something that was never meant to be balanced.Never meant to choose.
Then something snagged her attention.
A cluster of files buried deep in the architecture, flagged but heavily encrypted, tagged with a naming convention that felt deliberate rather than automated.Not Chimera-standard.Not random.Her pulse kicked as she leaned closer.
“This section,” she said, pointing.“That pattern doesn’t match the rest.”
Ivan stepped in beside her, eyes narrowing as he took it in.“Yeah.That’s custom encryption.And old-school nasty.”He straightened slowly.“Whatever’s in there isn’t meant to be found quickly.It’s going to take time to crack.”
Malik’s voice came through from the far side of Command, already distracted by incoming data.“Flag it and lock it down.I’ll get to it as soon as I’m back.”
“Download complete,” Jamal said.
They moved again, clearing the last of the inner rooms, checking corners, cataloguing what could be taken and marking what would be destroyed.The cameras finally pulled back.The fight was over.
Only then did Riley realize her hands were shaking.
The return took longer than she wanted it to.She paced.Sat.Stood again.Staring at the elevator doors.When they finally opened, she didn’t think—she ran.
Rafe came through first.Then Dorian.Then the rest of them, faces marked with sweat and grime and something darker.Riley reached them on instinct, arms around Rafe’s neck, then Dorian’s shoulders, holding on as if letting go might make the world tilt again.
Behind them, there was a chorus of noise.
“Hey,” Kairo called, mock-wounded.“What about the rest of us?We don’t even get a handshake?”
“Yeah,” Aleksy added, dry as dust.“We bled for this and all we get is the breeze.”
A few of them laughed.A few didn’t.The Lions exchanged quiet looks—something unspoken passing between them that wasn’t jealousy so much as a soft, aching recognition of what they didn’t have.
Rafe’s arm tightened around Riley.Dorian’s hand stayed warm at her back.
“It’s time for us to go,” Riley said, voice steady despite the way her heart was still racing.“All three of us.”
From the far side of the room, Victor’s mouth curved into something like approval.Ivan gave a small nod.“Go,” he said.“You’ve earned it.”
They took the stairs down, the noise of Command fading with each step.Riley’s body was still humming with everything she’d seen, everything she’d felt—fear, awe, relief braided so tightly she couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.
Rafe’s hand found hers.Dorian’s shoulder brushed hers as they walked, the contact deliberate, grounding, a silent reminder that she was bracketed between them, not protected so much as chosen.
Down on their floor, the world narrowed to quiet again.To breath.To the hum of the building through the soles of her feet.To the simple, almost shocking reality of being together after something that could have gone so wrong.
Inside the apartment, the door hadn’t even closed before Dorian’s hand was at her lower back, guiding her, steady and sure.Rafe turned her toward him, his gaze dark and intent, the kind that stripped without touching.“You were shaking up there,” he said quietly.“Talk to me.”
“I was watching you,” Riley answered, voice rough with everything she hadn’t said yet.“And all I could think was that if I didn’t feel you both when you came back, I wasn’t going to breathe properly again.”
Something shifted between them—heat, need, relief, all braided tight.
Rafe cupped her jaw, thumb brushing the corner of her mouth.“You don’t have to be strong in here.”
