Page 143 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir

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We find Clancy in a medical room, strapped to a scan table.

He looks up when we enter, wide-eyed.

“Mama!”

I run to him, hands shaking as I undo the restraints.

He throws himself into my arms with a sob that breaks me in half.

Kalev crouches beside us, brushing Clancy’s curls back from his face.

“You alright, little warrior?” he asks softly.

Clancy nods. “They tried to take my blood. I didn’t cry.”

“I know,” Kalev says. “You’re stronger than they’ll ever be.”

Clancy leans into him like he knows it’s true.

And I watch them—father and son—and something inside me that’s been brittle for years starts to mend.

We don’t have long.

Kalev rises. “Extraction’s five minutes out. We move now.”

“Extraction?” I echo.

He doesn’t answer.

Just hands me a datachip and a small black device.

“Press this if we’re separated. It’ll lead you to the fallback. Chip’s our backup plan.”

I nod, tucking both into my pocket.

We follow him through halls that look less like a prison now and more like a battlefield. The lighting flickers. Doors hang off hinges. Sirens whine distantly, like they’ve already given up.

As we reach the main courtyard, I see it—ships lifting off from nearby pads.

But it’s not reinforcements.

It’s retreat.

The Alliance isn’t doubling down.

They’repulling out.

“What did you do?” I ask, voice cracking.

Kalev doesn’t look at me. Just scans the perimeter.

“I burned their chain of command,” he says. “Everything Dowron buried—I unearthed it. Civilian kills. Proxy blacksites. Genetic experiments. It’s all public now. The Alliance is bleeding credibility faster than they can cauterize.”

I stare at him.

“You didn’t just come for us.”

“No,” he says quietly. “I came to end the war.”

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