Page 28 of Betrayed Kidnapped Mate

“That’s a good point.”

“There are some non-metallic chemical compounds here. Have you identified them?”

“Yes, they’re derived from botanical elements, but we’ve agreed they’re more than likely binders to make the metal and liquid cohesive.”

“Actually—” the man from the other side of the room says, his hand in his beard as he walks toward us. He’s older, about fifty, and seems like he’s trying not to be interested in the conversation. “I asserted that the botanical elements were in place to stabilize the silver in the compound—it’s partially melted, as you can see. That’s why the serum feels warm to the touch in a vial—if we had any vials left.”

“So, you think the botanical element raises the temperature of the serum, keeping the silver partially melted? What’s the average temperature of the serum?”

“Just above 200 Celsius, which obviously isn’t enough to melt actual silver metal, but I think the compound is formulated in a way that binds the botanical element directly to the silver, increasing its temperature without doing so the rest of the compound.”

“Interesting,” I say just as the door bursts open, and Olivia comes marching in, her tablet in her hand.

“I told you!” she says, pointing at Byron, who looks up at her, startled.

“Told me what?” he says, crossing his arms, actually removing his fingers from the keyboard for a moment.

“I told you that there were no exploitations in the system—this was not a hacking job, Byron!”

Byron sighs, leaning forward and running a hand through his hair, which looks a little duller than usual.

“Olivia,” he says, glancing up at her with his hands together. “Do you have an explanation for how someone could break into our facility without exploiting the system? There has to be something with the cybersecurity that I’m missing.”

“Yes, I do have an explanation,” Olivia says, putting her tablet in his face. Byron reaches up slowly, taking the tablet and scrolling through whatever is on the screen.

“Oh, no,” he murmurs before pushing the tablet back into Olivia’s hands and taking off for the door.

“You’re welcome!” she hollers at him, before turning around and jumping when she sees the rest of us staring at her. She’s wearing a little white tennis skirt and a striped collared shirt. With her pink hair, it’s stunning.

“Oh, hey,” she says, giving us a little wave. “What’s going on here?”

Chapter 15 - Bigby

After dropping Rosa off at the compound and making sure she was with Byron, I head up to Aris’ place, taking the long winding roads slow, trying to relax myself.

I could barely sleep last night. Every ten minutes, my body would wake me up, my hands groping for Rosa, searching for her body, needing it near me. Once, I even got as far as the hallway before coming to my senses and turning around, heading back toward my bedroom, where I locked the bolt and pushed my dresser in front of the door, not wanting to take any chances.

“Hey, man,” Aris says, opening the door almost right after I knock. The pig scuttles around his feet, making little sounds and squealing when I reach down to pet it. Aris rolls his eyes and leads me further into the house, up the stairs, and to his study.

Ado is already sitting at the table, his arms crossed. With Byron at the compound, our numbers have dwindled too low. After the fight with Varun, we’d lost Eva and Percy. My heart clenches, like it always does when I think about what happened to Percy and how he had begged Aris to let him put himself out of his misery. The gunshot rang through the trees. How we didn’t have time to react, to do anything, to even give him a proper burial.

“Alright,” Aris says, coming to the head of the table and clicking on a brand-new projector. “There are a few things to run through. First, Byron sent over the security footage from the night of the security breach. This guy was pretty shrouded, good at staying in the dark.”

I watch on the screen as the west side of town comes into view. The guy creeps into the frame wearing all-black, barely visible in the flickering streetlight. He crouches down, doing something on the ground, and then the secret entrance to the compound hidden behind the dumpster opens.

My mouth falls open in shock.

How could someone possibly know about that entrance? Have they been watching us, scoping us out? They would have to be an expert at hacking to get past Byron’s security methods. I’ve looked at them for myself, and they’re nearly impenetrable. It doesn’t even look like this person has any equipment with them.

We watch the figure disappear into the opening and watch as it shuts behind them. Aris clicks a button, and the image switches to a different entrance on the other side of town, where the figure is emerging again, holding a box in their hands.

“The vials,” I say, shaking my head. When I glance at Aris, the alarm is evident on his face. He pauses the video.

“This guy has had the stuff for more than three days now. I’ve alerted all the nearby packs to be on their guard—that there may be some form of chemical warfare happening without giving specifics. I don’t want anyone else getting ideas and developing their own serum. But we’ve heard nothing. Not a single attack or whiff of the serum showing up anywhere—not even on the underground market.”

“You have contacts in the black market?” I ask, raising and eyebrow, to which Aris shifts his eyes to Ado, sitting there with his arms crossed, still staring at the screen.

Oh, makes sense.

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