Chapter Four

Marisol's POV

Dr. Rhodes dragged me toward the back exit, her grip iron-tight on my wrist. The emergency lights bathed everything in hell-red, and that growl God, that sound echoed through the hallway like it was coming from everywhere at once.

"What is that?" I whispered, but I already knew. Something like Kael. Something not human.

"Quiet," she hissed, pulling me past examination rooms. "We need to get you out before"

A door exploded off its hinges fifteen feet ahead. Wood and metal screeched, and a figure stepped through the smoke and debris.

Not a figure. A creature.

It stood upright like a man but was built all wrong too tall, too broad, limbs too long and joints bending at angles that made my brain hurt. Dark fur covered most of its body, and its face was a nightmare hybrid of human and wolf, complete with teeth that belonged in a shark's mouth.

"Impossible," I breathed. In three years studying wolves, I'd never seen anything like this. Couldn't be real. My mind was rejecting what my eyes were showing me.

The creature's head swiveled toward us. Yellow eyes locked onto me, and its lips pulled back in something that might have been a smile if smiles could promise violence.

"Dr. Rhodes," it said, and hearing human words come from that mouth was worse than the growling. "Step away from the girl. This doesn't concern you."

"Marcus sent you." Dr. Rhodes didn't sound surprised. Just tired. "I should have known."

Wait. "Marcus? My Marcus?"

"Your ex-fiancé has been working for people who want Kael's bloodline under their control for a very long time." Dr. Rhodes moved in front of me, putting herself between me and the creature. "You're not touching her, Garrett."

The thing Garrett laughed. It sounded like rocks grinding together. "You think you can stop me? You're not even pack, witch. You're just a human with delusions of power."

Witch? What the hell was happening?

"Run, Marisol," Dr. Rhodes said quietly. "Back door. Turn left, then right. There's a car waiting. Black SUV. The driver will take you to Kael."

"I'm not leaving you"

"You don't have a choice." She raised her hands, and the air around them started to shimmer. Actually shimmer, like heat waves off summer pavement. "That baby is more important than my life. Now GO!"

Garrett lunged.

Dr. Rhodes threw her hands forward, and invisible force slammed into the creature mid-leap, throwing it backward through the wall it had already demolished. The entire building shook.

I ran.

Left. Right. Emergency exit ahead, the door propped open with a fire extinguisher. Outside, rain poured from black clouds, and sitting at the curb was exactly what Dr. Rhodes promised a black SUV with tinted windows and engine running.

Behind me, something roared. Glass shattered. Dr. Rhodes screamed.

I hesitated, every instinct telling me to go back, to help somehow

The SUV's passenger door flew open. "Get in!" A woman's voice, urgent and commanding. "Now!"

I threw myself into the vehicle, and we were moving before I even got the door closed. The driver was maybe fifty, gray-haired and stone-faced, handling the SUV like a race car through the flooded streets.

"Dr. Rhodes she's still in there"

"Imani can handle herself," the woman said, taking a corner fast enough to make the tires scream. "You're the priority right now. Kael's orders."

"I don't take orders from Kael."

She glanced at me in the rearview mirror, and her eyes were the same silver-grey as his. Family, then. Pack.

"You will if you want to survive the next twenty-four hours. That thing back there? It's a beta from the Redclaw pack. They've been trying to undermine Kael's claim for years, and now they know about you and the baby." She swerved around a delivery truck. "They'll keep coming until they either kill you or take the child."

My hand went automatically to my still-flat stomach. "Why? What's so special about this baby?"

"Everything. Kael's the last direct heir to the Blackwood sovereignty. Any child of his becomes a legitimate claim to pack leadership. But a child conceived outside pack bonds, with a human mother who doesn't know the rules?" She shook her head. "That's a political nightmare. Some will want to kill the baby to prevent complications. Others will want to take it and raise it as a weapon against Kael. Nobody wants you to keep it and raise it free."

"Nobody except Kael?"

"Nobody except Kael," she confirmed. "Which is why half the pack thinks he's lost his mind."

We pulled into an underground parking garage, descending deeper and deeper until we were at least three levels below street level. The SUV finally stopped in a space marked "Reserved Blackwood Security."

"I'm Vera, by the way," the woman said, turning off the engine. "Kael's aunt. Also his head of security, which is why I'm the one dragging your pregnant ass to safety instead of someone more nurturing."

