Chapter 197
Lynette's POV
The screaming got worse.
I watched another werewolf hit the floor. The enhanced guard didn't even hesitate—just grabbed his arm and twisted. The crack echoed through the hall.
My hands were shaking. I pressed them flat against my thighs.
Don't move. Don't react.
But God, it was hard.
A young wolf—couldn't be more than twenty—was on his knees now. Blood running from his nose. He looked up at Glenn with pure rage in his eyes.
"Limen Research!" His voice cracked. "This is deliberate. You never wanted cooperation. You just wanted—"
The guard hit him. Hard. The kid's head snapped back.
I felt my wolf surge up inside me. Every instinct screaming to move. To stop this.
Kael's hand found mine in the crowd. Squeezed once. A warning.
I squeezed back. I know. I know.
But watching this... doing nothing...
It went against everything I was.
My eyes swept the hall. Not the chaos. Not the blood. The cameras.
One mounted above the stage. Two on the side walls. Three more scattered at different angles. Another near the exit. And one—I squinted—hidden in the chandelier fixture.
Seven total. Every angle covered.
Someone was watching this. All of it.
Kael noticed where I was looking. He leaned close. "What are you doing?"
"Counting." I kept my voice low. "Seven cameras. Full coverage."
His jaw tightened. "You think—"
"Someone's watching." I turned to face him slightly. Just enough to block my lips from the nearest camera. "Whoever's controlling Glenn. They're watching this happen."
The hall erupted around us. A Beta from the Silverstone Pack was shouting now. His face red. Veins standing out on his neck.
"We came here in good faith! And you treat us like criminals?"
"This is how you show respect to the Packs?" Another voice. Female. Shaking with fury.
More voices joined in. The crowd was turning. Fear giving way to anger.
Glenn stood on the stage. Watching. His expression was almost... satisfied.
Like this was exactly what he wanted.
My eyes narrowed. Something was wrong here.
Then I saw it.
Glenn's hand went to his neck. Just for a second. His fingers touched something under his collar—a thin metal band I hadn't noticed before.
The gesture was quick. Unconscious.
But I knew that movement. I'd seen it in captured wolves. In slaves.
The touch of someone checking their collar. Making sure it was still there. Still controlling them.
Oh.
Oh no.
Glenn wasn't in charge. He was being controlled too.
My mind raced. If Glenn was being controlled... if he was just a puppet...
Then who was pulling the strings?
Rezar.
It had to be Rezar.
He killed that enhanced guard. Made it look like me. Got Glenn to stage this whole witch hunt.
All to force me out. To make me reveal myself.
Fuck.
Kael's voice cut through my thoughts. "Lynette. What are you thinking?"
I turned to him. Really looked at him. His amber eyes were sharp. Worried.
"The person controlling Glenn," I said quietly. "They're watching through those cameras."
"So?"
"So if I don't show myself..." I swallowed hard. "This doesn't stop. The killing continues until someone comes forward."
His grip on my hand turned painful. "No."
"Kael—"
"No." His voice was flat. Final. "You walk out there, you die. And this?" He jerked his chin toward the guards. "This doesn't stop. They'll kill you and keep going. That's what they want. They want you to break. To give yourself up for nothing."
He was right. I knew he was right.
But watching another wolf get thrown against the wall—hearing the sickening thud—
My whole body was shaking now.
"There has to be another way," I whispered.
"There is." Kael's eyes never left my face. "We wait. We stay hidden. We find whoever's really behind this."
"And let them die?" My voice cracked.
"And stay alive long enough to stop it."
The logic was sound. Cold. Exactly what I would have said in the North.
But that was before. Before I had a family. Before I knew what it felt like to be protected instead of being the protector.
Before I cared.
A movement caught my eye. Near the far wall.
A figure in black. Moving against the crowd. Not running away—running toward the guards.
My heart stopped.
That build. That way of moving.
Cole.
"No," I breathed. "No, no, no—"
He burst from the crowd. Mask covering his face. A blade in his hand.
He went straight for the nearest enhanced guard.
The guard turned. Too slow.
Cole's blade found the weak spot—right where the spine met the lower back. Where I taught him to aim during our sparring sessions.
The guard roared. Stumbled.
Every other enhanced guard in the room turned toward Cole.
Glenn's face lit up. "There! The assassin! Take him alive!"
The guards abandoned their victims. All of them converged on Cole.
I lunged forward.
Kael's arm locked around my waist. Yanked me back hard.
"Let me go!" I hissed.
"He's drawing them away from YOU." Kael's voice was right in my ear. Urgent. " If you go out, his sacrifice is meaningless."
"He's going to die!"
"He knows that."
I watched Cole dodge. Strike. Move with the precision of someone who'd trained for exactly this.
But he wasn't me. Wasn't Lynette.
He was fast. Skilled. Deadly.
But he was still just a Beta. And there were five enhanced guards closing in.
"I have to—" I started.
"No." Kael's grip didn't loosen. "This is what he chose. He's drawing them away from everyone else. From you."
He was right. I could see it now.
The other guards had stopped attacking the crowd. Every enhanced soldier was focused on Cole.
The wolves in the hall were backing away. Using the distraction to put distance between themselves and the guards.
Cole was saving them.
By sacrificing himself.
"I can't just watch him die," I said. My voice was breaking now.
Kael turned me to face him. His hands on my shoulders. His eyes fierce.
"Then let me go."
I blinked. "What?"
"Let me go." He said it again. Calm. Certain. "I can stop this without revealing you."
"Kael—"
"I'm Harrington's heir." His voice was steady. Absolute. "I have authority here. Enough to make them pause."
"They'll kill you too."
"No." A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "They won't. Not in front of three hundred witnesses. Not when my family will come looking."
He was already moving. Pushing through the crowd.
I grabbed his arm. "Kael, wait—"
He looked back at me. And for just a second, his mask dropped.
I saw fear there. Real fear.
Not of the guards. Not of dying.
Fear of leaving me.
"Stay here," he said quietly. "Stay hidden. No matter what happens."
Then he was gone.
Striding toward the center of the hall. His posture changed. Shoulders back. Head high.
Pure Alpha.
The crowd parted for him. Some out of respect. Some out of fear.
I couldn't breathe.
Cole was surrounded now. Three guards had him pinned against the wall. He was still fighting. Still landing hits.
But it wasn't enough.
Then Kael's voice cut through the chaos.
"ENOUGH."
It wasn't a shout. Wasn't a yell.
It was a command. Backed by centuries of bloodline and power.
Every wolf in the room felt it. That crushing weight of Alpha dominance.
Even the enhanced guards hesitated.
Kael walked forward. Slow. Deliberate.
"Release him."
Glenn stepped forward. "Mr. Harrington, this man is the assassin—"
"He's not." Kael didn't even look at Glenn. His eyes were on the guards holding Cole. "I am taking him into custody. Or do you want to explain to the Harrington family why you killed their guest?"
He pointed up. Directly at one of the cameras.
"Your master knows that. Don't you?"