The door slid open with a hiss, and the thick, tainted energy of The Gray One coiled through the air, making it hard to breathe. The young alpha—later we’d learn his name: Kai—struggled against his restraints, his wrists already red from the effort. But his eyes didn’t hold the animal terror of the possessed. No. They glittered with a sly, familiar cruelty. The same crimson spark I had sometimes seen twist my mother’s face.
“Alex Valex...” Kai’s voice echoed with a strange double note, each word layered with another, ancient timbre. “You’ve caught one of my soldiers. Do you truly think catching a single fish means you control the sea?”
That was The Gray One itself, speaking directly to us.
Alex didn’t flinch. His stare was cold, fixed on the camera’s lens, the little red recording lig
