Chapter 114: Penetration And Recognition

Selene’s POV

"Dax Ashstone."

The motherfucker who had wanted to use me to cash out ... yet again.

His time had expired.

I went to the breeders later that evening, after setting up dinner as cover. I sneaked out because the king wouldn’t allow me to leave under normal circumstances, and I wasn’t in the mood for that argument.

I reached the breeders’ dorm and Valerie opened the door before I could even knock.

Without wasting much of their time, I told them everything. The breeders had always been a collective source of strength for me ... my people in every sense of the word. Valerie already knew about Aiden, but the rest didn’t. I hadn’t wanted to pull them into all of this before, but they were the only family I could fall back on, and honestly, I didn’t have another choice.

"He did all of that to you?" one of the breeders said, her voice dropping in shock.

"Yes." I exhaled. "I thought I was going to die. Nobody knew where I was or what I was doing with Aiden that night ... but Lucian came and saved me. Again. He said he’d been keeping tabs on me every time I left the chambers."

I was grateful for that. Truly. But gratitude wasn’t going to satisfy what I needed.

"Aiden will know why they call me Nora." I almost laughed, but we were in the middle of serious business so I let it go.

Nora ... the breeder who didn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything. She kept fucking her boyfriend while still holding the title of the Alpha’s breeder. If anyone was going to be able to move through this without flinching, it was her.

"We have to go teach that man a lesson," Valerie said, already sounding like she had a plan forming.

I told them he had run the moment Lucian showed up.

"We’ll get him, Selene. Don’t worry." Valerie’s voice was certain in the way hers always was. She said she was going to mobilise some of the breeders to come with us for the reckoning. I told her it didn’t have to be all of them ... but Nora had to be in.

Valerie laughed and said yes.

I went back to the Alpha King’s chambers a bit late. I had every intention of sneaking back in the same way I had sneaked out.

"Selene!"

My name came sharp at my back and I didn’t even need to turn around to know it was Lucian.

Him again.

"Where were you?" he asked.

He was still keeping tabs on me. I didn’t want to come across as ungrateful ... the least I could do was tell him the truth about where I had been.

"I went to see my friends at the breeders’ dorm," I said.

He had been standing outside my room and had startled the hell out of me. I found myself wondering if he ever actually stayed with his wife Tessa for more than a public appearance. Wasn’t he supposed to be inside with his Luna? That was why I had gone out at night in the first place, for crying out loud.

We kept our voices low so they wouldn’t carry through the hall.

"You know what happened the last time you sneaked out," he said.

"Yes, I know. But I only went to see the breeders."

"The man who kidnapped you hasn’t been found. He escaped that day and he’s still out there. We’re still looking for him. He could come for you again and..." He stopped. I could see it in his face ... that thing he always tried to hide whenever he thought about it. That indifference that wasn’t quite indifference at all.

"I’m sorry," I said, mostly to calm him down. "I’ll be more careful."

"No." He shook his head. "You can’t just be sorry, Selene. You’re the one at risk here, not me. You’re acting like you don’t value your own life. Your safety is with me ... don’t you understand that?" He moved closer and reached up to put his hand on my shoulder.

I stepped back on instinct. A reflex. He barely registered it.

"You were better off with me as a breeder, Selene," he said quietly.

"Lucian, no. I have my freedom now. And I’m grateful ... genuinely ... for everything you’ve done, I just..."

"How have you been?" he cut in. "I haven’t had the chance to ask you that. How are you actually doing?"

I paused.

"I haven’t fully recovered from everything," I said honestly. "I just know I’m still alive."

"Yeah." He nodded slowly. "The trauma. I’m here if you ever want to talk ... please know that. Who was he to you? Aiden?"

I blinked. Why was he asking me that? He was walking into my life and I knew nothing about his. I gave him the simplest answer I could think of.

"I met him at a social gathering."

He scoffed. "Since when do you go to social gatherings?"

I had to end this conversation.

"I’m tired, Lucian." I faked a yawn and leaned back against my door.

"One more thing, Selene..."

I stayed still, waiting.

"I can never stop being concerned about you. I’d do everything over and over again."

The moment he said it, our past flashed before me without warning ... every stolen moment, every charged silence, every look that had gone one breath too far. It all came rushing back at once.

But I caught myself. I couldn’t walk back into something I wouldn’t be able to get out of again. Even if, at the end of it all, Lucian was the realest person I had ever met.

"Thank you," I said.

I opened the door and stepped inside and closed it behind me. When I looked again, he was gone.

We could have been something. But we weren’t. I stood there lost in that particular fantasy for a while ... but I was not more lost in fantasy than I was hungry for reckoning.

I imagined my way to sleep.

The next morning, we were ready to roll.

I lied again ... told them I was going to the library. What I was actually doing was heading to Real Enterprises Inc., that underground furnace of an operation responsible for crushing people’s dreams before they could fully form.

Me, Valerie, and the breeders had already mapped out where we would meet. We had guns and other weapons prepared ... not because we planned to fight today, but just in case. Today was all about penetration and recognition. Get in. Get information. Get out.

Is this really me? I asked myself before I stepped out the door.

I thought about it for a second. Then I decided it had always been there ... I just hadn’t recognised it until now.

We moved fast and converged at the back of a hotel building nearby. They showed up looking locked in and ready ... the kind of loyalty that couldn’t be bought with any amount of money. Four she-wolves in total, plus Valerie, making five.

Nora, Sora, Brynn, and Aria.

"I want to thank you all for showing up," I said, and meant every word. "I owe you all." We gave each other a round of high fives before stepping out onto the road.

We covered our faces. We looked suspicious as hell, but we were careful to avoid anywhere with heavy foot traffic.

When we reached Real Enterprises Inc., Nora went in first, just as planned. She unwrapped her scarf and walked up to the front desk like she owned the building.

"Good day. I’d like to see the secretary," she said.

"Do you have an appointment?" the security wolf asked.

"I came to apply for a position here. Or is that not allowed anymore? Luna Tessa paved that way for us." She held her ground and didn’t blink.

The security wolf looked confused ... caught between protocol and not wanting to overstep ... and in that gap, he gave the sign to let her through.

"One more thing ... I also came with my sister." Valerie stepped forward and revealed herself.

"Oh," he said.

"She has to stay with me. She has ADHD and she’s highly autistic." Valerie delivered it completely straight-faced.

I nearly lost it standing outside. Valerie put on a whole performance and I had to press my lips together to hold the laugh in.

The rest of us stayed outside and waited.

They were both granted access. Their job was to find the underground operation and pull classified information ... whatever they could get their hands on. Whatever happened behind those doors after that, I couldn’t say. All we could do was trust them.

And if there were two people built for exactly this kind of work, it was the sexy, cunning Nora and the manipulative, lock-picking Valerie.

We depended on them.