CHAPTER 7: AFTERMATH AND REVELATION
649 Words
Sienna didn’t move.
The elevator doors had just snapped shut, but the air still felt heavy, thick with the lingering presence of those three alphas. It was like they’d left behind pressure instead of footprints.
Kade didn’t waste a second.
“Stay here,” he said, sharp and clear, snatching his jacket. “Don’t come out. No matter what you hear.”
“Kade—”
“I mean it.” His voice dropped. “This isn’t up for discussion.”
He was gone before she could blink.
Suddenly the penthouse felt way too big. Sienna stood frozen, heart hammering as she strained to hear—anything. But there was only the far-off hum of the city, and that weird, echoing silence after danger passes.
She moved. Not toward the elevator, but further back.
Something was wrong.
Kade didn’t just look tense. No, he’d looked trapped, boxed in.
Her gaze darted around, noticing things she hadn’t before. Seams in the paneling that shouldn’t be there. Locked doors. It didn’t feel like someone’s home. It felt like a bunker.
Then she noticed the bookshelf. Just a sliver out of line.
She pushed.
With a soft click, it swung open.
She found herself staring into a hidden study.
Her pulse spiked.
Inside—chaos and secrets. Photos everywhere, documents, coded printouts, lines of red thread stitching together names she recognized: judges, ministers, CEOs.
Right at the center: **The Council.**
Her breath caught.
Her vision narrowed, locking on images—labs, metal tables, restraints, people screaming under harsh lights. Betas.
“Gosh…” she whispered.
Her phone vibrated violently.
Rachel’s name flashed.
Sienna picked up, hands shaking. “Rachel?”
“Sienna, listen to me!” Rachel’s voice was barely controlled panic. “Your place—gone. Completely trashed. Your office, everything on the Ashford case—it’s wiped.”
Sienna went cold. “When?”
“Last night. Whoever did it—pros. No fingerprints, no cameras, nothing.”
Sienna gripped the desk for balance. “Pull everything you can on Alpha Hierarchy. Quiet, Rachel. No records.”
Rachel faltered. “What? Sienna—this isn’t just a case anymore.”
“I know,” Sienna whispered, then hung up.
Then her eyes fixed on a photo near the center.
Her father.
Alive.
He wore a lab coat, standing with other scientists—everyone turned toward a child strapped to a table. A little girl who looked just like her.
Sienna’s hands shook. Her blood ran cold.
The elevator dinged.
She spun.
Kade stepped out. Blood streaked his forehead. His breath was ragged, eyes darting to the photograph clenched in her fist.
“You weren’t supposed to find that yet,” he said quietly.
“My father,” she choked out. “He’s alive.”
Kade moved closer, slow and careful, hands empty. “I can’t prove he’s alive. But he worked for them.”
“Who?” Her voice was tiny. Broken.
“The Council.”
The words punched the air out of the room.
“And what they did to you…” he started, voice raw.
Her stomach bottomed out. “What they did to me?”
Kade’s eyes hardened. “You’re immune. That wasn’t an accident. It was designed.”
“No.” She backed away, shaking her head. “I’d remember.”
“They took your memories,” he said.
Everything spun. The room tilted under her feet.
“You were the only one that survived,” he continued. “Now they want you again.”
She couldn’t stand—she went down, but he caught her and held her tight while the world ripped apart.
Then his phone buzzed.
Kade checked the screen. Froze.
He turned it for her to see.
A message:
We have Rachel Martinez. 24 hours. Bring us the prosecutor… or she dies.
The war was real now. There was no turning back.
- Writer
