Semua Bab The Alpha king's captive : Bab 31 - Bab 40

The grand ballroom was a pressure cooker of hushed voices and frantic glances. Silas remained at the center of the cracked floor, his chest heaving as the last traces of his dominant Alpha aura settled back beneath his skin. The surrounding pack lords were already moving toward the exits in tight, defensive formations, their whispers cutting through the stale, ozone heavy air. The Northern Summit was dead, replaced by the terrifying certainty of a looming war with the High Council.Valerie didn't wait for Silas to patch his bleeding palms. She turned sharply, her frosted silver train cutting a path through the scattered crystal glasses on the floor as she targeted the eastern exit. Every second they wasted under the chandeliers was a second the global infection had to mutate inside the lungs of the guests.As she brushed past a massive stone archway leading to the gallery corridors, she stepped deeper into the shadows of the heavy velvet drapery, trying to escape the eyes of the panic

The freezing air of the maintenance tunnel still bit at Valerie's skin, but she couldn't force her boots to take another step upward.She stood frozen on the icy incline, her breath swirling into thick white clouds. The northern mountain passes lay ahead, offering a cold, brutal freedom, but freedom was entirely worthless without her mother's legacy. If she fled into the wasteland now, the Council's kill team would burn her laboratory to ash. Every digital file, every physical sample of the stabilized vaccine, and every piece of raw data her mother had died to protect would be erased from existence.Without those notes, she couldn't stop the global infection. Without them, she had no leverage.*I am not leaving it behind,* Valerie thought, her jaw setting into a hard, stubborn line.She turned around. Holding the heavy layers of her frosted silver skirt tightly in her fist to keep from tripping, she hurried back down the treacherous slope of the tunnel. She reached the iron maintenanc

The silence in the dark lab was heavy. Outside, the distant fortress generators hummed, but inside, Valerie could only hear the steady ticking of her digital equipment. She kept her fingers firmly locked on the silver needle hidden in her braided hair, her eyes tracking Jude's every move. He didn't have an Alpha's terrifying physical aura, but his complete lack of fear made him incredibly dangerous."You talk like a god directing a storm," Valerie said, her voice low and steady. She needed to keep him speaking. She needed to understand exactly what he had built if she was ever going to synthesize a true cure. "But this sickness isn't a natural anomaly. The way it mutates inside a wolf's blood is too precise. It didn't just evolve in the lower rings."Jude chuckled. It was a dry, calm sound that didn't belong in a dark room with a loaded crossbow. A look of profound, academic pride settled into the lines of his aged face."Of course it isn't natural," Jude said, looking down at his glo

The killers are at the door, Valerie. You are the living vaccine. Give me the drive, step into the tunnel with me, and together we will dictate who lives and who dies in the new world."Jude's hand remained extended in the dim moonlight, but Valerie only tightened her grip on the silver needle hidden in her hair. The revelation of her own blood being the key to the cure made her chest feel tighter than the laces of her corset. But she kept her gaze locked on the older doctor, refusing to let him see her falter. The countdown was still running in her head; the Council's kill team was closing in, yet Jude remained rooted to the spot, entirely consumed by his own twisted grand design."You think you've uncovered every secret on this mountain, Valerie," Jude said, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly register that seemed to mimic the freezing wind scraping against the exterior glass. "You think Silas is keeping you here out of a sudden spike of royal guilt. But the bloodline he carries

Silas didn't give Jude the satisfaction of a bloody execution in the lab. With a harsh jerk of his arm, the Alpha King ripped the old man from the concrete wall and flung him to the floorboards. Jude collapsed in a heap of matte-black tactical gear, coughing violently and clutching his bruised throat."Take him," Silas ordered, his voice hollow and dead. "Chain him in the deepest cell of the obsidian dungeons. Double the guards. If he speaks to anyone, kill them."The four elite guards immediately moved forward. They seized Jude by his shoulders and dragged him toward the ruined doorway. The old doctor's boots scraped uselessly against the rubberized floor, leaving parallel tracks in the concrete dust.Yet, as the soldiers hauled him out, Jude began to laugh. It was a wet, ragged sound that echoed off the broken glass of the laboratory. He twisted his head back, his eyes locking onto Valerie through the shadows."You think you have the full map, Little Outlaw?" Jude shouted, his voice