Chapter 20 Silas
“These might be the best briefing packets we’ve ever presented to Director Mallory. Pretty sure he’s going to figure out Lena organized most of it,” I said with a snort as I flipped through the folder while we waited to be summoned.
The AIED main offices were busy, buzzing with quiet conversations and barely contained speculation about the upcoming omega raids. Ten new omegas confirmed, with more expected. Units were already jockeying for placement, eager to impress Command in the hopes of being assigned one.
There was only one omega who wasn’t up for consideration.
She was ours.
Director Mallory leaned out of the briefing room and waved us in.
Inside, General Green sat at the head of a long conference table, several members of Command seated around him.
As we stepped inside, the security camera mounted to the ceiling's corner shifted, tracking our movement. Subtle, but enough to remind me we weren’t just presenting to the people in the room.
There were always others watching.
Ranked so high up in Command, no one ever saw them or even knew who they were.
I handed the briefing packets to Directory Mallory’s beta secretary, who moved efficiently around the table, passing them out before topping off water glasses and slipping back out without a word.
The room filled with the quiet rustle of pages as everyone opened the packets, scanning through them as if they hadn’t already received a copy last night for full review.
“Gentlemen,” General Green said, his voice carrying easily across the room, “for those of you who have not yet been introduced, I present Special Officers Silas and Knox Mercer.
They are two of the best AIED has to offer.
They've spent the better parts of their impressive careers tracking Falcon City's crime families, and more specifically, Marco Bellini.”
He paused, glancing down at the packet before continuing.
“With the help of an omega informant, they’ve identified approximately half of Bellini’s omega holdings across seven separate locations. They’re here to present the recovery plan.”
He gestured toward us.
“Proceed.”
I stepped forward, setting my hands on the back of an empty chair in front of me.
“The original approach was targeted extraction,” I began. “Single-site recovery with minimal exposure and no indication of Arca involvement.”
Knox picked up seamlessly.
“That strategy no longer serves us,” he said, his tone direct. “We have too many confirmed locations. Hitting them one at a time gives Bellini too much time to move the rest.”
I nodded once, continuing.
“So we don’t give him that chance.”
I tapped the map laid out in the packet.
“We hit all seven locations simultaneously.”
A shift moved through the room as their attention sharpened.
Knox stood beside me, bracing his hands on the table.
“Coordinated strikes,” he said. “Same time, same window. Fast entry, controlled extraction. No delays between sites.”
“We'll recover as many omegas as possible in a single sweep,” I added. “Best case, we'll procure over half his assets in one operation.”
“Worst case, a few less but,” Knox cut in, “we still force movement.”
I glanced at him briefly, then back to the room.
“Bellini won’t sit on a loss like that,” I said. “He’ll relocate all remaining omegas immediately.”
“And he won’t do it cleanly,” Knox added. “He’ll rush. Cut corners. Make mistakes.”
“That’s where surveillance comes in.”
“We track the movement,” Knox said. “Follow the gaps.”
“And finish it,” I concluded.
Silence settled over the room for a beat, as they focused on the briefing packets, reviewing each detail.
The plan wasn’t subtle.
It wasn’t meant to be.
“What about Bellini?” a heavyset general with a thick mustache asked, taking a slow sip of his water.
Knox didn’t hesitate. “We wait.”
A faint crease formed between the man’s brows.
“Not for long,” I added, stepping in. “Once we hit the seven sites, his operation fractures. The other families are only aligned with him because he has the resources to keep them loyal.”
“The number of omegas he’s holding isn’t just greed,” Knox said. “It’s leverage. Take that away, and he loses the ability to maintain control.”
I continued, pacing the explanation forward.
“When that happens, alliances will shift. Fast. The other crime families will turn the moment he can’t provide or protect.”
Knox leaned forward, gaze sweeping the room.
“We let that play out just enough to weaken him further,” he said.
“It will be easy to buy out what’s left of his loyalty,” I added. “Arca can back a new organization, one willing to enforce the Criminal-Arca Pact and follow every rule explicitly.”
"Do you have a family in mind?" The general asked.
"I'd recommend the Russo family. Their boss won't make waves. He'll keep the rest in line."
A quiet murmur moved through the room.
Knox’s voice cut clean through it.
“And once Bellini’s isolated, stripped of his alliances and his leverage” he said, “we'll take him.”
“My brother and I will handle his extraction and interrogation,” I said evenly. “We’ll get every ounce of intel he has before we put him down for good. Marco Bellini has to die if we want the rest of the criminal world to hear the message, loud and clear.”
I held General Green's gaze.
Then I went in for the kill. “And the message is: don’t fuck with ARCA.”
Around the table, fists slammed against the conference table in rough agreement, the sharp cracks echoing through the room like a pack answering my call.
Low whispers then rippled across the room, voices dropping as Command conferred among themselves.
Director Mallory leaned toward us. “Thanks, gentlemen. Great work, as always. We’ll let you know when the briefing concludes, if we’re ready to move forward.”
He gave a small nod, gesturing toward the door.
We turned to leave, stepping toward the lobby, when General Green’s voice cut through the room, halting our exit.
“Good work, special officers,” General Green said. “Unfortunately for Marco, he forgot one very important thing. A woman scorned will burn your entire fucking empire to the ground if you hand her the matches.”
“And as gratitude for your thorough work, I approved your placement request, personally signing off on the paperwork this morning. The omega witness is officially assigned to your unit now.”
Knox and I both stilled, taking a breath of relief.
