Chapter 27 – Memory Code: Wolf 42

Chapter 27 – Memory Code: Wolf 42


Serena

It was days after giving birth to my baby.

My body healed, but my mind didn’t rest. Every time I closed my eyes, the same faces came back, the triplets. Not as monsters. Not as the men who broke me.

But as protectors. For my child.

In the dreams, their hands weren’t claws. They held shields. They stood in front of my baby, protecting it.

And then I woke up, still hearing their voices.

“Serena… remember that day.”

Did they give up on the baby now?

I wondered, watching my daughter sleeping deeply.

She still didn’t cry. Not once. And I wondered.

“She’s quite for a baby,” I whispered to myself. “Too calm.”

Because she knows something you don’t, my wolf, Lyra murmured, her voice faint, tired but still fierce.

I closed my eyes. You again.

Always me. Her tone softened. You feel it too, don’t you? Something inside you shifting. Memories that aren’t yours.

I rubbed my temples. “Yes. But they feel so real. The triplets… in those dreams, they were good. They were fighting something bigger.”

Maybe they were, she said quietly. Maybe not everything was a lie.

Her words cut deeper than I wanted to admit. I still hated them, my heart still hurt from their betrayal. How they deny me. Bow they tried to take my baby. But having hese dreams made everything confusing.

Too human. Too painful.

Why?



Later in the afternoon, Kansas came rushing holding a datapad in his hands. His face was pale under the blue Reaper lights.

“Serena, you need to see this,” He said.

“What is it?”

He placed the pad on the table. “A glitch appeared in the Reaper system last night, right after your baby was born. We traced it and… it matches your DNA signature.”

“My DNA?”

Kansas nodded, Dr Yara asked, walking towards me her braid swinging as she collected the pad and typed. “It’s encrypted. Really old. Looks like it was buried deep in the Reaper archives, probably from before Xavier even formed this pack. It took me all night to open a fragment of it.”

Mira, who’d been feeding the baby with a small dropper, looked up. “What kind of file are we talking about?”

Dr. Yara exhaled. “Something called Memory Code: Wolf 42.”

My skin prickled. “Wolf 42?”

She met my gaze. “A project someone was experimenting on.” she explained.

I froze. “What?”

Kansas turned the screen toward me. A sequence of images flickered ... data lines, medical symbols, and a single name flashing between codes. Liora Cross – Subject 42.

“I never heard that name,” I whispered.

“Neither do we, but the woman looked exactly like you.” Dr Yara said, adjusting the projector. A holographic screen blinked to life in the middle of the room.

And then the video began.

A sterile lab. White walls. Cold lights.

On a metal table was a pregnant woman, strapped by leather belts, breathing weakly. Her face was purple from bruised, but her eyes… her face even in the dim light ....they looked just like mine.

I swallowed hard. “Who’s that...”

“That’s,” Kansas said softly. “What we don't know either.”

Another woman’s voice came through the speakers, hoarse and straight. Like giving orders.

“Project Zero… test number 42… initiating Luna synthesis…”

A man wearing a mask and overalls injected something into the lady on the table.

I gasped as she struggled in pain. The machines around her beeped faster.

“What are they doing to her?” I whispered.

Kansas frowned. “I think… they were experimenting with synthetic Luna DNA. Trying to create a hybrid, half Reaper, half wolf, half witch.”

“That’s impossible,” Mira said under her breath. “It would kill anyone.”

The woman on the table convulsed again. Her voice cracked. “The girl will live,” she said faintly. “But only if she never finds him.”

Then the screen went black.

We were all silent for a while.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.

The girl will live. But only if she never finds him.

“What girl?” I asked, my voice trembling.

Neither of them answered. Eyes staring at the dead screen.

My wolf stirred uneasily inside me. Serena… that wasn’t just a file. That was a memory.

I pressed a hand against my chest. “A memory?”

Yes. I think its related to you. Or your mother.

“Who’s memory? Why would anyone do this...”

Because they want to create something different. And you might be that something.

I froze. My pulse thundered in my ears. “What are you saying?”

I can't confirm yet.

The room was spinning now. Mira’s voice sounded distant, Kansas’s typing just a blur. I felt cold, hollow.

“No,” I murmured, shaking my head. “That’s not true. It has to be a doppelganger or something....that can't be true..”

It has to be something connected to you. Since it appreared now, my wolf, Lyra said sadly. But she was special. They kept the folder of Wolf 42 for a reason.

I blocked my ears, trying to shut her. “Stop. Please stop.”

The baby moved in her crib. Just soundless vibration, like a note only I could hear.

My heart twisted.

“This baby is connected to it,” I whispered. “To all of this.”

Mira touched my shoulder gently. “Everytjing would be fine Serena, just breathe.”

I nodded, but my chest felt tight. “That woman in the file… she said something about him. Who’s him?”

Kansas shook his head.

Dr. Yara uttered. “We don’t know anything yet. The data cut off before I could extract the full file. Whatever she meant… it was buried for a reason.”

Him.

The word burned in my mind.

My wolf growled softly. You know who it could be.

“How can I,” I said. When I didn’t know who the woman is.

Think Deep down.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood. “Is it the triplets?”

Or maybe one of them. Or is it their father Marcus?

I stood, pacing. The metal floor was cold under my bare feet. The air was heavy.

My wolf’s voice softened. Maybe the file has nothing to do with you, Serena. Maybe they were warnings. Fragments of someone unknown like you said. Just a warning.

I turned toward the crib. My daughter’s eyes were open now, watching me. Always watching.

“You know something, don’t you?” I mumbled looking at her.

She didn’t answer just a faint hum filled the room....

Then the hologram flickered again for a heartbeat.

A shadowed face appeared on the screen for less than a second.. a man’s outline. His voice, barely a whisper, said.

“Find me.”

And then it vanished.

The lights blinked. The room went silent again.

I staggered back.

Kansas stared at the screen. “Did you see that?”

“I heard him,” I breathed. “He said ... he said, find me.”

Mira frowned deeply. “That’s impossible. The file was static. There was no sound left.”

My wolf, Lyra’s voice echoed faintly. He’s not in the file. He’s here.

My breath caught.

The air suddenly felt heavier, my heartbeat was fast.

Dr. Yara placed a trembling hand over her device. “Serena, whatever this is… it’s beyond data. It’s biological. Amd it’s reacting to you.”

My throat felt dry. “Reacting to me or the baby?”

“Maybe both,” she whispered.

The hum grew louder. My daughter nuzzled.

I sank to my knees beside her crib, clutching the edge.

“Who’s him?” I whispered again.

The hum stopped.

And then, from deep within my mind ... or maybe from the other side of that code, a voice answered.

“Someone who knows you for a long time.”



I gasped awake.

Sweat drenched my back. My heart raced. I was no longer in the lab, but in my bed, it seems like I fainted. And having dreams about it. Xavier was sitting beside me, sleeping. But his hand held mine protectively.

I stare at the baby’s crib in the corner, my baby was sleeping.

I pressed a hand to my chest. My skin burned where I was marked.

“Who’s him?”

No one answered.

But my daughter started crying for the first time.

And then I heard a whisper...

“You’ll know... soon.”