THE CAGE (The Chosen Series #3)

CH35. ♖h2 ♛xc4

Griffin is silent, and I feel myself bite my bottom lip as I wait for my brother's response. I know he's processing, letting the words absorb. But there was no gentle way to tell him that his... Our worst fears have come true.

There's a loud snap on the other end of the line, followed by the familiar sound of bones breaking. He's shifting. I can hear Liam in the background, commanding Griffin to get control of his wolf, but his only response is a guttural cry.

There are several louder cracks, more grunts, and then I hear the sounds of two people wrestling before the line goes dead.

I knew my brother wouldn't react well to the news, and unsurprisingly, his wolf, channeling their joint pain, forced the shift. Griffin has spent years pining for his mate. Now that he finally has her, knowing she's being held in the place of his nightmares would be tearing his mind in two.

Guilt churns in my gut, and rather than waiting for Griffin to calm down and call me back, I use this time to plan.

Locating a pad and pen in one of the side tables drawers, I begin writing.

From my calculations, the Under is at least twelve hours from Black Mountain and eighteen from the Manor. Checking my watch, I note the time as 8:13 PM and determine if Griffin left within the hour, allowing for the time zones and his driving. He would arrive just before dawn.

Switching my attention back to the television screen, I reconnect my watch and start opening the files I have on the Under. Finding what I'm searching for, I open the original blueprints and move the plans to the side of the screen. I then return to my search engine and access the most recent drawings of the facility.

Like most things, the current blueprints are password protected, but that doesn't prevent me from accessing them. My systems have enough intelligence to break into any government system, but I already have full access to the Office and Alexander's network. Something Shay was able to infiltrate when he initially broke into the Vault.

Typing in the code, I chew on my partially destroyed bottom lip and watch as the new plans are loaded. While part of my mind is on autopilot, another is trying to rationalize everything that's happening. Alexander had said at the Lake House that he had been keeping up pretenses when he was with the Ciara lookalike, and it wasn't until after the Gala that the girls were taken. Could he have been hiding our relationship because he knew something like this would happen?

But why not say something? Why not warn my brother or me?

Stopping my mind from spinning down a rabbit hole of what-ifs, I open another program that will overlap both blueprints.

Alexander was correct when he said the Under had been destroyed. With both images displayed in 3D, I can see that the main section of the original facility is no longer there, wiped out by the explosion. But what he failed to mention was that he's rebuilt it.

I feel my head start to throb, the dull ache building from my temples to my neck. I should've known this. I should've gone back and confirmed with my own eyes that... Again, I have to stop myself. I don't have time for self-pity. I need to focus.

I shift the model 180°and and enlarge it, my fingers expanding the diagram. From closer inspection and from a different angle, in addition to the new building, it appears they've built around the main two floors that housed our apartment, the White room, and the playroom.

Closing my eyes, I reach into my mind and draw forward the memories of those rooms. Images begin flickering behind my lids as I scan for the information I'm searching for. After several minutes and an increased heart rate, I finally located the data I needed.