Chapter 76 A Woman's Secret
ISLA
I find Callum in the new safe house three days after the hunter attack. He's cataloging weapons, taking inventory of what we managed to salvage.
"We need to talk," I say.
He doesn't look up. "About?"
"About why I'm here. Why I was turned. Why everything happened."
That gets his attention. He sets down the silver bullets, gives me his full focus.
"I know who ordered my attack," I say. The words taste like poison. "I know who sent the Omega to bite me."
Callum goes very still. "Who?"
"Your brother. Cormac."
Silence.
Then, quietly, "How do you know?"
I pull out the documents. Took me weeks to find them, longer to verify. Bank records, witness statements, email trails. Everything.
"The Omega who bit me? Marcus. He was Cormac's enforcer." I spread the papers across the table. "Three days before my attack, Cormac transferred five thousand pounds to Marcus's account. Payment for services rendered."
Callum studies the documents. I watch his face harden.
"There's more," I continue. "Marcus's phone records. Three calls to Cormac the night of the attack. Before, during, and after. Reporting success."
"Reporting you were bitten."
"Reporting the experiment worked." I show him the final document. Email from Cormac to someone named Dr. Ashworth. "Subject survived initial turning. Monitoring for transformation success. If viable, proceed with Phase Two."
Callum reads it twice. "Phase Two?"
"Mass turnings. Cormac was experimenting with dormant genetics. Seeing if he could turn humans who shouldn't transform. Create controlled wolves loyal only to him." My voice shakes. "I wasn't random victim. I was lab rat."
"Fuck." Callum sits down hard. "Isla, I'm sorry. I didn't know. If I'd known Cormac was doing this..."
"What would you have done? You were in prison. Framed by the same brother who ordered me turned." I take the papers back. "I'm not telling you this for apology. I'm telling you because you deserve to know what he is. What he's capable of."
"I already know what he is."
"Do you?" I lean forward. "Because from where I sit, you still see him as your brother who betrayed you. I see him as monster who destroyed my entire life as science experiment."
The difference is important. Callum's pain is personal. Mine is existential.
"Everything I was," I continue. "My career, my home, my future. Gone in one night because Cormac wanted to test a theory. I went from saving lives to becoming monster. From respected nurse to packless wolf begging for scraps."
Callum's jaw tightens. "What do you want to do about it?"
"I want revenge." The word feels good. "I want him to pay for what he did. To me. To you. To everyone he's destroyed."
"Revenge how?"
"I don't know." Frustration boils over. "That's the problem. I want justice but I don't know how to get it. He's Alpha of established pack. I'm packless Omega with no status. How do I make him pay?"
Callum's quiet for a long moment.
"By surviving him," he finally says. "By building something better than what he has. By proving that his experiment failed."
"Failed? I'm a wolf. The experiment succeeded."
"Did it?" Callum gestures around the safe house. "He wanted to create controlled wolves loyal only to him. Instead he created you. Independent. Strong. Running medical operations that save lives. Leading when leadership's needed. That's not what he wanted."
I hadn't thought of it that way.
"He wanted disposable soldiers," Callum continues. "He got you. Compassionate, intelligent, driven. Everything he's not. That's failure on his terms."
"So my revenge is just... existing? Being better than him?"
"Your revenge is building this community. Helping wolves he'd consider worthless. Proving his entire philosophy is wrong." Callum stands. "But if you want more direct revenge, if you want to face him when the time comes, I'll make sure you get that chance."
"Promise?"
"Promise." He meets my eyes. "When I face Cormac again, and I will face him, you'll be there. You'll get your moment."
It's not enough. Won't undo what happened. Won't give me back my old life.
But it's something.
"Thank you," I say.
"Don't thank me. You've earned it." He returns to the weapons inventory. "How many others like you are there? People Cormac used for experiments?"
"I don't know. The documents mention Phase Two but no details." I start helping him organize. "Could be dozens. Could be none. He might have stopped after me."
"Or he might have refined his process. Gotten better at it."
The thought makes me sick. "More people suffering what I suffered. Because he wants disposable wolves."
"We'll stop him." Callum loads a magazine with practiced efficiency. "Eventually. When we're strong enough. We'll stop him and burn everything he built."
I want to believe that.
Some days I do believe it. Days when the community is thriving, when newly turned wolves are learning to survive, when everything feels possible.
Other days I remember I'm monster who kills to eat. Who transforms into beast every full moon. Who'll never be human again.
Those days are harder.
"Callum?" I ask quietly.
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever regret it? Building this? Fighting him? Do you ever wish you'd just disappeared? Found somewhere quiet and lived out your exile in peace?"
He considers the question seriously. Doesn't dismiss it.
"Sometimes," he admits. "Usually at three AM when I can't sleep because I'm listing everyone who died following me. Jenny. Marcus. The five from the hunter attack. All the others." He sets down the magazine. "But then I think about the alternative. Seventy-three wolves surviving alone, going feral, dying in gutters. At least this way we're together."
"Together but targeted for extermination."
"Better than alone and dying anyway."
I suppose that's true.
We work in silence for a while. Organizing weapons, counting ammunition, preparing for whatever comes next.
Finally I ask the question that's been eating at me.
"When you face Cormac, when I'm there with you, what do you think will happen?"
"Honestly? I don't know." Callum doesn't lie to me. Never has. "Maybe I kill him. Maybe he kills me. Maybe we both survive and nothing changes."
"What do you want to happen?"
He's quiet for a long time.
"I want him to understand what he destroyed," he finally says. "I want him to see that we built something better than his pack. I want him to regret every choice that led to this moment." Pause. "And then I want him dead."
"Good." I smile without humor. "Because I want the same thing."
We finish the inventory. Seventy-three wolves, twenty weapons, enough ammunition for maybe one serious fight.
Not great odds.
But we've survived on worse.
As I'm leaving, Callum calls after me.
"Isla? That thing you said. About wanting to be there when I face him?"
"Yeah?"
"I meant it. You've earned that right. Whatever happens, you'll be there."
I nod. Can't speak past the tightness in my throat.
Outside, the Rookeries is waking up. Wolves heading to jobs, checking on neighbors, building the community Cormac never intended to create.
My community now.
Built on the ruins of everything he destroyed.
Maybe that is revenge.
Maybe surviving him, thriving despite him, building better than him, maybe that's the best revenge possible.
Or maybe I just want to watch him bleed.
Time will tell.