Alpha’s Hybrid Cinderella – Chapter 45

Evan’s call came barely two seconds after I fled the kitchen. I had been about to call him myself as soon as the Delta had broken the news, so before the ringer even went off, I had already picked up.

“Evan! Are you okay? Is anyone hurt? Oh, my God, I heard about Osborn. Please be careful–“

“Claudia.” His voice was gravel-rough, strained. “Go to your room and make sure your windows and door are locked. Don’t let anyone in unless it’s Peelle. He’s coming to pick you up.”

on the phone.”

into my lungs as I hurried up the stairs to the second floor. I wasn’t stupid. I knew

ealed himself as the enemy, anyway. It was someone close to us, someone who might even be in the Scarlet pack itself. Or someone within the reformed Dark Moon, even! Even if the pack had been… purged and repopulated, there was no guaran

he door.

ws?”

ne with me.”

sounds running in the background of the call wer

e.”

e background?”

a factory?”

ark Moon’s territory, so there was no way for me to know which one specifically.

.

body in one of the factories?”

Just stay on the line. Have you eate

g dodgy is making me worry more!”

ow–

e who need to be evacuated first, and the machinery needs to be shut down. They’re the ones who found him.”

him if you haven’t seen it?”

I followed the scent.”

“H

nd it nearby.”

in high school. Sometimes, to prove their evil intent and to warn their victims against retaliation, they would hurt their hostages.

Osborn coul

he’ll bring you to me. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going or when you’re leaving. You need to move without anyone kno

one of us? A traitor?”

ra troops I’ve stationed here to help with governing the area.”

ply been spying closely enough to figure out where Osborn was going, someone exacting enough to seem like it was someone on the inside…

quered, every pack the Scarlet had set its eyes on but had not yet fallen, every pack afraid of the growing power the pack gained every time it razed another to the ground. Evan had left so much bloodshed in his wake that there was too much of it concealing who might have been hiding under the surface, waiting for their chance to strike.

planning this from the very beginning?

nally retaliate

What now?

next?

pulled my knees up to my chest, chilled to

***

hat’s taking so

nts in the area too, so there’s a fumigator team to kill those and a decontamination team to clean up after them.”

er.”

s, sir.”

cause he was furious didn’t mean his rage could alter nature and physics. The ‘lethal’ fumes the Delta reported would move no faster just becaus

to this? Why had Osborn insisted on moving alone? Why had he come out here when he knew he was on to something, and that someone would retaliate?

d sense gone? Why…

ked away from Evan, all too aware of his presence as they nervously acquiesced to orders, but he sensed no guilt from them, only fear.

-expression that might betray their truth.

took. If hey were innocent, he would send them on their way. And if they weren’t… It would come out, and he would wreak his vengeance upon them an

dead?

over the severed appendage. The telltale tattoo of a red moon taunted him at the base of the wrist.

Alpha, we’re ready.”

van f