Chapter 46 Chapter 46
AMINA
The cold certainty of the Council facility was worse than the chaos of Rian’s Tower. Here, everything was clinical, predictable, and devoid of the faint, rebellious spark that always followed Rian. I was locked in a sterile isolation chamber, the cuffs draining my power, the knowledge of the Balance secured in a vial of my blood.
But the physical containment was secondary to the mental torment. Dr. Elara’s words echoed in my head, confirming the depth of my sacrifice: Did you sever the Bond to save Alpha Vale's life...?
Yes. And now, the true cost of that choice was pressing down on me. I was alone, severed from my Mate, and the Council was closing in on the last vestiges of my human life.
I was subjected to continuous, low-level psychic monitoring, but I maintained the façade of psychic exhaustion. My mind was sharp, though, focused entirely on the ghost echo—that faint, agonizing tremor that confirmed Rian was alive, but struggling. The pain was a constant, low-frequency hum of sorrow and fear.
Suddenly, the monitoring static intensified, and the air in my cell grew heavy with a new layer of anxiety—not Lycan, but purely human.
My heart seized in my chest.
Ethan.
The psychic feedback loop, usually only sensitive to Lycan energy, was picking up intense emotional distress from someone nearby. It was too close to be a coincidence, and only one person outside of Rian's world cared enough for their fear to register on my psychic radar.
I scrambled to the reinforced observation glass, pressing my ear against the cold surface, trying to decipher the strained voices filtering through the facility's ventilation.
"...don't understand! The Shroud? What the hell is a Lunar Pact Council? I just sell coffee and books! Amina just... quit." That was Ethan. His voice, usually light and easygoing, was frayed with confusion and terror.
Rage, pure and blinding, flooded my hollowed core. They were touching my world. They were using him.
I slammed my cuffed fists against the glass, the weak kinetic impact doing nothing but bruising my wrists.
“Leave him alone, you bastards!” I screamed, but the thick walls absorbed my voice.
I forced myself back from the glass, curling into a protective ball. I had to focus, to listen. The faint echo of Rian's command, Fight for us, was all I had left.
The voices filtered back, clearer now, emanating from what sounded like an adjacent interrogation room.
"Silence, Human," a cold, authoritative female voice commanded. Kira.
"We have a warrant, Reyes," a gruff voice—definitely a Council Enforcer—stated. "You employed the subject, Amina Haddad. We need her schedule, her contacts, her movements outside of the Vale Tower sector. Everything."
"But I told you! She's boring! She works, she buys horrible instant noodles, she goes home! She never caused trouble! The only weird thing was that robbery a few months ago—that guy, Vance—and she handled it, thank God!" Ethan stammered.
My breath hitched. They had found the initial attacker, Dominic Vance. They were tracing my movements back to the very moment Rian had found me.
"Describe this 'robbery'," Kira demanded.
"He was just some junkie, trying to grab the cash register. Amina... she pushed him. Hard. He flew across the store, hit the wall. It was crazy. Like a gust of wind, but..." Ethan trailed off, his voice shrinking. "It was just a coincidence, right? Bad luck?"
The Enforcer laughed, a dry, cruel sound. "There's no luck where Hybrids are concerned, Human. That was kinetic power. Now, did she ever mention a man named Rian Vale? Did she ever leave Meridian City?"
Ethan hesitated. That pause was too long.
"She… she took a week off after that. Said she had a family emergency. And yeah, I saw her with Mr. Vale once. Just getting coffee. He looked like her boss. He was really intense."
The tension in the other room ratcheted up.
"Where did she spend the week?" Kira asked, her voice dangerously quiet.
"I don't know! A cabin? A... a cottage? She was really vague. Said it was somewhere the phones didn't work. Look, I don't know why you think she’s some kind of terrorist. She's just a quiet girl who liked dusty books. I swear!"
The Enforcer didn't respond with words. There was a sickening thud, the sound of a kinetic weapon hitting soft flesh.
Ethan cried out, a brief, sharp noise of pure agony.
The rage that filled me was volcanic. I slammed my body against the glass, ignoring the inhibitors. I was supposed to be the monster, the threat. But they were the ones torturing an innocent human being over books and bad luck.
"If you touch him again, I swear to God I will unleash everything I have, and you will burn this entire building down with me!" I screamed, finally breaking my silence, projecting raw, psychic hatred toward the adjacent room.
The Enforcer was unfazed, but Kira—Rian’s loyal Beta, the woman who hated me more than anyone—stopped.
I heard the quick, sharp movement of her boots as she approached Ethan. Not to hit him, but to examine him.
"Stop the interrogation," Kira commanded, her voice suddenly sharp with disgust. "The subject has confirmed her movements. The week away confirms isolation. He is irrelevant."
"He resisted," the Enforcer argued. "He could be lying."
"He's a Human, Enforcer," Kira retorted, the derision in her tone aimed at the brutality, not the species. "He doesn't have the capacity for deep deception. He has given us enough. We know she was at the cottage. We know the Alpha was involved before the abduction. We have what we need. Release him into the Shroud's care with a full memory wipe. Now."
The Enforcer grumbled but obeyed.
I heard the sounds of Ethan being dragged away, followed by the faint hum of a memory-wipe device—the final cruelty, erasing his fear and his friendship with me.
The psychic distress faded, leaving only the cold echo of my own failure. I had tried to protect him by keeping my life separate, but the Council had reached into the human world and left a bloody mess.
Kira stayed in the room. I could hear her pacing. She wasn't preparing a command; she was thinking.
She finally spoke, her voice strained, directed at the wall separating us, though I knew she wasn't talking to me.
"The Alpha... he would never have done that to a Human," she whispered, her internal conflict palpable. "He protects the Shroud. He does not violate it for political gain."
I pushed myself to my feet, bracing myself against the wall. “They are destroying his world, Beta,” I said, my voice hoarse. “They want the Pack title, but they are willing to burn his rules, his territory, and his people to get it. They don’t want to save him; they want to erase him.”
Kira remained silent for a long, agonizing moment. I could feel her traditional loyalty battling the horrific truth of the Council's ruthless pragmatism. The sight of an innocent human being tortured for information that should have been obtained cleanly was a violation of the very principles Rian ruled by.
"You were right about the execution order," Kira finally admitted, the words tasting like ash. "They are not conducting a trial. They are conducting a purge."
Her voice hardened with resolve, but it wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed at the enemies who had cornered her Alpha.
"I protect the Vale Alpha," Kira stated, her voice tight. "Always."
She took one sharp, decisive breath. I heard her touch the panel of her uniform communicator. She was making a decision that would redefine her loyalty.
Kira's voice dropped to a barely audible whisper, shielded by the humming ventilation. "Vesper is sending a tactical retrieval team to the cottage location, a dead end. But the primary transport coordinates are still active. Dr. Elara's notes are being routed to the deep server, and I know the encryption key." The air crackled with her silent decision. "Rogue Alpha or not, Rian will not die without all the information. I am sending a message to Zora."