MEDICAL EXAMINATION

The medical wing was exactly as sterile and uncomfortable as Anya remembered from three days ago. White walls, harsh lights, the smell of antiseptic strong enough to make her eyes water.

Galina was waiting, looking even more ancient and intimidating in the bright light. She glanced up when Anya entered with Nikolai.

"The assassin returns," she said in Russian. "Strip to your undergarments. We have work to do."

"Good morning to you too," Anya muttered.

"I don't do pleasantries. I do medicine." Galina gestured impatiently to the examination table. "Clothes off. Now."

Anya looked at Nikolai. He'd turned his back, giving her privacy, but hadn't left the room.

"Does he have to be here?"

"Pack protocol. You're not left alone with anyone except your mates until you're formally bonded. Even me." Galina pulled out various medical instruments. "He won't look. He's well-trained."

"Like a dog," Nikolai said dryly.

"Exactly like a dog. Now stop talking and let me work."

Anya removed her shirt and jeans, standing in just her bra and underwear. The cool air raised goosebumps on her skin immediately.

Galina approached with the clinical detachment of someone who'd seen everything twice. She checked Anya's eyes first, shining a light that was too bright, examining something Anya couldn't see.

"Hmm. Unusual pupil dilation. Next."

She moved to Anya's throat, fingers pressing against her lymph nodes. Then her chest, listening to her heartbeat with a stethoscope that was cold enough to make her gasp.

"Heart rate elevated. But consistent with stress, not abnormality." More notes on her tablet. "Breathe deeply."

Anya obeyed. Galina listened, moved the stethoscope, listened again.

"Lung capacity excellent. Better than average human. Interesting."

The examination continued. Reflexes, blood pressure, temperature. All of it documented with mechanical precision. Then Galina found the injection sites.

Her fingers traced the faded marks on Anya's inner forearms. "How many injections?"

"I don't know. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. They started when I was eight."

"And you were told they were for what purpose?"

"Making me stronger. Faster. Making me immune to supernatural influence so I could infiltrate wolf packs without being compromised by bonds or Alpha commands."

"Immune." Galina's expression was unreadable. "And is it working?"

Anya thought about her diagnostic. About the steady drop from one hundred percent to sixty-one. About the way her body responded to the brothers' touches with increasing intensity.

"Not as well as they promised."

"I see." Galina pulled out a different device, something that looked like a scanner. "This will feel cold. Hold still."

She pressed it against Anya's chest, just over her heart. The device hummed, data scrolling across a small screen. Galina's eyes widened fractionally.

She ran the scan again. Then a third time.

"Nikolai," she said sharply without looking away from the device. "Get Alexei and Dimitri. Now."

"What's wrong?" Anya asked.

"Nothing's wrong. Everything is wrong. I don't..."

Galina set down the scanner, picked up her tablet, made rapid notes. "Just wait. Don't move."

Nikolai left without argument. The door closed behind him, leaving Anya alone with Galina's increasingly concerning silence.

"What did you find?" Anya demanded.

"Something that should not be possible." Galina pulled up an image on her tablet, showed it to Anya. Complex strands of DNA, color-coded in ways that meant nothing to her. "This is your genetic structure. Do you see these markers?"

"I don't know what I'm looking at."

"These are wolf genetics. Specifically, Alpha genetics. In your DNA." Galina zoomed in on specific sections. "You're not human."

The room tilted. "That's not possible. I'm human. I've always been human."

"You should be human. Someone modified your genetics while you were still developing, suppressed your wolf nature, forced your body to present as fully human." She pulled up more data. "But the wolf is still there. Dormant. And now that you're near your mates, it's starting to wake up."

"No." Anya shook her head. "No, that's insane. I can't shift. I don't have any wolf abilities. I'm just..."

"Just a human who triggers mate bonds? Just a human whose genetic immunity is failing because it's not immunity, it's suppression? Just a human whose body is fighting to become what it was always supposed to be?"

The door opened. All three brothers entered, Alexei in the lead.

"What did you find?" His question was directed at Galina.

"She's not human. Never was." Galina turned the tablet around, showed them the genetic readout. "Someone took a wolf child, probably Alpha bloodline, and chemically suppressed her nature. The modifications she thinks made her immune to the bond were actually keeping her wolf locked away."

Silence. Complete, crushing silence.

"That's impossible," Dimitri said finally. "To suppress a wolf's nature that completely from that young would require constant maintenance."

"Which she received. For fifteen years." Galina gestured to the injection sites. "Every injection, reinforcing the suppression. Keeping her human."

