EPISODE - 4 Code and Collars

Aira had seen state-of-the-art labs. She built some of them. But the lab wing in Aceon Rael’s mansion?

This was something else.

Located beneath a marble estate hidden in the hills of Shimla, the underground facility was an architectural paradox—clinical and cold, yet filled with sleek black metal, deep blue lighting, and machines so advanced she couldn’t even name all of them.

Her breath fogged slightly as she stepped in. Temperature perfectly calibrated. Equipment humming in quiet sync.

“Holy… circuits,” she murmured.

“I aim to impress,” said Aceon casually from behind her, wearing a dark turtleneck and his usual devil-may-care grin.

“You have a private military-grade research center under your house,” she said, turning slowly.

“I have a lot of things under my house,” he said, tone mildly suggestive.

She gave him a withering look. “Don’t make me build a drone just to punch you in the throat.”

“I’d let it,” he replied smoothly.

As they walked further inside, Aira was already thinking in blueprints.

“I want this wing. Locked to my biometric signature. I’ll need a clean room, AI-assist module, and full access to the thermal isolator vault.”

“Granted,” Aceon said without hesitation.

“Also, I’m firing your entire security staff.”

He blinked. “Why?”

“I’ll replace them with programmable mech-units. Human error is unacceptable in my workspace.”

He grinned. “You’re insane. I love it.”

She frowned. “Stop saying that like it’s foreplay.”

“Why not?” he said innocently.

Before she could retort, the sliding steel doors opened with a hiss.

Aira's best friend Reya was waiting inside, legs up on a counter, snacking on orange chips, neon green hair falling over her laptop like a wild hacker goddess.

She looked up, smirked. “Hey, mad doc. You finally joined the rich murder club?”

Aira sighed. “Reya, this is Aceon.”

Reya looked him over. “Wow. I thought you were just a pretty face. Turns out you’re a full-blown mental patient with a private war dungeon. Cute.”

Aceon grinned, unbothered. “I like her.”

Behind Reya, a tall figure leaned against the wall silently. Leather jacket, buzzcut, one silver eyebrow ring and a cold expression like he was always seconds away from shooting someone in the face.

That was Riven.

Aira glanced at him. “Friend or threat?”

He answered in a deep voice, quiet and sharp like a blade drawn at midnight.

“Depends who you are to Aceon.”

“I’m the wife,” she said.

His eyebrow lifted slightly. “Poor bastard.”

Aceon looked genuinely delighted. “You’re all going to get along beautifully.”

Later that evening, Aira stood in the open hallway of the mansion, staring at the night sky through massive glass walls. She hadn’t slept. Her mind raced with blueprints, AI code, and… Aceon.

He wasn’t just a powerful man.

He was a complicated one.

Every time she looked at him, she saw three people:

The smiling actor who charmed millions.

The mischievous boy who once dipped her mechanical owl in glue.

And the predator hiding behind all of it—deadly, calculating, yet oddly fascinated by her.

She didn’t trust him.

But she couldn’t stop thinking about him either.

Aceon appeared beside her silently, sipping coffee.

“You know,” he said softly, “most people would’ve run by now.”

“I’m not most people,” she replied without looking at him.

He smiled faintly. “No, you’re not.”