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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Alpha’s Second Life: Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

85 Kabanata

61

"Am I dead?"Richard’s voice was a dry rasp. He didn't move. He couldn't. His chest felt like it had been packed with hot lead. The infirmary smelled of ozone and the sharp, metallic tang of the mercury serum I’d pumped into his veins."Not yet." I didn't look up from the tablet. My fingers swiped across the glass. "But you’re the most famous corpse on the planet. Congratulations.""Joshua. Look at me."I didn't. I couldn't. If I did, I’d see the silver-violet burns tracing his collarbone. I’d see the man who almost died because I treated his blood like a chemistry set. I tapped the screen, turning the volume up. A grainy, high-altitude video played. It was the Circle of the Moon. Night-vision green. You could see the flash of the electrical discharge. You could see the Vanguard—the Council’s 'Cyber-Wolf'—collapsing into a heap of sparking metal and shredded meat."The server's at four million views," I said. "And that's just the primary leak. TikTok has it from three different angles

62

"Sign the waiver, or we start the seizure of assets now."Henry Harrington Sr. didn’t look like a wolf. He didn't look like an Alpha. He looked like a man who spent his life in fluorescent-lit basements counting things that didn't belong to him. He stood in the middle of our foyer, his cheap suit smelling of stale coffee and industrial-grade air freshener. Behind him, six agents in tactical gear stood as still as statues. They all wore black, heavy-duty "Scent-Dampening" masks."You're standing in a private residence, Henry." Richard stepped forward. His shadow swallowed the investigator. The air usually vibrated when Richard walked. It usually made people’s skin crawl with the instinctual need to kneel. "My lawyers are on their way. Leave. Now.""I don't care about your pack lawyers, Richard. I’m with the Department of Inter-species Regulation. We’re not here for a civil suit." Henry Sr. pulled a tablet from his briefcase. He tapped the screen. A 3D render of the "Cyber-Wolf" popped

63

"Strip."The voice came through a speaker, cold and tinny, vibrating against the wet concrete of Sector 4. I stood in a circle of white light. Water dripped from the ceiling, hitting the floor with a rhythmic tap, tap, tap that sounded like a countdown."I'm a federal consultant." I didn't move. My hands were still cuffed behind my back, the silver-mesh lining of the metal biting into my wrists. "You don't get to treat me like a lab rat.""You stopped being a consultant the second you injected an unregistered mercury-based serum into a high-level biological threat." The heavy steel door hissed open. A man stepped in, his white lab coat gleaming under the harsh LEDs. He looked exactly the same as he did ten years ago at Johns Hopkins. Same smug tilt to his chin. Same rimless glasses. "Hello, Joshua. It's been a long time.""Elias." My stomach dropped. I tasted copper. "So this is where you crawled to after the board revoked your license. A hole in the middle of the Atlantic.""It's a r

64

"He's gone, Richard."The porcelain vase hit the wall. It didn't just break. It disintegrated. White shards peppered the Persian rug like hail. Richard didn't even look at the mess. He stood in the center of the study, his chest expanding so far his shirt buttons strained. The air in the room was thick. Heavy. It tasted like ozone and unspent lightning."Don't tell me he's gone." Richard turned on Silas. His eyes weren't gold anymore. They were the color of a dying sun. A deep, bruised amber that promised a slow death. "I can't hear him. The bond. It’s... it’s silent.""The humans have jamming tech, Alpha. We knew this." Silas stepped back. He was a Beta, but even he was sweating. His pulse was a frantic drumming in his neck. "They took him to Sector 4. It’s a dead zone. No signals in, no signals out.""I am not a signal!" Richard roared. The mahogany desk under his palms groaned. A hairline fracture spidered across the wood. "I am his mate! My blood is in his veins! He is carrying ou

65

"It’s time."Danielle Brooks didn't wait for a reply. She slammed the encrypted laptop shut and looked at the three women standing in her kitchen. One was a head nurse at the Harrington infirmary. One was a high-end caterer for the Council’s gala circuit. The third was the woman who cleaned the federal offices at the DIR."Time for what?" the nurse asked. Her hands shook. She gripped her coffee mug like a lifeline. "The humans have him. They have the Alpha’s mate. If we move, they’ll kill us all.""They’re already killing us." Danielle leaned over the island, her knuckles white. "Joshua didn't build this network for a rainy day. He built it for a hurricane. The Shadow Network is active. Every domestic, every assistant, every nurse who’s ever taken a paycheck from an Alpha or a fed—tell them. If they have a file, leak it. If they have a passcode, burn it. I want the city’s servers screaming by midnight.""What about the location?" the cleaning lady whispered. She reached into her apron

