Cecilia’s pov
I wasn’t prepared for Tang’s sharp turn around the mountain bend.
My body lurched sideways, hands flailing for sothing, or anything, to steady myself.
Alpha Sebastian caught my waist with practiced ease, his fingers curling inward with deliberate pressure that didn’t just stop my fall - it guided face-first into his chest.
My hand, which had been reaching for the seat back, landed squarely on his thigh.
And not just anywhere on his thigh - sowhere decidedly north of his knee.
My chest pressed firmly against his torso, my other hand clutching desperately at his shirt near his waist.
My breathing stuttered to a halt. The softness of my chest pressed against his felt like it was suddenly connected to a live wire.
Internally, I was screaming like I’d been thrown into a furnace.
Externally, I was petrified like I’d looked dusa in the eyes.
When I fully registered exactly where my hand was resting, my face turned even more stone-like as I began to withdraw my fingers with the speed of a glacier.
Alpha Sebastian looked down at , his eyes narrowed in that predatory way Alphas have.
Though he said nothing, his gaze conducted a full interrogation.
I wanted to tuck and roll out of the moving car.
Trying to be casual, I attempted to lift my chest away from his, but the hand at my waist tightened with Alpha strength, pulling back against him.
His warm breath cascaded over my neck as he murmured, "I thought you said you don’t get carsick? Yet here you are, practically collapsing into . Perhaps you need to lie down for a bit?"
"I’m fine," I said quickly, prying his hand from my waist with more force than necessary.
I sat up poker-straight, hands placed primly on my lap like a schoolgirl caught misbehaving.
My burning cheeks, however, were giving a Tony-worthy performance of "Woman Who Just Accidentally Felt Up An Alpha."
The others in the car were suddenly fascinated by the Colorado landscape outside their windows.
anwhile, I stared at my best friend, then the others. I guess it’s ti I put you all in your place.
----
Forty-five excruciating minutes later, we pulled up to a rustic lodge nestled at the base of the mountains.
The man who erged to greet us was the sa one Alpha Sebastian had visited yesterday.
Now I learned he was Mason’s uncle, Zaire.
"Please, co in," he said, his expression considerably more grim than during yesterday’s eting.
Alpha Sebastian instructed Beta Sawyer and Tang to keep watch outside - standard Alpha paranoia.
Harper told Levan to stay put too, probably to avoid crowding the space.
Alpha Sebastian and Zaire took the lead, with Harper and following behind as we entered the house and climbed to the third floor.
The wooden staircase creaked under our weight, the sound echoing in the otherwise silent building.
Zaire opened a door midway down the hallway.
Inside, to my surprise, sat another person - a woman who appeared to be in her late fifties with stark white hair and a hauntingly gaunt face.
She wore a simple white cotton shirt. Her features were delicate; she must have been beautiful once, but extre weight loss and vacant eyes had hollowed out what had once been lovely features.
"Are you...?" Harper gasped, clearly shocked.
She hesitated to make assumptions, probably because according to her research, this woman shouldn’t be among the living.
The photos Harper had shown revealed soone who looked at least twenty years younger than the woman before us.
"This is my sister, Willow." Zaire said quietly. "Mason’s mother."
Willow nodded and attempted a smile, making an effort to appear energetic. "Hello."
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
Mason’s mother? Wasn’t she supposed to have died in that gas explosion?
"Hello, Willow ," we greeted her, trying to keep our voices steady.
Zaire gestured for us to sit on the worn but clean furniture and poured tea for everyone from an old ceramic pot.
Willow looked at Alpha Sebastian with genuine pleasure, her eyes showing a spark of life. "Young Mr. Black, you look handso as always."
"Sister, he’s Alpha Sebastian Black of the Silver Peak Pack. You shouldn’t address him so informally," Zaire whispered, embarrassnt coloring his tone.
"It’s perfectly fine," Alpha Sebastian replied with that effortless grace.
His smile transford his usually intimidating Alpha presence into sothing warm and approachable.
Hearing this, Zaire dropped the matter, looking impressed by Alpha Sebastian’s humility.
I couldn’t help but notice how familiar Willow seed with Alpha Sebastian, which suggested they’d t multiple tis before.
But she lived in Boulder, and Alpha Sebastian hadn’t been here before...had he?
Suddenly, I rembered that business reception Mr. Chu had invited Alpha Sebastian to attend on short notice.
Was it possible that when I’d assud he was eting so mysterious business contact, he was actually visiting Mason’s mother?
"Willow," Harper began, her lawyer voice activated, "I know your background. You taught elentary school, but after Mason disappeared, you quit your job to search for him. Then, according to neighbors, there was a gas explosion at your ho one night, and you vanished too. Everyone believed you were..."
She paused delicately. "Could you tell us what really happened?"
Harper got straight to the point - after all, uncovering this mystery was why we’d made this trip.
Willow’s eyes, which had briefly shown so vitality, clouded over again like storm moving across a mountain lake.
Zaire sat beside her and took her hand in his. "Sister, please tell them. They have invested considerable effort investigating Mason’s case. Like Alpha Sebastian , they’re here to help us."
"Yes, I know," Willow nodded repeatedly, her thin hand clutching her brother’s.
She didn’t cry - perhaps she had exhausted her tears long ago.
After a mont, she released his hand and began to tell us the whole story, her voice surprisingly steady. "Five years ago, my son disappeared. I filed a missing persons report imdiately. Through phone records, the police discovered his last call was to Nicole, his childhood friend. I watched that girl grow up alongside my son. The police and I found her at the hospital - her face had been slashed, and she was in acute psychological distress. No matter how we questioned her, she just cried and repeated that she didn’t know anything."
"Later, school security footage revealed that Cici White had taken Nicole away that day."
Her voice hardened slightly as she continued, "That girl transferred to our school and imdiately began harassing Mason. She followed him ho repeatedly. At first, Mason didn’t take it too seriously - he thought rejecting her advances would be enough. But Cici was relentless. She escalated to having people block him after school, preventing him from leaving. He beca incredibly frustrated."
"When she couldn’t get what she wanted from him, she targeted Nicole instead. That girl was gentle and shy. After being bullied several tis, she beca too frightened to attend school."
"Neither Nicole’s father nor I knew about any of this at the ti. The children were trying to protect us by keeping silent. Not until it happened..." Her voice trailed off.
Willow paused and pressed her fingers against her forehead, as if trying to physically hold back the mories.
I handed her a fresh cup of water. "Please, take your ti."
"Thank you," she whispered.
She accepted the water and studied my face - sothing in my appearance seed to trigger a powerful emotional response.
Tears welled in her eyes, slow and reluctant. "Nicole was beautiful. So kind. I knew - just knew - my sweet, foolish son had fallen for her."
I listened with growing sadness, the weight of the story pressing down on .
They were the golden kids. Childhood sweethearts. Smart, kind, full of future.
If Cici White hadn’t walked in like a grenade, they’d probably be in college right now - sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated, and finally brave enough to tell each other how they felt.
But instead, one was dead. The other shattered.
Their future had been wiped out in a single, horrifying day.
And suddenly, I couldn’t stop thinking about how breakable we all are.
How close I’d co to being a na on soone else’s tragedy.
If I hadn’t t Alpha Sebastian - if he hadn’t stepped in the way he did - would I even be sitting here? Or would I be another photo on a missing person flyer, another cautionary tale buried under local gossip?
I turned to look at him.
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