LOGINIsabella arrived at Blackwood Estate 30 minutes after the warning, but she wasn't alone or attacking.She brought her remaining loyal pack, maybe twelve wolves compared to thirty before Thomas's betrayal, and every one of them looked like they'd been through hell.Isabella had half her face burned from the facility explosion and limped like she had broken ribs that hadn't healed.Dante had the pack on high alert for an attack, but Isabella stopped at the gate and requested a neutral territory parley. Elena watched from the second-floor window as Dante decided whether to honor the request or treat it as a trap. She could see him calculating whether Isabella was worth the risk."Let her in," Elena decided for him. "She could have attacked already if she wanted, and we need to know what Thomas did to her pack."Isabella entered the main hall like she owned it despite being outnumbered five to one, and she dropped a thick manila folder on the table between herself and Dante with enough fo
Elena's symptoms worsened over the next hour despite Dr. Chen's phone-based stabilization.The substance Viktor injected her with was spreading through her system faster than expected, and her body kept shifting involuntarily as a defense mechanism, making things worse.She was drifting in and out of consciousness when Dante demanded to know what was in the injection and Dr. Chen said she didn't know without seeing a sample.Elena's life seemed to be about complicating things when Marcus arrived with news. "We found Viktor's research notes," he said, holding a bloody tablet. "The injection was meant to accelerate silver wolf pregnancy, not kill her. He wanted to force her to conceive and carry a hybrid in weeks, not months."The room went silent as everyone processed what that meant, and Elena felt her already fragile control over her wolf slip further because Viktor trying to force her into a rapid breeding program made her want to tear something apart.Elena saw Dante's dark, danger
Elena ordered the driver to redirect toward the real facility while she informed Dante of Viktor's revelation and left the Viktor team before anyone could stop her.Isabella had been feeding Viktor their assault plans, so the Marcus extraction was likely compromised, but Dante was too deep in Cross territory to abort without a territorial war."Get Marcus out and meet us at the real facility," Elena said over the phone, watching Viktor's GPS coordinates and threats.Victor activated the Seattle release protocol, so we have less than 30 minutes before a massacre."After hearing fighting in Dante's call, she knew the extraction wasn't going well, but he confirmed receiving the new coordinates before the line went dead.Elena's team found Viktor's facility to be a converted pharmaceutical plant with enough security lighting to prevent a covert approach. Its artificial pack bonds were screaming wrongness into Elena's silver wolf awareness, so she could sense the hybrids inside from the pa
Elena spent the next eighteen hours learning to sense pack bonds from a distance while her body recovered from the transfusion, but she could barely focus for more than twenty minutes before exhaustion took over.Katerina taught Elena long-range sensing, explaining that silver wolves could feel pack bonds across entire territories, but Elena's newly awakened abilities were only a few hundred feet.Marcus left for Seattle with two other pack members to gather supplies for the facility assault, and Elena was training with Katerina when Dante's phone rang with a number that made him frown.He answered on speaker, and Isabella's fake concern made Elena cringe.“I'm calling as a courtesy between the alphas,” Isabella said. Your Beta entered Cross territory without permission, so I detained him under regional law. If you want him back, negotiate."Dante said, "Marcus wouldn't violate territorial boundaries without authorization," with controlled anger. "He's where?""Safe and unharmed for
They left Seattle without Isabella trying to detain David, but she said she'd file a formal complaint with the tribunal about Dante harboring another Viktor hybrid on his land.David was in a reinforced transport vehicle and Marcus was sitting beside him, looking like he was trying to process seeing his dead brother alive and transformed into something else. The drive back to Blackwood Estate was tense and quiet.Elena planned how to approach Viktor's facility with less than thirty-six hours before his deadline, but Dr. Chen met them at the estate with bad news, derailing her plans. Katerina collapsed an hour after leaving for Seattle, her heart stopping twice before the doctor stabilized her."She's dying," Dr. Chen informed Elena as she led her to the medical wing. Her bone marrow can't produce healthy blood cells after 18 years of systematic blood extraction. Without a silver wolf transfusion within 24 hours, her organs will shut down."Elena felt sick because there was only one s
They found the tracking device where Viktor said it would be, professionally sewn into Nikolai's coat pocket lining, suggesting Dmitri's people planted it without his knowledge.Elena wished her cousin hadn't led Viktor to Katerina, but Viktor now had a direct line to Blackwood Estate and the woman he'd been harvesting for eighteen years.Dante decided to evacuate Katerina to a safe location within ten minutes of finding the device, but Dr. Chen argued that her current condition could kill her faster than Viktor's assault.Marcus received the call about the hybrid attacks in Seattle while they were debating options, and protecting one woman became secondary to stopping three hybrids who were killing humans in a populated area."We go now," Dante said, moving toward the armory. You're with me, Elena. Marcus, secure the attack site with five wolves before human media gets too much footage."Elena grabbed weapons and body armor a pack member threw at her and was in the SUV before she re







