LOGINAurelia's Pov A metallic taste filled my mouth, a mouthful of red spurted right out of my lips and onto the floor.
Something in me broke at the sight I just saw, Elora— Edgar's Beta, the same woman he made me believe I was being paranoid about, the same woman he told me to think of as a sister, not to lower myself to her level just lowered her pussy into my husband's dick while I watched. Edgar's face went from controlled to that of pleasure, a grunt slipping from him, he held Elora by the waist, her eyes were still on me, “Don't move,” he said huskily. My feet were still planted to the tiles, playing the scene before me over and over, my hands holding my stomach protectively and only one question rang in my mind, “How did we get to this point?” “You really don't know do you?” Elora said sweetly, “No worries, I'll tell you, after all you've been quite helpful to us” I ignored her, my eyes fixed on Edgar, “Three years, Three years of my life, I gave up everything for you, helped you secure your place and stop the rebellion.” “A rebellion you started” He grunted, his face a mixture of pleasure and torture, barely paying any attention me as Elora twisted her body slowly. “Because you wanted my people dead. I stopped it for you, gave up everything, I lost my people.” I suddenly found my voice. “You—fuck, haaa” he moaned, Elora shot me a smug grin she picked just that moment to bounce herself on him, “Yes.” I nodded, with cold acceptance, years of military training and hardening surfacing slowly, my heart dying with every passing minute, “I started the rebellion years ago, do you believe I'll start another one.” My voice was hard, cold. Instead of the flash of panic I expected, all I got was a look of mockery. They looked at me like I had said the most amusing thing they heard: “Oh, sweet innocent Aurelia, what makes you think you're leaving here alive?” Elora asked. Alarm bells went off in my head instantly, I turned on my heels, “hold on baby” I whispered, ignoring the ache just on my abdomen, forcing my feet as fast as I could to the door. Just then two loud sounds cut through the air, “boom” it shot straight into my legs, My body gave way, a familiar metallic tang filled my mouth as my bulging stomach collided with the tiles, “Ahhhhh” I shrieked, something warm tricked down my thighs. The anger, the anguish, the sorrow, all of it, the betrayal all vanished into thin air, I gasped, “No. My baby ” My eyes met the adulterous pair, they were still seated, Elora held a gun in her hand, the same new model I had developed as a show of my loyalty to Edgar. My eyes met his, “Our baby. Please” I gasped, bit by bit I dragged my body towards the door, hoping somewhere in that cold heart of his he would remember that the pups I carried were still his .He sneered, “And what makes you think I would care about your abominations? ” My heart dropped, “They’re still yours, please. ” I couldn't recognize my own voice, gone woman who once stood tall and proud in its place was a pleading mother, Using my hands I pulled myself further, crawling, ignoring the trail of blood that now made the floor beneath me as slippery as an eel’s My lips moved once more, ready to beg, to pave a path for my child that was yet to see the sunrise. “Save it.” Elora cut in, pushing herself up from Edgar she advanced towards me, stopping just above my head. Her right leg pressed my head straight into the ground, my eyes rolled backwards, the pain doubled, I tasted ash, but I couldn't even let out a coherent sentence, not with her werewolf strength crushing my air flow. “Let me tell you a little secret” She whispered, her voice sounding all excited like she was about to get her favourite candy. “Elora” I could hear the warning in Edgar's voice, was he pleading for me? Trying to give me a way out? “Oh come on. She's dying anyways, there's no harm in knowing now,” she replied casually. The little hope that had lit up in my heart was snuffed out before it could even bloom, refusing to give up, I tried with all the strength I could muster “Ed..d..d..ga..gar” I forced out, but as if he didn't hear me, I watched as his eyes remained on the figure pressing down on me from above, “Fine. I just don't want you to hurt yourself.” He said softly. The blood trickled even faster at his words, hurt? Could I even hurt her? In this condition? Where have things gone wrong? “Sure baby..” she giggled, “let me deal with this bitch real quick and I'll come help you finish up.” “Hmmm” he nodded, not saying anymore. “See that.” Elora asked smugly, “You're nothing to Alpha, you're not even worth his strength, not