Page 29 of Branded By Shadow
That mattered. That was worth protecting, even if it meant walking into Alexander’s trap with my eyes wide open.
It was time to make sure that whatever House Zeus had waiting for us, Cora would survive it. Because losing her now, after this, would break something in me that wouldn’t heal.
12
Betrayed
Cora
The next day
Theo looked like he’d aged ten years in the weeks since my disappearance.
He rushed from the elevator bank the moment we entered the lobby, worry carved into every line of his face. The sight of him stole the air from my lungs. This kind, brilliant man had believed in my research when others had dismissed it as impossible. Now, he looked at me as if I were a ghost, like I might vanish again if he blinked too hard.
“Cora, thank the gods.” His arms came around me in a desperate hug. For a moment, I let myself sink into the familiar embrace,into the scent of antiseptic, old coffee, and the specific wool of his favorite sweater.
“When you disappeared,” he murmured. “We thought… I thought…”
“I’m fine, Theo.” The lie tasted bitter but necessary. “I’m okay.”
Damon’s presence pressed against my awareness, a dark, silent weight at my back. Theo sensed it, too. He pulled away slowly, and the warmth in his expression cooled to a cautious uncertainty.
The invisible barrier between us might as well have been made of steel. I belonged to someone else now, and we both knew it.
But Theo had never let any kind of wall stop him. He laughed in the face of scientific impossibilities. An Alpha’s posturing wouldn’t make him back down. “Cora, tell me the truth. What happened to you?”
“It’s… complicated,” I said, forcing brittle warmth into my tone. I was grateful for his concern even if it made everything more difficult. “There were some medical complications. I need to access my research files. Something's wrong with the suppressant formulas, and I need to figure out what.”
No matter how hard I tried to pretend, I couldn’t fool Theo. How could I, when Damon was right there? His eyes widened slightly as he connected the dots. My disappearance, my return with a House Hades Alpha, my mention of ‘complications.’He had undoubtedly drawn some unfortunate and terrifying conclusions.
I willed him not to push, to let it go, at least for now. Miraculously, he did. He gave a single, jerky nod, his focus shifting back to the professional. “Your office is exactly as you left it,” he said, his voice regaining some of its familiar steadiness. “I haven’t let anyone touch your work.”
So despite Alexander’s best efforts, he hadn’t managed to corrupt my mentor. Even House Zeus’s manipulations couldn’t make Theo really break my trust.
“Thank you, Theo. I knew I could rely on you.”
Damon hummed under his breath, and his skepticism was a palpable thing. Theo twitched in irritation and guided us toward the elevator. Every step weighed on him, but he didn’t question Damon’s presence.
The elevator ride to my floor stretched in uncomfortable silence. Damon’s tension filled the small space, making it hard to breathe. The air grew frigid, and a thin layer of frost spiderwebbed across the polished steel of the interior doors.
My lab felt simultaneously familiar and foreign. The chemical tang in the air, the low hum of the equipment, the organized chaos of ongoing experiments. It was all exactly as I’d left it. But I wasn’t the same person who had worked here.
I dropped into my desk chair, the worn leather groaning in protest, and pulled up my research directories. Years of work organized into careful categories, formulation notes dating back to my graduate studies. The silphium-based compound I’d been so proud of now felt like a monument to my own naiveté.
“What are you looking for, specifically?” Theo leaned against the edge of my desk, watching my screen.
“I’m not sure yet,” I answered. “The suppressant should have stayed stable even under extreme stress. But something triggered a catastrophic failure.”
Damon moved to stand behind me, close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from his body. Always watching, always present. But this time he didn’t interrupt, just letting me work.
My fingers flew across the keyboard as I scanned the data I’d reviewed hundreds of times. Everything had worked perfectly during our last test results. Impeccable suppression results, low to no side-effects. Otherwise, I’d have never dared to present my work at the conference.
Simple logic stated the suppressant must have failed to account for my House Demeter ancestry. It had never been meant for Olympian Omegas, only regular ones like I’d deemed myself to be. But that didn’t explain the strange responses and anomalies I’d noticed since my heat.
The door slid open and Sarah Chen stepped in the lab, a tablet clutched against her chest. Her perfectly styled hair andimmaculate makeup looked almost aggressive in their precision. “Dr. Ellis, hello. I didn’t realize you’d be here today.”
Sarah was what I liked to call a necessary evil. As part of the grant administration office, she handled Evergreen’s research funding by coordinating between scientists and investors. Professional and ambitious, she was always networking for advancement opportunities and, whenever we met, proved to be an unavoidable pest. She was the last person I wanted to deal with today.
