Chapter 17 Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sara’s POV
The healer wing burst into motion the moment the injured man collapsed. Healers rushed forward with herbs, bandages, and tools. Warriors formed a tight barrier around the room, blocking every doorway. The air shifted from tense to suffocating in seconds.
But Xenon didn’t move.
His eyes were locked on me.
Not blinking.
Not softening.
Not pulling away.
Just fixed, sharp, and dangerous.
“They are inside the territory,” Ryker said, his voice tight. “We need to move.”
Xenon didn’t respond.
“Alpha,” Adrian pressed, “we have to seal the halls. If the Creed is already here—”
“They came for her,” Xenon said quietly. “They will go where she goes.”
He finally stepped toward me, slow but deliberate. “Sara.”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“Did you feel anything before he said that.”
“No,” I whispered. “Only fear.”
He searched my face, eyes narrowing. “No heat. No pressure.”
“Nothing.”
Xenon seemed to absorb this information with a tension that had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with fear he refused to show.
He turned to Ryker. “Lock the south and east corridors. I want ten warriors outside this room.”
Ryker nodded and moved.
Adrian addressed a group of healers. “Seal the doors. No one enters unless the Alpha permits it.”
The room shifted into lockdown.
Kael stepped to my side. “Sara. You need to listen carefully. If the Creed is already inside, they will not attack head-on. They will provoke you. They will trigger your blood response.”
Xenon snapped his attention toward Kael. “Stop saying that like it is inevitable.”
Kael didn’t flinch. “It is already happening, Alpha. You can either acknowledge it or let it blindside you.”
Xenon clenched his jaw but didn’t argue again.
Kael faced me fully. “What you felt earlier. The pressure. The strange familiarity. That is the first layer.”
My pulse quickened. “Then what is the second.”
He hesitated. “A flash.”
“What kind of flash.”
“Memory,” he said quietly. “Something visual, fast, uncontrollable. It may not make sense. It may feel like you are being pulled into a moment that is not yours.”
Xenon stepped closer to me. “She is not experiencing anything like that.”
Kael lifted a brow. “Not yet.”
Xenon moved so quickly I barely saw it. He grabbed the front of Kael’s shirt and pinned him back against a cabinet.
“She is not going to break,” Xenon said, voice low but trembling with barely-held control.
Kael stayed still. “I am not trying to scare her. I am trying to prepare her.”
“You are trying to push her toward something she is not ready for.”
I stepped forward, placing a hand on Xenon’s arm. “Stop.”
Xenon froze.
His head turned toward me, breath uneven, his eyes still wild with protectiveness he was barely containing.
“Let him go,” I whispered.
He held my gaze. Slowly, he released Kael and stepped back.
Kael adjusted his clothes. “Alpha. I know you want to shield her. But knowledge will help her more than silence.”
Xenon didn’t respond.
Kael looked at me. “Sara. If you feel anything change in your body, tell someone immediately. Do not hold it in.”
I nodded. “I will.”
But the room remained heavy.
Adrian returned, his face grim. “Alpha. We found tracks near the west wing.”
Xenon straightened. “How many.”
“Three. Possibly four. All carrying Creed scent.”
Xenon’s voice hardened. “They slipped past the border patrol.”
Ryker reappeared. “We think they split into smaller groups.”
“Looking for weak points,” Adrian added.
Xenon looked at me. “They are circling. Trying to isolate you.”
I felt sick. “What do we do.”
Xenon took a breath like he was preparing for a fight that already had a price. “We move you somewhere they cannot reach.”
Kael nodded. “The vault.”
Ryker stiffened. “Alpha. That place has not been used in years.”
“It is the only part of the territory the Creed does not know exists,” Kael said.
Xenon looked at me. “It is secure. Silent. And deep underground.”
My heart raced. “Do I have to go alone.”
“You are not going alone,” Xenon said. “I am going with you.”
Kael nodded. “I will join you as well.”
Ryker added, “And me.”
“No,” Xenon said, his voice sharp. “Not all of us. The pack needs leadership up here.”
Adrian stepped forward. “I can assist you in the vault.”
“No,” Xenon repeated. “You stay here. Organize the warriors.”
Kael placed a hand on the table. “Alpha. If she experiences a memory flash, she will need guidance.”
“And she will have it,” Xenon said. “From me.”
Kael looked at me. “Sara. Do you trust him to manage something he does not understand.”
Xenon stiffened, ready to retaliate.
But I answered before he could speak.
“Yes.”
The room went quiet.
Kael nodded once. “Very well.”
Adrian gave Xenon a brief report before heading out. Ryker moved to help secure the healer wing and prepare an escort for us.
Kael watched Xenon closely. “We leave immediately.”
Xenon shook his head. “Not until we know the corridors are clear.”
Ryker re-entered. “Alpha. The path to the lower wing is clear. For now.”
Xenon nodded. “Move.”
He took my hand again, grip tight and steady, and led me out through the side hall that connected to the inner staircases.
Kael followed.
Two warriors took the lead, two more behind.
Every step down the narrow staircase sent a chill through me. The air grew colder, denser. The walls changed from polished stone to rough underground brick. The pack house noises faded above us until all that remained was the echo of our footsteps.
Xenon squeezed my hand once, like he could feel my nerves. “We are almost there.”
Kael unlocked a heavy door reinforced with old metal brackets. The hinges groaned as he opened it.
The vault was dark.
Silent.
Built into the deeper foundations of the pack house, surrounded by thick walls that had once been used to protect BloodRidge secrets during a war decades ago.
Kael lit a lantern and set it on a table.
“This room is shielded,” he said. “The Creed cannot sense you here.”
Xenon closed the door behind us and locked it.
I stepped deeper into the room. The air felt oddly still. My ears rang slightly from the sudden quiet. Being underground felt strange, as if the world above was miles away.
Xenon came to stand in front of me.
“I will not leave you,” he said.
But before I could respond, something sharp and sudden shot through my head.
A flash.
Not pain.
Not a sound.
A vision.
A stone.
A symbol.
A woman’s hand reaching toward me.
A voice not mine whispering something—
A gasp tore from my throat. My knees buckled.
Xenon caught me instantly. “Sara.”
Kael moved forward. “What do you see.”
The room blurred and sharpened again.
I grabbed Xenon’s arm, breathing uneven. “I saw something. Just now.”
“What,” Xenon asked.
“A stone. Marked. And someone saying I am late.”
Kael inhaled. “The bloodline is advancing.”
Xenon glared at him. “Do not make it worse.”
But he looked back at me, fear flickering behind his control.
“What else did you see,” he asked.
Before I could answer, the lantern flickered.
A faint sound echoed in the corridor outside the vault door.
Xenon’s expression turned cold.
Kael stiffened. “Alpha.”
Xenon stepped in front of me, body rigid.
“They found us.”