you nor the bastard you're carrying.” Her voice dripped with hatred. I shone my blood stained teeth, “At least I won't be the one who will forever remain a hidden side piece, how does it feel hiding in my shadow, craving to be the Luna but having to always hide around like the rat you are.” I gritted out, Her face shone with fury, hatred burned in her eyes, a smirk tugged at my lips, I had hit the nail on the head. Her legs connected with my stomach, sending me sprawling a few feet away. I gasped wordlessly, like my body had somehow muted the pain, like it was trying to not register what was happening now. She closed the gap between us, her hand fisted my hair, dragging it up to face her, I let out a sharp hiss, but my face hardened. “Not begging anymore?” I leaned into her, then slowly I spat, straight on her plastic face watching as my saliva mixed with blood dripped down her face. Her face contorted she looked at me like she was barely holding back herself, then she leaned in,“Want to know a secret?” She snarled, pausing dramatically. “It was all planned, from beginning to end, did you really think Edgar would allow a lowly human birth his child and be his Luna? What a joke.” She sneered. My eyes widened from the information and the heart I had thought had gone numb, ached once more, “Yes, Edgar proposed to you just to use as a human Luna shield, to quell your stupid rebellion and return your silly group of bandits to where they truly belong, in the dust. And now it has been achieved, you've fulfilled your job. ” I found Edgar's eyes, searching desperately for something, anything that proved her claim false, that this was all some sort of cruel and sick joke, but all I got was a blank look, like I was a speck of dust, not worthy of his attention. A fresh mouthful of blood splurted out of lips, “Ewwww” Elora shrieked and dropped me, I lay still on the cold tiles, my ears catching the sound of their bodies joining once more and skin joining on my bleeding body. “Sick Bastards.” I cursed, “If only I could go back.” The world finally went dark.*Aurelia's Pov*Brenda found the instructions at six fifteen.I knew because I heard her.Not subtly. Brenda had never done anything subtly in her life and the discovery of new disappearing game rules was not the moment she chose to begin."BRIAN."Footsteps. Fast. The specific thunder of a seven year old who had located something important and required immediate witness."BRIAN THERE'S NEW RULES."A door. Then another. Then Astra's voice, muffled, saying something that contained the word *six fifteen* with the specific weight of a woman who had gone to sleep four hours ago.I lay in bed and listened to the building wake up around the discovery of round four and felt something in my chest that was warm and ordinary and entirely unrelated to anything that had happened in the last twenty hours.Then I got up.The kitchen at seven was its usual chaos, amplified by the specific energy of two children who had slept in a sub-level and woken up to new game rules and were processing both facts at co
*Aurelia's Pov*The compound at three in the morning had the specific quality of aftermath.Not celebration. Not relief. The particular settling of people who had been braced for something and had met it and were now in the specific recalibration of the hour after.Marco was at the front entrance when I came through.He looked at me. Read my face. Stepped aside.I moved through the corridor toward the central room and the building received me with its sounds, the low voices of the people who had been on the ground floor through the approach, the specific quiet of the sub-level below where twenty people were sleeping or trying to.Adrian was in the central room.He turned when I came in.We looked at each other across the room for a moment.Then I said, "The children.""Sub-level." He said. "Astra confirmed an hour ago." He paused. "Brenda found three things to explore in the sub-level before she would agree to sleep.""Of course she did." I said."Brian told her two of them weren't interesting
*Aurelia's Pov* Rhett talked for two hours.Not just the floor plan. Not just the early warning blind spots. Everything Edgar had asked for over eleven days and everything Rhett had delivered and the specific channel he had used to deliver it and the four other pieces of information that hadn't made it into the documents Cassian's contact had found. The territorial application submission dates.The counter-agent batch schedule from Jin's lab.The names of everyone who had attended the first early warning committee session.And Nyxara's lab access hours.That last one sat in my chest with a cold specific weight.Nyxara's lab access hours.Edgar wasn't just planning a physical approach to the compound.He was planning to move on Nyxara directly. I kept my face level through the rest of what Rhett said and waited until he finished and then I asked three clarifying questions and got three precise answers and then I told him to stay in the compound and not communicate through any channel unt
