Chapter 25
1067 Words
The Truth They Watched
The silence inside the abandoned office stretched so long that Kaia could hear every individual drop of rain striking the broken roof overhead.
Nobody answered her question.
Not Rowan.
Not the men near the doorway.
No one.
And suddenly the absence of an answer terrified her more than any explanation could have.
Kaia’s fingers tightened around the photograph still clutched in her hand while her pulse hammered unevenly beneath her skin. The room felt smaller now, the stale air pressing heavily against her lungs as every instinct she had screamed that the truth standing in front of her was about to change everything.
“What does that have to do with me?” she asked again, quieter this time.
Rowan looked at her like he was trying to decide whether telling her the truth would destroy her more than keeping it from her already had.
That hurt.
Because she knew that look now.
He’d been wearing versions of it for months.
Every fight. Every cold conversation. Every time he pushed her away while looking miserable doing it.
He already knew something.
Something about her.
Kaia took a slow step backward, her eyes never leaving his. “You knew before I found this place.”
Rowan didn’t deny it.
The confirmation landed like a punch to the chest.
“How long?”
His jaw tightened. “Kaia—”
“How long have you known there was something wrong with me?”
The words cracked sharply through the room.
Immediately she regretted saying it that way, because something painful flickered across Rowan’s face the second the sentence left her mouth.
“Don’t say that.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Rain pounded harder overhead, thunder rolling through the forest outside while the tension inside the room pulled tighter and tighter around everyone standing there.
Kaia could feel the others watching now, waiting to see what Rowan would do.
But she wasn’t looking at them.
Only him.
“You always acted like my wolf was dangerous,” she continued, her voice quieter now but no less intense. “The elders watched me growing up like they expected something bad to happen. People whispered about me my entire life and nobody ever explained why.”
Her throat tightened painfully.
“And now I find out there was some facility studying bloodlines and suddenly everybody goes silent when I ask what it has to do with me?”
Rowan closed his eyes briefly.
That tiny reaction alone told her enough.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
The realization hit slowly at first, then all at once.
“They studied my family.”
Nobody answered.
Kaia felt her stomach drop.
“They did, didn’t they?”
Finally, Rowan looked at her again. “Your mother was connected to Blackwater.”
The world seemed to tilt sideways.
For a second Kaia genuinely thought she misheard him.
“My… mother?”
Rowan nodded once.
Kaia stared at him in disbelief.
No.
That didn’t make sense.
Her mother died when she was little. That was all she’d ever been told. No details. No stories. No explanation beyond vague conversations people always seemed desperate to end quickly.
Kaia’s breathing started turning uneven.
“She wasn’t part of this pack,” Rowan said carefully. “At least not originally.”
Kaia’s mind reeled violently trying to keep up.
“What are you talking about?”
Rowan hesitated again, and she hated him for it this time.
Every pause felt cruel now.
Finally he spoke quietly.
“Blackwater identified certain bloodlines they believed carried unstable genetic traits.”
The words sounded clinical.
Cold.
Like something out of a report instead of a human life.
Kaia felt sick.
“What kind of traits?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
Then Rowan said the one thing she never expected.
“Abilities.”
The office went completely still around her.
Kaia actually laughed once in disbelief, but the sound came out hollow and shaky. “Abilities?”
“You’ve seen it yourself.”
His voice remained calm, careful.
Too careful.
“Your wolf heals faster than normal. Your senses spike unpredictably during emotional stress. Half the time you react to threats before anyone else notices them.”
Kaia’s heart slammed painfully against her ribs.
Because he wasn’t wrong.
And she hated that he wasn’t wrong.
Growing up, strange things always happened around her wolf. Faster reflexes. Sudden violent instincts she couldn’t fully control sometimes. Moments where she somehow knew danger was coming before anyone spoke.
The elders called it temperament.
Control issues.
Alpha-adjacent instincts.
But nobody ever explained why.
“They thought certain bloodlines could evolve beyond normal wolves,” Rowan continued quietly. “Enhanced strength. Heightened instincts. Accelerated healing. Things packs could weaponize if they controlled them.”
Kaia felt physically cold now.
“They experimented on people.”
Nobody argued.
The silence confirmed everything.
A sharp wave of nausea twisted through her stomach as pieces began locking together in her mind one after another. Mira discovering records. Missing wolves. Disappearing bloodlines. Rowan’s panic whenever Kaia lost control of her wolf.
Not because he feared her.
Because someone else might want her.
“Oh my God,” she whispered again.
Rowan took a cautious step toward her. “Kaia—”
“Did they experiment on my mother?”
The question cut him off instantly.
Pain flickered visibly across his face.
That was answer enough.
Kaia staggered backward slightly before catching herself against the edge of the overturned cabinet. The photograph slipped from her fingers onto the dusty floor unnoticed.
Everything suddenly felt wrong.
Her childhood.
The pack.
Her wolf.
Even herself.
“You knew,” she said quietly, staring at Rowan like she barely recognized him anymore. “This whole time… you knew.”
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” he admitted softly. “It isn’t.”
Kaia looked away from him because suddenly she couldn’t stand the expression in his eyes anymore.
Guilt.
Fear.
Love.
All tangled together so tightly she couldn’t separate one from the other anymore.
Then another thought hit her hard enough to steal the breath from her lungs.
Her head snapped back toward him.
“Is that why they chose me for Luna?”
The question silenced the room completely.
And Rowan didn’t answer fast enough.
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