Out of every piece of imagery that came through my mind last night, the only one I remembered had been my nightmare of Master Skotus. I hadn't thought about that day in a very, very long time.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why I had gone through it. Injection. I don't know when I would fully be free from the clutch that was held on my mind, but I doubted it would be anytime soon.

When I pulled myself up against the back of the bed, arching my back, I realised that Alexander was still in there. Specifically, right next to me. I turned to face him,

"I didn't know you had glasses?" I blurted out, unable to stop myself from saying it. Sure enough, perched on Alexander's nose was a pair of reading glasses.

Alexander raised an eyebrow, "What? I'm prone to headaches."

My mouth hung open, "You're prone to headaches?"

Alexander pulled off his glasses, turning his body towards me. My eyes slid downwards, taking in the very obvious fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Golden skin run taught over every muscle that he could possibly have accompanied by a knot of black ink on his ribs that was just hidden away from my view.

He pushed his shoulders back, a knowing look on his face. "Embarrassed that your mate has to have glasses to read the fine print?"

That word, the elephant in the room. He was waiting and watching for my reaction, as if unsure of how I would react.

I gulped, "Ashamed of the fact that it seems like your old age is catching up with you. I'm not interested in having a grandpa for a boyfriend."

Alexander licked his lips as he tilted his head. "Not too old just yet. I'm spending the day out, I've got work to do with the new trainees with Vance and Farren, and Myra is spending a day of meditation, something's aligning, I'm not too sure. If you want, I'm sure Harmony would be fine to hang out, maybe go shopping."

"Do you think I could just stay at home?" I asked lazily, "I'm still exhausted and could probably use the time to become more familiar with the layout of the house."

"You sure?" Alexander inquired, "You're welcome to join us for the training, it would probably be much more up your alley,"

I let a soft smile come over my lips, forcing my face to drop into a relaxed, begging expression with my eyes wide. "I'm just not ready yet, but I'd love to join you maybe tomorrow or the next day."

I watched as the gears ran in his brain, as if trying to fully understand what I was saying. I moved my hand up and placed it on his leg to reaffirm my point. Perhaps I wasn't the biggest fan of my situation, but for whatever reason, I had the mate bond in place, and I was damned if I wasn't going to use it to the fullest advantage.

"If you're ok with that, then I see no reason why you couldn't. But contact me, even though a phone, if anything happens, promise me, I don't care what it is." He said sternly, his eyes barely flickering to my hand on his leg.

I batted my eyes, "Of course, I'll... I'll let you know."

Alexander looked at the clock, "Stay here for as long as you'd like, but I needed to leave ten minutes ago," As he moved my hand away from him, he let his thumb run over my skin tentatively.

He spent two moments in the wardrobe before emerging in workout clothes. Alexander sent a look my way before walking out the room, shutting the door behind him and leaving me alone in my own silence.

I let my face drop.

I felt like shit, so at least I wasn't lying about that. After a relatively good nights sleep, my entire body felt fine. I was aching in some places but I knew that when I stood up and tried to walk I would have no issues. No, what I really felt awful about was how I was treating Alexander.

I shook my head, I had no idea why, but the moment that I realised he was there, it was like a switch flicked in my brain. And then there I was, a sultry voice and a plan that not even the Alpha could catch onto.

It was something I had done plenty of times before and never thought twice, so why did the thought of deceiving him like that make me want to throw up?

Because he was my mate, and while I refused to accept it, my wolf was already planning our wedding.

It was over now, so I may as well implement my plans.

I pulled myself out of the bed. Since I still didn't have any clothes and wasn't too keen on wearing Harmony's, I settled for Alexanders. I just pulled out an old pair of jeans that had been shoved to the very back of his draw along with a t-shirt that Alexander probably would have worn back in High School. With a quick brush through my hair and finally taking the time to organise my piercings, I was ready.

I didn't bother heading downstairs, feeling in no way hungry. Instead, I headed into Alexander's office. Carefully, I slipped through the entrance and closed the door behind me. Since I was touching the floor and the alarms weren't sounding, I figured I was in the clear. On top of that, since there was no reason for the cams to be checked, chances are I will be able to get away practically unscathed.

I stepped forward, running my hand over the hard oak desk. I wasn't interested in hacking his computer, there was no point and I doubted there would be that much in terms of information anyway.

On top of that, I highly doubted the type of information that I was looking for would even be in this very room. But I knew how people thought in these sorts of situations, so I started running my hands around the room. I was aware that it would leave traces of myself but what would that do anyway.

I changed the weight on my feet, trying to figure out maybe pressure plates or something similar. I looked through all the typical places, the bookshelf, the photo frames, even the buttons on the desk.

A flickering moment of self-doubt overcame for just a moment my finger ran over a random pen on the side of his file cabinet. I waited for it to go flying off the side, but it didn't. I tried to pick it up, only to realise that it was completely stuck on the desk.

I pushed it down into the cabinet with a smirk on my face as the tile of flooring beside it sunk into the floor and pulled itself to the side.

A ladder was on the wall so, not wasting another moment, I let my body slide down. Quickly, I moved the tile of flooring back across, sealing the entranceway. While I doubted that anyone would come in, you never know, so I certainly wasn't taking the chance. I gripped onto the bars as I carried myself down, planting my feet firmly on the floor.

Jackpot.

I had found the information.

Endless cupboards that would be filled to the brim with classified information that only the highest-ranked wolves of Bloodlust would be able to see. Knowing that the information here would be classified, I wondered why it was so easy to find.

