Asher, Alaric, and Micah were being held in an interrogation room.
The room was sterile and cold. Its walls were a dull, lifeless gray and soundproofed to perfection. It felt like the kind of place designed to break somebody with silence and monotony. The faint, incessant buzzing from the overhead fluorescent light was already enough to drive them mad.
There were no windows, of course, just a single reinforced one-way mirror that revealed nothing of who was watching them from the other side. A metal table sat bolted to the center of the room, and was surrounded by three uncomfortable steel chairs that seemed to have been built with intentional cruelty.
From the corners, cameras blinked red tracking their every move. Occasionally, an unseen vent groaned somewhere in the ceiling, the only sound breaking the silence when no one spoke.
They had been uncuffed upon arrival. But now, the cuffs were kept right in front of them on the table, the device light dulled now it wasn’t in use. If this was a tactic meant to rattle them into talking, it was laughable because they weren’t that easy to break. If only the detective knew they had been through worse, they would given up at this point.
For hours, they had been interrogated by so many officers they’d lost count. At some point, they were separated, a clear strategy to test the consistency of their stories. But it was pointless. There was nothing to lie about.
Nothing—except the fact that Violet had caused the explosion. And the fact that they refused to say where Violet, Griffin, and Roman had gone.
Eventually, the truth would come out. But if the authorities wanted to put a knife to their throats to get it, they’d have to try a lot harder.
"What’s wrong with him?" Alaric asked, nodding toward Micah.
Micah was slumped against the far wall, his forehead pressed to the mirror, groaning like a cat in heat.
Asher turned towards Micah, his jaw tight. "The mating fever," he muttered bitterly. "The goddess decided to bless someone who wasn’t one of us with a mate bond."
"Oh," Alaric said slowly, realization settling over him. He should’ve seen it, the signs were all there: the sudden magnetic pull between Micah and Adele, the way Micah’s pupils had blown wide, and the low, dangerous growl rumbling from deep in his throat.
After they’d been separated for individual interrogation, Adele hadn’t returned to their room. She’d requested to be kept elsewhere.
Micah hadn’t believed the detective at first and nearly tore the poor man’s throat out until they showed him a short security clip of Adele herself making the request.
Alaric could not exactly blame Adele. He means, being mated to a half demon? That was crazy even by their standards. Not to mention, Micah’s reputation preceded him.
A healer mated to an incubus, that was one crazy combination.
But then the moon goddess makes no mistake. Still, even if Violet turned out to be some sort of demon? Yeah, he was never letting her go. Ever.
Suddenly, the door opened.
Micah’s head snapped up with lightning speed, hope flaring in his eyes, thinking it was Adele.
Except it wasn’t.
Alpha king Elijah stepped into the room in his full glory, power clinging to him like a second skin.
Silence swallowed the space.
No one moved nor said a word as Elijah’s gaze swept over each of them, weighing, measuring, and judging.
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