ce was deafening, a fragile calm shattered by

le fury. The heavy crystal scotch glass he had been holding now lay in fragments

the confirmation: El

t over the Atlantic, only to reappear minutes later transmitting erratic, nonsensical codes before shutting down permanently. She hadn

night before, the surrender, the rejection, the hostile counter-move-it w

in his face with a $50 million insult, secured her com

eck. He didn't tear it; instead, he smoothed it out with car

high-rise. He was talking to Commander Zev, the head of his private intell

was tense but steady. "Her private medical team release

every legal and digital trace. It's

Use the banking records. Don't tell me she vanished. I own the world's shadows, Zev. Brin

nly Elara's icy face as she delivered her rejection. The rage was slowly beginni

e last twenty-four hours, searching f

eld that intense, dangerous combina

to ragged breaths and desperate pleas. He had seen i

malice, but because he believed money solved everything, and he wanted a clean, f

es-not weak, not tearful, but burning with a conte

een rejected. Not his proposal, not his company, but him. The man

tial. He hadn't just lost an opponent; he had lost the one person who challenged him, who matched his fire,

he intensity? The sheer

desperate kisses. It wasn't just physical release for her; it was a surrender sh

him, burning for him. The thought of her being anywhere else, especially with another man-th

had rejected her first, but her retaliation was absolute. And n

the intelligence network, something he hadn't done s

known shell corporation associated with Vane Industries. Elara had moved

e was fully fueled and prepared for a flight to Geneva, but the actual landing was untraceable. She

ne is seeking aggressive, experimental treatment for a rare condition abroad." All doctors were under s

computers. They were clean-scrubbed days ago, containing only basi

sweating, terrified of th

ate powers, faked an illness, and created a digital ghost-all in the six hours between lea

adiating cold frustration. "Impossi

tact anyone in her inner circle-no friends, no family, no lovers. It's

for a small, private villa rental in a remote, isolated Swiss locat

ds slamming on the desk. "The

lled St. Moritz-Dor

months, in cash. And the payment was routed through five separate dumm

ncial obsession immediately translated it into business, not bio

edge of his logical mind. It was an odd, specific timeframe for corporate exile. Most illnesses would demand

. He walked over to his mini-fridge and pulled out a bott

had been so consumed by his need to dominate her, to take her, that he hadn't thou

nose, the headache pounding a

leaving his office-he had dismissed it as stress. He remembered her sudden,

stomach, far heavier than the five

ould have told me. She woul

e of destruction. If she was carrying my child... she would never, ever t

ng him; she was stealing his lineage, his blood, the ultimate prize. His inherent Alpha instincts, t

te phone. He didn't call his security firm; he called an old, trusted c

e now dangerously calm. "I don't want financial tracking. I want surveillan

aring at the c

in high-risk prenatal care-discreetly placed in the area. Pay them

ecome a personal, obsessive hunt. He wasn't tracking an indust

r chair, a slow, terrifying s

al my bloodline. You made a mistake. You may have won the boardroo

and displayed on his computer scr