The morning sunlight spilled through the tall windows, warm and golden, but the dining table felt unusually cold. Everyone's attention was locked on Rin and Kael — as if the rest of the world didn't exist.
Rin could feel their stares drilling into him. Forks paused midair, and conversations died halfway through sentences. Finally, he set his spoon down with a quiet clink and looked around.
"If you all have something to say," Rin said flatly, "you can say it."
The room froze.
Lucas almost choked on his coffee. Ari's eyes darted to Milo. Rowan cleared his throat and muttered something about the weather.
"It's nothing," Ari said quickly.
"Yeah, nothing," Nico added too fast.
"Then stop looking at me like that," Rin replied coolly.
The silence that followed was deafening. Kael hid a smirk behind his cup, his shoulders shaking faintly as he shrugged when Rin shot him a look. Don't ask me, his expression said. I'm just as lost as you are.
After breakfast, they gathered in the living room. Papers and maps spread across the coffee table — the plan to save James's family was still under discussion when Raphael stepped inside.
"James wishes to speak with you," he said, glancing between Rin and Kael.
"Send him in," Rin replied.
James entered, nervous but determined.
"First, I want to thank you," he began. "For agreeing to help my family… but I wasn't in the right state of mind before. There's something else I need to tell you."
Kael and Rin exchanged wary glances.
"Go on," Kael said.
When James finally spoke, his words tumbled out in clipped pieces. He apologized for not being clear earlier—he hadn't been right in the head when they first questioned him—and then began to explain what he knew.
The place holding his family wasn't a shabby hideout or a washed-out warehouse but a convincing front: a pharmaceutical company set just outside the city. By day, it passed as a legitimate business, but behind the facade, the building was divided into three distinct zones. The front—customer-facing and well guarded—was the cover. Behind that, the laboratories operated at night, synthesizing a heat-inducing compound. And at the very back, the portion of the complex no one ever saw housed the hostages: families, betas, omegas—people stolen from their lives and kept like inventory.
Rin and Kael listened without interruption.
He described the security layout: heavy patrols and checkpoints around the public labs; cameras and card-lock doors where employees moved freely; but the holding cells in the rear were surprisingly less fortified—fewer guards on the night shift, less redundant surveillance.
When James finished, Kael and Rin exchanged a look that carried both calculation and cold resolve.
"Good," Rin said after a moment. "That means we have a weakness to exploit."
Kael nodded. "We'll be prepared. But we don't drop our guard."
After James was escorted out, the two leaders sat in silence for a long moment before Kael finally said, "Tomorrow night, then."
Rin nodded. "Tomorrow night."
They spent the rest of the day buried in strategy—maps spread across tables, digital layouts glowing under dim light, voices low but sharp with focus.
By the time dinner ended, exhaustion was heavy in everyone's bones. Rin and Kael retired first. The moment their footsteps faded upstairs, the rest of the team exchanged loaded glances. No one said a word at first, but every single one of them knew what the others were thinking.
Moving like a pack of conspirators, they crept up the staircase, pretending to head to their respective rooms. They kept an eye on both leaders when they saw them going to their respective rooms, and they fell into silence.
Lucas broke the silence first, whispering, "See? We're just overthinking it. Nothing is going on between them." Ari and Nico turned in perfect unison, both shooting him matching glares that screamed shut up.
Milo, quiet as always, only murmured, "Wait." Everyone turned toward her, curious. Rowan frowned. "Why?" She shrugged, calm and knowing. "Just… women's instinct. Trust me—wait."
So they did. Hidden in the shadows of the hallway, they waited, holding their breath like children spying on a secret. It didn't take long. A few minutes later, Kael's door opened. He stepped out freshly showered, hair still damp, shirt half-unbuttoned, and his usual composed stride unhurried. Without hesitation, he crossed to the next door—Rin's room. The group froze as they watched him open it with ease and disappear inside. The click of the closing door echoed through the hall like thunder.
A stunned silence followed.
Then Milo broke it softly, a satisfied smile tugging at her lips. "Told you," she whispered.
Ari gasped, gripping Nico's arm. "See? He did go in!"
Nico muttered under his breath, "Why do I feel like that door wasn't even locked?"
"It wasn't," Milo replied smoothly. "Women's instinct."
Lucas, still clinging to denial, crossed his arms and grumbled, "They're probably just discussing the mission plan."
The collective sigh that followed could've rattled the walls. Everyone shot him the same tired look before quietly dispersing back to their rooms. Lucas frowned after them, muttering, "What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Inside the room they had just speculated about, the truth was far from a tactical discussion.
The soft lamplight painted warm shadows over the two figures on the bed. Kael's lips brushed against Rin's in a slow, lingering kiss that deepened until Rin's breath caught.
When they finally pulled apart, Kael rested his forehead against Rin's, voice low and rough. "I should mark you," he murmured.
"We leave tomorrow. It's safer if I do." Rin's cheeks flushed faintly, but he nodded, eyes fluttering closed.
Kael leaned in again, and as his mark settled into Rin's skin, the air filled with quiet heat and the faint thrum of something new binding them together.
Only then did they fall asleep—tangled close, the night outside silent but alive with the secret everyone downstairs already suspected.