Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
“Harper.” Derek’s voice was tight with barely controlled urgency. “We have a situation.”
She clutched the phone tighter, still breathless, still wrapped in Adrian’s warmth. His arm tightened around her waist as he heard his brother’s voice, his body going rigid against her back.
“What kind of situation?”
“Massive cybersecurity breach. Someone’s launched a coordinated attack on our main servers. We’re talking distributed denial-of-service on a scale I’ve never seen, combined with attempts to penetrate our user database. Millions of accounts are at risk.”
Her blood ran cold. Her mind, still hazy from passion, snapped into sharp focus. “How long?”
“Started about twenty minutes ago. Our team’s holding them off, but barely. I need you here. Now.”
She was already mentally cataloging the steps she’d need to take. Firewall reinforcement. Traffic analysis. Source identification. Her fingers itched for her keyboard.
“I’m on my way.”
“Harper—” Derek’s voice deepened. “This feels connected. The timing, the sophistication. I think whoever’s been probing the pack’s financial servers has escalated.”
Her stomach dropped. The backdoor vulnerability she’d discovered. If this was the same threat actor…
“I’m on my way.”
She ended the call and turned to face Adrian, whose golden eyes had shifted to molten amber in the darkness. The moonlight streaming through the balcony doors painted sharp shadows across his face, highlighting the hard set of his jaw.
“I have to go.”
“I heard.” His voice was a low rumble. “I’m taking you.”
“Adrian, you don’t have to—”
“I. Am. Taking. You.” Each word carried the weight of absolute command. “My mate doesn’t drive alone in the middle of the night when there’s a threat.”
Mate. The word sent a shiver through her, even as her analytical mind was already spinning through attack vectors and defense protocols. She’d agreed to be his mate. The reality of that still hadn’t fully settled in her chest.
“You hate the city.”
“I hate a lot of things.” He was already moving. “Doesn’t mean I won’t face them.”
She scrambled to gather her clothes, her body protesting every movement. She ached in the most delicious ways, muscles she didn’t know she had making themselves known. But there was no time to savor the aftermath of what they’d shared.
Within ten minutes, they were in his truck, tearing down the mountain roads at speeds that would have terrified her if she’d been paying attention. But her mind was elsewhere, fingers flying across her phone’s screen as she pulled up remote diagnostics.
The attack was even worse than Derek had described.
Three separate vectors. Someone had done their homework. They were hitting the authentication servers, the database clusters, and the payment processing systems simultaneously. Classic divide-and-conquer strategy, forcing the security team to split their resources.
“Talk to me.”
She barely registered his voice. The code scrolling across her small screen demanded every ounce of her attention. There—a signature in the attack pattern. Something familiar.
“Harper.”
The packet structure. She’d seen it before. In the probe attempts on the pack’s financial systems. Same timing algorithms, same obfuscation techniques.
“Harper.”
This wasn’t a coincidence. Whoever was targeting TalkToMe was also targeting the Moonstone Pack. But why? What was the connection beyond Derek’s ownership?
The truck jerked to a violent stop.
Her phone went flying as her seatbelt locked, yanking her back against the seat. She gasped, disoriented, suddenly very aware that the vehicle had stopped on a dark stretch of mountain road, moonlight filtering through the trees.
“What the hell, Adrian?”
He turned to face her, and the barely leashed fury burning in his eyes made her breath catch. His fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard the leather creaked.
“I’ve been talking to you for the last fifteen minutes.”
“I was—”
“Ignoring me.” The words came out as a growl. “Completely shut off. Like I wasn’t even here.”
Guilt pricked at her chest, immediately followed by a flare of defensiveness. “There’s a massive cyberattack happening. Millions of users’ data is at risk. Your brother’s company—”
“I know what’s at risk.” He released the wheel, turning his body fully towards her. In the confined space of the truck cab, he seemed to fill every inch of available room. “What I don’t know is why my mate can’t spare me a single word.”
“I was working.”
“You were somewhere else entirely.” His voice dropped, rough with hurt as much as anger. “One minute you’re in my arms, agreeing to be mine. The next, you’ve vanished inside your own head and I can’t reach you.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it.
