The Alpha's Forbidden Pact

CHAPTER 18: COUNCIL EYES

Morning came with no real rest.

Kade had eventually come back inside, but he had not looked at me again. He took the chair across the room and stayed there until Theo relieved him near dawn. The silence between us had hardened into something neither of us knew how to break.

The summons arrived just after nine.

Damaris read the message twice before he handed the phone to me. Official Council letterhead. A formal request for my presence at Vance Industries regarding “ongoing contractual obligations and security clearance review.” Julian’s name sat at the bottom as the authorizing party.

“They are using the job as cover,” Damaris said. “But the request came through Council channels. Refusing it would raise more questions than we can afford right now.”

“I am not going alone.”

“You will not. Kade and Theo will take you. They wait outside the building. You do not leave Julian’s floor without them knowing.”

I nodded. There was no energy left to argue about the tighter leash.

The drive into the city passed in near silence. Kade sat in the front passenger seat, eyes on the mirrors. Theo drove. I watched the buildings slide by and tried not to think about the way Kade’s hand had felt against my wrist the night before, or the way he had shaken afterward.

Vance Industries looked the same as always. Glass and steel and quiet power. The difference was the extra security at the lobby desk. Two men I did not recognize checked our names against a list before clearing us to the elevators.

Julian’s assistant was waiting on the executive floor. She looked pale.

“He is inside,” she said. “He asked for you alone first.”

Kade’s jaw tightened, but he did not challenge it. He and Theo took positions near the elevators where they could see the office door.

I went in.

Julian stood behind his desk, not at the window this time. The careful composure he usually wore was thinner than I had ever seen it. He gestured to the chair across from him.

“Sit.”

I sat.

He remained standing. “The Council contacted me two hours ago. They want a full review of every contractor and temporary clearance attached to this company. They asked for you by name.”

“Because of the job.”

“Because someone told them the assistant I hired might be more than she appears.” His eyes met mine. “They did not use your real name. Not yet. But they are looking. And they are starting with me.”

The air in the office felt heavier.

“What did you tell them?”

“That you were vetted through normal channels. That your work has been satisfactory. That I have no reason to question your background.” He paused. “It will not hold forever. Someone is feeding them information, and they are no longer content to watch from a distance.”

I leaned forward. “You said they asked for me by name. The false one.”

“Yes. But the questions underneath were not about an assistant’s performance. They wanted to know how long you had been here. Who recommended you. Whether you had access to restricted floors. Someone is mapping how close you are to this building and to me.”

“Why would the Council care about Vance Industries?”

Julian’s mouth tightened. “Because this company has shielded more than money for a very long time. My father built parts of it to hide people the Council preferred dead. I kept those channels open. If they are turning their attention here, it means they suspect the company is still being used to protect something they want.”

He finally sat. The movement looked reluctant.

“There is more,” he said. “They requested a complete list of every private property under Vance's control within the city. Safe houses. Holding companies. Shell addresses. Including the one your people moved you to after the last attack.”

My blood went cold.

“Do they know about the new location?”

“They asked for the list. I have not given it to them yet. But the request itself means someone has already pointed them in the right direction.”

I stared at him. The file I had found in his drawer suddenly felt like a smaller secret beside this one.

“You think there is a leak.”

“I think the Council is no longer only watching the last Sinclair heir.” His voice dropped. “They are watching the people and the places that have kept her hidden. And they have decided Vance Industries is one of those places.”

The office fell quiet. Outside the glass the city moved on, unaware.

“What happens now?” I asked.

“I stall them. You stay visible enough as an employee that disappearing would look suspicious. And we find out who pointed them at this building before they stop asking polite questions and start sending people who do not ask at all.”

He looked at me across the desk. The same man who had admitted he was there the night my parents died now looked like he was bracing for a different kind of loss.

“This is no longer only about keeping you alive until the Moon,” he said. “If they take this company apart, every quiet route and every hidden door my father left behind comes down with it. Including the ones that still protect you.”

I sat very still.

The threat had shifted shape. It was no longer only wolves on a side street or a pact that might break. It was the slow, official turning of Council eyes toward the one place that had given me cover in the open, and toward the man who had chosen to stand between the people who wanted me and me.