Chapter 175 175

Chapter 175 175
  ZAYNE 
  Guards poured into the hallway. We fought through them like we were made for this. Claws out, teeth bared, fists cracking bones, boots slamming into ribs. There were too many of them, too little space, and too much rage in my chest.
  We reached the file room after what felt like forever. Papers everywhere. Metal cabinets ripped open. The whole place smelled like chemicals and ink. Xander grabbed a folder. “Zayne…”
  He threw it at me. Inside were pictures. Documents. Notes. Experiments. On wolves. On pups. On Nullshade and a hell lot of other dangerous toxins. I froze. “They’ve been doing this for years.”
  Xander’s voice dropped. “They’re insane.”
  We packed every file we could, shoving them into our bags, grabbing proof, grabbing anything that would burn Dranox to the ground. Then the lights flickered. Someone screamed down the hallway.
  “They’re coming,” Xander said.
  We sprinted out. More guards. More blood. More claws. We barely made it back to the tunnel entrance before reinforcements swarmed the compound.
  “Still no antidote,” I panted. “Damn it—”
  “Hey boys.” We spun and to my greatest displeasure we found the she devil. 
  Fiona stepped out of the trees like she was on a casual midnight stroll, twirling a bloody dagger between her fingers. She looked too calm. Too smug. Too proud of herself for someone who single-handedly wanted to ruin her own bestfriend.
  Xander growled. “You’re done.” Fiona rolled her eyes. “Chill, Xander. Shouldn’t you be thanking me? I made Liam go after your daddy so you wouldn't have to die by his hands.”
  I stalked toward her. “Where’s the antidote?”
  She shrugged. “Who cares?”
  I grabbed her by the collar and slammed her against the nearest tree. “I do.” Fiona laughed in my face. “Wow. The cold, broody snob boy finally looks unhinged. Cute.”
  Xander stepped beside me. “You drugged your own best friend.”
  “She was never my best friend,” Fiona spat. “I hated that fake woke, pick–me bitch from day one.”
  My grip tightened. “Watch your mouth.”
  “Oh please,” she hissed. “Milicent Sawyer. Perfect Milicent. Sweet Milicent. Two mates, the whole school worshipping her like she was some shiny little goddess. And that STILL wasn’t enough for her. She had to get all gooey-eyed around Liam. My Liam. And because she can’t mind her damn business, Liam lost focus. He fell for her. He actually fell for the bitch and is now after MY life for endangering hers. Can you imagine that?”
  Xander blinked. “Wait… that’s why Liam figured out your plans so easily? You were working for Dranox this entire time.”
  Fiona smirked. “Me and my elder brother.”
  “Brother?” why's it always a family issue.
  “Headmaster Daniel Grant.” Xander swore loudly. “I KNEW that man couldn’t be trusted.”
  I shoved her harder. “Where is the antidote?” Fiona smiled slowly, wickedly, like the world had become her favorite joke.
  “See Milicent in hell.” 
  Her claws flashed and before I could move—
  She dragged them across her own throat.
  She collapsed at our feet, eyes still open but fading, fading, fading—
  “NO!”
  I dropped beside her, shaking her shoulders, but she was already slipping under. Xander cursed violently. “She just killed herself. We can’t question her. Damn it—Zayne—Zayne—she’s gone. She’s gone.”
  I stared at her blood-soaked body, my breathing sharp and wrong. “She’d rather die than let Milicent live.”
  Xander stood slowly, rage twisting his expression. “Then we go back. We give the files to the generals and see if Seren can make a new spell.”
  That was a good plan. I wiped Fiona’s blood off my hands and stood immediately. “Then let’s go.”
  Because if Milicent didn’t wake up soon... someone else would die next and it sure as hell wouldn't be this fast.
  GENERAL GREGORY SAWYER
  The night was too quiet for a battlefield. No wind. No rustling leaves. No distant growls. Just a terrible kind of silence, the kind that presses down on your bones and tells you whatever is coming won’t be merciful. I stepped over bodies, some ours, some theirs, moving toward the broken courtyard where Gabriel waited. My brother. My curse. My blood.
  His dark hair was matted with sweat and dirt, eyes wild with the kind of hatred only old wounds could shape. Liam stood behind him, barely keeping upright, blood streaking down his arms like red vines.
