The air was thin. Sharp. Waiting for a drop of blood to fall before it cut deep.
Leah stayed on the cold concrete, her pulse hammering like a war drum in her ribs. Across from her, Kael Orion Voss moved with slow, measured intent—boots clicking against the polished floor in a rhythm meant to unravel.
Predator's steps.
Predator's gaze.
The temperature in the room shifted—thickened.
His silver eyes burned into her, pinning her down harder than the gun had.
Then—
His voice shattered the silence.
"You have exactly three seconds to explain why you're here—"
His head tilted slightly, the movement almost lazy, but his tone darkened into something deadly.
"—before I decide you're not worth the bullet."
Leah knew the moment he caught it.
The shift was subtle—but she saw it.
The faintest stillness.
The flare of his nostrils.
The way his shoulders locked, breath drawing in sharper.
He knows.
A slow, electric realization struck her, flashing white-hot behind her ribs.
He can smell it.
The tension in the air changed.
Still razor-edged. Still lethal. But now laced with something else.
Something primal.
Something Alpha.
His nostrils flared again—barely, but enough. His voice dipped, rougher, rawer—
"…What are you?"
It wasn't a question. It was a verdict waiting to be delivered.
Leah's body screamed to tense—but she didn't.
Instead, her lips curled—just slightly.
"That's a hell of a question for someone who just saved my life."
His eyes narrowed. And then—he was on her.
Too fast. Alpha-fast.
His hand slammed down against the car beside her, inches from her face.
The metal groaned under his grip.
The air between them burned electric.
"I didn't save your life," he murmured, voice venomous, words curling slow like a blade dragging against skin. "I paused it."
Leah's heart thundered.
But she didn't flinch.
She didn't pull back.
She let the words settle, let the weight of them sink into the moment—before she lifted her chin just slightly and met his icefire gaze.
"If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead."
His silver eyes—cut through her.
"Don't tempt me."
The scent curled through the air—
Soft. Warm. Instinctive.
Not intentional. Not controlled. But there. Undeniable.
His frame locked.
His jaw clenched.
His breathing hitched sharper.
But his eyes—
They burned colder.
Then—
He laughed.
It was low. Sharp. Humorless.
A sound meant to flay open skin and see what lay underneath.
"You're either very brave or terminally stupid."
Leah's lip curled into a slow, dangerous smirk.
"Can't it be both?"
Kael's expression shut down.
The humor vanished.
The heat in his gaze froze to ice.
"Wrong answer."
His arm moved—
And suddenly—she was against the car.
His forearm braced near her neck.
Not touching.
But close.
Too close.
A deliberate kind of proximity.
Leah's breath steadied.
She wasn't small. She wasn't fragile. But he was built like a weapon, and right now, he was using the full weight of his presence to press her down.
His body didn't move.
His heat—his energy—did.
It curled around her like a vice, a storm ready to break.
And those silver razors-for-eyes?
They pinned her—waiting for her to snap.
Leah didn't snap.
Instead—
She smiled.
Slow. Controlled. Unafraid.
"You're trying to intimidate me."
Kael's silver gaze didn't flicker.
Didn't soften.
Didn't shift an inch.
Then, his head tilted slightly, considering.
And his voice, when it came, was soft. Dangerous.
"No. I'm trying to decide—"
His pupils flared.
"—if you're worth keeping."
The words shouldn't have sent a chill down her spine.
But they did.
Not from fear.
From realization.
Because Kael Orion Voss didn't say things he didn't mean.
And right now?
Right now—
He was weighing her future in his hands.
Kael wasn't exbracing her. Not exactly.
But he might as well have been.
Leah felt the heat of him, felt the gravity in the way his body locked the space around her.
His voice—razor-sharp, breaking against something primal.
"I don't know who sent you," he said, low and lethal, "or what you think you're doing—"
His pupils flared again, his voice dipping rough—
"—but playing Omega to an Alpha you don't understand?"
His teeth bared slightly.
"That's suicide."
Leah's heart was a hammer, her skin prickling under his heat—under that gravitational pull.
But she bared her teeth right back.
"You're the one who stopped the shot," she shot back, her voice biting. "So maybe I understand you better than you think."
His eyes burned.
But behind that heat—
A flicker of something colder.
Something that said: I don't trust this. I don't trust you.
Then—he tilted his head.
Just slightly.
Like she was a puzzle he couldn't solve.
And that infuriated him.
His voice—a low growl.
"You smell like a secret."
A pulse of heat in her chest—involuntary.
Omegas were rare. Coveted. Dangerous to an Alpha who wasn't in control.
