Elara's POV
The safehouse was a stone fist clenched against the mountain. Impenetrable, hard, cold. It smelled more of old smoke and damped rock. It should have given the feelings of a shelter. But it felt like a very beautiful, yet an isolated prison.
Lucian was more like a caged storm inside it. He paced the great room, a restless, powerful shadow, his phone constantly at his ear. His voice was a low, relentless rumble of orders, securing borders, moving pack assets, turning his people into a shield. Our shield.
I sat huddled by the massive, empty fireplace, a wool blanket around my shoulders, watching him. Fear became my new heartbeat. But beneath the fear, was a slow, hot anger coiling up. I was tired of being the fragile thing that forced the powerful beast to retreat, tired of being the reason we hid
"Are you using them as a wall to protect yourself Lucian?," I asked, my voice too loud in the stone silence.
He stopped mid-pace and looked at me, his gaze hot and sharp. "That is their duty. It is their responsibility to keep their Alpha safe."
"And his mate?" The title still felt strange and hard for me, a crown I hadn't asked for.
His expression softened, just for a second. "Above all else."
"So we just… wait in here? While they stand out there?" I stood up, the blanket falling. "We're sitting in the safest room in the world, doing nothing."
"It is my battle, Elara!" he snapped, his control fraying. He crossed the room in two strides. "My brother! My failure! You should never have been pulled into this!"
"But I am!" I shouted back, the frustration boiling over. I poked a finger at his chest. "Marek came for me because of you! And now it's Kael. Kael is still coming for me because of you! I am the epitome of this whole madness,can't you see that!. You can't protect me by pretending I'm not there!"
We were inches apart, his heat radiating against me, his scent of storm and cedar now tinged with fury.
"Now tell Elara, what would you have me do? Tell me! What should I do?" he growled, the sound more wolf than man.
"Stop treating me like I'm breakable! You called me your partner. So treat me like I am one. I may not be a warrior, Lucian, but understand that I'm not entirely helpless." I tapped my temple. "I have this. Marek wasn't just afraid of your strength. He was afraid of what we figured out together. Use it and use me too. It's all for our own good."
He went very cold and still as if pinned to the ground, searching my face. I saw the war right there in his eyes, the man who loved a woman with fire in her soul, and the ancient possessive Alpha who saw a treasure to be locked away.
After a long, charged silence, he spoke. "My fierce mate, what plans do you have?" This time, the title sounded like respect.
The idea came fast, born of the instincts and desperation I'd honed in newsrooms. "We use my past. Since Kael is using yours against you." I took a steady breath. "Marek said my mother was researching your kind. She got evidence. If we can find the evidence… if we can understand what she knows about this 'Source Alpha'… maybe we can understand what Kael truly wants. It can't just be about a pack he lost years ago."
Lucian's gaze intensified. "Her research was destroyed. My people ensured it."
"Marek had pieces of it," I countered. "He knew things. My mother was always paranoid, afraid, there is every possible chance that she would have some backups. A hidden copy somewhere."
A new current crackled between us, a shift from cowering to hunting.
"And should it be?" The question came as a command.
"A storage unit. In my father's name. He paid for a lifetime lease." The memory was a dull ache. "I could never… I never went."
With an active plan now, the tension in Lucian's shoulder had lifted a bit, he was already moving, phone in hand. "Address. I'll send a team to sweep it."
"No." My voice stopped him. He turned, eyes narrowed. "Not a team. Us. This is my legacy. My family. They are my mother's words and I need to see them. I should be the one to see it."
It was a gamble. Leaving this stone fortress for the city. But staying in hiding would only make the target on my back inconspicuous.
Lucian searched my face, looking for hesitation. He found only resolve.
His stern expression melted into one of grim admiration. He gave a sharp, single nod.
"We head out once the moon rises," he said. "Under the cover of the night."
He closed the distance, his hand coming to rest on the side of my neck, his touch now filled with a proud, fierce warmth.
"Alright, partner," he murmured, his thumb stroking my pulse. "Let's go steal a secret from the past."