LOGIN“Mom, stop. Please. It’s me. It’s Elowen.” I backed away as she advanced. Her eyes flat. Empty. Nothing of the woman who’d birthed me was visible in that mechanical stare.“Target identified. Moonsilver threat. Eliminate.” Her hand reached for my throat. Fast. Trained. Deadly.Lycian caught her wrist. Held her back. “We need to restrain them. Before they hurt someone. Before they hurt you.”“No. I can fix this. I can purify the programming. Like I did with Elena. Like I did with the enhanced wolves.” I reached for my power. For the silver light. Found nothing. The suppression drug was still blocking everything that made me Moonsilver.My father moved. Silent. Efficient. Grabbed a scalpel and lunged at me.Elena intercepted. Her elbow struck his temple. He dropped unconscious. The scalpel clattered to the floor.“They’re too far gone,” Elena said. Breathing hard. “Twenty-two years of conditioning. You can’t undo that.”“I have to try. They’re my parents.” I knelt beside him. Touched hi
My parents looked exactly as I remembered. Frozen in time. Mom’s dark hair streaked with silver. Dad’s strong jaw. Both are peaceful. Like they were sleeping instead of trapped.“They’re really alive.” My voice came out strangled. Wrong. “You weren’t lying.”“I never lie. I manipulate. I misdirect. I strategize. But I don’t lie.” Tessa circled the chambers. Fingers trailing along the glass. “Your parents have been here for twenty-two years. Suspended. Waiting. Perfect subjects for our experiments.”“Subjects.” The word tasted like ash. “They’re people. My parents. Not your lab rats.”“They’re both. That’s what makes them so valuable.” She stopped at my mother’s chamber. Studied her face. “Your mother was brilliant. Created half the formulas we still use. Your father perfected the suspended animation process. They gave us everything. Willingly. Before they got cold feet and tried to run.”“You’re lying. They would never help you. Never willingly hurt people.”“Wouldn’t they? Everyone h
Three days weren’t enough time to prepare anyone for what was coming. But it was all we had.The adolescent wolves stood in the training yard. Nervous. Excited. Too young to fully understand what they were volunteering for.Maya. Fourteen. Fast. Clever. Daughter of a pack warrior who’d died fighting the Collective.Jason. Thirteen. Small even for his age. But it could fit through spaces others couldn’t. His mother watched from the sidelines, face pale.Kira. Fifteen. The oldest. The leader. She’d already shifted three times. Already proven herself capable. Her father stood beside her, pride and terror warring on his face.“You don’t have to do this,” I told them. Voice soft. Serious. “This is dangerous. Possibly deadly. No one will think less of you if you walk away.”“My dad died fighting them,” Maya said. Chin up. Defiant. “I want to help finish what he started.”“My mom says the Collective took my older brother years ago. Experimented on him. Killed him.” Jason’s voice shook but he
“She knew.” I stared at the photo. At Tessa’s smug smile. At the proof, she was still watching. Still listening. Still ten steps ahead. “She knew we’d find the laptop. Knew we’d think we’d outsmarted her. This was all part of her plan.”Lycian took the phone. Studied the image. His jaw clenched. “Then we abandon the estate. Move somewhere she can’t monitor. Start fresh.”“She’ll expect that too. Probably has surveillance at every safe house. Every pack location.” I grabbed the phone back. Threw it off the balcony. Watched it shatter below. “We can’t win by running. She’s always watching.”“Then we give her something to watch.” He pulled me away from the railing. Back inside. “Something that makes her think she’s winning while we actually prepare.”“Like what? We already tried feeding her false information. She saw through it.”“Then we don’t feed false information. We feed real information. But incomplete.” His eyes gleamed. “We let her think she knows our plan. Then we do something d
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Just stared at the blank screen where Tessa’s face had been, where Nightshade had been, where my best friend had revealed herself as the enemy.How long had she been lying? Since freshman year? Since the day we met? Every conversation. Every secret shared. Every moment I’d trusted her. All fake. All manipulation. All part of their plan.My hands shook. The phone slipped. Clattered on the nightstand.Lycian stirred. His arm tightened around me. Still half-asleep. “Everything okay?”“No.” The word came out broken. Raw. “Nothing’s okay. Nothing’s been okay. I’ve been so stupid.”He was awake instantly. Sitting up. Eyes alert. “What happened? What’s wrong?”I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t make it real by speaking. But I had to. Had to share this. Had to let him help carry the weight.“Tessa. She’s Nightshade. She’s been Collective since the beginning. Since before I even knew wolves existed.” Tears burned my eyes. “My best friend. The person I trusted most
The estate looked different. Smaller somehow. Like nearly dying made everything else shrink in comparison.Pack members flooded out before we’d even parked. Faces I recognized. Names I’d fought to remember. All of them are watching. Waiting to see if their Luna had survived.Clara pushed through the crowd. Tears are already streaming. She grabbed me the second I opened the door. Held on like I might disappear.“You’re alive. You’re really alive.” Her hands checked me over. Looking for injuries. For proof this was real. “They said you were captured. That Thornheart had you. I thought I’d lost you again.”“I’m okay. We’re all okay.” I hugged her back. Breathed in her familiar scent. Lavender and home. “How are you feeling? The enhancements they gave you?”“Gone. Purified. Whatever you did before they took you, it worked.” She pulled back. Looked at Lycian. At the blood still covering him. At how he leaned on me for support. “You’re hurt. Both of you. Inside. Now.”She herded us toward t
I showed Lycian the message without a word.His jaw clenched. Gold bled into his eyes. Through the bond, I felt his wolf surge. Furious. Protective. Ready to hunt.“We’re leaving,” he said. Voice tight. “Tonight. The beach trip. We’re going now.”“We can’t run from this.”“It’s not running. It’s re
Councilman Richard Sterling. Mid-fifties. Silver hair. Cold blue eyes that had never looked at me with anything but contempt.He was the one. Had to be.I forced myself to stay calm. To walk to the desk. To sit down like nothing was wrong.Thaddeus sat at the center of the council table. His expres
I couldn’t go back to sleep.The distorted voice played on repeat in my head. Other plans. Plans you can’t prepare for.Lycian held me tight. His heartbeat was steady against my ear. Trying to calm me through the bond. But his own anxiety bled through. Sharp and worried.“We’ll tell my father,” he
The next two weeks crawled by.Every day felt the same. Wake up. Study pack history. Change bandages. Study more. Cade is following me everywhere. Lycian hovering. The constant weight of being watched. Protected. Threatened.My hands healed slowly. The stitches came out after ten days. The burns fa