Then again, not every intruder knows exactly what to look for.

Over and over again, I would quickly open a drawer and try and gain an understanding of the sort of content that it held. I found the dedicated section for 'enemies' after about ten minutes, my fingers already scratched with small, red lines.

One file, in particular, was uneven and didn't match the organisation of the rest, I pulled it out, biting back a gasp as I realised just what it covered.

Me.

Unsurely, I flipped it open. A dark photo of the forest with an even darker blue in the middle, supposedly me. I grinned, I remembered that mission. I pulled up the photo. There was practically no information, other than my title, suspected features, ways I carry out my missions. All regular stuff. Yet, I gulped when I noticed the large KILL ON SIGHT printed on the bottom.

Quickly, I placed the file back in.

The only other-directed file I found of someone I recognised was one for Cora. That didn't surprise me, as while her own missions didn't lead her to a direct threat to the wolves, they did lead a threat to their allies.

Our organisation had its own file, easily larger than any other file remaining in the box. Slowly, I opened it up, letting the entirety of the file fan out across the draw. The first piece of content was on Madame Beadeline, Master Skotus and Mistress Hemlock. While their names remained unknown, a list of other theories and random tidbits of information was what made up their file, along with a range of long lines connecting them to other people. I think that was more trying to figure out their identities, but for the most part, all of the lines drew to some of our higher investors and suppliers.

So while they may not know who they were, they had ties to the company.

Well, that should be useful.

I kept going.

They didn't seem to have too much trouble figuring out just what the purpose of our organisation was, yet that seemed to be the only thing that was remotely correct in this entire thing.

Theories and guesses but practically no solid information.

A headache started to form, and at this point, I could have sworn that it's my new constant issue. They got relatively close to where the base was located, along with places you could possibly see operatives, even where Mistress Hemlock goes to collect some of her ingredients personally.

But there was no solid information.

Slowly, I slipped the file back into the draw.

The Leaders would certainly be pleased.

As I climbed back up the ladder, I started to think. Should I try and find a way to get this information back to them? Perhaps an update so that they knew I hadn't been killed in cold blood? Then again, it would probably be safer not too, take away any risk of the information being tracked.

Just as I started moving the tile, I saw, just through the tiny sliver, the office door swinging open. I quickly closed it, sending a silent prayer in hope that they hadn't seen or heard it.

"I think that as long as we can get them to really start packing on muscle, we'll have a much easier time in getting them adjusted to the training routine," Alexander, I easily identified.

"Oh please, your dad would ramble on about the same things to us when we were in training and not once did we ever change our diet to be able to do that. Yes, completely different situation, but we can't punish them too harshly." Vance counter-argued.

I heard Alexander sit down on the edge of the desk, "I guess you're right. But still, we need to hold some authority, especially in the beginning."

"Exactly right. Don't worry, you know training the newbies is mainly my job, and I've got a hold on it, I promise." Suddenly, the whole tone of the conversation changed. "So, how are you and Cassandra?"

"I think that my mate thinks I'm an idiot. Trust me, I've had enough gold-digging girlfriends to realise when a girl is just faking interest." I felt my heart stop beating.

"Yeesh, that bad?" Vance cringed. "I don't know, the tension between you guys last night was pretty intense, you sure you're not overthinking it?"

Alexander sighed. "Trust me, I'm not. She had a nightmare last night and looked about a second away from punching me in the face, and then this morning, she had her eyes all big and her hand on my thigh just begging me to let her stay home for the day. The worst thing is that even though I know that she's not interested, at least not right now, I still let myself fall for it."

Vance was silent for a moment. "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but how do you know that she hasn't run away?"

"Well, I don't know where she is right now, but it's a large house and we came straight in here. But, I've got extra guards downstairs, if she manages to get past them, guards at the opening points and then guards around the perimeter of the house. Trust me, she hasn't got away." Alexander explained, his voice gruff.

"Well, that's a relief. You know, I think that regardless of how good of a thief she may be, she hasn't exactly been treated the best."

"Trust me, Vance, I'm well aware that my mate has probably been abused in all different sorts of ways, but I can't do anything about it right now. In fact, I can't do anything until she decides that I'm not actually the worst thing that's ever happened to her. And it fucking sucks because I can't even have a conversation with her properly because she hates me and I'm half in love with her," Alexander vented, everything coming out in one, short breath.

I completely ignored what he had just said.

Vance patted his shoulder, "It's certainly not an easy situation, but it is one that you can manage. I think that her heart is probably seeking love, her brain just doesn't want to admit it. Just give her some time to let her figure all this out, and a little more since she's sober now. Everything will sort itself out."

"Yeah, well, I hope you're right. Come on, let's get out of here, I feel like I haven't eaten in ten years."

Just like that, the two exited the room. I carefully opened up the hatch, only slightly to check and then fully open to pull myself out.

I didn't dwell too much on the conversation I had just heard, mainly because I didn't want to. I scoffed, Alexander had no idea what he was talking about.

I glanced back down to the files, there had to be more. Maybe they wouldn't risk writing it down or had it stored elsewhere, but I knew my gut, and my gut was saying that there was still more that they knew.

I needed to find it and I needed to find it quickly.

Or maybe, I could shift my priority to something else. An image of Alexander appeared fresh in my mind, accompanied by a sick and guilty feeling in my chest.

I remembered the last line of the letter that the Leaders had given me.

Yes, it was time to switch priorities.

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