Disguise 86_The Matchmaker

CHAPTER 86 

 The silence settled like ash–soft but suffocating. The kind that filled the lungs and left something heavy behind. Saptara sat rigid in her chair crossel over the other so tightly her thigh had begun to ache, but she didn’t shift. Her arms folded acros her riba like a brace–like if the to do the curling inside her chest might spill out through her fingertips.

 Her stare fixed on the far wall, but she didn’t see it. Not really. Her mind was reying every voice, every calcted word. She felt Niks beside her dis presence a low, steady hum–but he didn’t speak. Didn’t reach. He just waited, quiet and still like stone.

 Then–Jasper’s throat–cleating shattered the stillness, just a little too sharp in the hush

 “There’s… onest thing,” he said, far too pleased with himself for Saphira’s taste.

 She blinked, her eyes sharpening as she slowly turned to look at him. Her jaw flexed once. “What else could there possibly be?” she asked, her voice like polished ss–cool, precise, ready to cut.

 From across the table, Raven exhaled and leaned back with a creak of leather, her arms folding loosely. “Just wait, she said, and for once, her tonecked flippancy. It made Saphira pause.

 Jasper tapped his screen.

 This time, the voices came in clearer. Clean enough that they might’ve been standing in the room.

 “…Once the Elder pack is secured,” said that same cold,posed voice, “we’ll bring the Matchmaker fully under ourmand.”

 Saphira went still. Completely. Her spine straightened, and her breath caught in her throat like a snare. The Matchmaker. Again.

 They’re touching that ce?

 Her pulse began to roar beneath her skin.

 “The infrastructure is already in ce,” the Elder continued. “The staff believe they answer to tradition. Soon, they’ll answer only to us.” 

 Beside her, Niks shifted. Barely. But she felt it–the gathering tension, his entire frame sharpening beside hers. His elbow brushed hers. Warm. Anchoring.

 “And then,” said her former Alpha–that voice again, smug and venomous-“y

 “you’ll begin the purge?” 

 “Yes,” the Elder confirmed. “The cross–species packs are the disease. We’ll use the Matchmaker to eliminate them. Quietly. Efficiently. They’ll never see iting.”

 Saphira’s stomach twisted hard. She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, fighting the rise of nausea. The Matchmaker wasn’t just exile now. It was execution. A tool twisted into silence.

 “And when we’re done,” the Elder finished, “the world

 Saphira closed her eyes.

 be as it was meant to be. Pure. Untainted.” 

 Every instinct screamed. Every memory of white walls, forced stillness, flickering corridors–came mming back. That ce had stolen years from her. And

 now they were going to weaponize it against everyone else like her. People who didn’t fit their script.

 A hand brushed lightly against hers.

 Niks.

 She felt the brush of his fingers, gentle, patient–and this time, she turned her palm andced her hand into his. She gripped it–not L… but firm. Steady.

 Her anchor.

 He didn’t speak. But he shifted closer. She felt it in the way his thigh touched hers now, in the low flex of his jaw when he exhaled slowly through his nose,

 That was all she needed.

 CHAPTER 86 

 The world wasn’t just broken. It was rigged. And she would burn it before she let them carve the word “pure” into it spate,

 This wasn’t just survival anymore.

 This was war.

 The silence after the final recording settled like a stone at the bottom of ake–heavy, unmoving, final. Saphira sat forward in her chair, fingers </bced and knuckles pale against the wood. Her jaw worked once, barely, before she spoke, voice low but resolute.

 “We’ll be one of the first,” she said. “Or thest. A fully mixed pack?” Her eyes swept across the others. “We’re either the threat they deal with first..: of the mistake they’ll regret leaving until the end.”

 Beside her, Niks leaned back slightly, his arm brushing hers. The corner of his mouth curved–not into amusement, but into something sharp. Ready

 “Let theme,” he said. “Now we know their secret, we don’t fight blind. We n. We strike.”

 He turned his attention to the others, gaze flicking between them like a live wire. “What do you think?” 

 Raven didn’t even hesitate. She shoved herself upright, one boot thunking against the floor. “I think they need to be stopped,” she said. “They’re ying god with people’s lives. That ends.”

 Jasper tipped back in his chair, arms folded loosely, but his expression for once was serious. “Agreed. If they use the Matchmaker like they intend to, we won’t even see half the damage until it’s toote.” 

 Jed nodded, face drawn. “It has to be before they take full control,” he said. “Once they’re inside the Matchmaker’smand structure, it’ll be near impossible to track who’s being sent where–or why.”

 Niks exhaled, the sound like a warning hum in his chest. “Then we stop it before the next phase begins.” 

 Saphira shifted slightly, her voice quieter now but no less intent. “Did you hear anything about Damon?” Her eyes flicked to each face, searching.

 Jasper frowned, shaking his head. “Nothing. His name didn’te up.” But then he added, tapping his phone. “The device is still active–still recording. If they meet again or talk in the same ce, we’ll catch it. I’ll keep checking.”

 Saphira gave a tight nod, disappointment tempered by hope. Damon had to be out there. Somewhere.

 Niks leaned forward again, pressing both hands to the table. “We can’t make this call alone. We bring in the others. Share what we’ve heard. And we put a n together.”

 One by one, heads nodded. No protest. No pause.

 This wasn’t just about defending themselves anymore.

 It was the beginning of a resistance. And Saphira–fire steady in her bones–would stand at the centre of it.

 The tension in the office hadn’t lifted, not really, but the recording had ended and the shape of the future was beginning to harden into something clear- and unrelenting.

 Niks rested both palms on the table, the lines of his shoulders taut butposed. “We’ll call a meeting,” he said, voice low, decisive. In a couple of days. I want to wait–see if that recorder picks up anything else before we move.” 

 The others nodded, already rising from their seats, movements slower now, heavier.

 “I’ll send out my best scouts in the meantime,” Niks continued. “Eyes and ears open. If witches or vampires are being pulled into this, I want to know which packs they’re using. And why they’re following.”

 Raven made a thoughtful sound in her throat and grabbed her coat from the back of her chair. “If anything <bes through the whisper routes, I’ll get it to you fast,” she said. Jasper followed with azy salute and a muttered “On it.”

 Jed lingered a moment, his gaze flicking to Saphira with something between admiration and concern, then nodded to Niks and stepped out behind the 

 others. 

 213

 CHAPTER 86 

 And just like that, the room was quiet again. 

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Disguise 86