Chapter 12
Betrayed
Cora
The next day
Theo looked like he’d aged ten years in the weeks since my disappearance.
He rushed from the elevator bank the moment we entered the lobby, worry carved into every line of his face.
The sight of him stole the air from my lungs.
This kind, brilliant man had believed in my research when others had dismissed it as impossible.
Now, he looked at me as if I were a ghost, like I might vanish again if he blinked too hard.
“Cora, thank the gods.” His arms came around me in a desperate hug. For a moment, I let myself sink into the familiar embrace, into the scent of antiseptic, old coffee, and the specific wool of his favorite sweater.
“When you disappeared,” he murmured. “We thought… I thought…”
“I’m fine, Theo.” The lie tasted bitter but necessary. “I’m okay.”
Damon’s presence pressed against my awareness, a dark, silent weight at my back. Theo sensed it, too. He pulled away slowly, and the warmth in his expression cooled to a cautious uncertainty.
The invisible barrier between us might as well have been made of steel. I belonged to someone else now, and we both knew it.
But Theo had never let any kind of wall stop him. He laughed in the face of scientific impossibilities. An Alpha’s posturing wouldn’t make him back down. “Cora, tell me the truth. What happened to you?”
“It’s… complicated,” I said, forcing brittle warmth into my tone. I was grateful for his concern even if it made everything more difficult. “There were some medical complications. I need to access my research files. Something's wrong with the suppressant formulas, and I need to figure out what.”
No matter how hard I tried to pretend, I couldn’t fool Theo.
How could I, when Damon was right there?
His eyes widened slightly as he connected the dots.
My disappearance, my return with a House Hades Alpha, my mention of ‘complications.’ He had undoubtedly drawn some unfortunate and terrifying conclusions.
I willed him not to push, to let it go, at least for now. Miraculously, he did. He gave a single, jerky nod, his focus shifting back to the professional. “Your office is exactly as you left it,” he said, his voice regaining some of its familiar steadiness. “I haven’t let anyone touch your work.”
So despite Alexander’s best efforts, he hadn’t managed to corrupt my mentor. Even House Zeus’s manipulations couldn’t make Theo really break my trust.
“Thank you, Theo. I knew I could rely on you.”
Damon hummed under his breath, and his skepticism was a palpable thing. Theo twitched in irritation and guided us toward the elevator. Every step weighed on him, but he didn’t question Damon’s presence.
The elevator ride to my floor stretched in uncomfortable silence. Damon’s tension filled the small space, making it hard to breathe. The air grew frigid, and a thin layer of frost spiderwebbed across the polished steel of the interior doors.
My lab felt simultaneously familiar and foreign. The chemical tang in the air, the low hum of the equipment, the organized chaos of ongoing experiments. It was all exactly as I’d left it. But I wasn’t the same person who had worked here.
I dropped into my desk chair, the worn leather groaning in protest, and pulled up my research directories.
Years of work organized into careful categories, formulation notes dating back to my graduate studies.
The silphium-based compound I’d been so proud of now felt like a monument to my own naiveté.
“What are you looking for, specifically?” Theo leaned against the edge of my desk, watching my screen.
“I’m not sure yet,” I answered. “The suppressant should have stayed stable even under extreme stress. But something triggered a catastrophic failure.”
Damon moved to stand behind me, close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from his body. Always watching, always present. But this time he didn’t interrupt, just letting me work.
My fingers flew across the keyboard as I scanned the data I’d reviewed hundreds of times. Everything had worked perfectly during our last test results. Impeccable suppression results, low to no side-effects. Otherwise, I’d have never dared to present my work at the conference.
Simple logic stated the suppressant must have failed to account for my House Demeter ancestry. It had never been meant for Olympian Omegas, only regular ones like I’d deemed myself to be. But that didn’t explain the strange responses and anomalies I’d noticed since my heat.
The door slid open and Sarah Chen stepped in the lab, a tablet clutched against her chest. Her perfectly styled hair and immaculate makeup looked almost aggressive in their precision. “Dr. Ellis, hello. I didn’t realize you’d be here today.”
Sarah was what I liked to call a necessary evil.
As part of the grant administration office, she handled Evergreen’s research funding by coordinating between scientists and investors.
Professional and ambitious, she was always networking for advancement opportunities and, whenever we met, proved to be an unavoidable pest. She was the last person I wanted to deal with today.
