Chapter 15 Phantom Reapers

Chapter 15 Phantom Reapers


XAVIER

This… doesn’t look like a normal pack.”

“It’s not,” I said with a smirk, making her eyes burged out.

“Where are the cottages? The cabins?”

“Gone. We use pods and reinforced bunkers. Everything runs on solar and underground wiring. We adapt fast. The old ways got our people killed.”

She nodded slowly, still taking it in.

“Why do I feel like I just walked into a secret military base?”

“Because you did,” I said with a smirk. “This is the Phantom Reapers. We don’t do fairy tales. We do results.”

As we moved through the clean, tech-lined halls, pack members stepped aside silently. Some stared. Others whispered.

Their eyes landed on Serena—and stayed there.

She didn’t shrink. I was impressed.

“Why are they looking at me like that?” she asked under her breath.

Because they’ve heard the stories.”

“What stories?”

“That the girl marked by the Moonstone with death,” I said without looking at her. “That carries the bloodline of three royal houses. That she’s cursed.”

She stiffened.

“I’m not cursed,” she said softly.

“No,” I said. “You’re powerful. But power always looks like a curse to the weak.”

“They know who you are already.”

“No, they think they do,” she replied.

I glanced sideways. Hm. Fire. Good.

“Whatever they think,” I said, stopping at the door to my quarters, “they’ll learn quickly not to underestimate you.”

She followed me inside.

Unlike the rustic mess halls or alpha dens in most packs, my quarters looked like a high-tech command center. Matte floors, curved screens, reinforced windows. A medical pod hummed in the corner. The place was clean, efficient—just like the Reapers.

She turned slowly, eyes wide. “You live like this?”

“Efficiency,” I said. “Everything has a purpose.”

She looked at the wall-sized touchscreen showing live satellite scans. “Is that a holographic map?”

“Yes. It tracks threats within a 300-mile radius.”

She blinked. “Okay. This is… a lot.”

I pulled a thin blanket from a storage wall and handed it to her. “You’ll rest here. I’ll stay on the upper floor.”

She hesitated. “Are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

“Cold. Mechanical. Sharp.”

I paused.

Then answered honestly, “Only when I’m awake.”

She gave a tiny smile, the first real one I’d seen. “Well, try not to malfunction while I sleep.”

I laughed—quiet, unexpected.

Maybe bringing her here was the smartest bad decision I ever made.

I turned to leave.

“Why are you helping me? Really.”

I met her eyes. “Because I hate Marcus more than I hate myself.”

She blinked. “You hate yourself?”

I paused. “Wouldn’t you? If you were born to a monster, raised to be worse?”

Her lips parted. No words came.

I dropped into the chair across from her, elbows on my knees. “Do you think I enjoy ruling a camp full of rogues? That I wake up excited to see blood and fear in everyone’s eyes?”

“I don’t know,” she said softly. “You seem… like you’ve accepted it.”

I let out a sharp breath. “I had no choice.”

Venom stirred again, uncomfortable.

Tell her the truth.

“No one ever gave me choices, Serena. Just orders. From the time I was a pup, I was taught to destroy. And I’m good at it.”

She didn’t look away.

I hated that.

I wanted her to flinch. To recoil. To call me a monster.

But she didn’t.

Instead, she said, “You’re not as heartless as you pretend to be.”

I stood fast, jaw clenching. “Don’t confuse control with compassion.”

“I saw the way you fought for me.”

“You think that was compassion?”

Her voice was calm. “I think that was instinct.”

I turned to the fire, my hands tightening. “Don’t talk to me about instincts. Mine are broken.”

My wolf growled in protest.

Liar.

I slammed a hand against the wall. Serena didn’t move.

“You don’t know what I’ve done.”

“I don’t,” she said. “But I’ve seen enough to know you’re not a coward. You don’t run from fights. You protect the people you care about—even if you pretend you don’t.”

I turned, stunned.

“You think I care about you?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But your wolf does.”

Silence dropped like a weight.

She wasn’t wrong.

My wolf did care.

More than he should.

More than I could afford.

He rumbled again.

She is ours.

“No,” I said aloud. “She’s not.”

She blinked. “What?”

I shook my head, pacing. “You’re not mine. You belong to three others. Three Alpha bastards with royal blood and golden thrones.”

She stood. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

I stopped. “Then why do you still wear that mark?”

Her hand touched her.

The faint glow of the triplets’ shared mark shimmered.

“Because I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered.

I stared at her. “Would you choose differently now?”

She looked at me for a long time.

Then, softly, “I don’t know.”

I turned away again, heart pounding.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

I wasn’t supposed to feel anything.

I was the devil in the woods.

The rogue king.

But one girl with raspberry-scented skin and fire in her eyes had turned everything upside down.

She stepped closer.

Close enough that I could smell her again.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“For what?”

“For coming after me.”

I looked at her. Really looked.

And for the first time, I didn’t see a threat.

I saw someone just as lost. Just as broken. Just as dangerous.

“You’re welcome,” I said softly.

My wolf huffed, satisfied.

Now we fight.

“Rest,” I told her. “Tomorrow, we begin.”

She nodded.

And for the first time in a long time, I felt something I’d forgotten.

Hope.

Burning, fragile… but real.

Just like her.