Chapter 24
1019 Words
Blackwater
The silence after Kaia spoke the name felt wrong.
Not ordinary silence. Not hesitation.
Fear.
Real fear.
Kaia slowly lowered the photograph from where she’d been staring at the faded handwriting on the back, her eyes moving between Rowan and the men gathered inside and outside the ruined office. Nobody looked surprised she read the message. Nobody questioned whether the words were real.
They just looked like they wished she hadn’t said them out loud.
Blackwater.
The name settled heavily in the stale air around them.
Rain continued drumming steadily against the roof overhead while water leaked through cracks in the ceiling and slid slowly down the concrete walls. Somewhere outside, thunder rumbled low and distant through the trees, but inside the office nobody moved.
Kaia’s pulse thudded unevenly in her throat.
“What is Blackwater?” she asked again, more firmly this time.
Still nothing.
Her frustration flared instantly. “Seriously?”
Rowan finally exhaled slowly through his nose before stepping farther into the room. Gravel and damp dirt clung to the bottom of his boots as he stopped a few feet in front of her, his attention fixed on the photograph still in her hands.
“It’s not a place people talk about,” he said quietly.
Kaia gave a short disbelieving laugh. “That’s not actually an answer.”
“I know.”
His voice sounded tired again.
Not annoyed.
Not defensive.
Just exhausted in a way that made him seem older than he had earlier tonight.
Kaia watched him carefully while rainwater dripped steadily from the ends of his hair onto the dusty concrete floor beneath him. The more time passed, the more obvious it became that Rowan wasn’t trying to hide this from her anymore because he wanted control.
He was trying to hide it because even now, after everything already uncovered tonight, he still looked afraid of where this conversation would lead.
“That woman knew she might die,” Kaia said, lifting the photograph slightly. “She left a message behind because she thought someone would eventually find this.”
Rowan’s jaw tightened.
“And she wrote that name down for a reason.”
“I know.”
“Then stop acting like I should just let it go.”
Something flickered briefly across his face then. Frustration. Not directed at her—at the situation itself. At the fact that the moment he spent months trying to avoid had finally arrived anyway.
Behind him, one of the men near the doorway shifted uneasily. “Rowan—”
“Not now.”
The sharpness in Rowan’s voice silenced him immediately.
Kaia noticed that too.
Not fear exactly.
Authority.
Whatever Rowan’s role in all this actually was, these men listened when he spoke.
Her attention drifted back toward the photograph again, toward Mira’s bright smile frozen permanently in time beside the version of Rowan who still looked capable of happiness.
“She trusted you,” Kaia said quietly.
The words seemed to hit harder than she expected.
Rowan looked away first.
Kaia’s chest tightened painfully.
“She came to me after she found the altered reports,” he admitted after a long silence. “At first I thought it was corruption. Patrol money disappearing. Territory disputes being manipulated. Things that happen in packs when people get greedy.”
“But it wasn’t.”
His eyes met hers again.
“No.”
Something cold slid slowly down Kaia’s spine.
“What was it then?”
The room went silent again.
This time Rowan didn’t avoid the question because he was deciding whether to answer.
He looked like he was deciding how much of the truth would destroy her.
Finally, he spoke quietly.
“Blackwater wasn’t originally part of this pack.”
Kaia frowned slightly.
“What does that mean?”
Rowan leaned back against the edge of one of the old desks, his gaze lowering briefly toward the floor like he was pulling himself through memories he spent years trying not to revisit.
“Years ago, before you were born, several smaller packs disappeared near the northern territories. Entire bloodlines. Official reports blamed rogues, territorial wars, human hunters…” His expression darkened slightly. “But the reports never lined up.”
Kaia listened carefully, barely breathing now.
“Mira found records showing wolves from those packs were transferred before the disappearances happened.”
“Transferred where?”
Rowan’s silence answered her before his words did.
“Blackwater.”
Thunder cracked louder outside this time, shaking faint dust from the ceiling overhead.
Kaia stared at him.
“What is it?” she whispered.
One of the men near the doorway muttered softly under his breath before finally answering himself.
“It was a facility.”
Kaia’s stomach dropped.
The word echoed horribly inside the abandoned office.
Facility.
Not a territory.
Not a town.
A facility.
She turned sharply toward the man who spoke. He immediately looked like he regretted it.
“A facility for what?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
Kaia felt panic begin creeping slowly into her chest now, because suddenly every instinct she had was screaming at her that whatever this place was—
it had something to do with her.
Then Rowan spoke quietly.
“For studying bloodlines.”
The room tilted slightly beneath her feet.
Kaia blinked once, sure she misunderstood him.
“…What?”
“Mira discovered records connecting certain wolves to Blackwater.” Rowan’s voice sounded rougher now, like every word physically scraped its way out of him. “Rare bloodlines. Unusual abilities. Genetic traits packs considered valuable.”
Kaia felt her pulse start hammering unevenly.
No.
No no no.
Her mind immediately flashed backward through every strange thing she spent years trying not to think about.
The whispers growing up.
The way elders watched her.
The way Rowan always seemed afraid whenever her wolf lost control.
The way people acted like there was something dangerous inside her without ever explaining why.
Her throat tightened painfully.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Nobody answered.
And that—
more than anything else—
terrified her.
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