Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Kayden
My body tensed instantly, arm shooting out to shield Layla behind me. My other hand was already reaching for the silver-loaded pistol at my waist, thumb sliding over the safety.
"Who's there?"
My voice echoed through the forest, scattering roosting birds. The fireflies still danced. The lake still shimmered with moonlight. But the tenderness in the air had been torn apart, replaced by something dangerous and taut.
No response.
Only the whisper of wind through branches and the distant call of an owl.
But I could sense it—
Someone was there.
A heartbeat, suppressed but detectable. Breathing, controlled and deliberately slowed. And that scent—wolf.
Pack.
"Show yourself," I warned again, fingers tightening on the grip. "Last chance."
A shadow shifted among the trees, then came the sound of rapid footsteps fleeing in the opposite direction.
"Stop!" I released Layla and bolted after it.
"Kayden!" Layla called behind me.
"Stay there!"
The forest was pitch black, moonlight completely blocked by the thick canopy. My pupils dilated rapidly, adapting to the darkness as I tracked the moving shadow ahead.
Fast.
And their knowledge of the terrain was alarming—taking every turn at full speed, every leap perfectly clearing obstacles on the ground.
This person had spent a long time in these woods.
I pushed harder, weaving between the trees.
Fifty meters. Forty. The gap was closing. Just as I was about to reach them, the shadow made a sharp turn and vanished into the dense undergrowth.
I skidded to a halt at the spot.
Nothing.
Only broken branches and shallow footprints in the grass.
I crouched to examine them.
Small prints. Based on shoe size, female. The stride suggested a height of around five feet five. A female wolf from the pack.
I searched the surrounding area, even engaging my wolf's heightened sense of smell. But whoever it was had vanished completely, leaving no trace.
Damn it.
I had no choice but to return to the lake.
Layla stood exactly where I'd left her, gripping a thick branch she'd picked up, held defensively. When she saw me, relief flooded her face.
"Well?"
"Gone," I said, reaching her side. "And they know this forest extremely well."
Too well. In the entire pack, there weren't more than ten people who could move with that kind of precision in total darkness.
"We're leaving," I said, taking her hand. "It's not safe here anymore."
On the way back to the estate, my mind raced.
Someone had been watching Layla and me near my secret refuge. Someone who knew I would bring her there. Evan. My head of security, Marcus...
And...
The next morning, I summoned Evan to my study. Dawn hadn't fully broken yet; heavy fog pressed against the windows.
"What's the progress on the investigation?" I stood with my back to him, watching the forest gradually emerge from the mist.
Evan opened the tablet he always carried. I heard the slide of his finger across the screen, followed by a suppressed sigh.
"Regarding the exposure of Miss Ross..." Frustration was evident in his voice. "We traced the IP address through seventeen relay points and finally tracked it to a server in Iceland."
"Iceland?" I turned around.
"Yes, but that server was just a waypoint. The real source..." He enlarged the tracking path diagram on the screen—a dense network topology map with red lines tangled like a spider's web.
"The real source is here." He pointed to a node on the map. "A virtual private network using military-grade encryption protocols."
"Our tech department says this level of encryption is typically only used by intelligence agencies."
Military-grade. Intelligence agencies.
"They're professionals," I said, walking to my desk and bracing my hands on its surface. "Not something an ordinary person could pull off."
"Exactly," Evan said. "And every time we attempted to dig deeper, they immediately severed the connection. As if..."
"As if someone is monitoring our investigation in real-time," I finished for him.
Evan nodded.
I sat down at the desk, my fingers beginning to tap rhythmically on the surface. One. Two. Three. The steady rhythm helped me organize my thoughts.
"What about Lucas?"
"I interrogated him as soon as he woke up," Evan said, flipping to another page. "But he had nothing of value. The employer contacted him through encrypted email. They never met, never had voice or video calls."
"All communication was text-based, and..." Evan paused, "those emails auto-deleted within twenty-four hours of being sent. Lucas said he wanted to preserve evidence but couldn't do it technically."
I picked up Lucas's interrogation transcript and read it line by line.
Q: How much did they pay you?
A: Eight million upfront, another ten million upon completion.
Q: How was the money transferred?
A: Offshore account. A bank in the Cayman Islands.
Q: Did you ever meet them?
A: Never. All contact was through email.
Q: Did they reveal any personal information?
