~CASSIAN’S POV~

I stared at the screen in front of me.

A quiet blink of red in the corner of the map. The GPS was active.

Aria.

Her phone‘s location blinked once- then again- moving steadily toward the edge of the estate. She was leaving.

She hadn’t told me where she was going. She hadn’t asked for permission. And yet here she was, slipping past the gates as if I wouldn’t notice.

She still believed I didn't know everything.

She’d received a message last night. I watched it come through, even before she did.

[SIENNA: Can we meet? Just us at the usual spot, please.]

She didn’t even hesitate long enough.

[ARIA: 3pm. I’ll be there.]

Naïve.

I leaned back in my chair, the dim light of the control room flickering across the sharp planes of my face. My private study was a façade. This room - this command center buried beneath the estate was where control lived. And I hated when I lost even an inch of it.

“Shadow Team Prime,” I said into the comm, slow and clear. “She’s leaving the estate. Follow her. I want full surveillance, but no contact unless required. And if a threat appears…”

I paused, my voice dropping colder.

“…eliminate.”

“Understood,” came the reply in my earpiece. Clean and professional.

I watched the satellite feed as Aria’s car exited the Wolfe gates.

I drained the last of the scotch in my glass and reached for another, but didn't pour.

Instead, I turned toward the monitor beside me - the one displaying the live surveillance from her phone. A small blinking icon hovered just above the pier.

The café.

Of course.

I knew the place. I’d already studied it.

And I knew Sienna would be there waiting, smiling like the friend she never truly was.

“Update on the second woman,” one of my operatives said through the comms.

“Go ahead.”

“She arrived early. Sitting at a corner seat, with her back facing the street. Nervous energy. Her eyes scanning. Repeated phone checks. Surveillance team in position. There are no weapons visible, but she's hiding something.”

I narrowed my eyes. “She always is.”

Sienna had made the mistake of thinking I wouldn’t notice the rot beneath her polished smiles. Aria might have called her a friend, but I’d seen the footage from the gala. I’d seen how she watched Aria's drink get spiked and how she watched those pathetic camera boys move in and toward Aria like vultures. The way she looked at Aria when she thought no one was watching plus her reaction when her plan failed gave her off completely and Wolves always smell fear just like I have.

“And the café?” I asked.

“Two exits. Windows face west, alley in the back. We’ve posted agents at each. Thermal sweep complete. Two unidentified heat signatures; one on the rooftop, one in the alley opposite.”

“Threats?”

“Unknown, but neither are customers.”

“Neutralize… Quickly. But still keep a five-meter perimeter. If she’s setting Aria up… I want to know before it happens”

“Copy that.”

I watched the feed as the first shadow moved. The alley. A man with a camera - lens gleaming beneath his jacket, gone within twenty seconds. Bag over the head, silenced and dragged into a waiting van.

The rooftop sniper followed. His tranquilized body would be dumped somewhere forgettable.

Aria wouldn’t know any of this.

She’d think she was just having coffee with her oldest friend.

But the thing about old friends is they know exactly where the wounds are.

And Sienna… she wasn’t here to mend anything.

My jaw tensed as I watched Aria slide into the seat across from her. She smiled. She still trusted people especially her despite everything.

“Keep eyes on all sides,” I murmured. “Watch Sienna’s hands, voice inflection. Any signal, any shift, no matter how little - flag it.”

“Already done, sir.”

I stood then. Pushed away from the monitor as something sharp twisted behind my ribs.

She didn’t understand the world she’d walked into. She thought the contract bound her to me. But what she didn’t yet grasp was that the contract had nothing to do with my protection.

I didn’t shield her because I had to.

I shielded her because she was mine.

Even if I didn’t love her.

Even if I didn’t believe in softness.

Even if I’d built my empire on blood, and not promises.

She was mine and no one touched what was mine without consequences.

Aria Ravenwood might have been banished. She might have carried the taint of scandal and betrayal. But in my house, under my name, she had protection carved from steel and shadow.

That meant something, and it would be a fatal mistake for Sienna or anyone else to forget it.

I walked up the stairs, my boots echoing in the silent corridor. The estate guards snapped to attention.

“Sir, will you be joining the team on site?”

I didn’t answer. I stepped into my car. The door slammed shut behind me like the click of a trigger.

Halfway to the café, a call came in.

“Sir,” Shadow Prime said. “New development. Sienna stepped away to take a call. Tone urgent. She mentioned a failed attempt. She used the word ‘elimination.’”

My pulse slowed.

“What else?”

“She’s scared, sir. She mentioned you by name.”

I gripped the edge of the armrest so hard my knuckles cracked.

“What did she say?”

“She said…” A pause. “She said, ‘You don’t know him. Cassian Wolfe will raze the city for her… even if he doesn’t love her.’”

The silence in the car turned suffocating.

“She’s right,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

Then, louder: “Keep eyes on Aria at all costs. If anyone moves on her, I don’t want them breathing long enough to regret it.”

“Yes, sir.”

I was ten minutes out.

And something told me I wouldn’t get there fast enough.

On-screen, I saw Aria rise from the table. She was following Sienna toward the back. Toward the alley.

My heartbeat kicked like a war drum.

One of the agents buzzed through.

“Sir, she’s moving out of sight.”

Another voice cut in: “Signal interference near the alley cameras are glitching…”

“Override the static,” I snapped. “Patch me in now”

But the screen blinked once, then blacked out.