  Gabriel grinned when he saw me, that same cruel curl of his lips he’d worn since childhood, like he was always tasting victory. “Baby brother,” he mocked. “Still following orders like a good guard dog?”
  I didn’t rise to it. Not tonight. I kept walking until we stood steps apart. “Where is the antidote?” My voice was so rough it sounded like it belonged to someone else. Gabriel chuckled. “Straight to business. You haven’t changed.”
  “Answer me,” I warned, fists itching. He tilted his head. “Why should I? So you can save your precious little princess? The golden child? The daughter you love more than your own brother?”
  Liam flinched at that, looking away. I stepped closer. “Gabriel… don’t push me.”
  “Oh, but I love pushing you.” His smile cracked into something poisonous. “You’re always so composed, Greg. Makes me want to ruin you.”
  My hands shook. I had to breathe through the rage. “Where. Is. The. Antidote.” He shrugged, casual like we weren’t standing over the bodies of wolves he’d ordered to their deaths. “You’ll never find it.”
  Something in me snapped. I lunged. He lunged too. We collided in a burst of claws and teeth and old resentment. The fight was messy, brutal, all elbows and snarls and the sound of bone meeting bone. We rolled across the courtyard, slamming into stone, dirt grinding into our skin. Blood poured, but it didn’t matter. Pain didn’t matter. Only one of us was walking out of this.
  “YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!” Gabriel roared, slashing across my ribs. “And you destroy everyone!” I answered, landing a punch that split his lip wide.
  He staggered back, panting. “You took everything that was supposed to be mine.”
  “You chose your path,” I shot back. “You chose hatred.”
  “You chose him!” he spat. “That Alpha—who wasn't even your friend—just your superior and you chose that  over family!”
  “No,” I growled. “You did that yourself.” He screamed and charged.
  We crashed again. His claws ripped into my thigh. My elbow caught his jaw. He bit into my shoulder. I slammed him into the ground. It was savage, ugly, the kind of fight that felt less like combat and more like decades of bitterness dragging its way out of us.
  But I was winning. I could feel it. I could taste it. Gabriel realized it too because panic filled his eyes.
  That was when Liam suddenly kicked me off him. Shift. I forgot about my nephew. Before he could land another, Before he could reach us, a growl tore across the field, loud enough to shake the stones.
  Alpha Brooks appeared from the smoke like a nightmare dressed in muscle and fury. He knocked Liam to the ground with one vicious swing.
  Liam hit the dirt hard, blood spraying from his mouth. “Stop!” he gasped, trying to push himself up. But Brooks wasn’t listening. He was an Alpha in battle mode and Liam was on the wrong side of the line.
  I shoved Gabriel off me and stumbled to my feet. “BROOKS—LEAVE HIM!” I yelled
  Brooks didn’t stop. He kicked Liam down again, cracking ribs this time. Liam coughed so hard blood bubbled from his lips.
  Gabriel howled, fury shaking his entire body. “LIAM!”
  He tackled me so hard we both flew backwards. We rolled again, crashing into stone, tearing at each other like rabid animals. Every punch rattled my skull. Every claw strike burned.
  But I didn’t stop. Not when Gabriel was trying to tear my throat out. Not when my vision blurred and my mind circles back to the image of my daughter. My brave girl lying there motionless and drugged.
  “She will die, Gregory. Your daughter will die slow and choking on her own wolf’s silence. I’ll make sure of it.”
  My heart stopped.
  He grinned, blood running down his teeth. “Unless you kill me right now, I swear to the moon goddess, I will come for precious little Milicent and I will slit her throat myself while you watch.”
  Something inside me shattered. The world turned red—hot, wild, unstoppable red. I didn’t think. I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t breathe.
  I killed him.
  One motion.
  One strike.
  One scream cut short.
  Gabriel’s body fell still beneath me, eyes frozen wide like he wasn’t expecting me to actually do it. The world went silent. Dead silent.
  Blood dripped from my hands. My breath sawed in and out. My ears rang so hard I couldn’t hear anything anymore.
  Gabriel. My brother. Dead. By my hand.
  I stumbled backward, staring at him, everything in me shaking. My throat closed. I couldn’t breathe or think.
