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Leon's shoulder stopped bleeding before we made it back to his office.
I saw the skin knit itself shut through the torn shirt. Muscle and tissue pulling together like someone hit rewind. The gold in his eyes hadn't faded. He wasn't looking at me.
"Sit," he said.
I stayed standing. "Your serum's wearing off."
"I know."
"How long before you shift?"
He finally looked at me. The gold was brighter now. Harder to miss. "Long enough."
I didn't believe him. But I didn't have anywhere else to go. Marcus knew where I was. Silver had seen me choose Leon's side. The hunter clan would label me a traitor by morning. And somewhere in this building, someone who'd worked with my father's killer was walking around like they belonged here.
Leon pulled open a drawer and tossed me a keycard. "Third sublevel. My private lab. If anyone comes looking for you tonight, go there. The door won't open for anyone else."
I caught it. "You're not coming?"
"I need to check the security logs. Someone let Silver in."
That made sense. Silver didn't just walk through the front door. He'd come in through the west stairwell, bypassed three locked doors, and known exactly where to find me. Someone gave him a map.
"It's Rena," I said.
Leon went still. "Rena Locke."
"She's the only wolf who knew I was in the vents. She told me to check the third floor for leaks. She sent me up there."
He didn't argue. He didn't defend her. He just stood there with his hands braced on the desk and his shoulders tight. The gold in his eyes flared once, then dimmed.
"If it's her," he said quietly, "then she's been planning this for a while."
"Planning what?"
"A coup. She thinks I'm too human. Too obsessed with killing the wolf inside me to care about the pack."
I stared at him. "Are you?"
His mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. "Yeah. I am."
Honest. I hadn't expected that.
"So what now?" I asked.
He straightened. Buttoned his torn shirt like it wasn't shredded on one side. "Now I find out who she's working with. And you stay alive until I do."
He moved past me toward the door. I grabbed his wrist without thinking.
The bond hit me like a live wire.
Heat flooded my chest. My pulse spiked. I felt his heartbeat under my fingers, too fast, too strong, and for half a second I couldn't tell where mine ended and his began. The air between us went tight. Electric. His eyes snapped to mine and the gold blazed.
"Don't," he said. His voice came out rough. Low. "Don't touch me right now."
I let go. My hand was shaking.
"Sorry," I muttered.
He didn't move. Just stood there staring at me like I'd done something dangerous. Maybe I had. The bond was pulling again. Stronger this time. I could feel it in my ribs, in my throat, in the space behind my sternum where my heart was trying to crawl out and find his.
"Go to the lab," he said. "Lock the door. I'll come get you when it's clear."
I nodded. Didn't trust my voice.
He left.
I stood there for a full minute trying to breathe normally. It didn't work. The bond was still humming under my skin. I could still feel the shape of his pulse in my palm.
I hated it.
I went down to sublevel three.
The private lab was bigger than I expected. Stainless steel tables. Rows of refrigerated samples. A glass wall separating the main workspace from a sealed containment chamber. The kind of setup you used when you were working with something dangerous.
Or on yourself.
I found his notes on the center table. Neat handwriting. Dated entries going back two years. Dosage logs. Side effects. Suppression rates. He'd been testing the serum on himself this whole time. Tweaking the formula. Pushing the limits.
The most recent entry was from this morning.
*Day 847. Suppression holding at 62%. Aggression baseline stable. No involuntary shift. Mate bond stimulus untested.*
I read that last line three times.
Mate bond stimulus untested.
He'd known. He'd known what I was the second he smelled me. And he'd been tracking how the bond affected the serum.
I flipped back through the pages. Found an earlier entry.
*Day 723. Fated mate presence increases cortisol and adrenaline output. Wolf surface response 18% stronger than baseline. Suppression compromised. Reevaluate if contact continues.*
My stomach dropped.
I was making it worse. Every time I got close to him, every time the bond pulled, I was undoing the only thing keeping him human.
I heard footsteps in the hallway.
I shoved the notebook back and moved toward the door. The keycard reader blinked green. I hadn't locked it yet.
Stupid.
I slapped the card against the reader. The lock engaged with a heavy click.
The footsteps stopped right outside.
I held my breath.
A knock. Soft. Deliberate.
"Ivy."
Rena's voice.
I didn't answer.
"I know you're in there," she said. "Leon's upstairs pulling security footage. He's going to find the access logs. He's going to see my keycard opened the west stairwell tonight."
I stayed quiet.
"I didn't let Silver in," Rena said. "But I know who did."
I moved closer to the door. "Then tell Leon."
"I can't. He won't believe me. He thinks I'm plotting against him."
"Are you?"
Silence.
Then: "Yeah. I am."
I almost laughed. "So why should I open this door?"
"Because the person who let Silver in tonight is the same person who killed Leon's family ten years ago. And if you don't help me prove it, they're going to pin the whole thing on me and disappear."
My hand hovered over the keycard reader.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"I'll tell you if you let me in."
"Tell me first."
"No."
I pressed my forehead against the door. My father's voice echoed in my head. *The wolf clans have someone on the inside. Someone high up. Someone who wanted both sides to burn.*
"Give me a name," I said.
Rena was quiet for a long moment.
Then she said, "Your father left you more than a recording, didn't he?"
My blood went cold.
"He left you a code," Rena continued. "Something only you would recognize. Something that would prove who the killer is."
I didn't answer.
"Check his file," she said. "The one in your pocket. The private code he wrote on the back."
I pulled out the folded paper. My father's handwriting. The access code I'd used to unlock his recording.
I flipped it over.
There was a second string of numbers. Smaller. Faint. Like he'd written it in a hurry.
And below that, two words in his handwriting:
*East exit.*
"Use it," Rena said through the door. "Go to the east exit. Tonight. Alone. You'll see."
"See what?"
"Who's waiting for you."
I stared at the code.
"My father's been dead for ten years," I said.
"I know," Rena said softly. "But someone's been using his hunter clan clearance every month since he died. Same day. Same exit. Same time."
My hands went numb.
"Eleven pm," Rena said. "That's when they'll be there. That's when they always come."
I heard her footsteps retreat down the hall.
I stood there staring at my father's handwriting. At the code. At the two words that didn't make sense.
East exit.
I checked the time on the wall clock.
10:47 pm.
Thirteen minutes.
I grabbed the keycard and ran.