Chapter 28 Locked
They threw Elara into a basement holding cell that's smelling.
And they shut the door with a loud thund that echoed through the concrete space.
"Wait," she shouted, pressing against the bars. "My son, where's my son?"
"The child is being cared for," one guard inside the cell said without looking at her.
"I want to see him," Elara demanded.
"Alpha Darius will decide when you have visitation rights," the guard said and turn away.
Elara slid down to sit on the floor, her mind racing through everything that had just happened—Darius knew about her, knew about Adrian, and was planning to have them killed.
She had to get out of here and get to her son before Darius could make his move.
Hours passed and the guard inside has finally left.
And with no one coming to check on her, and she used the time to search the cell for any weakness but found nothing except solid concrete and iron bars.
Finally around dawn footsteps approached and Kai appeared with Margaret behind him.
"Five minutes," Margaret said. "That's Alpha's orders."
Kai waited until she left before pulling a chair up to the bars. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?" Elara asked. "Your father locked me in a basement and took my son."
"Adrian's safe with Betty," Kai said. "I made sure of it before coming down here."
"For now," Elara said. "But how long before your father decides he's a liability?"
"I won't let that happen," Kai said.
"You couldn't stop him from locking me up," Elara pointed out.
Kai flinched. "My father has evidence that you broke into his office and stole documents, I can't override that without cause."
"The cause is he's trying to kill us," Elara said.
"Based on documents we obtained illegally," Kai said. "Which means they won't hold up in any formal proceeding."
"So what's your plan?" Elara asked.
"My plan is to getyou released on bail, take you and Adrian somewhere safe, and build a legal case against my father," Kai said.
"That'll take months," Elara said. "We have four days before Mandivus comes back."
"Then we accelerate the timeline," Kai said. "I'm calling an emergency pack council meeting tonight to present what we found."
"Your father controls the pack council," Elara said.
"Not all of them," Kai said. "There are three elders who've been questioning his decisions lately, if I can get them on our side we might have a chance."
"That idea isn't good enough," Elara said.
"It's all I have right now," Kai said. "Unless you want to tell me who you really are and why my father is so desperate to get rid of you, and what dot are you telling me to connect?"
Elara looked at him through the bars and felt the weight of two years of secrets pressing down on her chest.
"If I tell you, everything will changes," she said quietly.
"Everything has already changed the moment you walked into my life," Kai said. "Just tell me the truth."
Elara took a deep breath. "My name isn't Sera Seahawks."
"I figured that much," Kai said. "Who are you really?"
Before Elara could answer, Darius appeared with two guards.
"Time's up," he said to Kai. "Leave, now."
"I'm not done talking to her," Kai said.
"Yes you are," Darius said and gestured to the guards who moved toward Kai.
Kai stood his ground. "You can't keep her locked up without charges."
"She's charged with breaking and entering, theft, and espionage," Darius said. "That's enough to hold her indefinitely."
"Espionage?" Kai repeated. "That's insane."
"Is it?" Darius asked. "She's been working in our household under a false identity, she's been gathering information about pack operations, and she broke into my private office to steal confidential documents, that's textbook espionage."
"Or she was trying to protect herself from you," Kai said. "I know about the payments to Mandivus, I know you've been funding his operations."
Darius's expression didn't change. "Those payments were authorized intelligence gathering in borderlands territory."
"Intelligence gathering that involves murdering omegas?" Kai demanded.
"Careful son," Darius said, his voice dropping dangerously low. "You're making accusations you can't prove."
"I have the documents," Kai said.
"You have illegally obtained documents that would be inadmissible in any proceeding," Darius corrected. "Now leave before I have you removed."
Kai looked at Elara one more time. "I'll get you out of here."
"Save Adrian first," Elara said. "He's the priority."
Kai left and Darius turned his attention to Elara with a smile that made her skin crawl.
"You've been quite the problem," he said. "Showing up here with your bastard child, disrupting my son's focus, bringing borderlands criminals to our doorstep."
"I didn't bring Mandivus here," Elara said. "You did, you've been funding him for three years."
"I've been using him," Darius corrected. "There's a difference, Mandivus is a tool, useful for handling problems that can't be solved through legitimate channels."
"Problems like me," Elara said.
"Problems like any omega who thinks she can trap my son with a pregnancy claim," Darius said. "You're not the first and you won't be the last."
"Adrian is Kai's son," Elara said.
"Maybe," Darius said. "Or maybe he's the spawn of some borderlands Alpha and you're using Silvercrest bloodline markers to fake a connection, either way I'm not letting you anywhere near my family's inheritance."
"The paternity test will prove it," Elara said.
"The paternity test will show whatever I want it to show," Darius said. "I own the lab that processes them."
"Kai will demand a neutral test," Elara said.
"Kai will do what I tell him once he understands the stakes," Darius said. "My son is weak, always has been, too emotional and too sentimental, but he's trainable."
"You're wrong about him," Elara said.
"Am I?" Darius asked. "He rejected his fated mate for political advantage, he orchestrated a pregnancy to secure an heir while maintaining a beneficial marriage, he's more like me than he wants to admit."
Elara felt cold because Darius was describing Kai's actions toward her two years ago, which meant he knew everything.
"You knew about Elara Whitmore," she said.
"Of course I knew," Darius said. "I'm the one who suggested Kai reject her, she was low-ranking with no family connections and no resources, completely unsuitable for an Alpha heir."
"But you let him get her pregnant," Elara said.
"I encouraged it," Darius corrected. "Kai needed an heir and his fated mate bond guaranteed strong offspring, but he didn't need the omega herself, so we solved both problems—secured the bloodline and eliminated the complication."
"By exiling her while pregnant," Elara said.
"By removing her from the equation," Darius said. "And it would have worked perfectly if she'd just stayed in the borderlands where she belonged."
"But she didn't," Elara said.
"No, she got creative," Darius said, studying Elara's face. "Changed her appearance, created a false identity, came back for revenge or maybe just for her son to inherit his rightful place with her sitting as the Luna, either way it was a mistake."
"How long have you known?" Elara asked.
"Since the moment you walked through the gates," Darius said. "Did you really think a disguise would fool me? I've been Alpha of this pack for thirty years, I know every wolf's scent signature, and yours is buried under cosmetics and contacts but it's still there."
Elara felt like the ground was dropping out from under her. "If you knew why didn't you expose me immediately?"
"Because I wanted to see what you'd do," Darius said. "And because having you here where I could control you was better than having you out there plotting, but now you've become more trouble than you're worth."
"So you're going to kill me," Elara said.
"I'm going to let Mandivus kill you," Darius corrected. "He'll be here in three days to collect the boy, and I'm going to hand both of you over because I don't need the heir anymore, he gets the heir he wanted and I get rid of my problem."
"So you planned for Kai to get me pregnant and at same time you want to hand the heir over to a wicked man, kai won't let you," Elara said.
"Everything I decide is my choice and non of your concern. And Kai will be at the pack council meeting when it happens," Darius said. "By the time he realizes what I've done, you'll be long gone."