  I’d killed my own blood. “Dad…” Liam’s voice cracked, small and broken.
  I looked up.
  He was crawling toward Gabriel, fingers clawing weakly at the ground, leaving smeared trails of red behind him. He collapsed beside his father’s body, hands trembling as he touched Gabriel’s face.
  “No… no no no no…” Liam sobbed, coughing blood. “Wake up, Dad… please…”
  Alpha Brooks stepped back as Liam dragged himself closer, shaking so hard his whole body twitched.
  “He’s gone,” Liam whispered, staring at me with something between hatred and heartbreak. “You killed him.”
  My lips parted, but no words came. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even move.
  “I—” Nothing came out.
  Liam’s eyes filled with tears, blood streaking across his cheeks, teeth chattering as the cold night clung to his skin. “Do you even care?” he choked. “Do you even realise what you did?”
  “I—Gabriel—he threatened—he said—”
  “I KNOW WHAT HE SAID!” Liam screamed, voice slicing through the air. “And now he’s dead! You killed him! You. Killed. Your. Brother.”
  He coughed again, hard, blood splattering across Gabriel’s chest. He reached out one shaking hand toward his father’s cold fingers.
  “He's dead.” 
  I stared at the body of my brother. My mind couldn’t process it. My heart refused to believe it. My wolf curled into itself like it couldn’t stand the truth.
  I killed Gabriel.
  My family…
  My own blood…
  Gone.
  I killed him.
  ZAYNE
  I didn’t even feel the cold night air anymore. Everything inside me felt numb, hollowed out, as if Fiona’s last breath had scraped something out of my chest and left nothing but ringing silence. 
  Xander walked beside me, jaw tight, eyes dead, both of us moving through the woods like two ghosts who forgot they used to be boys with stupid dreams and stupid hopes and a girl we loved more than we admitted. 
  “Zayne,” Xander muttered, “I keep hearing the sound—”
  “Don’t,” I whispered, because if he said it, if he spoke it into the air, I’d break. He shut up, swallowed, kept walking.
  We pushed through the clearing, expecting the packhouse. Expecting lights, guards, maybe our father pacing. Anything normal.
  We did NOT expect the carnage.
  I froze first. Xander slammed into my back because he hadn’t been looking up, and then he followed my gaze and went silent, like all the air got punched out of him.
  General Gregory Sawyer stood in the middle of it all, covered in blood that wasn’t was probably not his. His chest was heaving, eyes wide like he couldn’t see us even though he was staring straight at us. And at his feet—
  “Is that—” Xander’s voice cracked.
  “Alpha Gabriel,” I breathed. General Sawyer’s brother. Dead. Lifeless. Neck twisted wrong. 
  And a few feet from him, barely conscious, drenched in his own blood… Liam. His breath rattled like death was pulling him by the ankles. He was definitely going to die soon. So much for keeping the promise to Seren.
  “What the hell—” Xander started, but our father stepped forward from the side of the clearing before he could finish.
  “Boys,” he said, “stand back.”
  But we didn’t move. More like couldn’t.
  General Sawyer lifted his head slowly, like it weighed a thousand pounds. His voice came out torn from somewhere deep inside. “I killed him,” he whispered. “My own brother. I killed my own blood.”
  Xander sucked in a breath. I felt my heart fold in half, because the look on the man’s face… gods. I’d never seen a warrior look that broken.
   “He said he would come for her and the thought...” His throat bobbed. “So I killed him first.”
  Xander whispered, “Millicent… gods…”
  I was about to ask where she was, if she was safe with Seren as planned but then I noticed my father suddenly paused.
  Not the normal kind of pause. The unnatural kind. The kind where every muscle locks because the body is no longer yours.
  His eyes widened. And a dark red wetness spread across his chest. Blooming like a dying rose.
  “Dad?” I choked. He looked down slowly.
  A blade jutted out of his chest. From behind and my eyes widened in shock. Behind him was Liam.
  Liam, barely standing.
  Liam, swaying like a corpse glued to a string.
  Liam, eyes wild with fury and heartbreak.
  “A father… for a father.” Our father collapsed forward. Liam fell right after him.
  Everything went silent. 
  Everything.