Chapter 75: The Golden Eyes

The gates groaned as they swung open. Not all the way—just enough for me to step forward if I chose to. Aidan moved instantly, his hand catching my wrist.

“You’re not walking out there alone,” he said firmly.

“She didn’t bring an army to tear the place apart,” I replied, though my voice was quieter than I meant. “She wants to talk. If we shut the gates and hide, we lose before it even begins.”

Elena, crossbow in hand, muttered, “Yeah, and if you walk out there, we also lose. You ever think about that?”

Ethan leaned over a monitor by the wall. “Her people haven’t moved an inch. They’re disciplined, like soldiers. If they wanted blood, we’d already be swimming in it.” He looked at me. “She really did come for you.”

The hybrids inside the estate were restless. Some had crowded onto the balcony, whispering, their eyes flicking between me and the golden-eyed woman outside. It was like they were waiting for me to make a choice—for me to prove if I was theirs or theirs.

I turned to the group. “If I don’t meet her, she’ll keep circling. She’ll keep calling. And sooner or later, half of them—” I gestured toward the balcony—“will walk out the gates and never come back.”

Nobody liked it. But nobody argued.

Aidan’s grip tightened once more before he finally let go. His eyes said what his voice didn’t: don’t leave me behind.

So I didn’t. “You’re coming with me,” I told him.

Elena scoffed. “Good. Because if you two die dramatically in the fog without me, I’ll be pissed.”

Ethan raised a hand. “Yeah, no thanks. I’ll stay here and try not to hyperventilate while you three play ‘who wants to be the messiah.’”

Echo stepped forward suddenly. “I’ll go too.”

I hesitated, but one look at her face told me it wasn’t negotiable.

So it was the four of us—me, Aidan, Elena, and Echo—who walked out into the fog.

\---

The woman in black didn’t move as we approached. She was tall, her hair a dark cascade against her shoulders, her presence sharp enough to slice through the fog. When we stopped a few feet away, she finally smiled.

“Roxanne Devlin,” she said, her voice smooth, almost gentle. “At last.”

Her voice was nothing like Gregory’s. He had been cold, clinical, every word a scalpel. She, however, spoke like silk—dangerous, yes, but tempting, too.

“Who are you?” I asked, keeping my tone steady.

Her smile deepened. “I’ve gone by many names. But the one you’ve heard is enough. ‘R.’ That is what he called me. That is what the Creed calls me. Sister to Gregory. But to you…” Her golden eyes caught mine. “I am something much closer.”

My stomach tightened. “Closer how?”

“You carry my blood,” she said simply. “The same fire. The same design. Gregory didn’t create you. He only uncovered what I buried.”

Elena muttered under her breath, “Oh, hell no. We are not doing the evil-family-reunion plot twist.”

The woman chuckled. “Not evil, child. Necessary.”

I took a step forward. “You expect me to believe you’re my family?”

“I expect you to feel it,” she said. “The pull. The reason you’ve never truly belonged to hunters or wolves. You are not their mistake, Roxanne. You are my intention.”

My breath caught. I didn’t want to admit it—not here, not in front of Aidan—but a part of me had always felt it. That shadow. That difference.

“What do you want?” Aidan demanded, stepping half a pace in front of me.

Her gaze flicked to him. “I want her to choose. The hybrids outside your walls—they kneel for her, not me. That was my design. Gregory thought himself clever, but he never understood the truth: the Harbingers were never meant to destroy. They were meant to inherit.”

Echo finally spoke. Her voice was low, dangerous. “And what if she says no?”

The woman’s golden eyes didn’t even flicker. “Then she will live as prey until the world rips her apart. The Creed will not stop. My brother’s ghosts will not stop. The only way forward is to take what was meant to be hers.”

Elena raised her crossbow and muttered, “I vote we skip to the part where I shoot her.”

“Please,” the woman said softly, almost amused. “Try.”

For a tense moment, I thought Elena actually might. But Aidan shook his head slightly, and she lowered it with a groan.

I forced myself to look at the woman again. “And if I accept? What happens then?”

“You stop running,” she said. “You stop bleeding for causes that were never yours. You take command of what is rightfully yours—the hybrids, the Harbingers, the legacy the world has tried to bury.”

Her eyes gleamed like embers. “You become what you were always meant to be: Alpha of Alphas.”

The words dropped like stones in the fog.

Behind me, Aidan’s breath caught. Elena swore. Echo just stared.

I shook my head slowly. “And if I don’t?”

The woman’s smile didn’t falter. “Then I will burn this place, and everyone inside it, until you finally understand what you are.”

\---

We walked back in silence. The fog clung to my skin like ice, the woman’s words echoing in my head. Alpha of Alphas. Bloodline. Intention. None of it made sense. And yet, all of it did.

Inside the estate, the others waited. Rhea rushed forward, searching my face. “What did she say?”

I looked around at all of them—the hybrids, the hunters, the wolves, my friends. My family.

“She wants me to take her place,” I said finally.

“And are you going to?” Ethan asked.

I didn’t answer.