"But why?" Nikolai moved closer to the table. "Why would anyone do that?"

"To create the perfect infiltrator," Alexei said, his voice cold. "A wolf who smells like a wolf, who triggers mate bonds, but who appears human to every other test. Someone who could get close to supernatural targets without raising any alarms."

"That's monstrous," Nikolai whispered.

"That's effective." Alexei looked at Anya, something shifting in his expression. "How long since your last injection?"

She had to think, counting backwards. "Six months. Maybe seven. They told me I'd graduated to annual maintenance doses."

"They lied. The suppression is breaking down. That's why your immunity is failing. You're not losing resistance to us. You're becoming what you were always meant to be." Galina pulled up more data. "And based on these genetic markers, what you were meant to be is very powerful. Possibly Alpha. Potentially Luna."

"No." Anya was shaking her head, hands trembling. "This is wrong. I'm human. I've always been human. I don't have a wolf. I would know if I had a wolf."

"Would you?" Galina's voice was surprisingly gentle. "If they suppressed it from age eight or younger, before you were old enough to shift, you'd have no memory of it. No frame of reference. You'd think you were human because that's all you'd ever known."

"Then where is it? If I have a wolf, where is it?"

"Dormant. Locked away. But waking up." Galina showed her another scan. "Your hormone levels are shifting. Your body temperature is elevating. Your senses are becoming more acute. All signs of an emerging shift."

"When?" Alexei asked. "When will she shift?"

"Unknown. Could be days. Could be weeks. The suppression is breaking down, but I can't predict how fast." She looked at Anya. "When it happens, it's going to be painful. Your body will be forcing a change it should have made decades ago. And there's no guarantee you'll survive it."

"Survival rate?" Dimitri's voice was flat.

"For a suppressed shift this late? Maybe sixty percent. If we're lucky."

The number hung in the air like a death sentence.

"Is there anything we can do?" Nikolai asked. "To make it safer?"

"Keep her close to her mates. The bond will help stabilize the shift when it comes. Beyond that?" Galina shook her head. "Pray to whatever gods you believe in."

She packed up her equipment, made more notes. "I'll need to monitor her daily. Blood draws, scans, the works. We need to track how fast the suppression is degrading."

"Done." Alexei moved to Anya, handed her clothes to her with surprising gentleness. "Get dressed. We're leaving."

She dressed with shaking hands, barely able to process what she'd just learned. Not human. Never human. A wolf forced to be human, a fundamental piece of herself locked away for twenty-three years.

They walked back to her room in silence. When they arrived, Alexei pulled her into his arms without a word, just held her while she tried not to fall apart.

"I don't know who I am anymore," she whispered against his chest.

"You're ours. That's all that matters."

"But everything I thought I knew..."

"Was a lie. I know. But this?" He tilted her face up, made her meet his eyes. "This is true. You're a wolf. You're our mate. And we're going to help you become whatever you're meant to be."

"What if I can't? What if the shift kills me?"

"It won't. We won't let it." His certainty should have been comforting. Instead, it terrified her, because he couldn't actually promise that.

"Galina said sixty percent survival rate."

"Galina's a pessimist. You're a survivor. You've beaten worse odds." He kissed her forehead. "Rest. Tomorrow we start preparing you for the shift."

"How do you prepare for something like that?"

"Carefully." He released her, moved toward the door. "And Anya? Whatever happens, you're not alone. Not anymore."

He left, and she stood in the suddenly quiet room, trying to process everything.

She wasn't human.

She had a wolf inside her, locked away, trying to break free.

And if Galina was right, when it finally emerged, there was a forty percent chance it would kill her.

Her comm unit vibrated. Check-in signal. Persistent.

She activated it with a tongue click. "Seven reporting."

"About time," her handler's voice crackled.

"Status?"

"Compromised. Targets know about infiltration. Require extraction."

"Extraction denied. You have thirty-six hours to complete mission or face retirement."

"I can't complete it. They know what I am. They..."

"Then I suggest you find a way. Because retirement is permanent, Seven. And your sister pays the price if you fail."

The line cut dead.

Anya stood frozen. Her sister. They'd never mentioned a sister before.

She activated her diagnostic, pulled up her full file. Scrolled through pages of information she'd never bothered to read.

There. Buried in her background data.

Subject A-7 (Anya). Sibling: Subject I-11 (Irina).

Both acquired age 8 and 6 respectively.

She had a sister.

Somewhere in Project Seventh's custody, a girl named Irina existed. And if Anya failed her mission, they'd kill her.

The trap was complete.