Mated To The Crippled Alpha-Chapter 253: In Control

A soft knock landed on the bathroom door.

Then Lewis’s voice came through, low and steady. "Elena, are you in there?"

My pulse jumped like my body was already answering him before my mouth could. "Yes, I’m here."

"I need to talk to you about something."

"Come in," I said, too quickly.

I stared at the test stick in my hand. Just one line.

Lewis had been right.

I wasn’t pregnant.

I waited for relief to wash over me, but it didn’t come. What I felt instead was a quiet, sharp letdown that made my throat tighten.

The truth was... a part of me had wanted it.

The door opened, and the moment Lewis stepped in, his eyes found my face. He read me the way he always did—like he could hear my heartbeat from across a room.

"What’s the matter?" he asked.

I held up the test, forcing my voice to stay casual. "I took it. It’s negative."

He didn’t look surprised. He just crossed the space and patted my head, gentle, grounding. "It’s okay. You’re still young. You’ll have children one day."

He said you.

Not we.

Something cold slid into my stomach. I looked up at him. "It’s us."

A small pause. Too small to mean nothing.

"Yes," he said, like he was choosing the word carefully. "It’s us."

I looked away before my face could betray me. My eyes landed on a tiny potted plant on the table—a small Bodhi tree with plump round leaves. The fruit was cute too, green with a hint of red, like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.

It didn’t bloom. It went straight to fruit.

The thought made my chest ache in a way I didn’t want to name.

I cleared my throat and pointed at it, pretending it mattered more than the heaviness in the air. "It’s so cute."

Then I turned back to him. "What did you want to tell me?"

Lewis guided me out of the bathroom and pulled me down to sit. His hand stayed on my shoulder, firm and warm, like a promise.

"I went to the police station this morning," he said.

My heart sped up. "What did you find out?"

He exhaled. "Something big."

That one sentence lit me up. My fear, my frustration, my confusion—everything snapped into focus. "Really? What?"

Lewis’s gaze sharpened. "That secret underground base is linked to a notorious international criminal organization. Bloodshade."

The name felt unfamiliar on my tongue. "Are they the ones selling organs?"

Lewis’s mouth tightened. "It’s more than that. They profit from almost every kind of illegal trade you can think of—organ trade, trafficking, fraud, sex trade, drugs, weapons, all of it."

My stomach turned, but my mind kept pushing forward. "So they’re just... money. No limits. No conscience."

"You could say that," he replied. "They feed off suffering. And the worst part is, they have top-level tech people and medical experts."

I stared at him. "Those experts... they’re part of it too?"

He gave me a look like he hated the world for making me ask that. "Silly girl. Do you think they do this for fun? The people at the top have wealth and power, and their biggest fear is aging and death. So they build services for themselves. No morals. Just appetite."

I swallowed hard. The Morrigans were rich, but they were nothing compared to the real monsters hiding above them. I’d always known that.

I just didn’t know we were in their hands.

"So... what about you?" I asked quietly.

Lewis didn’t dodge it. "Yes. Someone invited me once. I turned it down."

Then he added, flat and almost amused, "And I’m not even interested in women, so you won’t catch me dead in a place like that."

I blinked, thrown off for half a second.

He didn’t give me time to get stuck there. "What surprised me is that they reached into our lives at all. That base here is only one location. They have others across the world."

A heavy sadness settled on me.

All those hidden places. All those people taken and erased like they were nothing. Not everyone gets a second life. Not everyone gets a second chance.

How many disappeared without even a name left behind?

I forced myself to stay focused. "Have they figured out who runs this base?"

Lewis’s eyes turned colder. "Some people call her Dark Rose."

"An alias?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "No one knows her real age or face. Only that she’s a woman. And she’s cruel. This person likely has a vendetta against both the Hales and the Morrigans. That’s why she built this trap. Camilla and Silas were only tools."

My hands curled in my lap. "If they know that, why haven’t they arrested her? Did she escape?"

"When the base was raided," Lewis said, "someone tipped her off immediately. By the time the authorities arrived, it was empty."

"What about Camilla? Cameras? Roads? Anything?"

He shook his head once. "She slipped away with a fake license plate. The latest report says they’ve already left Snowville."

I felt heat rise behind my eyes. "So they take lives... destroy families... and then they just walk away?"

"The dead can’t return," I whispered, more to myself than him.

Lewis’s voice dropped, icy and sure. "She’ll return."

I looked up.

"The Morrigans and the Hales are her obsession," he continued. "Once the storm settles, she’ll come back."

His jaw tightened like it hurt him to speak the next part.

"And I want her to return... and never leave."

A shiver ran through me. Not fear of him.

Fear of how calm he could be when his dominance rose to the surface. Fear of how steady he was when he decided something belonged to him—justice, revenge, protection, me.

Still... at least we had a name now. A direction. A shape to the enemy.

Lewis squeezed my hand. "Elena, don’t worry. I’ll get justice for you."

I squeezed back. "I believe you."

After Silas’s body was examined, it was returned to the Hale grounds. Because of his status, there was no big show. No flashy ceremony. Just a private funeral for him and Vicky, quiet and guarded.

No photos.

No stories.

Just a code name.

I watched the grave fill in, watched the earth cover a man who had once ended my life without blinking. Adam dropped to his knees, crying like the sound could dig Silas back out.

I felt nothing.

Adam looked up at me, eyes bloodshot, face twisted. I spoke first, calm and cold. "He loved Camilla. He’d want to be buried beside her. With Camilla."

Adam snapped like I had slapped him. "Riley, how can you be so cold? He was a life. He’s gone. Don’t you have any sympathy?"

Sympathy?

A bitter laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

When Silas pushed that blade into me, he didn’t hesitate. He didn’t pity me. He didn’t pause.

I didn’t scatter his remains.

I didn’t desecrate his body.

That was mercy enough.

"Adam," I said, my voice low, "there’s no love without reason in this world. And there’s no hate without reason either."

He muttered like a curse. "You’re out of your mind."

I didn’t answer. One day, he would understand what his son did to me. Maybe then he’d stop asking me for softness.

I stepped closer to Silas’s grave and spoke quietly, making sure every word landed. "Don’t worry. Camilla will be with you soon."

Lewis’s hand moved at my back, steadying me. I pushed him forward gently in his chair and turned away from the grave without another glance.

As we walked, I lowered my voice. "Lewis, let’s set up hidden cameras around here."

His eyes narrowed. "You think Camilla hasn’t really gone?"

I nodded. "Silas’s death will break her. Even if she ran... she’ll come back."

The bond between people like them wasn’t gentle. It was obsession. It was need. It was the kind of attachment that made you do stupid things, dangerous things, just to touch the place where your person was last seen.

"At the very least," I added, "she’ll come to light a candle for him."

Lewis looked toward the setting sun. The cold light caught the edge of his face, making him look like something carved from stone.

"When she comes back," I said, "we catch her by surprise."

Lewis’s voice was quiet, but it carried that Alpha certainty that made my skin tighten. "Then everything changes."

He stared at the horizon like he could already see the next move.

"It’s time for us," he said, "to take control of everything."