Chapter 11 The System Awakens
"Your father is alive."
Just three words.
They struck harder than the blast that had started all of this.
I remained frozen, barely breathing. The journal felt hot in my grip, as if it held secrets I was unaware of.
Rafael broke the silence first. "He's just trying to provoke you," he said softly.
"Is he?" Vince's voice was clear through the glass, as if he were right in front of me.
I pressed my palm against the window. Vince stood outside in the rain, his coat drenched, his gaze locked with mine. No guards. No weapons. Just him, exuding a calmness of someone with nothing left to prove.
My wolf was utterly quiet. It unnerved me.
"Open the door," I commanded.
"Isabella..."
"Open it, Rafael."
A moment of silence passed. Then I heard a click as the door unlocked.
The rain struck my skin the moment I stepped onto the platform. It was cold. I clenched the railing and gazed down at him.
"Prove it," I demanded.
Vince reached into his coat and revealed a photograph.
Even from above, I recognized the hands in the image. The ring on the left finger. The scar across the knuckle from a hunting mishap when I was nine.
My father's hands.
They were holding a newspaper. And it was tonight's newspaper. My legs trembled, but I steadied myself and refused to collapse.
"Where is he?" My voice sounded steadier than I felt.
"Safe," Vince replied. "For now."
"That's not a real answer."
"It's the only one I can give here." He gestured toward the wolves crowded on the street below. "Not in front of an audience."
Rafael came up beside me. His breath was even, but I could sense his tension.
"It's a trap," he whispered just for me.
"Everything tonight has been a trap," I shot back. "Including your part in it."
He stayed silent.
I looked down at Vince again.
"If I come down there," I warned, "you won't touch me. No attempt to claim me, we just talk."
"Agreed." Vince said.
"I'm serious, Vince."
"So am I."
I stepped back from the railing and faced Rafael. His expression was tense. Whatever he was calculating was not complete.
"You lied to me," I accused.
"I withheld information," he countered.
"That's the same thing."
He opened his mouth, but I cut him off.
"You said my father planned everything. But if he's alive, then your story is missing something crucial."
Rafael's jaw set tight.
"What am I missing?" I pressed.
"Isabella..."
"What am I missing?"
The wolves below shifted restlessly. A low, primal sound flowed through them, not quite a growl. It sounds ancient and charged in the air before a storm.
They sensed my blood reacting.
Rafael sighed. "Your father didn’t just change the compacts," he explained. "He concealed a backup system."
Everything froze.
"A backup system?" I echoed.
"Directly linked to your bloodline. Not recorded in documents or any territories." He glanced at my hands. "But within you."
The sigils on my skin flickered slightly, as if they were aware.
"So if the compacts fail," I murmured.
"The backup activates," he completed. "But only if you’re alive and decide to use it."
"And you were aware of this."
"Yes."
"And what about Vince?" I asked.
Rafael's silence spoke volumes before he could respond.
"He knows too," I stated.
I grabbed the journal and headed for the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Rafael called after me.
"To find the truth from someone who isn’t manipulating me."
"He has the biggest scheme of all."
"Maybe," I replied without looking back. "But he’s the only one whose plan depends on me being alive."
Descending the stairs, the wolves made way for me. Their eyes tracked my movements, but none made a sound or a move. I felt something in my blood that I couldn’t see but could sense a low hum beneath my skin, like a taut string.
Vince awaited me.
Up close, he looked worse than before. A cut above his brow had just stopped bleeding, and his knuckles were split. Whatever transpired between him and Marco after my escape had not gone smoothly.
"You're injured," I noted.
"I've been hurt before."
"Where's Marco?"
A look crossed his face. "I managed to contain him"
"That doesn't mean he's gone."
"No," he admitted. "It's not."
The rain continued to pour.
I held up the photograph. "Where is my father?"
Vince met my gaze. "That hinges on what you decide to do next."
Anger surged within me. "If you're trying to...."
"He came to me," Vince interrupted.
I halted.
"Three days before you were captured at the market, your father entered my territory. Alone. He revealed your true nature and the threat ahead." His voice lowered. "He asked me to find you before anyone else did."
My heart felt like it was splitting open.
"He knew I'd run," I breathed.
"He relied on it."
"He could have just told me everything."
"He tried," Vince replied. "That night you escaped. During that phone call."
The memory rushed back like a cold wave.
They cannot taste your blood. Don’t let them.
The call that ended abruptly.
The crash I heard on his side.
"He was attacked," I said, realization dawning.
"Yes. But he wasn't killed." Vince's eyes held mine. "He survived. He’s been under my protection since.".I heard Rafael coming down the stairs behind me but didn’t turn.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this from the start?" I demanded of Vince.
"Because you wouldn’t have believed me," he said. "You came in frightened and restrained. If I told you your father had sent me, you would have thought it was a manipulation."
"It could still be."
"Yes," he admitted plainly. "It very well could be."
His candidness caught me off guard.
I glanced at the journal I held, then back at him.
"Take me to him," I insisted.
Vince nodded once and turned toward the street.
That was when the shot rang out.
It was not a gunshot, rather something far much older. A deep red signal flare, illuminating the dark sky. Every wolf in the street looked up.
Vince stiffened.
"That's a compact signal," he said. His voice shifted; the control was still there, but beneath it lurked something broken. "That’s an emergency activation."
"From where?" I asked.
He turned to me slowly, the look on his face unfamiliar.
Fear. It held genuine fear.
"From your bloodline," he said. "Something just activated the backup system."
I looked down at my hands.
The sigils were glowing.
"Rafael," I called without turning around.
Silence enveloped me.
I turned.
Rafael had vanished.
And so had my father's journal.