Chapter 81 The Betrayal That Breaks
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Just stared at the blank screen where Tessa’s face had been, where Nightshade had been, where my best friend had revealed herself as the enemy.
How long had she been lying? Since freshman year? Since the day we met? Every conversation. Every secret shared. Every moment I’d trusted her. All fake. All manipulation. All part of their plan.
My hands shook. The phone slipped. Clattered on the nightstand.
Lycian stirred. His arm tightened around me. Still half-asleep. “Everything okay?”
“No.” The word came out broken. Raw. “Nothing’s okay. Nothing’s been okay. I’ve been so stupid.”
He was awake instantly. Sitting up. Eyes alert. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t make it real by speaking. But I had to. Had to share this. Had to let him help carry the weight.
“Tessa. She’s Nightshade. She’s been Collective since the beginning. Since before I even knew wolves existed.” Tears burned my eyes. “My best friend. The person I trusted most in the human world.”
“That’s not possible. Tessa was kidnapped. Held hostage. Terrorized.”
“I saw the video. Saw her standing between my parents’ chambers. Saw her admit everything.” I pulled up the message history. Empty. “It was there. She sent it. She told me to come alone or everyone dies.”
“Show me.”
“I can’t. It deleted itself. Like all their messages.” I stood. Started pacing. Needed movement. Needed air. “But I know what I saw. I know what she said.”
“Okay. Say she is Nightshade. Say she’s been lying the whole time. What’s her endgame? Why reveal herself now?”
“Because she has my parents. Has leverage. Can make me do exactly what she wants.” I pressed my palms against my eyes. “She wants me to come alone. Really alone. No backup. No pack. No you.”
“Which you’re obviously not doing. Because it’s suicide. Because it’s exactly what she wants.” He pulled my hands down. Made me look at him. “We’re not playing their game anymore. We’re making our own rules.”
“But my parents…”
“Are bait. Leverage. Tools to manipulate you.” His voice was hard. Certain. “If they’re really alive. Suppose this isn’t another trick. They’d want you to be smart. To think. To not throw your life away on a rescue mission designed to fail.”
He was right. Logically. Tactically. Everything he said made sense.
But logic didn’t erase the image of my parents. Unconscious. Trapped. Waiting for me to save them.
“I have to do something. Can’t just sit here while she has them.”
“Then we gather information. We investigate. We verify everything before we move.” He pulled me close. “We have seventy-nine days. That’s time to plan. To prepare.”
“Or time for something to go wrong. Every day we wait is a day they suffer. A day closer to losing them forever.”
“And every day we rush is a day closer to losing you.” His hands framed my face. “We do this smart or we don’t do it at all.”
“You can’t protect me from everything,” I said. “Can’t keep me safe if safety means abandoning the people who need me.”
“I can try. I will try. Every single day.” He kissed my forehead. “And I’ll trust you. Together we figure this out.”
A knock on the door. Elena’s voice. “Sorry to interrupt. But we have a problem. Tessa’s gone. Vanished from her room.”
My blood ran cold. “When?”
“Sometime after midnight. The guard saw her go to the bathroom. Never came back.” Elena opened the door. “We searched the whole estate. She’s not here. All her belongings are gone too.”
“Because she planned it.” I moved past Lycian. Toward the door. “She was never our prisoner. Never our guest. She was a spy. Waiting for the right moment to disappear.”
“You think she’s Nightshade?” Elena’s eyes widened. “Your best friend?”
“I don’t think. I know. She sent me a video. Admitted everything. Then deleted the evidence.” I grabbed clothes. Started dressing. “We need to track her. Find her before she gets too far.”
“Already on it. Damien’s checking security footage. Cade’s organizing search parties.” Elena pulled out her tablet. “But if she planned this. She’ll have escape routes. Ways to vanish.”
“Check her room. Anything she left behind might have clues.” I finished dressing. “And call the freed prisoners. Ask if anyone recognizes her.”
Elena nodded. Disappeared down the hall. Coordinating the search.
Lycian was dressing too. Moving slower.
“You should rest. Let me handle this.” I touched his arm. “You’re not healed enough for a manhunt.”
“I’m healed enough to stand beside you. That’s all that matters.” He pulled on a shirt. Winced. “You’re going to need support. Someone who actually has your back.”