A: No. The emails were only signed with a code name—V.
My finger stopped on the last line. "V," I murmured.
"Yes," Evan said. "We investigated that offshore account. The account holder is an investment company registered in the Cayman Islands, but that company..."
"Is another shell corporation, isn't it?" I wasn't surprised.
"Correct, Alpha." Evan's voice grew more dejected. "Like Russian nesting dolls, one inside another. We traced through five layers, each one a shell. It finally led to a trust fund registered in Jersey Island, but..."
"But the fund's beneficiary information is confidential," I said, picking up the pen from my desk and spinning it between my fingers. "And Jersey Island law protects that privacy. We can't access it."
Evan nodded, a flicker of surprise in his eyes as he looked at me.
How did I know this so well? Because I'd used the same methods to hide assets before. I understood these operations intimately. Apparently, so did our adversary.
I stood and walked to the corkboard on the wall, covered with all the leads I'd compiled over the past few days—
Screenshots of news articles.
Copies of Lucas's bank records.
Crime scene photos from the vampire attacks.
And a map of Silver Moon Pack territory with red pins marking the locations of fourteen attacks.
I stared at the evidence, marker in hand, and began writing on the whiteboard.
Target: Layla Gray
Then I drew three branches:
1. Reputation attack → Exposure
2. Blackmail trap → Lucas
3. Direct elimination → Vampires
"Escalation," I said, tapping the marker against the board. "Three phases, each more severe than the last."
"Phase one failed because I issued a public clarification."
"Phase two failed because I arrived in time."
"So..." I heavily underlined the third point. "Direct action."
Evan stepped beside me, studying the whiteboard.
"This person's plan is meticulous," he observed. "Every step has a contingency."
"Not just meticulous," I said, adding new questions to the board. "This person..."
Knows Layla's past.
Knows she's my mate.
Knows about Kai's existence.
"That's why they keep escalating," I said, drawing arrows to connect these points. "From public opinion to physical threats."
"Because they know..." I wrote the final line:
I won't let Layla be harmed.
I stared at the board for several seconds, then turned to Evan. "Anyone who knows all this information must be in the pack's inner circle."
"The Elder Council?" Evan asked tentatively.
"Possibly," I said. "But that's not enough."
I wrote a new line on the board:
Who wants Layla gone the most?
Who stands to lose because of Layla's existence?
Evan's eyes widened. "Miss Victoria."
I looked at Victoria's name in the center of the board. Lucas's handler—just a single V.
I thought of the footprints I'd discovered in the forest last night. A she-wolf, around five feet five, with agile speed and counter-surveillance skills. I exhaled slowly...
"Victoria's family worked for German security services, didn't they?"
Evan froze for a second, quickly pulling up files on his tablet, but my phone suddenly rang.
An urgent report from the private investigator. I'd definitely suspected Victoria's involvement in the exposure targeting Layla. Besides assigning Evan to technical tracking, I'd specifically hired a PI to monitor her movements.
I opened the message and saw a photograph—
Victoria's study. A diary lay open on the desk. The photo was crystal clear—I could read every word.
"Layla Gray destroyed everything I had. Once she's ruined, Kayden will come back to me..."
I enlarged the image and saw the date—right after she'd first spotted Layla at that coffee shop.
I scrolled down to the next page.
"The plan has begun. The exposure is out there. Watching those comments, watching everyone attack her—I should be happy. But it's not enough. That Lucas fellow can be useful."
My fingers tightened around the phone. Rage ignited inside me. It really was her... Victoria. She orchestrated all of this. She hated Layla for taking her place as Luna. She wanted to eliminate both Layla and Kai!
I immediately called Layla.
"Kayden?" Concern colored her voice.
"I've found something," I said quickly. "About Victoria. She was behind your exposure and the Lucas incident. I have direct evidence. Lucas's contact was V, and she documented everything clearly in her diary."
"Kayden." Layla interrupted, that familiar analytical tone in her voice. "A diary? Such blatant evidence? Doesn't this seem too convenient?"
I froze, following her reasoning, stepping back to reconsider. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it," Layla said. "Yesterday, that shadow appears in the forest, and today the diary is conveniently discovered."
"Every piece of evidence points directly to Victoria."
"This..." she paused, "feels deliberately planted for us to find."
I stared at the leads on the whiteboard.