Chapter 9 The Monster Inside
KAEL'S POV
The FBI agent kept asking me questions, but I could barely hear her over the roaring in my ears.
"Mr. Ashford, can you describe what Professor Kane injected you with?"
"How long were you unconscious?"
"Did he say anything about other victims?"
I answered mechanically, giving them the information they needed while my whole body screamed with wrongness. Every sound was too loud. Every smell too strong. Every movement around me registered as a potential threat that my body wanted to eliminate.
The serum had changed me. I could feel it in every cell, every nerve. I was stronger, faster, more aware—but also more dangerous. More unstable.
More monster than man.
Aria sat beside me in the ambulance, her hand wrapped around mine. The mate bond pulsed between us like a living thing, and through it, I could feel her worry. Her fear. Not of the situation—of me.
She was afraid of what I'd become.
"Kael?" She squeezed my hand gently. "Can you hear me?"
I forced myself to focus on her face instead of the seventeen different heartbeats I could hear within fifty feet. "I'm here. I'm okay."
"Liar," she said softly, but there was no judgment in her voice. Only concern.
The FBI agent—Special Agent Torres—finished taking my statement and moved on to Luna. Around us, the Academy campus had turned into a crime scene. Yellow tape everywhere. Dozens of agents photographing evidence. News helicopters circling overhead.
Kane had been arrested, along with three other professors who'd been working with him. They'd found twelve students in the underground laboratory—twelve victims who'd been experimented on for months or years. Asher was one of them. He was in the hospital now, getting the drugs flushed from his system.
We'd won. Kane's operation was destroyed. The Legacy Program was exposed.
So why did I feel like I was falling apart?
"The effects will stabilize," Agent Torres said, returning to me. "According to Kane's notes, the serum takes seventy-two hours to fully integrate with your system. After that, you should regain normal control."
"Should?" I repeated. "What if it doesn't?"
Torres hesitated. "Then we'll figure out next steps. But for now, you need to rest. Let your body adjust."
Rest. Right. As if I could sleep when every instinct screamed at me to hunt, fight, protect.
Marcus appeared through the crowd of agents, looking exhausted but relieved. "Dude. You're alive. When that laboratory door exploded, I thought—" He stopped, studying my face. "Your eyes are still glowing."
"I know."
"Is that permanent?"
"Probably."
Marcus sat down on the ambulance bumper beside us. "So you're like... a super Alpha now? That's actually kind of cool."
"It's not cool," I said harshly. "I can hear everyone's heartbeats. I can smell fear on people from a hundred feet away. When those guards attacked me, I wanted to kill them. Not just stop them—kill them. And I enjoyed it."
The admission hung in the air like poison.
Aria's hand tightened on mine. "But you didn't kill Kane. You stopped because I asked you to. That means you're still in control."
"Barely," I whispered. "Aria, what if I can't control it next time? What if I hurt someone? What if I hurt you?"
"You won't." Her voice was fierce, certain. "I know you. The serum might have made you stronger, but it didn't change who you are inside."
I wanted to believe her. God, I wanted to believe her.
But I could feel the darkness inside me—the violence, the aggression, the predatory instincts that wanted to take over. Kane had unlocked something in me that should have stayed buried.
"We need to go," Agent Torres said, approaching again. "The media is getting aggressive, and we need to get all the victims somewhere safe. There's a secure medical facility an hour away where doctors can monitor your condition."
"What about school?" Aria asked. "Classes?"
Torres gave her a look that said she couldn't be serious. "Miss Sinclair, the Academy is shut down pending a full investigation. No one is attending classes here for months, possibly years. You're all being transferred to other institutions."
The Academy—shut down. After a hundred years of operation, Kane and Cross's crimes had finally destroyed it.
Good. This place had been a nightmare from the start.
"Can I see my brother first?" Aria asked. "Before we go to the medical facility?"
Torres nodded. "He's at County Hospital. We can stop there on the way."
Asher looked like death warmed over, but he was alive and conscious. That was what mattered.
"Ria," he said hoarsely when Aria entered his hospital room. "You came for me. You actually came."
