C1

"The victim was an Omega male, barely eighteen, and the soul-scent started fading roughly thirty-six hours ago. The skin has turned that stagnant shade of crimson, and both pupils are blown wide and unresponsive... Have the silver-trace results from the claw marks come back from the lab yet?"

"They just hit my terminal. The DNA is a match for the same rogue in the serial mauling case. That makes three young Omegas slaughtered in the Northern Territory this year alone."

"Animal! To kill your own kind like this... it’s a violation of every Pack Law we hold sacred."

I felt the familiar, heavy weight of the moon settle in my gut. If we didn't track this monster soon, more innocent lives would be snuffed out before their first shift.

I looked away from the cooling body, letting out a sharp exhale as I scrubbed my hands in the Lunar Forensics disinfection pool. The scent of chemical sage stung my nose, but it was the only thing that could mask the smell of rot.

"Dr. Quinn, big plans for the lunar cycle tonight?"

Maya Collins, my assistant, leaned against the steel table with a knowing smirk. "Our lead forensic healer, a man who lives for the hunt, actually asked to clear his autopsy docket before sundown. That’s a first."

"Something like that." I pulled off my blood-stained scrubs and offered a tight nod.

Usually, I was the stone-faced professional at the Grimford Medical Sanctuary, rarely letting the mask slip. But today was different. It was my twenty-ninth birthday, and Evan Mercer had promised me something life-changing tonight.

Evan was my senior back at the Academy and now a lead healer at the Medical Sanctuary’s cardiac wing. We’d been together for seven years—a lifetime for those of us without a fated bond. I was convinced he was going to ask me to join his bloodline officially. Maybe even a proposal?

The thought injected a bit of warmth into my veins. I finished up, grabbed my keys, and drove toward the Sanctuary’s lower levels to meet him.

I pulled my truck into the dim, concrete shadows of the underground pack-lot. As I stepped out, a low, guttural sound echoed through the rafters. It was a moan—suppressed, ragged, and thick with a scent that wasn't medicine or formaldehyde. It was the musk of heat and betrayal.

I should have kept walking. My instincts screamed at me to leave, but my feet felt heavy, anchored to the pavement by a premonition I couldn't ignore.

"Evan... who do you want? Him or me?"

"You, always you, Sienna." The man’s voice was a low purr, dripping with an indulgence that made my skin crawl. "How could a man who spends his days elbow-deep in rogue carcasses compare to a pure-blood like you? You’re a Quinn heiress!"

I followed the sound, my shadow stretching long against a sleek, black Audi. The window was cracked open, and the sight through the glass shattered my world. My partner, Evan Mercer, was tangled in the arms of my half-sister, Sienna Quinn.

I hadn't stepped foot in the Quinn family home in seven years. I had no idea they even knew each other, let alone like this.

They were too lost in their own filth to notice me standing there.

Sienna wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, her voice a sharp whine. "I don't believe you. If you don't want him, why have you stayed in his bed for seven years?"

"Jealous? Don't be. If he hadn't written that research paper for the Ice Hockey Athletic Board under my name, I’d have cut him loose years ago! Your father promised me that if I secured that medical chair, he’d make me Vice President of the Quinn Holdings and give me your hand."

I stood frozen. The words felt like silver blades in my chest.

He used to tell me that forensics was the highest calling—that we were the voices for the voiceless, the defenders of the Pack’s honor. I thought he was the one person in this world who saw the man beneath the doctor. It was all a lie. I was just a ladder for him to climb.

"And if he stops helping you?" Sienna asked, her voice reaching a cruel pitch.

"Where else would he go? No one wants a man who smells like death. Besides, his mother’s life is in my hands. He needs me to keep her treatment going."

My blood didn't just boil; it turned to ice. I didn't think. I swung my heavy leather bag, slamming it into the car door with a deafening crack that echoed like a gunshot in the garage.

But Sienna’s next words stopped my heart entirely.

"Then promise me something. Once you’re V.P., you’ll let that useless bitch of a mother die in her sleep. She’s a stain on our bloodline."

"Whatever you want, my little wolf..."

The world tilted. My mother was my only tether to this world. I’d worked myself to the bone to pay for her care, keeping her in the Sanctuary’s ward even though I knew my father, Victor Quinn, had banned us from using the family’s elite facilities.

I’d protected Evan’s career, kept my head down, and played the loyal partner, all while he was plotting to murder the only person I loved.

Sienna, the "true" daughter of the pack, was finally taking the last thing I had left.

I stood there in the cold draft of the garage, numb, until my phone vibrated in my pocket. An old, familiar frequency. I answered without looking.

"You’ve known the whole time, haven't you? That he was a traitor?"

Elder Magnus Blackridge, the patriarch of the Blackridge Pack and head of the Lunar Pharmaceutical Board, was on the other end.

We’d met over a grisly crime scene months ago. I’d helped him find a missing member of his kin using a scent-trace no one else could pick up. He’d been trying to "repay" me ever since by insisting I marry into his line.

"Jack, my boy, I know you’re hurting, but a wolf doesn't mourn a flea. There are better Alphas in the world."

"Elder Magnus, you know what I am. I’m a forensic healer. I spend my life opening up the dead, pulling secrets out of rotting muscle and bone. Even after three showers, the scent of the morgue clings to me. Your grandson is the Alpha of the most powerful pack in the UK. Why would you want someone like me for him?"

The old wolf chuckled, his voice gravelly and warm. "You think too much, Jack. I don't see a doctor who smells of death. I see a man of iron and truth. Besides, we’ve met. You don't smell like a corpse to me."

He paused, his voice dropping an octave. "You smell like something far more rare. A scent that belongs in the Blackridge Estate."

I took one last look at the car, at the two monsters inside who thought they had destroyed me.

"Fine. I’ll do it. But I want the wedding in a month. I want it loud, I want it public, and I want the entire Northern Territory to see it. And I want your best healers moved to my mother’s bedside tonight."

"Consider it done."

I hung up, straightened my shoulders, and turned my back on the garage.

My boots clicked against the concrete—hard, rhythmic, and predatory. If Sienna wanted my scraps, she could have them. I was moving to the top of the food chain.

As for Evan and the Quinns? They were about to find out what happens when you push a wolf who has nothing left to lose.