Page 69 of Knot Your Fated M.U.S.E.

That's what I do now.

Plan for betrayal.

Prepare for the worst.

Protect my pack from threats they might not even see coming.

The security alert flashes across my screen, drawing my immediate attention.

Nine minutes until the operation begins, but something's triggered my monitoring systems.

"What do we have here?" I murmur, pulling up multiple windows to trace the source.

Not a breach in our systems.

One of Ravenscroft's firewalls has crashed —— a momentary vulnerability in their otherwise ironclad security.

Odd. Did someone allow it?

A low whistle escapes me as I lean forward, fingers flying across the keyboard. This kind of opportunity doesn't come often, and I'm not about to waste it. I doubt its a trap, because why would they encourage foreign sources in having access to such crucial information?

Especially when they have multiple firewalls to protect these valuable sets of files.

Time to see what they're hiding about Patient 495.

The breach gives me access to deeper databases, areas previously locked behind security protocols that would have taken weeks to crack. I navigate through the digital labyrinth with practiced ease, following the path to a folder marked with her designation.

And there it is.

The file opens, and I freeze, staring at the name displayed prominently at the top:

Nyx Blackwood.

My heart rate kicks up, recognition hitting like a physical blow. Because that name - thatsurname- carries weight in our world. The kind of weight that makes even hardened operators pause.

Blackwood.

It should be a common name, the kind you'd find in any phone book. But not here, not in these tainted circles.

In the underground, there's only one Blackwood family that matters. One organization that's turned that name into something between legend and nightmare.

My mind races through everything I know about them:Primary suppliers for the black market medical industry. Control pharmaceutical distribution channels that make legitimate companies look like corner drug stores. Deep ties to every major mafia family from Italy to Germany to France. Influence that extends into levels of government we're not supposed to know exist…

But there's one detail that doesn't fit, one piece of information that's been consistent across all intelligence reports:

The Blackwoods never had children.

At least, that's what everyone believes.

But what if we've all been wrong?

My fingers hesitate over the keyboard as implications cascade through my mind. If Nyx really is a Blackwood —not just someone using the name, but actual blood relation— it would explain so much about her situation.

Why she's been kept alive for six years when most subjects don't last six months.

Why her security clearance is higher than any other patient.

Why they're so interested in her "progress."

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