Chapter 73 NADIA
Chapter 73 NADIA
I found him in his office in the underground facility. The one with no windows and one door. The first time I'd been in there, I thought it said something about how he operated—no exits, no light coming in from outside, just a space where you could sit and think without anyone interrupting you. I understood it better now.
He looked up when I came in. He read me in about two seconds, the way he always did, and whatever he saw made him sit up a little straighter.
I sat down. And then I told him everything.
Not some of it. All of it.
The text from the blocked number. The meeting with Elena that I'd gone to alone without telling anyone. Carter. The picture of my mother on the table. What Carter said Marcus had been building, the reason for it, and how far back it went. The list with eight names.
I spoke steadily. I'd been trained to deliver information without letting anything show on my face, and for once I used that training to tell the truth instead of hiding it. I didn't look away from him while I talked, because he deserved to see that I wasn't flinching from any of it.
It took seventeen minutes. I knew because I'd checked the time before I started, out of habit.
I watched his face reveal different emotions I couldn’t really name. I didn’t see any anger, not right away. More like realization.
For a while after I finished, Zane was completely quiet. The silence went on for long enough that something in my chest started to feel tight.
"You went alone," he said finally.
He didn’t seem angry. He was just saying a fact out loud.
"I know," I said. "I should have told you first. I went anyway because I needed to hear whatever it was before I decided whether to tell you. And I know how that sounds." I looked at him straight. "I'm telling you now. All of it."
He got up from the desk, walked to the wall, and stood there for a moment with his back to me. I let him have his moment. I knew he wasn't walking away; he was just trying to process everything without revealing what he was thinking to anyone.
When he turned around, his eyes were fully gold. He hadn’t shifted, but he was quite close. His wolf was right at the surface, and I knew him well enough to know that right now, he was feeling something that was too big to sit still inside him.
"Eight," he said. "He built eight of you."
"That I know about," I said.
He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them the gold was already receding, like he was reigning it in deliberately. "We need to find the other seven before he deploys them or he decides to burn them.”
"I know," I said. "I think Carter has more than what she gave me. I need to go back,” I replied.
"Not alone," he said.
I didn't argue. I just nodded.
And then he crossed the room, still not saying anything else. He just pulled me into him though, until all I could feel was how solid and completely present his body felt against mine.
For a second, it seemed like he was holding someone he’d almost lost and was still not totally sure he had back. I went completely still for a second. It was an old reflex, and it made me feel like closeness was something to push back against.
Then I put my arms around him and stayed there.
And then he spoke into my hair, his voice so quiet that I almost missed it. "If anything happens to you, Nadia..."
He didn't finish the sentence, but I didn’t think he needed to. I understood exactly what he meant without the ending.
As we stood there like that for a moment, I knew the whole situation was still exactly as bad as it had been two minutes ago. None of it had changed, but I felt better than I had since I walked out of that coffee shop.
Then the door opened.
Dex stopped in the doorway, looking at the two of us. Then he cleared his throat once and said, "I found something on Councilwoman Avery. You're going to want to see this."
But before he looked away, he caught Zane's eyes over my head, and a look that I wasn't supposed to see passed between them. I could tell that look wasn't about Avery at all.
It said: I’m glad she came back.