*Adrian's Pov*Drake took the news the way he took everything.Quietly. Completely. With the specific stillness of someone who processed fast and spoke only after the processing was finished.He looked at the floor plan for a long time.Then at the early warning draft with Rhett's handwriting in the margins.Then at me."How long has he been in the compound?" He said."Eleven days." I said."Eleven days." Drake repeated. Not echo. Calculation. "The security rotation he had access to. The committee sessions. The recovery assessment briefings." He looked at the documents. "He's been thorough.""Yes." I said."The five he brought out." Drake said. "Sol. Calla. The others.""We don't know yet." Aurelia said from across the table.Drake looked at her. "We need to know before tonight.""Yes." She said."Which means we need to talk to Rhett." He said."Yes." I said."And when we talk to him." Drake said. "He knows the window is compromised.""The window was always going to be compromised the moment we foun
*Aurelia's Pov*Cassian called at six in the morning.Not a message. A call. Which meant it wasn't the kind of thing he wanted written anywhere.I was already awake, had been since five, sitting at my desk with the territorial application draft that Theo had revised twice overnight because Theo revised things until they were right regardless of the hour. The call came through and I looked at it for one second before I answered."Talk to me." I said."I need you to come here." Cassian said. "Now. Alone."His voice had the specific quality of someone who had been awake all night with something and had reached the point where carrying it alone was no longer possible."How long." I said."An hour." He said. "Less if you move."I was already standing. "I'm moving."I looked at the desk. At the draft. The building is quiet around me with its early morning breathing.I did not wake Adrian.I told myself it was because I didn't have enough information yet.That was partially true.I put on my jacket and
*Aurelia's Pov* The first morning that felt genuinely ordinary arrived on a Tuesday.No reports waiting. No urgent messages from Cassian or Drake or Rhett. No synthesis modifications from Nyxara requiring immediate attention. No governance framework amendments that needed incorporating before a session.Just Tuesday.I sat at my desk at seven in the morning with coffee that was still hot and looked at the empty surface of it and felt the specific strangeness of a day that hadn't decided what it needed from me yet. Then Brenda knocked on the door.Not quietly. Brenda didn't do anything quietly."The disappearing game." She said from the doorway. "You said you'd play.""I said I'd learn." I said. "Those are different things."She considered that with the gravity of a seven year old evaluating a technicality."Fine." She said. "Come learn."I left the hot coffee on the desk and followed her down the corridor. Brian had already identified three hiding positions by the time we reached the main r
*Aurelia's Pov* Brent Soal lived in a third floor apartment above a laundry on Carver Street.He opened the door before we knocked, which meant he had been watching the street from the window, which meant he had been waiting with the specific alertness of someone who understood that whoever arrive
*Elora's Pov* She had forty minutes before Edgar arrived at Crane Yard.She knew this because she had eyes on him that he didn't know about and because Edgar Stan in repositioning mode moved at a predictable pace, fast but not reckless, controlled even in urgency, the quality of a man who had neve
*Aurelia's Pov* Nyxara delivered the counter-agent at eleven that night.She came to my office directly, Elle beside her, carrying a small case with the careful deliberate movement of someone transporting something that mattered beyond its physical size. She set it on the desk and opened it with
*Edgar's Pov* He arrived two days early.Not because he was impatient. Edgar Stan had never been impatient in his life. He arrived early because the report Nyxara had sent him three nights ago had been sitting in the back of his thinking like a splinter, small and precise and impossible to ignore,







