Chapter 149: Chapter 149 The bugging question
_Rowena’s POV_
He didn’t let go right away.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that for a long time.
I was barely upright, him on the other hand kept me there through sheer steadiness, but eventually I became aware of other people in the room. Footsteps, voices, the movement of people who had a job to do and were doing it.
I pulled back first. I always did.
“I can stand,” I said.
Alaric didn’t argue, but he kept one hand at my elbow as I straightened, watching me like he expected my legs to give again. They didn’t. Thankfully.
One of his men appeared in the doorway, took in the scene, the ruined window, the blackened wall, the still-dripping ceiling, and then looked at Alaric. “Facility’s clear. They’re gone. Two vehicles left in a hurry through the east exit, cameras caught the plates.”
“Run them,” Alaric said.
The man disappeared.
Pierre appeared next, and the look on his face when he saw me was different from Alaric’s — less controlled, more open. He crossed the room quickly and stopped just short of reaching for me, like he wasn’t sure if touching me would hurt.
“You look terrible,” he said with a smile. I’d have also sworn I saw tears in those eyes of his..
“I know,” I laughed short..
He reached out anyway and put a hand on my shoulder, careful, brief. “I’m sorry it took this long.”
“You found me,” I said. “That’s what matters.”
His jaw tightened, like he was holding something back, guilt, probably. Pierre always carried his guilt quietly.
I didn’t have the energy right now to talk him out of it.
Alaric was still close. I could feel him there without looking.
He didn’t want to let go. He was like a child stuck to his mother’s side.
“Can you walk?” Alaric asked after a while.
“Yes.”
“We have a medical team outside. I want someone to look at your wrist before we move.”
I glanced down. The bleeding had slowed but the skin was a mess. It was red and scraped and bruised in a ring around the bone. I’d felt worse. The fact that I couldn’t quite feel it properly right now was probably more concerning than the injury itself.
“Fine,” I said.
They walked me out. The corridor beyond the room was plain and institutional. The place looked like was the kind of hallway that had been designed to look unremarkable. I noted everything as we moved. The exits, cameras that Alaric’s team had already disabled, the layout of the place.
Outside, the morning air hit me and I stopped walking for just a second, just to breathe it in. Real air. It felt like I just came alive again.
After such a long time.
I never expected being free so soon. Freedom was really priceless.
Alaric noticed me stop and said nothing. He just waited beside me, already guessing what I was doing.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Outskirts of the city,” he said. “Private facility. It’s well hidden that we almost missed it.”
“Almost,” I repeated with a sigh.
“Celeste found it,” he said. “She’s very good at what she does.”
Speaking of Celeste, my sweet cousin. I prepared myself to meet her properly when we got to where the cars parked.
As usual, she saved my life. I owed her a conversation.
The medical team was waiting by a car, two people who sat me down and began working on my wrist without ceremony, which I appreciated. I didn’t need sympathy from strangers right now. I needed bandages and information.
“Virella,” I said, looking at Alaric while they worked. “She got out before you arrived.”
“We know. We have the plates.”
“She set the fire to kill me,” I said flatly. “In case she needed to know.......when you find her.”
“I’ll make note of it,” he said.
“Theo was with her.” I watched his face. “Theodore Ashford. Pierre’s stepbrother.”
Alaric nodded slowly. “We know about him too.”
“He stopped her from hitting me more than once,” I said, not because I was defending him, but because information was information and all of it mattered. “He’s not innocent. But he’s not as far gone as she is.”
Alaric studied me for a moment. “You were observing them. Even in there?”
“I had nothing else to do,” I said simply with a shrug.
Something moved briefly across his expression, something that wasn’t quite a smile but was close to one.
The medic finished wrapping my wrist and said something about proper treatment, fluids, and rest. I heard the words but didn’t register them. My mind was already moving forward to Kaelen, to what Virella had told me in that room, to the trademark case and the stages of everything she’d built.
“Alaric,” I said, as they helped me toward the car.
He fell into step beside me. “Yes.”
“I know things,” I said. “About what she’s done. What she’s planning. She told me herself, she likes to talk when she thinks someone can’t repeat it. That’s a stupid trait of Virella.”
He was quiet for exactly one beat. “Then we need to talk.”
“Yes,” I said. “We do.”
“But after you’ve rested. Come, Celeste is waiting for you in that car.”
I sighed and nodded, following him towards the car Celeste sat in.
Just as we neared the car, Alaric finally asked the bugging question. I knew he wanted to, and I was preparing myself mentally for it. Either he asked or Celeste asked.
“Ro, what happened to your wolf?”
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