The words hit hard. I’d trusted Tessa. Shared things with her I’d never told anyone else.
“I’m so stupid.” I sat on the bed. “I gave them everything. Every plan. Every weakness. Every secret.”
“You trusted someone you thought was your friend. That’s not stupid. That’s human.” Lycian sat beside me. “This isn’t your fault.”
“It feels like my fault. Feels like I should have seen it.” I covered my face.
“The kind who still has humanity. Still believes in friendship and trust and love.” He pulled my hands down. “Don’t let this make you cold. That’s what they want.”
Through the bond, I felt his certainty. His absolute belief that this wasn’t the end.
I wanted his certainty. His confidence. But all I felt was betrayal. Sharp. Cutting. Deep.
Damien appeared in the doorway. Out of breath. “Found something. Tessa’s laptop. She left it behind. Password protected but Elena’s cracking it now.”
We followed him downstairs to the office. Elena was typing furiously, lines of code streaming across the screen.
“She’s good. Multiple layers of encryption. Fake passwords that wipe data if entered wrong.” Her fingers flew. “But I’m better. Give me five minutes.”
We waited in tense silence, everyone watching her work.
Three minutes later the screen changed. Files appeared. Documents. Videos. Photos. Years of intelligence.
“She’s been documenting everything,” Elena said. “Every conversation with Elowen. Every meeting. Every detail about Moonsilver abilities. It’s all here.”
“Can you trace where she sent it?” Lycian leaned closer. “We need to know the full extent of the breach.”
“Working on it.” She opened more files, then froze. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“She didn’t just spy. She planted tracking devices throughout the estate. Every room. Every vehicle.” Elena pulled up schematics. “The Collective knows our every move. Has known for months.”
The room erupted in panic.
“Silence.” Lycian’s Alpha command cut through it. “How do we remove them?”
“Standard sweeps won’t work. These are advanced. It would take days to find them manually.” She opened another file. “But she left a master deactivation code. She wanted us to find this.”
“Why reveal herself?” I asked.
“Psychological warfare,” Elena said. “She wants us paranoid. Doubting everything.”
“Then we don’t break. We adapt,” I said. “Deactivate the devices. Sweep anyway. Change all our plans. Assume they know everything and start over.”
“That’ll take weeks,” Damien said. “Project Genesis launches in seventy-nine days.”
“Then we move smart,” I said, looking around at the pack. “She thinks she knows us. We become unpredictable.”
“How?” Cade asked.
“We change everything. New patterns. New strategies she’s never seen.” I pulled up the master file. “We don’t deactivate the surveillance. We use it. Feed her false information while we do something else.”
Elena smiled. Slowly. “A disinformation campaign. Using her own tools against her. I like it.”
“We’ll need to be careful. Consistent. Make the lies believable.” Lycian was thinking. Planning. “But yes. This could work. This could give us the advantage.”
We spent the next few hours planning. Creating false strategies. Recording fake conversations. Building a narrative that Tessa would believe because it fits her expectations.
All while the real plan formed in private. Away from devices. Away from surveillance. Just thoughts shared through the mate bond. Through pack bonds. Through connections Tessa couldn’t monitor or intercept.
By dawn, we had a framework. Not perfect. But enough to start turning the tables.
I stood on the balcony watching the sunrise. Lycian appeared beside me. Coffee in hand.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No. But I will be.” I took the coffee. “She was my friend. The first real friend I made in college. And it was all fake.”
“Not all of it.” His arm wrapped around my shoulders. “The moments you shared happened. Hold onto that. Don’t let her steal those memories too.”
“She stole my parents. My childhood. My trust. She doesn’t get my memories too.” I leaned into him. “We’re going to stop her. Stop Project Genesis. Free everyone she’s holding.”
“We,” he corrected. “We’re going to stop her. Together.”
“Together.”
My phone buzzed. A photo. Showing Tessa sitting in what looked like a command center. Screens behind her show the estate. Showing us on the balcony. Showing this exact moment.
Below the photo, one line.
Did you really think I’d leave the laptop by accident? Did you really think I’d miss surveillance devices I planted myself? I’m three steps ahead. Always. See you in seventy-eight days, bestie.