Chapter 19 Chapter 19
"Dave said you were brave. He undersold it."
She turned to Alex. "And you're willing to put your organization at risk? Because the Alpha
King network has connections to some of the same criminal enterprises you work with. Exposing
them means exposing those connections."
"I built my organization to fight exactly this kind of evil," Alex said. "If some of my business
partners are compromised, I want to know. I want them gone."
"Even if it costs you millions in revenue? Even if it makes you enemies in every major city?"
"Even then," he said without hesitation.
Lucy smiled—sharp and dangerous. "Good. Because we're about to burn down everything
they've built. And it starts with you, Mia, telling your story to the supernatural world."
Over the next week, Lucy interviewed me for hours every day. She recorded everything—my
parents' research, my childhood moving between facilities, the attack that killed them, my years
in hiding, Xiang's abduction, the experiments, the rescue, Dr. Mitchell's continued operations.
She asked questions that made me uncomfortable, pushed me to remember details I wanted to
forget, and never let me hide behind vague answers.
"The supernatural community needs specifics," she explained. "They need to see the horror in
concrete terms. Numbers of victims. Types of experiments. Names of perpetrators. Without that,
it's just another conspiracy theory they can dismiss."
Dave provided documentation—financial records, facility layouts, communication intercepts.
Alex contributed intelligence from his criminal network, connections between legitimate
businesses and the illegal experiments. Together, we built an ironclad case.
But Lucy wanted more than just documentation. She wanted faces.
"The people you rescued from Xiang's facility," she said. "Are any of them willing to testify?"
I thought of Charles, who'd lost his mate. Of Sarah, whose wolf had been so damaged she might
never shift again. Of all the others struggling to rebuild shattered lives.
"I can ask," I said. "But I won't pressure them. They've been through enough."
"Understood," Lucy said. "But if even one or two are willing to corroborate your story, it makes
the case that much stronger."
I called Charles first. He was staying at a rehabilitation center Alex had arranged, working
with therapists who specialized in supernatural trauma.
"How are you doing?" I asked.
"Better," he said, though his voice still carried shadows. "The nightmares are less frequent. I can
shift again without feeling like I'm back in that cage. It's progress."
"I'm glad," I said sincerely. Then I explained what Lucy was proposing.
Charles was quiet for a long moment. "You want me to relive it all publicly?”
"I want you to help me stop it from happening to anyone else," I corrected. "But only if you're
ready. Only if you can handle it. Your healing comes first."
Another pause. "When do you need my answer?"
"We're publishing in two weeks. So...whenever you're ready. No pressure."
He called back three hours later. "I'll do it. But only if you promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me we're not just exposing them. Promise me we're taking them down completely.
Every facility. Every doctor. Every person who profits from our suffering. All of it."
"I promise," I said. "That's exactly what we're doing."
"Then count me in."
Sarah agreed too. So did four others from Xiang’s facility. Each of them had
conditions—anonymity for some, protection for family members for others—but they all shared
one thing: rage. Controlled, focused rage at what had been done to them.
Lucy interviewed each of them, treating their stories with the respect they deserved. By the end
of the week, she had enough material for a multi-part exposé that would shake the supernatural
world to its core.
"This is going to change everything," she said, showing us the draft. "Once this publishes,
there's no going back. The councils will have to respond. The Alpha King network will retaliate.
Every supernatural in the world will know your name, Mia."
"Good," I said. "I'm tired of hiding."
But not everyone shared my conviction.
The first threat came via encrypted message to Alex's phone: Stop the journalist or we stop
her permanently. Last warning.
The second came two days later—a car bomb outside Lucy's apartment building. She wasn't
home, but three neighbors were injured. The message was clear: back off or civilians die.
"We can't put innocent people at risk," I said, pacing the safe house living room. "Maybe we
should delay—"
"Delay is exactly what they want," Lucy interrupted. She'd moved into the safe house after the
bombing, refusing to be intimidated. "They want us scared. Scattered. Second-guessing
ourselves. That's how they win."
"People got hurt because of us," I insisted.
"People got hurt because of them," Lucy corrected firmly. "The Alpha King network planted that
bomb. They endangered my neighbors. Don't let them shift the blame onto us for exposing their
crimes."
Alex had been silent, studying his phone with a dark expression. "The threat came from a
burner number, but Dave traced the purchase to a shell company in Moscow. Same network that
funded Xiang’s facility."
"So they're coordinated," Lucy said. "Good. That means we're hurting them."
"That means they're desperate," Alex corrected. "Desperate enemies are dangerous."
"Then we need to be more dangerous," I said, decision crystallizing. "We publish everything. All
at once. No holding back, no second-guessing. We hit them so hard they can't recover."
Lucy grinned. "Now you're speaking my language."
We moved up the publication date. Licy worked twenty-hour days, finalizing articles,
conducting additional interviews, coordinating with her editor at the underground publication.
Dave arranged for simultaneous releases across multiple platforms–+supernatural news sites,
encrypted message boards, even traditional media outlets that covered "unexplained
phenomena."
Meanwhile, Alex prepared for war.
"They'll come after us the moment this goes live," he said, reviewing security protocols. "We
need to be ready for everything—physical attacks, legal challenges, supernatural enforcement."
"What about the council evaluation?" I asked. "They wanted me to submit to their judgment."
"Let them try," Alex said darkly. "Once Lucy's publication is exposed, the councils will be too
busy dealing with their own exposure to worry about evaluating you. Some of them are complicit
in the network. We have proof."
That was the nuclear option—evidence that three council members had financial ties to facilities
like Xiang’s. Lucy planned to publish it in part three of her series, giving the supernatural
community time to demand accountability before revealing how deep the corruption ran.
"This is going to get ugly," Dave warned during one of our strategy sessions. "These people
have power, money, and no conscience. They will not go quietly."
"Neither arel we," I said.
The night before publication, I couldn't sleep. I stood on the balcony, watching the city lights and
thinking about my parents. They'd tried to work within the system, tried to reform it from inside. It
got them killed.
But maybe their approach and mine weren't so different. They'd believed in truth, in evidence, in
the power of knowledge to change minds. I was just taking that belief public, forcing the
supernatural community to confront truths they'd rather ignore.
"Nervous?" Alex asked, joining me outside.
"Terrified," I admitted. "What if this makes everything worse? What if we're just painting bigger
targets on ourselves?" Silenced.