My son turned toward him. “Yeali?”
“Why don’t you go tell Caroline how you want that room decorated?”
Aiden’s face lit up like someone had flipped a switch inside him. “get to decorate it?!”
“You get full artistic control.”
He gasped like he’d been offered the moon on a stick. “Cool! Bye, Mom!”
And just like that, he was off, his sneakers pounding the stairs, yelling for Caroline and rattling off a string of enthusiastic nonsense-“space wallpaper!” and “dragon pillows!” and something about a secret reading cave.
I rose slowly to my feet, my knees stiff, my body still humming with leftover adrenaline. I turned toward Derek, feeling the heat rise in my chest like a fire caught on dry kindling.
He closed the door behind us with a soft click and stepped forward. His hand brushed my elbow, tentative.
“Let’s talk,” he said.
I yanked my arm away before the contact could even register. “No I snapped. “Let’s scream.”
His jaw clenched. “Elena-”
“You let our son get taken.”
“I didn’t let-”
“What the fuck, Derek?!” My voice cracked on the last word. “How could you let this happen?”
He didn’t flinch. “I had the area swept beforehand,” he said tightly. “Two of my best men. No signs of rogue activity. I made sure
“”
“Fire your Gamma,” I spat.
“We’ll certainly be having a talk.”
My hands were shaking now. Not from fear, but rage. Cold, furious rage. I didn’t know whether to punch him in the chest or curl up on the floor and sob. “Who were they?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, his voice finally slipping–weariness threading through it. “I couldn’t give chase.” He held up a hand before I could jump down his throat again. “I didn’t want to leave Aiden alone in the woods. Not again.”
That made me stop.
My breath caught. The rage paused, held back by the truth of what he was saying. By the memory of how Aiden had looked
he ran into my arms.
I knew what it meant for Derek to give up a fight. I knew how deeply his instincts to pursue, to protect through dominance, ran. And yet… he’d stayed.
He’d stayed with our son.
He was right.
Damn it.
I exhaled, hands braced on my thighs. “You made the right call. I hate it. I hate everything about this. But
“There’s more,” he said, and when I looked up, something wary flickered in his eyes. “There was a woman.”
“Okay?”
you
were right.”
1/2
Chapter 183
+25 BONUS
“She yelled at the others. Told them to let him go. Said they were diots. Sounded… I don’t know. Familiar.”
Inarrowed my eyes. “You don’t know who it was?”
“I didn’t get a look at her face. She shifted before I could. Ran off with the other two.”
“But her voice…”
He nodded. “I’ve heard it before. I’m sure of it.”
“So who?”
“I don’t know. I’ve sent the team back out to search for tracks, residual scent–anything.”
I folded my arms. “The same team that swept the area and said it was clear?”
His jaw tightened. “Yes. Them.”
I stared at him. At the circles under his eyes. The open collar of his shirt. The faint smell of smoke still clinging to him.
He looked like hell.
Good.
“So what are you going to do?” I asked.
His brow furrowed. “Wait to hear back. Follow the trail. Tighten security. Keep Aiden close.”
“No,” I said, stepping forward. “We’re going.”
He blinked. “What?”
“You and me. We’re going back to the campsite. Today. Before the trail goes cold.”
“Elena-”
“I want to see it for myself,” I snapped. “I want to know how close they got. I want to smell what you smelled. I want to see what my son saw. And I want to figure out who the hell was out there that thinks they can take what’s mine.”
His
eyes
searched my face for a long moment.
And then, finally, he nodded.
“I’ll saddle the horses.‘