She felt it—the friction, like a spark in dry air—
But she didn't blink.
"And you," she shot back, her voice cold and sharp as glass— "smell like a man wasting time."
That—got him.
A muscle in his jaw ticked.
His forearm lifted, releasing her from his cage.
But his eyes—still on her. Hard. Dissecting.
"Talk," he ordered, sharp and clipped. "Fast."
Leah's voice didn't waver.
"Ark 0. Four days. Private auction. You buy it."
The temperature dropped.
Like a blade sliding against stone.
Kael's gaze sharpened.
Deadly. Cold.
"What do you know about that ship?"
Leah's lips curled, slow and edged with steel.
"I know it's your only chance to live."
Kael's eyes went cold as frost.
"The Ark 0 isn't public knowledge. So—" his voice dropped to a razor edge, "who are you working for?"
Leah felt the tension in the air tighten like a wire.
Her body screamed to run—but she didn't.
She couldn't.
She wasn't done.
Her lips curled slightly, and she lifted her chin.
"No one."
A beat. Then—the kill shot.
"I was on ark 3. The person next to me on the Ark was very… nice."
Her voice was soft, but it hit like a hammer.
"And they told me secrets."
Kael's gaze sharpened into something deadly.
His entire body went still.
Predatory.
"Who?"
Leah's heart was pounding so hard it hurt.
She shouldn't do this.
But if she wanted his attention—his trust, even if it came laced with suspicion—
She gave him the name.
"Brigadier Theo Marx. But I knew him as Zayne."
The change was instant.
A violent shift—like the ground beneath her cracked.
Kael's pupils snapped.
His entire frame tightened with barely-checked aggression.
"Marx."
His voice dipped into something lethal—
Something that tasted of history and hate.
Leah's breath burned.
But she wasn't done.
"And," Leah said, voice colder now, "Marx told me something before he died."
She let it hang for half a second.
Then—
"A code."
Kael's silver eyes cut into her.
"Speak."
Leah's voice was slow, deliberate, her gaze locked on his:
"Echo-9-Delta-4—'The Hound Is Caged.'"
For one breath—
One raw, charged heartbeat—
Kael froze.
And then—
The entire room shifted.
His aura, already dangerous, became something worse.
The air thickened.
The walls felt closer.
Leah's instincts screamed.
Because this was what made Kael Voss a legend.
Not his money.
Not his power.
His war-blooded rage.
The tension in his jaw was a crack waiting to shatter.
His voice—low, stripped raw—
"You shouldn't know that."
Leah felt her pulse in her throat.
But she didn't back down.
"But I do."
Kael's voice turned lethal, a thread from snapping:
"Marx is dead."
Leah's lips pressed tight.
"I know."
"And that code—" His eyes burned, "—has been buried since the day I put a bullet through him."
The air between them felt hot and cold all at once.
A knife-edge of instinct and warning.
Leah's skin prickled.
Her nerves screamed.
But her voice stayed steady—
"I don't care how buried it was."
Her eyes locked onto his.
"I was there when he said it."
Her voice dropped, razor-sharp.
"And now I'm the one telling you."
Kael's lips curled into something cold. Bitter.
Barely a smile.
"That's a dangerous gamble."
Her eyes didn't flinch.
"So's ignoring me."
His silence felt thick—
Not indecision.
Calculation.
Then—
Kael stepped forward.
His voice—like the edge of a blade.
"You want me to believe you?"
His eyes flashed.
And his voice dropped into something brutal.
"You are not getting on Arks One through Ten. Ever."
His tone was final.
"The lotteries are locked. The manifest sealed. Whatever you're playing—whatever fantasy you're spinning—"
His head tilted, and his voice curled, venomous—
"It's over."
Leah felt something cold claw up her spine.
She knew what he meant.
No room.
No backdoor.
No second chances.
The future she had died in that hell—was waiting for her.
But she lifted her chin, eyes burning.
"Good," she bit out.
"Because I'm not asking for a spot on those damn ships."
Kael's expression shifted.
Colder. Harder.
But behind his eyes—
Something like interest.
"Then what are you asking for?"
Her voice came like steel.
"This. Ark 0. The only one left.
I don't want your charity—" her voice sharpened, "—I want your bet."
His silver gaze burned.
And then—
He moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
His hand slammed the console behind her.
His voice—low. Alpha-edged.
"Tell me—why. I. Should."
Leah's breath burned.
Her body screamed.
But her voice—cold, sharp as glass—cut through it.
"Because if you don't—"
Her eyes blazed.
"You die here, with the rest of them."
Kael's body tensed.
His voice came soft. Dark.