MasukI stood in the center of the pit, my four paws dug into the blood-soaked sand. My vision wasn't human anymore; it was a high-definition map of heat and vibration.Nara was cowering. She scrambled back on all fours, her grey tail tucked tight against her belly. She had been built to be a predator, but in the presence of the White Wolf, she looked like a stray dog."Nara, stand down!" Silas’s voice shrieked over the intercom, cracking with a greedy edge."Do not touch her! She is worth more than this entire facility combined!"Silas was leaning over the balcony, his eyes wide and glazed with madness. He wasn't looking at me as a human anymore. He was looking at a winning lottery ticket."General Grant, do you see it?" Silas gasped, grabbing the General’s arm."The legendary phenotype. We need her blood."My father, Harrison Thorne, stood frozen at the control console. His face was a mask of horror. He saw what I saw: the look in Silas’s eyes. Silas didn't want to kill me anymore. He wan
The Neural Anchor lay crushed in Cane’s palm, a useless tangle of wires and Gore.But the fight wasn't over.The remaining five Iron Claw wolves, seeing their "commander" Vane freed from the machine, didn't retreat. They snarled, their conditioning fighting against their sudden lack of direction."Back to back!" Cane roared, his voice a low, vibrating thunder.Vane didn’t hesitate. Though his spine was still weeping blood from the removal of the device, he stood. The two brothers pressed their shoulders together. It was a dance of death I had only heard stories about. When an Iron Claw lunged at Cane’s throat, Vane intercepted, his jaws locking onto the attacker's leg and snapping it like a dry twig. When a second wolf tried to blindside Vane, Cane used his massive weight to shoulder-charge the beast, sending it spiraling into the concrete wall with enough force to crack the foundation.They weren't just fighting; they were clearing the floor. Within minutes, the Iron Claw monsters we
The center cage, Cane’s cage, began to hiss. The heavy steel bolts slid back.Cane stepped out.He stared straight up at the VIP gallery. He didn't look at the Blood-Hounds. He didn't look at the corpses of the DeLucas. He looked only at Silas.Silas leaned over the balcony, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and arrogance."Gentlemen, the appetizer is over. You’ve seen the manufactured wolves. Now, behold the Original Alpha. Enhanced by the same pure-strain booster the Blood-Hounds just stole, he is the benchmark. The source. But even a King must be tested."Silas signaled the north gate."To demonstrate his lethality, we introduce the Iron Claw."Two massive shapes prowled out. They were twice the size of the DeLucas, their fur matted with dried blood and their muzzles covered in spiked steel guards. They didn't wait for a command. They launched.Cane didn't even shift. It was an insult to the monsters.The first Iron Claw lunged for his throat. Cane stepped into the attack,
The underground arena was a cathedral of concrete and cruelty. High above the floor, the air was filtered, chilled, and scented with the expensive tobacco of the elite.I sat in the corner of my enclosure, my fingers curled around the iron, watching the silhouettes move behind the bulletproof glass of the VIP gallery.Silas stepped to the edge of the balcony, a spotlight catching the sharp, arrogant lines of his face. He tapped a microphone, and his voice boomed through the arena."Gentlemen, Ladies, and honored guests," Silas began, his voice smooth as silk."What you see before you in the pit are the 'Standard' models. The Blood-Hounds. These subjects have only taken the Thorne Base Serum. It has successfully rewritten their DNA, granting them the form of the wolf, but as you can see, they are limited. They are exhausted. They are tethered to the frailties of natural biology.”He gestured dismissively toward Viper, Rat, and Mako, who stood in a defensive circle in the center of the
The lighting above us was surgical. I sat in the corner of my cage, my fingers curled around the cold iron bars, watching the upper gallery.The figures behind the bulletproof glass began to sharpen as the house lights dimmed in the stands, focusing all intensity on the pits below. I squinted, the glare stinging my eyes, until I caught sight of a profile that made my breath hitch.My father.Harrison Thorne was standing at the edge of the VIP balcony. He looked every bit the titan of industry, sharp, tailored, and imposing. But the moment his gaze drifted down from the center cage and landed on me, the mask of the businessman shattered. Even from this distance, I could see the way his face drained of color, his posture stiffening in shock.He didn't hesitate. He turned, his movements frantic and furious, walking toward Silas, who stood near the control console. My father’s hand shot out, pointi
I moved through the sawgrass like a shadow, my training screaming in my joints.I reached the rusted pump house and found Jax’s bike ditched in the tall grass. His phone was lying next to his saddlebag as if it had been discarded; Nara must have been too arrogant to think anyone would find it. It looked like it had been stepped on; the screen was cracked, but it still switched on.I grabbed it, my fingers flying across the screen. I didn't have time for a conversation. I sent a single text to Cane's private burner: Meet me...Jax. I added the location of the border area where Cane had first taken me when he claimed me. I slipped inside the pump house through a ventilation grate."Jax," I breathed.A muffled thud came from beneath the floorboards. I scrambled toward the sound, prying the wood loose until I saw him. Jax was bound with wire, but his eyes weren't full of tears, they were burning with a cold, hard fury. As soon as I cut the cloth from his mouth, he spat on the floor."Took
For forty-eight hours, the bunker had been a battlefield for Cane. I had watched Cane’s body seize, his muscles rippling in spasms as his natural healing factor fought the serum my father had engineered.By the second night, the sweating struggle subsided. The swelling in Cane’s chest receded, and
The sun hadn't even thought about rising when the roar of an engine shattered the silence of the shipyard. I was already awake, sitting by Cane’s side, watching the slow, rhythmic pulse of the blue toxin beneath his skin. It was fading, but the cost was visible; he looked thinner, his power dormant
The air was filled with a sweet scent of victory. For a heartbeat, the world felt right. Silas lay pinned beneath Cane’s massive, silver-white paws, the whine of his joints sounding like a dying animal. We had won.But Silas wasn’t looking at the barrel of my gun. He wasn't looking at the Alpha sta
The silence that followed the power failure was predatory.I stood in the center of the dark garage, the .45 heavy in my hands. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, aided only by the moonlight filtering through the shattered window. Every shadow seemed to mimick the monsters.Outside, the faint hiss o