66

"He’s flatlining. Get the paddles!"The shout echoed through the sterile, silver-mesh walls of my cage. My head lolled. My chin hit my chest. Sweat dripped from my nose, stinging the raw burns on my neck. I wasn't flatlining. I was holding my breath, slowing my pulse to a crawl, and watching the monitor through slitted eyes."Hormone levels are off the charts, Elias." A guard in a tactical vest leaned over the console. His mask muffled his voice. "Prolactin is spiking. Estrogen is... it’s 400 percent above baseline. The subject is malfunctioning. His heart can't take the mercury shift and the surge.""He’s not malfunctioning." Elias stepped into my line of vision. He didn't look worried. He looked fascinated. Like a kid watching an ant under a magnifying glass. "He’s adapting. The 'Hibernating Wolf' isn't just awake. It's defending something. Open the cage. I need a direct draw of his spinal fluid.""Sir, the Alpha’s father just tripped the perimeter—""I don't care about the old man!

67

"Dive! Now!"Richard didn't wait for the boat to slow. He launched himself from the deck of the Black Obsidian. The night air was a freezing slap against his bare chest, but his blood was boiling, thick with the silver poison he’d injected. He shifted mid-flight. Bones snapped and reformed with a sound like dry branches breaking in a storm. By the time he hit the Atlantic, he was a six-hundred-pound engine of fur and fury.The water exploded.Richard kicked his back legs, driving himself deeper. The pressure squeezed his lungs, but he didn't care. He could taste Joshua in the water—salt, mercury, and the sharp, metallic tang of fear."Target in the water!" A voice crackled through the sonar. "Three o'clock! Fire the harpoons!"A silver streak hissed through the dark. Whirr. It caught Richard in the thigh. He didn't howl. He couldn't. He just felt the cold burn of the silver spreading through his muscle. He grabbed the shaft with his teeth and ripped it out. A cloud of dark red blossom

68

"Move! The seals are blowing!"The emergency sirens didn't just scream; they vibrated through my teeth. Richard’s arm hooked under my knees, hauling me up against his chest. I felt the wet heat of his skin against my face, smelling like salt and the metallic tang of his mercury blood. Behind us, the facility groaned. A deep, tectonic sound. The ocean was claiming its due."Don't leave them!" I grabbed Richard’s shoulder, my fingers digging into his muscle. "The others! Look!""I have them, Joshua. Just breathe."Behind us, the liberated Omegas moved like a pack of ghosts. They were pale, shivering in their thin hospital gowns, their feet splashing through the six inches of rising water. They didn't run. They followed Richard. He was the sun in their dark world, the only thing keeping the ceiling from crushing us all."The airlock is jammed!" Silas screamed from the end of the hall. He was kicking at the heavy steel door. "Richard, we’re trapped!""Move aside."Richard didn't slow down

69

"Don't stop the car."My voice sounded like it belonged to a dead man. I gripped the door handle of the SUV as the tires screamed against the mountain asphalt. The Harrington Estate was a memory in the rearview, probably crawling with DIR agents and fed-contracted wolves by now."We’re clear for another three miles, Richard," Silas said from the driver’s seat. His knuckles were white. "But the grid is hot. They’re tracking the heat signatures from the mercury-shift.""Forget the grid." Richard reached across the console, his hand heavy and warm on my thigh. "We’re going to the North Ridge. The Ancient Den. It’s off the maps. Even the Council hasn't been there in fifty years.""That’s suicide," Silas muttered. He swerved to avoid a fallen branch. "The Ridge is a graveyard. No cell service, no backup, and the local packs there are feral.""They won't touch us." Richard looked at me. His amber eyes were dark, reflecting the dashboard’s red glow. "They’ll smell the miracle. They won't hav

70

"Don't even try to stand up."Bianca hit the floor. Hard. The silver dagger she’d been holding skittered across the stone, its metal screaming against the granite. She tried to push herself up, her muscles bunching, her eyes bleeding into that predatory gold. She was halfway through the shift, fur sprouting along her jaw, teeth lengthening into yellowed points.Then she stopped.The air in the cabin didn't just get heavy; it turned to lead. My voice hadn't been loud, but the vibration of it sent a shockwave through the room that shattered the glass in the window frames. Bianca’s jaw snapped shut. Her wolf—the thing she’d spent thirty years sharpening into a weapon—whimpered. It didn't just retreat; it curled up and died inside her."What... what did you..." Bianca choked. Her face was pressed into the dirt. She was clawing at the floorboards, trying to find enough leverage to breathe. "Joshua... stop...""I didn't tell you to speak."I stayed in the bed. I didn't need to move. I could

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