Afghanistan, 9:00 a.m.;

Sharia Enterprises;

"F*ck! F*ck!", Aftaab Ali swore as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone, enraged, launching his phone against the wall beside his office entrance. Abram Orlov had just stepped in when the device was smashed into tiny little pieces. Something told him that this little spectacle had something to do with his beloved Alpha. What had she done now?

Raising his brows, the man looked at Aftaab Ali, putting on a pretense of his alias, Albert Fedorov, "Is everything alright, brother?", he asked worriedly.

Loosening his tie, the man replied, "That bi*ch, Rong Xinghe. She killed all our men who were going to carry out our plans for the next few months in Country X."

"She did?", Orlov smiled internally. Of course, she did it. "How can I help you?"

"Tell me something, Fedorov, how willing are you to take risks for us?", Aftaab Ali asked, unsure, "For our mission. For Ahmed Ali Fadhil?"

"I don't know what to tell you anymore, Aftaab Bhai.", Abram Orlov sank into the olive green leather couch beside him, defeatedly, "You know pretty much everything about me. My secrets, weaknesses, my criminal history. You have leverage against me. I've helped you so much with the gunpowder transfers in Country X too. You can destroy me in seconds if you want; you have evidence against me, after all.

"I am not stupid, Mr. Ali. I understand how dangerous working for Ahmed Fadhil Sir really is. Why would I get involved with him if it were not for his believes and principles, concerning Jihad and Islam? They fascinate me. I don't want to live an ordinary, hopeless life. A life without a reason. I'd rather devote myself to something huge, something much greater.

"I am not in this for money, Aftaab Bhai. I am not afraid of killing for you if that's what you are wondering. In return, I simply have one simple desire. I want to meet him. I want to meet Ahmed Ali Fadhil."

Aftaab Ali stared at the man in front of him for quite some while before he finally nodded at the man, "I think it's time.", he said to 'Albert Fedorov', still suspicious of him, "Let me have a word with Ahmed Sir first. I'll see if he is free to meet you."

_________________________

Elite Saphre Penthouse, 9:00 a.m.;

"Does any of your brothers or sisters-in-law know about this?", Xi Yuan asked, looking at the girl, "About this entire unethical human experimentation you went through?"

The girl shook her head, letting out a sigh, "Before we left Country N after that mission, we executed those two psycho doctors ourselves. Adding to it, we bombarded the entire research unit along with that old age home too, putting an end to all of it altogether.

"There was literally nothing left for my brothers to do. Yeah, I did once mentioned to Bro Bo that human experimentation hasn't stopped yet. He even brought the United Nations' attention to it, provided his position in there.

"But nothing more than that. They are always worried about me. My time with the Rongs, the train incident, and the way the Zou family treated me after Zhou Zhichen's death; all of that still affects them. Moreover, it was a problem already dealt with. Why worry them with it?"

"Agreed.", the man nodded, tucking her jet black hair strands behind her ear, "Then... why tell me?", he asked.

"Because... last night, I lost control.", the girl bit her lip as she lifted her head up and looked into the man's gray eyes, anxious, "I felt that it wouldn't be fair for me to keep this from you. Yuan, I need you to know that when I am Ripper, I am not Rong Xinghe. I am not even human. I just... didn't want you to feel betrayed."

"Show me your Ripper self. Now.", Xi Yuan smiled, parting from the girl as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. The girl dug nails into the skin of her left palm, tentatively. She hadn't expected him to say something like that. A normal person would've asked her to go to therapy, or to a psychiatrist. But this man, he wanted to witness her transition, her sinister, direful side.

"Are you sure?", the girl questioned hesitantly, "What if I hurt you?"

"You won't.", the man promised confidently, as if he were talking about himself.

Eliciting a nod of urge from the man, the girl looked down and closed her eyes shut. Becoming a Ripper wasn't like some switch. It needed a certain push, some kind of provocation, a sensitive memory. Gradually, images of her childhood, the way the Rongs molested her, the way they maltreated her, started flashing in front of her eyes. A moment later, she opened her eyes.

Xi Yuan's expressions didn't deter for a second, as he witnessed the color of her alluring hazel brown eyes change to cold, ravenous black, a tad of blood-red in the middle of them. As if she wanted to consume everything that'd appear, in front of those glorious, dark eyes. The veins beneath those eyes, slowly bulging, her breath getting heavier. She wasn't blinking, at all. He could literally feel her gaining strength and, losing her lucidity. Her hands, forearms, arms seemed more sturdy than they were before.

He could even tell the difference in the way she was looking at him. There was a hungriness, a thrill, in her eyes. She had never looked at him this way, but for some unknown reason, he wasn't intimidated by her gaze. In fact, he felt tempted to give in to her hunger. Even so, of all the emotions brewing in his heart at that time, the thought of resisting her, never rushed through his mind.

It was weird, even for him. This was something even the deadliest of assassins and terrorists across the globe, were petrified of. The tales of 'Ripper' leaving behind trails of dead bodies, wherever she went, were no secret in the underworld. Xi Yuan was aware of these stories too, of course.

But now that he had witnessed the devil himself, he simply stood there, taking in the sight of her. What more, all he wanted to do was pin her against one of those walls in that house, and rip her clothes into millions of fabric shreds and kiss her until she'd beg to him for breath.