ane had moved back to the sprawling mahogany desk that dominated the center of the command center, his silhouette cast in the blue-wh

that raw, mental intrusion a voice-still vibrated in her skull. It was oily and thick, like smoke curling through her brain. S

industrial district, highlighted with flickering red nodes. He looked at her, his stormy grey eyes deman

ce. "If you want me to find the ghosts I buried, I can't do it on a standard Syndicate rig. I

onto the desk. It slid across the polished wood and stopped inches from the edge. Lyra recognized the scratches on the casing-it was her person

the lion's den. As she booted up the system, she felt Caelum move. He didn't walk so much as glide, positioning himself directly behi

men who authorized the hit on your family, what happens to me? You said a year of s

pierced her mind. He was amused. The Silent Alpha leaned over her, his hand resting on th

ing of stones. You have already failed once, Lyra Thorne. You erased the monsters' tracks.

of code that bypassed the Syndicate's standard firewalls. She went deep, past the corporate fron

ehind her. Caelum never left. He watched every line of code, every decrypted packet, his presence a heavy weight on her

the CCTV from the Eastside docks and the internal logs of the Vane Estate. The request

t looked like nonsense to the untra

on. "Specifically, processed medical-grade silver. There's only one entity in the

in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. On the screen, she trace

winced. Caelum's rage was a physical thing, a dark tide that threatened to p

s; it was a claim. His wolf was close to the surface now, his eyes glowing a predatory amber that cut through the

hing. For a moment, the terror was eclipsed by something else-a strange, electric pull that made her skin tingle where

de, and for the first time, Lyra felt something other than rage. She felt his loneliness-a vast, echoing can

expression hardening into a mask of stone. He gestured toward a side do

ra... if you try to signal your father, I will not wait for the

s trembling. She walked toward the suite, but as she reached the door, she looked back. Caelum was

g for a ransom. He was looking for a reason to burn th

fixer, a closer, a professional. But as she listened to the silence of the mountain, she knew there was no cleaning up the mess