He wasn’t wrong. She’d done exactly what she always did—retreated into the comfort of logic and code when emotions got too big, too overwhelming.
It was her oldest defense mechanism, honed over years of being the orphan who didn’t quite fit, the genius who related better to machines than people.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your apology.” He reached out, his hand cupping her jaw with surprising gentleness given the tension radiating from his body. “I want you to tell me what’s going on in that brilliant head of yours, kitten. I want you to let me in.”
“The attack on TalkToMe…” She swallowed, forcing herself to meet his intense gaze. “It’s connected to the security vulnerabilities I found in the pack’s systems. Same attack signatures. Same patterns. Someone is targeting both.”
His eyes flared gold. “You’re sure?”
“Ninety-three percent certain. I’ll need to do a full analysis to confirm, but—”
“That’s not what I meant.” His thumb stroked across her cheekbone. “I meant, why didn’t you just tell me that instead of shutting me out?”
Why didn’t she? Because sharing her thought process felt vulnerable. Because she was used to being alone in her head. Because letting someone into the messy, rapid-fire chaos of her analytical mind felt more intimate than anything they’d done in that bedroom.
“I don’t know how,” she admitted quietly. “This is how I’ve always been. When there’s a problem, I go inside myself to solve it. I didn’t even realize I was doing it.”
Something in his expression softened, though the intensity remained. “You’re not alone anymore, kitten. Whatever this threat is, we face it together. You’re my mate. Your battles are my battles.”
“Adrian…”
“I know the city world, the tech world, that’s your territory. I know I’m out of my depth there.” His jaw tightened like the admission cost him. “But that doesn’t mean you leave me standing outside while you fight. You let me stand with you, even if all I can do is watch your back.”
Her throat tightened. No one had ever wanted to stand with her before. Not really. She’d always been the useful one, the clever one, the one people came to when they needed problems solved. Not the one people wanted to simply be with.
“I don’t know if I can change overnight.”
“I’m not asking for overnight.” His hand slid from her jaw to the back of her neck, pulling her closer. “I’m asking for right now. Tell me what you need.”
What did she need? The question felt odd. She was so used to figuring out what she needed on her own and providing it for herself.
“I need to stop this attack,” she said slowly. “I need to find out who’s behind it and why they’re targeting both TalkToMe and the pack. I need…” She took a breath. “I need you to not be angry with me when I get lost in my work. Because I will. It’s who I am.”
“And I need you to at least try to come back to me.” His grip tightened. “To let me know what’s happening. I can handle you being focused. I can’t handle you disappearing.”
“That’s fair.”
“Also.” His voice dropped to something darker, more dangerous. “I need you to understand that watching you slip away from me twenty minutes after you agreed to be my mate made my wolf want to tear this truck apart.”
Heat flooded through her, cutting through the analytical fog that had dominated her thoughts. “Your wolf?”
“He’s very possessive.” His eyes gleamed gold. “He’s wanted you since the moment we met. Tonight he finally had you, and then you were just… gone. He didn’t like it.”
“And what about you?” The question came out more breathless than she intended.
“I liked it even less.”
The air in the truck cab grew thick, charged with the same electricity that had crackled between them on the balcony. Her pulse quickened despite the urgency of the situation waiting for her in the city.
“We don’t have time for this.”
“We have exactly as much time as I decide we have.” His hand tightened on her neck, drawing her closer. “My truck. My mate. My choice.”
“That’s very alpha of you.”
“Because I am an alpha, kitten.” His mouth hovered inches from hers. “Now tell me you’re here with me. Tell me you haven’t already run off into your head again.”
“I’m here.”
“Prove it.”
She closed the distance between them, kissing him with all the desperate intensity she felt. Her hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him towards her across the center console. The gear shift dug into her hip, but she didn’t care.
He made a sound that was more growl than groan, his hands sliding into her hair, tilting her head to deepen the kiss. He consumed her mouth like he was trying to claim every part of her at once.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, his eyes were fully golden, the wolf clearly close to the surface.
“I want to mark you.” The words came out guttural, barely human. “Right here. Right now.”
“In the truck?” Her voice came out as a squeak.
