My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 406

Chapter 406: Chapter 406 NEUTRAL ZONE

SERAPHINA’S POV

As we walked out of OTS, the building behind us felt different.

The same glass façade caught the late afternoon light, the same steel framework held steady against the skyline, the same quiet hum of systems ran beneath it all—but something fundamental had shifted.

I didn’t stop walking until we reached the edge of the lot, the small group that had chosen to follow me trailing close behind.

I could feel them there without turning—the weight of their decision, the quiet gravity of it settling into place now that there was no going back.

It wasn’t a large group, but as I finally slowed and glanced back, I recognized most of the faces.

Not the peripheral members who came and went with projects, but the ones who had built things from the ground up, who had been here long before me.

The core members who understood how OTS functioned beneath the surface—the systems, the networks, the things that couldn’t simply be written down and handed over.

It didn’t lessen what we had lost.

But it meant we hadn’t lost everything.

“Alright,” I said, coming to a halt.

The city stretched behind me. The distant traffic noise blended into the background. Here, in this moment, it felt as if we stood in a pocket of stillness, isolated from everything else.

They all watched me expectantly.

“First,” I continued, “housing.”

A few of them exchanged glances.

“You said Nightfang and Frostbane,” one of them—Elliot—said carefully.

“I did.”

“But that’s not exactly...” He hesitated, searching for the right word. “Neutral.”

That was the problem.

Most of them had chosen OTS because it wasn’t tied to pack politics, because it existed outside that structure entirely.

Asking them to step into it now—even temporarily—was a compromise that came with weight.

“I’m aware,” I said.

Silence stretched again, thinner this time, edged with something more uncertain.

Before it could deepen, Judy stepped in.

“Most of us already have places,” she said, glancing around the group. “Apartments, shared housing. We’re not exactly starting from nothing.”

A few nods followed.

That eased something tight in my chest.

“Then we don’t force relocation,” I said, adjusting quickly. “We centralize operations instead.”

“Where?” Roxy asked.

That answer came easier.

“There’s a house I’ve been renting in a neutral zone,” I said. “It’s big enough to function as a temporary base. Meetings, coordination, storage for anything we recover from OTS.”

Judy’s brows lifted. “You’re offering it?”

I nodded. “I’ll buy it outright, and it will serve as a base while we figure things out.”

“You sure about that?” Roxy asked.

“It’s faster than trying to establish something new from scratch,” I said.

We didn’t have the luxury of time—or options.

“Alright,” Judy said, nodding once. “Then we start there.”

The group shifted as something like direction began to take shape out of the uncertainty.

It wasn’t stability.

But it was progress.

***

The house felt smaller than I remembered.

Or maybe it was just fuller.

People moved through the space in quiet, purposeful patterns—setting things down, clearing surfaces, opening laptops, checking connections.

The energy wasn’t chaotic, but it wasn’t settled either. It hovered somewhere in between.

I stood just inside the doorway for a moment longer than necessary, watching it unfold.

This was what we had left. What OTS had been reduced to.

“Okay,” Judy’s voice cut through the low hum of activity as she moved toward the center of the room. “We need structure before this turns into organized confusion.” 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

A few quiet huffs of agreement followed.

“Agreed,” I said, stepping forward. “Judy, you handle coordination. Internal communication, task assignment, tracking who’s where and doing what.”

She blinked. “Me?”

I nodded. “You can do it. I trust you.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again, something like reluctant acceptance settling into her expression.

“Fine,” she muttered.

“See if you can get a hold of Finn and Talia,” I added. I knew they’d both taken leave of absence to see their families. “We could use their help.”

She nodded. “Already texted them.”

“Roxy,” I continued, turning to her, “logistics. Equipment, materials, anything we manage to pull out of OTS. Inventory, transport, setup.”

Roxy gave a short nod. “On it.”

I paused, letting my gaze move over the rest of them.

“This is temporary,” I said. “We stabilize first. Then we figure out what comes next.”

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