Ch.36: Leo in Chains

I found Isabella in the corridor, her silhouette a sharp shadow against the frosted glass. I didn't ask. I didn't plead. I used the only weapon she had given me: my role as Julian’s keeper.

"I need to see Leo," I said, my voice projecting a cold, clinical indifference I didn't feel. "He was in the server room. He’s a primary genetic match for the donor. If your security team has damaged him, you’ve lost your only backup generator for Daisy’s marrow. Julian is already unstable; we can't afford to lose a viable source."

Isabella studied me, her eyes like twin surgical lasers. "You're learning, Elena. Efficiency over emotion." She signaled a guard. "Take her to the holding cells. Five minutes."

The basement level was a descent into a different kind of hell. It wasn't sterile like the labs; it smelled of damp concrete and iron. The guard stopped in front of a heavy steel door and buzzed me in.

Leo was slumped against the far wall, his wrists shackled to a rusted pipe. His face was a map of violence—one eye swollen shut, a deep gash across his cheekbone, and his shirt soaked in fresh, crimson blooming from his ribs.

"Get out," the guard barked at me.

"I’m here to assess the damage," I snapped, opening my medical bag. "Unless you want to explain to Mrs. Thorne why her backup sire died of internal bleeding on your watch."

The guard grumbled but stepped back outside, slamming the door.

I lunged for Leo, dropping to my knees. "Leo, it's me. Don't move."

He let out a raspy, pained laugh. "Did you… did you get it out? The files?"

"The network was blocked," I whispered, my hands flying over his ribs, feeling for fractures. "Leo, listen to me. Everything we thought was wrong. Julian isn't the monster in charge. He's a junkie. He's rotting. Isabella is the one holding the needle. She’s the dealer."

He hissed in pain as I cleaned the gash on his forehead with an antiseptic wipe. "The wife? She's... she's the one?"

"She choreographed everything," I said, leaning closer until my lips were inches from his ear. I could hear the guard’s muffled coughing outside. "She’s the architect of the archives. She’s been using you for years, Leo. Long before Daisy. She’s harvesting us both to build a new world for the elite."

I pulled a small syringe from my bag—not medicine, but the concentrated saline I’d used to dilute Julian’s dose. I pressed it into Leo’s hand, hiding it under his palm.

"She wants me to manage Julian's dosage," I breathed. "She thinks she’s bought me. She thinks she owns the wolf because she gave me the nursery."

Leo’s good eye found mine, filled with a dark, renewed fire. "What’s the plan?"

I felt a cold, jagged resolve settle into my chest, heavier than any fear I’d ever known. I looked at the door, then back at the man who was the father of my child.

"Isabella is the key. We have to take her out."