“Anywhere.” His mouth traced along her jaw, down to the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder. “Everywhere. I want my bite on your skin. Want everyone to know you’re mine.”
Her body responded to his words with embarrassing enthusiasm, heat pooling low in her belly. “I thought you said not in the car.”
“I said I wouldn’t mark you in the car.” He nipped at her shoulder, and she gasped. “Didn’t say I wouldn’t start here and finish elsewhere.”
“Adrian…” She forced herself to think past the haze of desire clouding her mind. “Derek needs me. The attack—”
“I know.” He pulled back with visible effort, his chest heaving. “Believe me, I know.”
His eyes gradually shifted back to their usual golden-brown, though the hunger in them didn’t diminish. He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair, looking like temptation incarnate in the moonlight filtering through the windshield.
“When this is over,” he said, his voice still rough, “we’re going to have a very long conversation about what happens when you try to disappear into that head of yours.”
“A conversation?”
His smile was pure predator. “Among other things.”
She shivered, and not from the cold. “That’s not exactly encouraging me to hurry back.”
“Smart woman.” He leaned in for one more kiss, softer this time, almost tender. “Now. Tell me what you know about this attack while I drive. Don’t leave anything out. And if you start drifting off into analyst mode—”
“You’ll pull over again?”
“I’ll do more than pull over.” His promise hung in the air between them. “Try me.”
He put the truck back in drive, pulling smoothly back onto the road. She retrieved her phone from the floor, but this time, instead of disappearing into the data, she talked.
She told him about the attack vectors. About the sophisticated coordination that suggested a well-funded operation. About the troubling similarities to the probes she’d detected on the pack’s systems.
“The pack’s finances and TalkToMe,” he mused, his hands steady on the wheel. “What’s the connection?”
“Derek, obviously. He owns TalkToMe and has invested in the pack.”
“But why target both? If they wanted money, TalkToMe is the bigger prize. If they wanted to hurt the pack, there are more direct ways.”
She chewed her lip, her mind racing. He had a point. The dual attack didn’t make strategic sense unless…
“Information,” she said suddenly. “They’re not after money. They’re after data.”
“What kind of data?”
“I don’t know yet. But TalkToMe has millions of user accounts. And the pack’s financial records would contain information about every member—names, addresses, account numbers.” Her blood chilled. “Someone could be building a dossier on both the pack and everyone connected to TalkToMe.”
“Who would want that?”
“That’s what I need to find out.”
They drove in tense silence for several minutes, the lights of the city beginning to glow on the horizon. Harper’s phone buzzed with increasingly urgent messages from the security team. The attack was intensifying.
“Harper.” His voice cut through her spiraling thoughts. “You’re drifting.”
She blinked, realizing she’d been staring at her phone without actually reading it. “Sorry. I’m just…”
“Worried. I know.” His hand found her thigh, warm and grounding. “But you’re not alone in this. Whatever we find, whoever’s behind this, we deal with it together. Understood?”
She covered his hand with hers. “Understood.”
“And when this is over—” His grip tightened possessively. “You and I have unfinished business.”
The city lights grew brighter as they descended from the mountain, and she felt the familiar pull of her work calling to her.
But for the first time, she also felt something else—the pull of the man beside her, the bond they’d begun to forge, the promise of something that mattered more than any code or crisis.
She squeezed his hand.
“We have all the time in the world for that.”
“No.” His eyes flicked to her, golden fire in their depths. “We have forever. That’s what being my mate means.”
The TalkToMe building came into view, its windows blazing with light despite the late hour. Security guards waited at the entrance, and she could see Derek pacing inside the glass lobby.
Adrian pulled up to the entrance but didn’t immediately unlock the doors.
“Remember what I said.”
“Don’t disappear into my head.”
“And?”
“Let you stand with me.”
“And?”
She leaned over to kiss him, soft and quick. “There’s unfinished business waiting for us.”
His smile was slow and satisfied. “Good girl.”
The endearment sent heat rushing to her cheeks, but she didn’t have time to examine why. Derek was already striding towards the truck, his face grim.
She opened the door, ready to face whatever digital storm awaited her inside, but for the first time in her life, she wasn’t facing it alone.