Green noticed immediately and snorted. “What? Don’t look so shocked. The girl’s already attached herself to the two of you, and separating an omega from the handlers she trusts is more trouble than it’s worth.”
His grin turned wolfish.
“Besides, you’ll both enjoy having an omega around. My sons have been having entirely too much fun breaking theirs in.”
His crude comment was delivered with the same casual arrogance he used for everything else.
There had been a real possibility Command wouldn’t place Lena with us. With her mind, the way she worked, she was too valuable and rare.
They could have sent her anywhere. The southern border. The northern front. Helix and the shifter colonies were causing enough problems for Arca that external threats had started to take priority over internal ones.
We’d been worried the general would go back on his word. That Command would pull her from us and assign her elsewhere.
But I’d made it clear to Mallory.
There wasn’t another placement for her.
I don’t know if it was the look in my eyes or the way my voice dropped when I said it, but something landed.
Something that edged dangerously close to treason.
And it was enough to convince him.
The general's expression shifted, growing more serious.
“Oh, and one more thing. Effective immediately, you’re both being promoted to Major.”
Knox and I straightened instinctively.
“I’m authorizing the creation of a new division under AIED command,” he continued. “You’ll both be heading it. I’ll be in touch soon with the details.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said, inclining my head to the general before following Knox out of the room.
“It won’t be long,” Knox muttered as we stepped into the elevator. “They’re eager to move. I can feel it.”
The doors slid shut, and we crowded into the elevator, descending toward the lobby.
Somewhere around the second floor, unease settled low in my chest. Sudden panic gripped me.
The feeling was wrong.
Knox’s eyes snapped to mine, the same tension flashing across his face.
Ever since the little mute had marked us both, our bond had deepened.
I’d first felt it the moment she marked Knox, as our packmate bond locked into place. It wasn’t just individual bonds anymore, it was a pack connection shared and complete. Omegas marked all of their chosen mates, and when they finished, the bond between the entire pack strengthened.
After that, her emotions didn’t stay contained to her own mind anymore. They bled through the bond, slipping into ours, whether we wanted them to or not.
And right now…
Something was wrong.
"Lena," Knox breathed.
“I feel it too,” I said, already pulling out my phone and dialing Yuri. He was at the safe house with her.
It rang.
And rang.
Then went to voicemail.
“Where the fuck is Yuri?” I muttered. “He’s not answering.”
“Try someone else,” Knox said as we rushed through the building, heading straight for the garage.
I was already dialing another officer stationed outside the safe house.
They picked up on the second ring. “Hey, boss.”
“Where’s Yuri?” I snapped. “He’s not answering. I need him now.”
There was a pause.
“Uh… aren’t you with him?”
I slowed, as a cold dread settled in my chest.
“No,” I said, my voice dropping. “Why would we be with him? He’s supposed to be at the safe house with our witness. We’re at the Command briefing.”
Another pause. Longer this time.
“He left,” the officer said. “A few minutes after you did. Said he was bringing the witness to you. Told me Command needed her and that you’d ordered the transfer. I cleared him through the gate—”
I ended the call before they could finish.
“Fuck!” My fist clenched at my side. “Yuri’s working with Marco. There's no other reason he would have left with her! FUCK! How the hell did we miss that?”
“Yuri?” Knox shook his head, disbelief flashing across his face. “No. No way. He’s saved our asses more times than I can count. You remember that raid in the east district?”
“Don’t kid yourself,” I snapped, already pacing while lacing my fingers through my hair. “We both smelled it on him. The alcohol. The desperation. The beta pussy. He was slipping, and we ignored it. We were too busy with this, too focused on Marco to question him.”
I dragged a hand through my hair, rage burning hot under my skin.
“I should’ve looked closer. I should’ve dug deeper.” My words came out rough. “I fucking trusted him!”
Knox gritted his teeth. “We trusted him, Silas.”
“And with that fucking bounty on Lena, we shouldn’t have trusted anyone,” I shot back. “Not him. Not anyone!”
Panic surged, hitting harder this time, cutting through my anger.
“She’s scared,” I murmured. “I can feel it.”
Knox stilled for a fraction of a second, then nodded once.
“Yeah,” he said. “I feel it too.”
That was all it took.
Our panic didn’t linger. It couldn’t. We pushed it aside, locking it down the same way we always did. There was no space for second-guessing or replaying what we should have done differently.
We were trained for this.
Fear didn’t go away, you just learned how to move past it.
And right now, the only thing that mattered was getting her back.
“We need to move,” I said, already heading for the car. “Now.”
“Safe house first,” Knox said, keeping pace. “We'll go through everything again. Files, locations, patterns.”
I nodded, forcing my thoughts to focus.
"I'll call the rat too. Maybe he knows something."
“We need to think like her,” he continued. “Like Lena. What would she notice? What would she piece together that we didn’t see?”
“He won't bring her back to his house,” I said immediately. “Too exposed.”
“No,” Knox agreed. “It’ll be a stash site.”
My grip tightened on the car door.
“Let’s just hope it’s one of the seven we already have,” I muttered. “Not one we don’t.”
Knox’s expression darkened.
“Because if he’s taken her somewhere off our radar…”
I slammed the door shut behind me, rage settling into something colder.
“We’ll find it,” I said. “And when we do—”
My voice dropped, lethal.
“I’m not just killing Marco.”
Knox glanced at me.
“I’m going to make him regret every second he's even looked at what's ours.”