72 We Found Something 2
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Lucian
I had too many questions and not nearly enough answers. One truth I was sure of: if this led back to Martha, I wouldn’t hesitate. She’d die by my hands-and I’d deal with the consequences after.
We arrived at the warehouse. Darian’s men stood posted around the perimeter, tense and alert. As I stepped inside, Mara greeted Rowan, who was standing by the door. He hesitated before offering a stiff wave in return. I caught his glance and nodded-letting him know it was okay to acknowledge her.
People feared me. I cultivated that on purpose.
Inside, the air was thick with anticipation. The man Darian had captured was strung up by his wrists, each arm tied to separate iron hangers bolted into the ceiling. He was already bloodied. Darian hadn’t held back.
I approached my brother, and his gaze shifted to Mara.
“Hey, Mara,” he said softly.
She gave a cool nod in response. The air between them wasn’t hostile-but it wasn’t warm either. There was a time they’d been inseparable, but those days were gone. She belonged to me now. And while I’d once trusted Darian with everything, I couldn’t pretend his obsession with her hadn’t crossed lines. This distance between them was for the best.
“So?” I asked him.
Darian didn’t look away. “He claims the car was stolen. Says he doesn’t know who used it.”
A weak excuse. Clever, but not clever enough.
“Did you check?”
He nodded. “He filed a report-exactly one hour after the attack.”
Too clean. Too fast. I rolled up my sleeves, flexing my fingers as heat pooled beneath my skin. He was lying. And we both knew it.
As I stepped closer, the man started to panic.
“Alpha, please-please, I swear I’m innocent,” he stammered. “I’d never use my license to target you. I’m just a victim here. They stole my car-I had nothing to do with this!”
His voice was shaking, his body trembling. But something in his eyes told me he was full of s**t.
I couldn’t afford a dead end. Not after everything that had happened. I had to be ruthless. There was no other way.
I turned to Darian. “Get Mara out of here.”
“No!” she snapped before he could move. “No, Lucian-I want to stay. I need to know who did this.”
I met her eyes, searching for hesitation-but there was none.
I sighed, jaw tight, and finally gave a small nod. “Fine. Let her stay.”
She stepped beside me, chin high, gaze locked on the man hanging in front of us.
Whatever I was about to do-she was ready to see it.
And if this bastard thought he could hide behind a paper trail and a fake report, he was about to learn the hard way what it meant to cross an Alpha.
2 We Found Something 2
My knuckles were drenched in his blood.
I’d broken something-ribs, maybe more-but the bastard wouldn’t budge. He clung to his story like it would save him.
“I reported the car stolen… I swear…” he gasped, barely coherent.
I didn’t believe a word. His timing was too clean. Too calculated.
He was holding out. And I wasn’t in the mood for games.
I stepped back, breathing hard, then picked up the blade. If fists didn’t work, I’d escalate. We healed fast, but no one grows back what’s been cut off.
The first toe came off with one clean slice. He screamed loud enough to shake the beams in the ceiling. Mara flinched, stepping toward me.
“Lucian, please,” she said, her voice raw.
But I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop. This wasn’t just about him anymore. It was every ounce of fear and rage I’d held back since those bullets tore through us.
He’d almost gotten us killed.
He was going to talk.
I raised the blade again, ready to take another toe, when Mara’s voice cut through the air.
“Lucian, enough.”
“No!” I roared, turning on her, fury spilling out like a dam had broken. “No, Mara! They tried to kill us! Silver bullets, remember? You could’ve died!”
She stepped back, startled. Not by my words-but by me. I saw it in her eyes: fear.
She was afraid of me.
And I hated that.
My Alpha mark burned on my upper arm, pulsing with the energy of my fury. I glanced at Darian. His expression was unreadable. Cold. I couldn’t affect him-he was an Alpha too.
But the silence between us spoke volumes.
He’d once told Mara I was a monster.
And now? Maybe I’d just proven him right.
Had this been his plan all along? He knew I was with her. He knew she’d follow me. He knew what I was capable of. And now she’d seen it. The worst part of me.
I turned to him slowly.
“You call me here to prove a point to Mara?”
Darian’s face didn’t change. “You asked for help. I found the lead. I didn’t tell you to come. I sure as hell didn’t tell you to bring her.”
But there was something in his eyes. Satisfaction. That subtle gleam of someone who’d just watched a plan work. *Lucian, let’s just go,” Mara said quietly, trying to pull me back from the edge. “There’s nothing more we’ll get like this.” 1 looked at her. My wife. My anchor.
* 72 We Found Something 2
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I’m not mad at you. I just-I needed the truth.”
“There won’t be much to get if he dies on you,” she said, voice firm. “Lock him up. Let him sit with his guilt. There are worse things than death, Lucian. But stop acting like a man possessed.”
Her words cut through the fog of rage, steadying me.
And then she turned her gaze to the man tied up-calm, composed, lethal in her own way.
“Lock him up. If he still won’t talk, bring his family in. His wife. Maybe his kids.”
The man’s body went rigid.
“No-please, leave them out of this! She’s innocent!” he cried out, eyes wide with panic.
“I’ll confess. I’ll tell you everything. Just don’t hurt her.”
That was it.
That was the crack in his armor.
2
And as I looked at Mara, I understood something I’d always known deep down-she didn’t need to lift a blade to be deadly.
She just needed a voice, a mind, and a reason.
No wonder she was top of her class.
No wonder she had me.