"Of course I came, you idiot," Aria said, hugging him carefully around all his IV tubes. "You're my brother. My twin. I'd do anything for you."
I stood in the doorway, giving them privacy while keeping watch. My enhanced senses picked up everything—the steady beep of Asher's heart monitor, the shuffle of nurses in the hallway, the whispered conversations of agents outside.
And something else. Something wrong.
A scent I recognized from the laboratory. Sharp and chemical. Getting closer.
"Aria," I said sharply. "We need to leave. Now."
She looked up, confused. "What? Why—"
The hospital room window exploded inward.
I moved on pure instinct, throwing myself in front of Aria as glass shattered everywhere. Something hit my back—a tranquilizer dart, I realized distantly. Then another. And another.
But the serum made me resistant. The drugs that should have knocked me out cold only made me dizzy.
A figure climbed through the broken window—dressed in black tactical gear, face covered by a mask. They raised a gun.
Not at me. At Aria.
The world went red.
I don't remember moving. Don't remember crossing the room. But suddenly I had the attacker pinned to the floor, my hands around their throat, squeezing with strength that could crush bone.
"Kael, stop!" Aria screamed. "You're killing them!"
"They tried to shoot you," I snarled, not loosening my grip. "They tried to hurt you."
"I know! But we need them alive! We need to know who sent them!"
Through the haze of rage, her words penetrated. Alive. Information. Right.
I released the attacker, who gasped for air. Before they could move, I ripped off their mask.
A woman. Maybe thirty years old. Eyes full of hatred and fear.
"Who sent you?" I demanded.
She spat blood at me. "Go to hell."
Security burst into the room—real security, not Kane's people. They grabbed the woman, cuffing her despite her struggles.
Agent Torres appeared seconds later, weapon drawn, taking in the broken window and glass everywhere. "What happened?"
"Assassin," I said, my voice not quite human. "Tried to kill Aria."
Torres's expression hardened. "Get these three to the medical facility immediately. Maximum security. No one in or out without my personal authorization."
They rushed us out of the hospital into armored vehicles. The whole time, my senses screamed warnings. More attackers nearby. More danger coming.
"Kael," Aria whispered beside me in the vehicle. "Your eyes. They're brighter than before."
I looked at my reflection in the window. She was right. The silver glow had intensified—inhuman and terrifying.
"The adrenaline," I said. "It's making the serum work faster."
"Is that bad?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Because I didn't know if I was becoming stronger or losing myself completely.
We reached the medical facility thirty minutes later—a compound surrounded by high walls and armed guards. They took us to separate rooms for evaluation.
A doctor examined me, running tests while I sat on the exam table trying not to destroy something. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. My teeth ached like they wanted to grow into fangs.
"Your body temperature is elevated," the doctor noted. "Heart rate is twice normal for an Alpha. And your hormone levels..." She trailed off, looking concerned. "Mr. Ashford, has anyone explained what this serum actually does?"
"It makes me stronger," I said through gritted teeth.
"It does more than that." She showed me a tablet with my bloodwork results. "It's rewriting your DNA. Turning off genetic limiters. Unlocking abilities that evolution suppressed because they made early humans too dangerous to survive in groups."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning the serum is designed to create the perfect predator," she said quietly. "Someone with no fear, no hesitation, no mercy. You're not becoming a super Alpha, Mr. Ashford. You're becoming something that hunts Alphas."
The words hit me like a physical blow.
Kane hadn't been trying to improve me. He'd been trying to create a weapon. A monster.
And he'd succeeded.
The doctor's phone rang. She answered it, her expression shifting from concern to alarm. "What? When? How many?"
She hung up and looked at me with fear in her eyes.
"What?" I demanded.
"The woman who attacked you at the hospital," the doctor said. "She just died in custody. Cyanide capsule hidden in her tooth. But before she died, she said something." The doctor's voice shook. "She said, 'Kane was just the first. The Legacy Program has other laboratories. Other scientists. And they're coming for the enhanced Alpha and his mate. Dead or alive.'"
My blood turned to ice.
They were coming for us.
And somewhere in this facility, Aria was alone and unprotected.