Chapter 396: Something Happened
Chapter 396 of "Mated To The Crippled Alpha" unveils a new twist: My feelings toward the Blackwells had never been simple. They had done cruel things real,... See what happens!
My feelings toward the Blackwells had never been simple. They had done cruel things real, deliberate harm and I hadnât forgotten any of it. But I didnât want them dead. The Morrigans were already broken. The Blackwells dying wouldnât bring anything back or make anything right. It would only give the Commander and his wife exactly what they wanted."Carl," I said quickly. "Contact Amber."
Lewisâs expression tightened. "I canât reach her."
"Since when?"
"Since Rosbel Island. After we went our separate ways, contact just... dropped. I didnât think much of it at first, but when I started digging into what the Commander and his wife were involved in, I tried to reach her right away." He paused. "I still donât know if her family stayed on the island or if theyâve already gone back to the organization."
I thought about what Yael had said before we parted that his brother would send him somewhere safe. But where? I pulled up his contact and sent a few messages, one after another, and sat there watching the screen. Nothing came back.
The silence was its own kind of answer.
There was nothing I could do right now but hope. The Blackwells, like the Morrigans, had been swept up in something they hadnât fully understood until it was too late. They were victims of it too, even if theyâd done harm along the way. That didnât sit easily with me.
Jeffreyâs voice cut through my thoughts, low and tired. "Letâs get Dr. Laurence here first."
"Mm," I agreed.
The Hales had clearly taken precautions Jeffrey had let the assassin in deliberately, which meant the real doctors and staff had been kept away on purpose. The trap had been set long before I arrived. Still, I needed to know how much time we had.
"Dad, how long before you find their hideout?"
"Iâve laid some traps and reached out to old contacts. Itâll take time." He settled back into his chair with the solid, unhurried stillness of someone who had outlasted enemies before. "The man who came today whether he talks or not he sends a message. Theyâll know we were ready. If they want to try again, theyâll have to be very sure of themselves first."
Jeffrey looked toward the door, completely unmoved. "Iâm not afraid of them coming. Iâm afraid they wonât. If they do, Iâll deal with it."
While Jeffrey was getting the IV set up, Lewis and I went down to the small room at the back of the property where Theo had taken the assassin.
The man was barely recognizable.
Theo gave us a short nod when we walked in. "Nothing. He hasnât said a word."
"Chip?" Lewis asked.
"Yes. Weâve got a technician coming to see if we can trace the signal and get a location."
Lewis crouched down and used the flat of his knife to tilt the manâs chin up. Even in that brief moment, the damage was plain blood covering most of his face, a gag fitted to keep him from biting off his own tongue. He was trained to endure. That much was obvious.
"Do you recognize him?" Lewis asked, looking at Theo.
Theo was from Shadow one of the most powerful and secretive mercenary organizations in existence. If anyone could place this manâs face, it was him. But Theo shook his head. "No. Even within Shadow, operatives on active missions stay hidden from each other. Identities donât travel."
Lewis tapped the manâs cheek lightly with the knife tip, almost thoughtful. "If he wonât talk, we let him sit with it. Hunger does what pain canât, as long as he stays alive long enough to feel it."
"Understood," Theo said.
Lewis took my hand as we walked out, and for a moment the weight in my chest had started to ease. Then it came back, heavier.
"Carl." I held his hand tighter and stopped walking. "Youâre the one Dad has chosen as heir. That makes you the next target."
"Theyâve already tried once," he said. His eyes dropped briefly to his leg. "If Esther hadnât been there when it happened, it wouldnât have just been my leg."
He said it plainly, no drama in it. But I knew what that recovery had cost him the time, the pain, the decision heâd made afterward to let people believe he was more broken than he was. He had spent years abroad letting them underestimate him, pretending the injury had left him diminished, waiting. It had been the only way to stay safe while he built himself back up quietly.
Then I came back. My rebirth had torn through the Commander and his wifeâs entire plan like it wasnât even there.
Maybe thatâs how it was supposed to go. People could scheme for decades, layer plan on top of plan, and still find that fate had other ideas.
"I want them to walk straight into the trap," Lewis said. His eyes were cold in a way I recognized not hot anger, but the settled, patient kind. The kind that waited.
Jeffrey was already watching, and the police were still working through the incident in the underground parking lot. After todayâs failure, the Commander and his wife would most likely pull back and reassess. They wouldnât move recklessly twice in a row.
But the Blackwells still sat uneasily in the back of my mind. With Wisteria gone, there werenât many of them left. Dominic, his sons, Amber, Yael, Vito. If the organization decided to tie up loose ends, the Blackwells wouldnât see it coming. They were still in the dark about who was really running things.
If they died, that was the end of the Blackwell bloodline entirely.
I drove to the school, hoping someone might have heard something about Yael. But the office told me the Blackwells had already arranged for him to take a leave of absence. No forwarding details. No timeline for return.
I walked across campus slowly, hands in my pockets. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, petals drifting down across the path in slow, careless arcs. I thought about the first time Iâd come here the quiet young man in the white shirt who had handed me a cup of lemon tea without making a thing of it. Easy and warm, like kindness was just something he did without thinking.
Where was he now?
I reached into my pocket and found the small keychain heâd given me. I remembered the way heâd pressed it into my hand carefully, a little worried Lewis would find it and throw it away. That memory made something ache in a quiet place.
Life was fragile. I knew that better than most people ever would. Even people trained and sharp and ready could be gone in a single unguarded moment. Yael had never really been loved by his mother not the way he deserved. He had gone through his whole life without one real day of that, and he still managed to be the kind of person who offered tea to a stranger. That meant something to me.
Even Vito. As strange as it was to admit, I didnât want him to die either. And Amber difficult, hot-tempered, sharp-edged Amber, who had made me fresh fruit juice like it was the most natural thing in the world. After everything sheâd done and everything weâd been through together in Jaford, I had never expected to feel anything complicated about her.
And yet here I was.
The breeze moved through the blossoms and for one second, through the drifting pink, I thought I caught the shape of a familiar figure white shirt, quiet posture, walking just ahead of me.
"Yael!"
I moved fast, cutting through the other students, closing the distance. He was right there, just a few more steps
Everything went black.
My legs gave out without warning and I pitched forward, the ground rushing up to meet me.
A pair of hands caught me hard before I hit it. "Are you alright?"