Elena’s POV
When I reached the second floor, I found Skye in the dining room attempting to coax the children into eating. The events of the day had clearly shaken them, and their usual appetite seed to have vanished. I settled beside them, pulling Caleb onto my lap as I reached for his untouched plate.
"I’m sorry you both had to witness so difficult things today," I said softly, cutting his food into smaller pieces.
Caleb’s innocent eyes t mine. "Why did Marcus get so angry with that man?"
A bitter smile tugged at my lips. "I honestly don’t know, sweetheart. Sotis I think Marcus just carries anger around with him everywhere."
"Maybe he should find a girlfriend," Caleb declared matter-of-factly.
I barely contained my laughter, though I couldn’t argue with his logic.
Skye glanced up from her own barely touched al. "What are your plans for the remainder of the day?"
"Nothing concrete yet. I have so ideas, but I’d prefer to discuss them once the children are settled for the night," I replied.
"Understandable," she nodded.
Damien appeared in the doorway and claid the empty chair beside , sliding a steaming cup of coffee across the table before cradling his own.
"How have they been behaving?" he asked Skye, gesturing toward the kids.
"Perfectly well-mannered," she assured him.
Damien’s attention shifted to , his expression growing serious. "Elena, we need to address what happened upstairs."
"The coroner is already en route," I said quickly.
"How are you processing this?" His voice carried genuine concern.
I felt my jaw tighten. "She sacrificed her life to protect our children. How exactly should I be processing it? I’m going to make them pay for every single thing they’ve inflicted on this family."
"Fair enough. But we need to identify exactly what we’re dealing with first," Damien pointed out.
"If I had any real influence in this place, I might be able to hire soone for research. As it stands, I’ll likely have to handle it myself," I said.
"After the revelation you just shared with everyone, you might find people more willing to assist you. They might actually help now," he suggested.
"You’re seriously underestimating the depth of their hatred for ," I replied dryly.
"You just publicly humiliated their Alpha. The sa Alpha who’s been deceiving them for who knows how long," he countered.
"I’m aware of that."
"Do you think the military realizes that Marcus and his pack aren’t the ones slaughtering civilians?" he asked.
"At this point, I honestly don’t know what to think about anything," I admitted.
"We better figure it out quickly, before they arrive with fighter jets," he said grimly.
Damien’s words sent a chill down my spine because he was absolutely right.
The military could descend on us without warning and obliterate everything. I had to devise a plan to prevent that catastrophe. They were convinced Marcus’s pack was responsible for the civilian murders, but that wasn’t true. Despite my personal feelings toward them, I couldn’t allow innocent people to die. Especially knowing the military wouldn’t stop with this pack they’d eventually target ours as well.
Marcus remained outside for an extended period, and when he finally entered, he rely glanced at our little gathering in the dining room before storming upstairs. The sound of his bedroom door slamming echoed throughout the house.
His anger was palpable, and I supposed I couldn’t bla him entirely. I had humiliated him in front of his own pack and exposed the real reason behind his hostile behavior. They probably weren’t thrilled to learn he’d been treating them poorly because of his issues with , especially given their existing animosity toward .
But regardless of whatever turmoil was consuming Marcus’s thoughts, we had far more pressing concerns than his bruised ego. After we finished the challenging task of feeding the children and getting them cleaned up, we spent so ti playing with them on the living room carpet.
Caleb kept asking to go outside, but the cleanup from the attack was still ongoing, so I insisted he stay indoors with us for safety.
Eventually, I excused myself from the group and made my way back down to the basent. I positioned myself several feet from the cage, and the creature imdiately fixed its gaze on . There was sothing unsettling about its expression it almost seed pleased to see , not surprised, but genuinely happy.
I retrieved my phone and quickly snapped a photo of the thing before heading back upstairs without uttering a single word.
Back in the main area, I connected my phone to the laptop and uploaded the image to the dark web, hoping soone might recognize what we were dealing with. Maybe soone out there had encountered these things before. I also held onto a slim hope that military personnel monitoring these sites would see the photo and trace it back to Marcus’s pack, potentially making them question their assumptions about what was really happening here. Though I doubted a single photograph would be enough evidence to prevent them from destroying us, especially if they’d already initiated their plans. That possibility terrified more than anything else.
Responses began appearing on the forum much faster than I’d anticipated. Most were clearly from unreliable sources, but one user seed credible.
The ssage read: "That’s a descendant of the original vampires. They never evolved like modern vampires. They’re far more dangerous than any vampire you’ll encounter, and if they’re hunting you in numbers, you need to find sowhere to hide imdiately. That’s what I did."
I quickly typed back: "Who are you? I need more information about this creature. I have one caged in my basent, and apparently they’ve been pursuing my entire life. I don’t understand why."
Their response chilled : "Then you’re marked. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing that can be done. They won’t stop until they have you. Good luck."
The user logged off imdiately, and despite my efforts, I couldn’t locate them again.
Marked? What did that an? I wasn’t marked by anything I had no mysterious symbols or scars from these creatures, and I’d actually managed to kill several of them. None of this made any sense.
When I showed the exchange to Damien, he was equally baffled. He theorized that the person had probably been targeted by these things before and was now in hiding, which seed logical. But these creatures appeared capable of tracking anyone they wanted, so was that person truly safe wherever they were hiding?
It seed unlikely. And since they were our only source of answers, I desperately needed to find them again.
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