LOGIN“Drive faster.” My voice was tight. Controlled. But inside, panic screamed. Clara was awake. Being experimented on. Suffering. Because I wasn’t there yet.Lycian pressed the accelerator. The SUV flew down the mountain road. Trees blurring past. Gravel spraying. “We’re still twenty minutes out. Going any faster and we crash.”“Then we crash closer to the facility.” I pulled out weapons. Checked ammunition. Silver bullets. Regular bullets. Knives. Everything we might need. “She’s awake. Scared. Alone.”“I know.” His hand found mine. Squeezed. “We’ll get her. I promise.”Through the bond, I felt his determination. His refusal to fail. It steadied me. Reminded me I wasn’t alone.The facility appeared as full dark hit. Massive concrete structure built into the mountainside. No windows. No obvious doors. Smooth gray walls and a single entrance guarded by four wolves in tactical gear.“That’s more security than the blueprints showed,” Elena said from the back seat. “They’re expecting us.”“G
“That’s impossible.” My voice came out strangled. Wrong. “Clara is dead. We buried her. I saw her body.”Lycian took my phone. Watched the video. His expression darkened. “It looks real. Recent. She’s breathing. Alive.”“It’s a trick. Manipulation. They’re using old footage. Editing. Something.” But my hands were shaking. Because deep down, I knew. The Collective didn’t bluff. Didn’t fake. Every psychological weapon they used was real.Elena leaned over. Watched the video loop. “The time stamp is from yesterday. And that facility. I recognize it. That’s the main research center. Where they keep their most valuable assets.”“She died from poison. In the hospital. We all saw it.” I grabbed the phone back. Stared at Clara’s face on the screen. Pale. Peaceful. Tubes running into her arms. “How could she be alive?”“Induced death.” Dr. Rivera appeared in the doorway, her expression grim. “It’s a technique the Collective developed. Slows the heart to almost nothing. Stops brain activity to
The floor didn’t just explode. It disintegrated.Concrete crumbled beneath us. Metal screeched. We dropped through darkness. Bodies falling. Wolves yelping. The sound of impact echoed as pack members hit the ground floor.I couldn’t shift back. Couldn’t move. The silver bullets were still lodged in my wolf form. Burning. Spreading poison through my bloodstream.Lycian twisted mid fall. His body was positioned under mine. Taking the impact. We hit hard. His grunt of pain vibrated through the bond.Dust filled the air. Thick. Choking. I coughed. Tasted blood and concrete.Above us, Thornheart’s laughter echoed. “Did you really think I wouldn’t have contingencies? Backup plans? I’ve been doing this for forty years.”Footsteps on the floor above. She was leaving. Taking her wolves. Abandoning us in the collapse.Elowen, Lycian’s voice filled my head. Stay with me. Don’t you dare die on me.The silver poisoning spread. My vision darkened at the edges. My heart beat too slowly. Too weak.I
I stared at Tessa’s terrified face on my phone screen. Her eyes were red. Swollen from crying. A bruise darkened her left cheek.My best friend. The girl who’d helped me move into my dorm. Who’d listen to me panic about meeting Lycian’s family? Who’d been there for every moment of my old life.Now tied to a chair. Bleeding. Scared. Because of me.“What’s wrong?” Lycian’s voice cut through my spiral. He sat up. Eyes finding mine in the darkness. “I feel your panic through the bond. Talk to me.”I couldn’t speak. Just handed him the phone.His expression went from confusion to rage in seconds. Gold flared in his eyes. His hands clenched. “When did this come?”“Just now.”“We call the pack. Trace the location. Go in with full force.”“They said come alone. Tell no one. Or they start sending pieces.” My voice cracked. “I can’t risk her. Can’t let her die because I told someone.”“It’s a trap. Obviously. They want you isolated. Vulnerable. Easy to capture.” He stood. Started pacing. “We’re
Heat. Pressure. The sound was so loud it stopped being sound and became a force. The world turned white. Then red. Then nothing.I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Just existed in a moment of pure destruction.Then arms wrapped around me. Lycian. His body covers mine. Shielding me from debris raining down like hail. Sharp. Heavy. Deadly.The explosion vented upward. Just like Elena planned. The roof tore away. Support beams groaning. Twisting. But the walls held. Barely.Dust filled the air. Thick. Choking. I coughed. Tasted blood and concrete. My ears rang. High-pitched whine drowning out everything else.Lycian moved. Shifted off me. His hands are checking. Searching for injuries. His mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear the words. Just that awful ringing.I sat up. The world spun. Nausea rolled through me. I swallowed it down. Focused on breathing. On staying conscious.The platform was gone. Just a crater where it had been. The thing wearing Thaddeus’s face was gone too. Vaporize
Twelve enhanced wolves. All programmed to kill me. All moving in perfect sync like they shared one mind.The pack scattered. Chairs overturned. People screaming. Pushing toward exits that suddenly wouldn’t open. Locked from the outside.A trap. Just like Elena had warned.Shift, my wolf urged. Now. Or we’re dead.I shifted. Bones breaking. Reforming. The pain is distant now. Familiar. My silver wolf stood ready.The enhanced wolves attacked as one. Coordinated. Efficient. No wasted movement.Lycian met the first three. His gray wolf is massive. Powerful. But they were enhanced. Stronger. Faster. They dragged him down. Teeth find flesh.Through the bond, I felt his pain. Sharp. Overwhelming. He was losing.Help him, I thought at my wolf. Please.Can’t fight and protect. Choose.I chose both.Silver light exploded from my body. Brighter than before. Hotter. It slammed into the enhanced wolves on Lycian. They yelped. Stumbled back. The light burned away their programming like acid on met
I woke up to seventeen texts from Tessa.Most of them were variations of “don’t you dare cancel” and “I’m bringing my pepper spray just in case.”The last one made me laugh.If he’s a serial killer, I’m prepared. Also, I’m wearing my running shoes.I texted back.He’s not a serial killer. Probably.
I woke up to sunlight streaming through unfamiliar windows.For a second, I forgot where I was. Forgot everything that happened. Then it all came rushing back.The accusation. The investigation. The pack meeting. The ninety-day trial.I groaned and pulled the covers over my head.“You’re awake.”I
“That was intense,” Elena said once the dining hall started to empty. She squeezed my shoulder. “But you handled it perfectly.”“I feel like I’m going to be sick.”“Normal response to confronting an entire pack.” She smiled. Warm. Motherly. “You did well, honey. Really good.”Garrett was grinning.
“We need to go to Rosewood Bar,” Lycian said once we were in the car. “That’s where Madison says she was attacked.”“Wolf bar,” Damien said from the backseat. “They won’t talk to a human.”“They’ll talk to me.”My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. Text after text. All from blocked numbers.You’re dead.