Because I didn’t know.

Not yet.

The war room felt like it was holding its breath. The air was heavy, the kind of heavy that presses against your ribs and makes you second-guess every word you’re about to say. Aidan and I had barely stepped back inside when the questions started.

“What did she want?” Ethan asked first, pushing his chair back so quickly it squeaked against the stone floor. “Tell me you didn’t agree to anything.”

“She didn’t ask,” I said, lowering myself into the chair at the head of the table. My hands wrapped around the edge of the wood, knuckles white. “She demanded. She said the hybrids kneel for me because that was her design. That I wasn’t Gregory’s mistake—I was her intention.”

Mara, who had been sitting silently in the corner until now, sucked in a sharp breath. “Her intention? That means—”

“That means she’s claiming to have made me before Gregory even touched me,” I finished for her. My throat felt dry as dust.

“That’s impossible,” Ethan snapped. “Genetics don’t just bend themselves into fairy tales. Gregory ran those labs for decades, and even he couldn’t—”

“She called Roxanne the Alpha of Alphas,” Aidan cut in, his tone hard, but his eyes never left me. “She wasn’t bluffing. She believes it.”

“She wants her to believe it,” Elena muttered, pacing like a caged animal at the edge of the room. “Classic manipulation move—make you think you’re chosen, make you doubt yourself, make you lean into her arms. Textbook cult crap.”

“It’s not that simple,” Echo said from her seat near the window. Her hands were folded, calm but tense. “She’s not just telling a story. The hybrids outside—they already believe it. You saw them. They didn’t kneel for her. They kneeled for Roxanne. That’s not nothing.”

Rhea, quiet until now, finally spoke up. “Maybe… maybe she’s right.”

All eyes snapped to her.

“What?” Elena said, throwing her hands up. “Don’t start with that, kid.”

“I’m serious,” Rhea insisted, her voice trembling but strong. “What if this is who Roxanne is meant to be? What if all this running and fighting—it’s been because she wasn’t taking her place? If she does… maybe the war ends.”

Ethan slammed his palm against the table. “Or maybe it starts! You think the Creed is just going to roll over and let a hybrid queen rise? You think packs across the continent are going to kneel to someone they see as an abomination? No. They’ll fight harder. They’ll burn everything. That’s what happens when you centralize power.”

“Maybe not,” Mara said quietly. “Power doesn’t always breed war. Sometimes it forces peace. If Roxanne has the ability to command hybrids, she could unite them instead of letting them be used as pawns.”

“Peace?” Elena barked out a laugh, bitter and sharp. “Lady, hybrids were made in a lab. They’ve been tortured, tested, and treated like animals their whole lives. You think they’re going to hold hands and sing kumbaya because Roxanne says please?”

Rhea’s eyes flashed. “They kneeled.”

“Out of fear,” Elena shot back.

“Out of recognition,” Echo countered, her voice steady. “I know what I saw. And I know what it felt like.” She turned to me. “You felt it too, didn’t you?”

Everyone looked at me again. I hated that. Hated the way the room always tilted toward me when the stakes got high.

I swallowed. “Yes,” I admitted finally. “I felt it.”

Silence followed, thick as tar.

“Okay, great,” Elena said, breaking it with a clap of her hands. “So now we’re just admitting the creepy golden-eyed witch outside has a point. Fantastic. Ten out of ten apocalypse scenario.”

“It’s not funny,” Aidan growled.

“It’s not supposed to be,” she shot back. “But if we don’t laugh, we scream. And if we scream, we fall apart.”

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let’s just think logically. If she’s telling the truth, Roxanne’s bloodline didn’t start in a lab. It’s older. That makes her dangerous in ways we can’t even predict. If she accepts this role, she’s not just leading hybrids—she’s declaring war against every wolf council and every hunter order out there.”

“And if she doesn’t accept?” Echo asked.

“She dies,” Mara said simply. “The sister won’t stop until Roxanne bends or breaks.”

Aidan’s chair scraped against the floor as he stood. “Then we protect her. We fight. We don’t bow to threats.”

“She’s not threatening,” Rhea said softly. “She’s testing.”

“She’s manipulating,” Elena countered.

“She’s telling the truth,” Echo said.

“She’s insane,” Ethan muttered.

The voices layered over each other until I slammed my hands on the table, the sound echoing off the stone walls.

“Enough!”

Everyone froze.

I looked at each of them in turn. My family. My team. My only anchors in this storm.

“I don’t know what I am,” I said, my voice raw. “I don’t know if I’m a mistake, or a weapon, or… whatever she thinks I am. But I know one thing: I am not her pawn. And I won’t let her use me to build a throne of ashes.”

Aidan nodded slowly, his eyes locked on mine. “Then we’ll burn her throne before she even builds it.”

Elena smirked faintly. “Finally, a plan I like.”

Ethan leaned back in his chair. “Just tell me we’re not actually considering walking into her little cult meeting outside.”

But even as he said it, I knew that’s exactly what we’d have to do.

Because the war wasn’t waiting.

It was already here.