Page 77 of Reckless Consequences

Ryker shifts, taking a half-step closer. “Why can’t you take the sample here?”

“Cross-contamination risk,” Mona responds without hesitation. “Need sterile environment. Also, additional equipment access. Very precise procedures.”

“I’ll go with her,” I tell Ryker, already standing. “If there’s any chance it helps Finn...”

“I don’t like it,” Jinx mutters, his body angling subtly between me and the door as I move to pass him.

“It’s just a blood test,” I remind him. “I’ll be right back.”

Theo approaches, squeezing my hand. “Be careful,” he says softly.

Mona is already halfway out the door, impatient energy radiating from her. “Time-sensitive analysis,” she calls over her shoulder. “Cellular degradation factors.”

“Ten minutes,” I promise the others. “Fifteen tops.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Ryker says, his expression unreadable.

As I follow Mona into the hallway, I can’t shake the feeling that “blood test” isn’t the whole story. Her stride is too purposeful, her energy too focused for something so routine.

“Mona,” I start as the door closes behind us, “what’s really?—”

“Not here,” she interrupts, already pulling me toward the elevator. “Need privacy. Security protocols. Much information. Very sensitive data.”

The elevator doors slide open, and she yanks me inside with surprising strength. As they close again, cutting us off from the others, she turns to me with an expression I’ve never seen before—something almost like excitement mixed with fear.

“Found something,” she says, her voice dropping to a whisper. “In Finn’s blood. In the formula. Something nobody else knows. Not even father.”

“What are you talking about?” I demand, a chill running down my spine.

“The truth about designation,” she replies, her eyes gleaming in the elevator’s dim light. “And how to change it.”

The doors slide open onto a floor I’ve never seen before, revealing a laboratory that looks nothing like the medical facilities above. The air here carries a different quality—sterile but with undertones of chemicals that make my nose tingle.

“Welcome to real testing area,” Mona says, stepping out. “Where we fix Finn and break father’s legacy.”

I hesitate at the threshold, caught between following my sister into the unknown and returning to the safety of my pack. The connection to them stretches behind me, not visible but undeniably present—a tether I never expected to want or need.

“Coming?” she asks, already moving ahead.

And despite every survival instinct I’ve honed over years of running, I step forward into whatever strange truth Mona has discovered.

After all, it’s not just Finn’s life at stake anymore. It’s what it means to be who we are—what it means to be us—that hangs in the balance.

Chapter19

Cayenne

The elevator doorsslide open onto a floor I’ve never seen before, revealing a laboratory that looks nothing like the medical facilities above.

“Welcome to the real testing area,” Mona says, stepping out. “Where we fix Finn and break father’s legacy.”

The lab stretches before us, pristine and sterile, with equipment I don’t recognize humming along walls lined with digital displays. Mona moves through the space with the easy familiarity of someone who’s claimed territory, sliding between counters and machines with that chaotic grace that’s uniquely hers.

“Blood test?” I prompt, following her deeper into the lab.

“Among other things,” she responds cryptically, her fingers dancing across a keypad to unlock a secondary door. “Specialized procedure. Many variables. Much genetic complexity.”

The door opens with a soft hiss, revealing a smaller chamber filled with what appears to be medical equipment. Mona gestures for me to go inside, something in her expression making my pulse quicken in warning.

---