Chapter 86: A Blackthorne

Chapter 86: Chapter 86: A Blackthorne

Zoey took a deep breath, her eyes wide as she looked at Iris. "So if Alexander is telling the truth about what happened at the university today... if those guys really saw what he can do, and if they know that you’re the reason he snapped... then staying in this apartment just because it feels normal might actually get us killed. It isn’t safe. It’s just stupid."

Iris stared at her, feeling betrayed by the sudden logic coming from her best friend. "Zoey..."

"I know how it sounds! I hate it too!" Zoey blurted out, throwing her hands up briefly. "I hate the idea of you packing up and driving off with a three-thousand-year-old apex predator! Trust me, saying that sentence out loud makes me feel like I need to be medicated!"

Across from her, Oliver—who had been seating like a silent guard the entire time—let out a faint, involuntary twitch of his lips.

Zoey’s head snapped toward him, her eyes narrowing. "Don’t you dare smile. I am having a crisis."

Oliver’s expression instantly straightened back into impassive military composure. "My apologies."

Zoey turned back to Iris, her tone softening, her eyes shining with genuine concern.

"Iris, look at me. We don’t know what that mark on your neck means. We don’t know what this bond does to people who want to hurt him. We don’t know who is watching this building right now. You need real answers, not internet speculation. And if his estate is built like a fortress... then maybe that’s where you need to go to figure out what the hell your life is supposed to look like now."

Iris released a long, slow breath through her nose. She hated it. She hated every single thread of this situation, hated the way her quiet, predictable life had been systematically dismantled in the span of an evening. But looking at Zoey, and feeling the ancient, silent pressure of Alexander standing at her back, she knew her friend was right. The illusion of safety in this apartment was already gone.

Alexander remained silent, letting the women speak. He didn’t need to add pressure; the urgency vibrating in his own blood was reaching a fever pitch. Every second they wasted in this fragile, thin-walled human apartment was an invitation to disaster.

The altercation at the university had forced his hand. In stopping Jason’s aggression, Alexander had been forced to unleash a fraction of his true ancestral aura—a display of raw, unadulterated Lycan-Alpha dominance that hadn’t been felt in the territory for decades. Whitmore had seen it. Jason had felt it in his bones.

Jason was alive, but he was disgraced and terrified. He would run straight to his father, Gerald. And Gerald—Jason’s father and the ruthless Alpha of the Crestwood pack—would already have been informed. And Whitmore, ever the opportunist, would already be making calls to his own inner circle.

Gerald was an ambitious, cunning opportunist who had spent years trying to find a weakness in Alexander’s corporate and supernatural influence.

Though he’s a werewolf, who’s werewolf bloodline descended from Alexander’s, he would do anything to have something, to threaten Alexander with...a bargaining chip.

Two major packs now had direct knowledge that Alexander Blackthorne had a vulnerability. A human vulnerability.

If Gerald’s scouts reached this street before Alexander had secured Iris behind the iron gates and blood wards of Blackthorne, he wouldn’t just be dealing with a political dispute. He would be waging a war on an open city street.

He watched Iris intently, waiting for the shift.

Finally, Iris opened her eyes, her gaze rising to meet Alexander’s waiting blue eyes.

"Alright," she said softly, her voice steadying.

Alexander’s broad shoulders relaxed by a fraction of a millimeter, a subtle release of tension that only someone watching him intently would have caught. A quiet exhale escaping him.

"But..." Iris added sharply, her voice instantly hardening, pointing a finger up.

Alexander’s eyes narrowed instantly. "But?"

"If I’m going to this estate of yours," she said, crossing her arms tightly, "Zoey comes with me."

"No." The refusal was immediate, sharp, and entirely final.

Iris’s brow furrowed in immediate anger. "What? Why?"

"She is not part of our world," Alexander stated cold tone. "She is a fragile human. She has no place within a Lycan stronghold."

"I am a human too!" Iris snapped back.

Alexander’s eyes dropped deliberately to the pulse point on her throat. "Not anymore, and not entirely."

Iris ignored the chilling implication of that statement, taking a defiant step forward. "I don’t give a damn about your ancient werewolf hierarchy or your rules about who belongs where."

Behind Alexander, Oliver looked down at his polished shoes, hiding a small cough that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.

"What I care about," Iris continued, her voice rising with steady authority, "is that if your terrifying enemies already know who I am and where I live, then Zoey is in just as much danger as I am!"

Alexander remained silent, his jaw set in a hard line.

"She is involved in this because she cares about me!" Iris insisted, pointing a finger toward her friend.

"She spent her entire week digging through old archives because she was worried about my safety, and the weird visions that I was having. She went to your estate because she was trying to figure out whi you actually are and the connection we might have due to this mysterious mark that appeared out of nowhere on me, after I spent a night with you. She has put herself in harm’s way solely out of loyalty to me!"

Her voice shook with fierce determination. "I am not going to walk out that door, crawl into your expensive car, and pretend that she isn’t a target the second we leave her sitting on this couch alone."

"Iris, you do not understand the protocol—"

"No, you listen to me," she interrupted, stepping directly into his personal space, refusing to back down despite the massive physical disparity between them.

"If someone comes looking for leverage against me, they are going to figure out very quickly that Zoey is the only person in this city I care about. That makes her a target, whether your bloodline rules acknowledge her existence or not!"

She held his intense, glowing gaze without flinching. "So here is my term: she comes with us, or you can drag me out of here by force and prove to me that you really are just a monster."