Chapter 225

Siron stole glances at Baekgyeong, sprawled at his side, and Isaac, hunched in the wingback chair by the bed, tapping away at his laptop. Neither of them seemed inclined to leave the room, not even for a step. With a helpless sigh, Siron pulled the blanket up to his throat. He smacked his lips in irritation and screwed his eyes shut, brows knit in displeasure.

“God, I can’t sleep if someone’s staring at me.”

For twenty-seven years he’d believed himself too sensitive to sleep under another’s gaze—yet he slipped under without resistance. Barely a minute passed before his breathing deepened and a faint snore slipped free.

“Fuck, you’re cute.”

Baekgyeong’s eyes softened as he gazed at Siron’s sleeping face, but then, like a boy plotting mischief, his mouth curved, teeth catching at his lip. He leaned down, pressed his mouth to Siron’s slightly parted lips, and drew back.

“Ha... you’re so fucking pretty.”

Siron, oblivious to the stolen kisses, kept breathing evenly. Baekgyeong pressed closer, tongue slipping between his lips. Damp breaths mingled; the wet, parting sound cracked like tiny thunder in the silence.

“Haah. That noise is grating.”

Baekgyeong raised his head slowly. His eyes narrowed with undisguised hostility as he whispered toward Isaac.

“Problem with your focus?”

“You said he was sensitive. Don’t disturb his sleep.”

Deliberately, Baekgyeong mocked him with another kiss, brushing Siron’s cheek.

“He sleeps like the dead. Wouldn’t notice if someone carried him off.”

He sat up and shot sharply,

“Your aim’s just Imprint, isn’t it? So what’s it to you if I suck his lips or his cock?”

Isaac frowned, as if irritated by a buzzing fly.

“It’s a distraction. I’ve changed my mind.”

“If you’re distracted, get the fuck out.”

Isaac fixed his gaze on him, then said evenly,

“If I kill you—and fail to Imprint, dying myself—what do you think becomes of Yoon Siron, left alone?”

“...His life would be fucked.”

The words ripped from Baekgyeong as though struck by lightning. Isaac’s eyes had pierced the thought he hadn’t yet dared to form: the vision of Siron, abandoned after his death, left to sink alone in the world of alphas.

Isaac watched the rigidity on Baekgyeong’s face.

“Exactly. So let me keep you alive. Don’t force my hand into smashing your skull.”

Baekgyeong scowled, bristling at the truth he hadn’t considered until a killer had said it aloud.

“I don’t scare. Whatever shit you spit, I don’t give a fuck. Siron won’t be left alone. When I die, he dies with me.”

“Ah, a funeral escort? You’ll take him into the grave?”

“And you’re not in any place to posture, old man. You’ve got one foot in it already.”

Isaac burst out laughing at the raw provocation. He’d cut down arrogant young alphas a thousand times before. Until now, Baekgyeong had been just another living corpse, easy to dispose of.

But the seizures gnawing at his body had forced Isaac to admit the truth: it wasn’t Baekgyeong whose pride was wasted, but his own. The sudden, uncontrollable attacks endangered them all. And with threats looming on every side, Isaac had no choice but to accept that he couldn’t control everything alone.

“We’ll see who really dies. But until we know how to Imprint, put it aside. And this.”

With casual insolence, Baekgyeong tossed a black object toward him.

“Found it in the Police Commissioner’s trunk.”

“A cigarette lighter plug?”

“Looks like it. But it’s not. It’s a recorder.”

“Looks like a regular plug to me. How’d you know?”

“I searched vehicle recorders. This model topped the list.”

It was slightly bulkier than a standard car plug, otherwise identical. But when Baekgyeong flipped the cap, buttons and LEDs gleamed inside.

“Someone else was trying to bug the Commissioner’s car. We were after the governor’s, but still.”

Isaac’s indifferent eyes sharpened with interest. He rose, pulled a cable, and connected it to his laptop. Instantly an external drive icon appeared, folders opening to reveal audio files.

Inside were recordings from September 30 to October 6, 2014. Each began at ignition and ended when the battery neared empty, splitting into multiple files per day.

“Bold bastards. Who the hell bugged the Commissioner’s car?”

Forgetting his own break-in, Baekgyeong muttered, and Isaac whistled.

“Whoever it was, your find makes their effort pointless.”

Just then, Siron’s faint, rhythmic snores cut off. Both men turned their heads. Three seconds, five, ten—too long. Baekgyeong moved to shake him when—pheeew—Siron exhaled loudly, smacked his lips, and settled again.

“Cute little shit. Even showing off in his sleep.”

Both men’s lips curved faintly, only to stiffen the moment their eyes met.

At length, Baekgyeong spoke.

“I saw something strange in the governor’s garage.”

“What?”

“The guy who drove the governor’s sedan out came back with another alpha. Changed clothes, looked sharp—but his face was drenched in blood. He called him... Ted?”

Baekgyeong studied Isaac’s reaction.

“Sound familiar?”

“Yes. Didn’t know the name.”

“Siron said a researcher in a wheelchair saved him from that bastard. That was you, wasn’t it?”

Isaac nodded. Baekgyeong’s voice sharpened with annoyance.

“He’d shaved his beard, ears were gone. Took me a minute, but he was from the island. Survived somehow.”

Baekgyeong folded his arms, smirking.

“Not as thorough as you think, are you? Couldn’t kill them all during the escape?”

Isaac didn’t smile.

“Running into him in the garage would’ve been trouble.”

The three of them were eyewitnesses to the island’s slaughter, escapees who had burned it to ash. If Ted had found them, the fallout would have been catastrophic.

“How far do you think the Belzoras hunters have tracked us?”

After the escape, they hadn’t told the homeless where they were headed. Only Sonia, who sailed with them, and Rafael, who’d lent the boat, knew of Belzoras.

Rafael was still flaunting his luxury on social media, untouched. Sonia’s safety could be assumed from that. Meaning only one leak remained:

Some of the homeless who returned to America had been caught again by Hybris, and somewhere in that net, hints of Isaac’s trail had slipped out.

“They’ll have pulled the Texas airport CCTV. They’ll know we landed. And they’ll know the three of us are together.”

“Fuck. Gives me chills.”

Baekgyeong rubbed his gooseflesh arm. Even if they wrung the Imprint’s secret from Gezar Bazelli, even if they survived it—the Hybris pursuit would keep tightening around their throats. It would never end.