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Ivy pushed the door open and cold air slammed into her face.
Not office AC cold. Morgue cold.
Leon was already inside, hand flat against a sensor panel on the wall. Lights flickered on in rows, one after another. Not a lab. A archive freezer. Metal shelving stretched all the way to the back, every level stacked with sealed silver cases.
"Your father's code opened this," Leon said. His voice echoed off the concrete.
Ivy stepped in. Her breath came out in a cloud. She looked down. Footprints on the floor. Fresh ones. Sneakers, maybe size ten. Leon wore boots.
Someone got here first.
"There." Leon pointed to a row marked C. He moved fast, shoulders tight. Ivy followed, her hand sliding into her jacket pocket. The knife was still there. Small blade, silver edge. Hunter clan issue. She hadn't told Leon she kept it.
The shelving unit was tall. Leon stopped at a case labeled C-47. The lock was open. Hanging loose.
Ivy's stomach dropped.
But the case wasn't empty. A clear sealed bag sat inside. Data chip, old model, and a stack of photos underneath.
Leon pulled the photos out. He flipped through two, then stopped. His jaw tightened.
"What?"
"Your father took these the night before the massacre."
He handed them to her. Ivy looked at the top one. A young man standing on a dock, next to a row of silver cases. His face—she'd seen it before. In the family photo on Leon's office wall.
"That's my uncle," Leon said. "He died that night."
Ivy looked closer. The van in the background. The license plate. Gray family mark.
"He's loading those onto a hunter clan van."
Her hand started shaking. She looked at the next photo. Same dock, different angle. Her father in the frame this time, half-hidden behind a shipping container. Watching.
"My father didn't lead the attack."
"No," Leon said quietly. "He was trying to stop it."
Footsteps. Behind them.
"Took you long enough."
Ivy spun. Rena stood in the doorway.
No. Not Rena. Rena's eyes weren't like that. Rena smiled, joked, called her newbie. This Rena's eyes were flat. Empty.
Leon stepped in front of Ivy. "You've been in my lab the whole time."
"Three years." Rena's voice didn't change. "You never noticed. Too busy hating yourself."
She had a gun. Not a regular gun. Silver muzzle, compact frame. Ivy knew that model. Hunter guild issue.
"Give me the chip."
Leon didn't move. "You killed them. You and whoever paid you."
"I was twelve," Rena said. "But my mom did. She got paid very well. By the old king. The one who wanted your dad dead so he could take the throne."
The gun went off.
Leon lunged. The bullet hit his shoulder. He didn't stop. Ivy saw his shirt start to tear. His back rippling. Bones shifting under skin.
Rena was already gone. She grabbed the chip and ran. Photos scattered across the floor.
Leon dropped to his knees. His hands were changing. Nails pulling into claws. The air smelled like blood and something animal.
Ivy should've run. First rule in the hunter manual: you see a shift, you extract. No exceptions.
She ran toward him.
"Leon."
He looked up. Eyes gold. Pupils starting to slit.
"Run." His voice didn't sound human. Low and scraped.
"No."
Ivy dropped down next to him and pressed both hands against the wound in his shoulder. Blood soaked through hot. She felt something moving under his skin. Muscle restructuring. Bone thickening.
"Look at me."
"I'll kill you."
"You won't."
She didn't know why she was so sure. But she was. The bond. The fated mate thing she'd been trying to ignore since the first full moon. She pressed harder.
Leon's breath caught. He stared at her. His pupils were flickering, gold to black and back. She could see him fighting it.
Something warm started moving through her palms. Not blood. Something else. Like current, but softer. It poured out of her and into him.
The edges of the bullet wound began to close. Slowly. The claws on his right hand retracted, one by one. His breathing evened out.
"Ivy."
His voice. Human again.
He slumped backward. Ivy caught him. Barely. He was heavy and she almost lost her grip.
"How did you do that?"
"I don't know."
She looked down at her hands. There was a faint glow in her palms. Fading fast. Already gone.
Hunters didn't glow. Wolves did. She wasn't a wolf.
Leon sat up, slow. His face was pale but his eyes were normal. Brown, not gold. He touched his shoulder. The wound was still there but it wasn't bleeding anymore.
"She took the chip."
"I know."
Something buzzed. Not her phone. Leon's. In his coat pocket. Ivy pulled it out. The screen lit up.
> **MOONCLAIM BIO SECURE ALERT** > Stolen asset C-47 activated. > Remote access log recorded. > Serum Formula VI synthesis requirements updated. > New component required: Type-H negative, Gray bloodline, female, age 20–25.
Ivy read it twice. Then a third time.
"What's serum six?"
Leon took the phone from her. He looked at the screen. Then at her.
"The one that actually works. I've been trying to synthesize the missing piece for two years."
"And now?"
"It needs hunter blood." He stood up, pulling her with him. "Your blood."
Footsteps. Faint, but getting closer. More than one person.
Leon grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a service door on the opposite wall. "If Rena knows this—"
"Then everyone's going to want me," Ivy finished.
He didn't argue.
They ran.