Chapter 5
686words
"Thank you," Alexander said, breaking the silence. He stood by the window, keeping a careful distance. "For staying. For fighting."
I nodded without looking up. "It was logical. Victor is my enemy too."
Our blood connection hummed between us, betraying the clinical detachment of my words. Since that touch at dawn—his fingers on my cheek, my hand in his—we"d both retreated to safer ground: work.
"We need to identify who else might be working with Kayla," I said. "I"ve been analyzing the communication patterns within your pack"s network."
Alexander approached, studying my screen. "What does your data tell you?"
"Patterns, not conclusions. Data needs interpretation." I pulled up a network diagram. "Your wolves communicate in clusters. These outliers concern me."
He leaned closer, his scent—pine and cedar—momentarily distracting me. "That"s not data speaking. That"s intuition."
"Perhaps both have value," I conceded.
The attack came without warning. Grey Investments" systems crashed simultaneously, screens flashing with Victor"s symbol—a blood-red V against black.
"It"s a distributed denial-of-service attack," I explained, fingers flying across my keyboard. "But sophisticated. There"s something else beneath it."
"Can you stop it?" Alexander asked.
"I can do better. I can trace it."
For hours, I worked within Alexander"s system, building defenses while following attack vectors. As I worked deeper, I discovered ancient symbols embedded in the code—digital versions of markings from the Book of Ancient Blood.
"Alexander," I called. "Look at this."
He stood behind me, close enough that I could feel his warmth. "Those are from the oldest prophecies."
"Victor isn"t just attacking your company. He"s sending a message."
The board meeting the next day was tense. Investors questioned Alexander"s leadership after the cyber attack.
"Mr. Grey, this is the third security breach this quarter," said a silver-haired board member. "Our shareholders are concerned."
I hadn"t planned to speak, but something made me stand.
"If I may," I said. "What you witnessed yesterday wasn"t a security failure but an anticipated attack that tested the new protocols we"ve implemented."
"And you are?" asked the silver-haired man.
"Isabella Knight, cybersecurity consultant. Grey Investments" response was exemplary. Mr. Grey"s leadership during the crisis demonstrated exactly the forward-thinking approach that keeps this company ahead of competitors."
I felt Alexander"s gratitude as the board members nodded, reassured.
That night, we worked late in his office, analyzing the ancient symbols.
"How do you recognize these?" Alexander asked.
"I"ve seen them before. When Victor… when I was turned."
"What happened?" he asked softly.
"London, 1723. I was a mathematician"s daughter with an aptitude for codes." I traced a symbol. "Victor promised knowledge. Instead, he took control."
Alexander was quiet for a moment. "My mate, Elise… she was killed trying to protect our pack from Victor"s allies. I never saw it coming."
The shared pain created a bridge between us. Two different wounds, similar scars.
"We both lost something to him," I said.
"Yes." Alexander"s voice was rough with emotion. "But perhaps we"ve found something too."
As I reached for my pen, my hand accidentally brushed his. We both froze at the contact. His fingers slowly moved to cover mine.
Through our blood connection, I felt his uncertainty, his question. I answered by turning my hand and lightly gripping his.
For a creature who had lived three centuries, five seconds of hand-holding shouldn"t feel significant. Yet as we sat there, fingers intertwined, I realized some connections couldn"t be quantified by data or explained by intuition.
Just as this warmth began to penetrate my cold defenses, my phone suddenly lit up. Lillian"s name flashed on the screen with an urgent message: "I"ve discovered terrifying truth about blood connections. Don"t trust the wolf. Arriving tomorrow."
I quickly withdrew my hand, feeling a chill spread through me. Three hundred years of survival instincts screamed. But as I looked into Alexander"s confused eyes, I found myself doubting those instincts for the first time.
Data told me to run. Intuition made me want to stay.