Despite everything, I almost laughed. "Nice to meet you?"

"Sure." She got out, gestured for me to follow. "Come on. Safe house is through here. Kael's waiting."

The safe house was apparently a luxury apartment that took up the entire sub-level of whatever building we were under. Vera used a key card, a thumbprint, and a retinal scan to get us through the door, which opened into a space that looked like it belonged in an architecture magazine.

Floor-to-ceiling windows that somehow existed underground showed a false view of mountains and forests screens, I realized, displaying live feeds from somewhere else. Leather furniture, dark wood, a kitchen that probably cost more than my annual salary. And standing by those fake windows, phone pressed to his ear, was Kael.

He turned when we entered. The relief on his face was brief but unmistakable.

"I'll call you back," he said into the phone, then crossed the room in three long strides. His hands came up like he wanted to touch me, check me for injuries, but he stopped himself. "Are you hurt?"

"No. Terrified, but not hurt." I was shaking, I realized. Full-body tremors I couldn't control. "There was a creature. It talked. It said Marcus sent it"

"Your ex-fiancé has been working for the Redclaw pack for two years." Kael's voice went dark. "They've been planning this. The affair with your friend, pushing you toward the fertility clinic, the sample mix-up. All of it was designed to create exactly this situation."

I sat down before I fell down. "Why? Why would Marcus do that?"

"Money. Power. Redclaw promised him both if he helped deliver a Blackwood heir into their control." Kael's jaw clenched. "They've been sabotaging my donations for months, waiting for the right human candidate. Someone smart, strong, but isolated enough to manipulate. You were perfect."

The words should have hurt, but I was too numb. "So this baby I was never supposed to keep it?"

"No. The plan was probably to let you carry it to term, then stage an accident. Take the child, eliminate you as a complication." He finally gave in and sat beside me, close but not touching. "I won't let that happen."

"You can't promise that."

"I can, and I do." Those silver eyes burned into mine. "I know you don't trust me. I know this is insane and overwhelming and you didn't ask for any of it. But Marisol, I swear on everything I am I will protect you and that child with my life."

Something in his voice made me believe him. Or maybe I just wanted to believe, because the alternative was too terrifying.

"What about Dr. Rhodes?"

Vera appeared with a tablet. "She's alive. Garrett got away, but Imani managed to evacuate the clinic before Redclaw reinforcements arrived. She's going underground for a while."

"They'll keep coming," I said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," Kael confirmed. "Which is why you're staying here until we figure out who else is compromised and how deep this conspiracy goes."

"I can't just hide in your apartment forever."

"Not my apartment. My pack's stronghold. We're currently under the Blackwood Tower in downtown. Twenty floors of security above us, fifty pack members within shouting distance, and enough magical wards to stop anything short of a tactical nuke." He stood, offered me his hand. "You'll be safe here."

I looked at his hand large, scarred across the knuckles, steady where mine were shaking. Taking it felt like accepting everything he'd told me. Accepting that my life as I knew it was over.

But what choice did I have?

I took his hand. His fingers closed around mine, warm and solid, and something clicked into place. Not physical. Something deeper, like puzzle pieces finding their match.

Kael felt it too. I saw it in the way his eyes widened slightly, the sharp intake of breath.

"What was that?" I whispered.

"The bond," he said quietly. "It's getting stronger. The baby is linking us together."

"Can we break it?"

Pain flashed across his face. "Do you want to?"

Before I could answer, every light in the apartment went red. An alarm blared, deafening.

Vera swore viciously. "They found us. I don't know how, but they found us."

"That's impossible," Kael snarled. "This location is protected by blood magic. Nobody outside the pack should be able to"

"Unless someone inside the pack told them," Vera interrupted, pulling a gun from somewhere. "Kael, we have a traitor."

The main door exploded inward.

This time, there wasn't just one creature. There were five, all in that horrible half-shifted form, all focused on me with predatory intensity.

And walking in behind them, completely human and smiling like this was a social call, was Marcus.

"Hey, Mari," my ex-fiancé said cheerfully. "We need to talk about custody arrangements."

Kael stepped in front of me, and I felt the air around him change. Charge. His body was shifting, bones cracking and reforming, and when he spoke, his voice was more growl than words.

"You want her? You go through me first."

Marcus's smile widened. "I was hoping you'd say that."

He raised his hand, and the creatures attacked.