“Just retrieving some research materials.” I kept my tone neutral despite the unease creeping up my spine. “Nothing that should interfere with your schedule.”
“Actually, I have a facility tour scheduled in five minutes.” She glanced at her tablet. For the first time since I’d known her, her professional mask slipped. “I coordinated it through the grants office as a follow-up.”
It wouldn’t be the first time she organized such meetings, often barreling over my schedule and Theo’s. But she’d never looked so nervous before. “A tour? For whom?”
Alexander Stormwright appeared from behind Sarah, and his storm-gray eyes found me immediately. “Dr. Ellis, thank the gods. It’s such a relief to see you safe and sound.”
He turned toward Theo and offered him a smile. “Dr. Caldwell, it’s a pleasure to see you again. This time, in much better circumstances.”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. It was the exact same tone from the recording, the one that had played on Theo’s raw desperation. His voice was a masterpiece of feigned relief, pitched to sound like an ally arriving at a rescue. And it was working.
Theo’s shoulders relaxed, and he smiled back. “Mr. Stormwright, the pleasure is all mine. I must admit you’ve arrived at precisely the right moment.”
He moved to stand slightly between me and Damon. Now that he had Olympian backup, he no doubt intended to try to free me from Damon.
Damon took a single, deliberate step forward. He ignored my mentor completely, his entire focus locked on Alexander.
“You’re not welcome here, Stormwright,” he snapped. “This facility is off-limits to House Zeus.”
Alexander’s gaze shifted from Damon’s hostility to Theo, and he spread his hands in a gesture of placation. “Is that a fact? Last I checked, this wasn’t the Blackwood estate.”
Theo glared at Damon, his face flushed with indignation. “That’s right. If anyone’s not welcome here, it’s you. Unlike you, Mr. Stormwright has never tried to hurt Cora. He’s only ever tried to help.”
“His ‘helpfulness’ is a lie,” Damon snarled, finally acknowledging Theo with a dismissive glance. “And there’s plenty of harm involved when an Alpha forces heat cycles for claiming opportunities.”
Theo turned white and covered his mouth, as if he was about to throw up. “What? What do you mean?”
But Damon wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. “Did you think we wouldn’t figure it out, Stormwright? That I wouldn’t be able to tell what you’d done.”
The smile vanished from Alexander’s face. The warmth in his eyes died, replaced by something cold and flat. “That’s a serious and frankly insane accusation, Blackwood. One you can’t possibly prove.”
“A medical examination found unusual energy patterns in Cora’s body,” Damon countered. “External interference consistent with forced biological manipulation.”
“And you immediately assumed House Zeus was responsible?” Alexander sneered. “How convenient for your narrative. If anything, if unusual patterns are involved, they must be a result of your own claiming methods. I barely even touched Dr. Ellis.”
“Not for lack of trying.” Wisps of darkness coiled at Damon’s feet, reaching for Alexander. “You wanted her genetics, her abilities, and her formulas. When she saw through your lies, you forced her heat to make her vulnerable.”
“I did no such thing.” Alexander shook his head, every word thick with disgust. “Whatever complications she experienced were not the result of House Zeus interference. But I’m not surprised you’d make baseless accusations to justify abducting an Omega from a professional conference in broad daylight. ”
Damon bared his teeth like a feral animal. “Just like I’m not surprised you’re such a coward you’d cheat your way into a claim.”
A brilliant arc of lightning leaped from Alexander’s hands and struck the metal leg of the desk between them with a sharp crack. “I’m getting tired of your insults, Blackwood. You’re the one who ran away from a fight last time, not me.”
That was the spark. The challenge. Damon’s shadows exploded from him, no longer just wisps but a roiling tide of darkness that surged toward Alexander. Electricity danced at Alexander’s fingertips, lighting up the lab. The battle was on.
Glass beakers on nearby shelves cracked from the sudden temperature stress. My carefully organized notes were scattered across the floor as the elemental forces battled for dominance. The lab I had built with such care was rapidly becoming collateral damage.
“Stop this!” Theo’s voice was tight with panic and disbelief, his brain struggling to process the raw power erupting in front of him. His face was a mask of betrayal as he looked at Alexander. “You said you wanted to help her! What is this?”
“Stay out of this, Caldwell.” Alexander didn’t take his eyes off Damon. “This is between House Hades and House Zeus.”