Chapter 209 He Destroyed the Evidence
The Alpha stood frozen in the shadows of a massive pine, the horrific memories of what had been hidden right under their noses violently hijacking his mind. It was the exact reason Damon had to be shot—because the bastard had been actively trying to drag Caspian and Briar down into that subterranean nightmare.
Fennigan looked at his brother, his face draining of color under the soot and ash.
"Tanks, Jax," Fennigan whispered, the absolute horror of it cracking his voice. "There were rows of suspension tanks. He wasn't just studying our blood. He had actual replicas of Caspian and Briar floating in the fluid. They looked exactly like them... except their eyes were completely white. He could grow the child, Jax, but he couldn't grow the soul."
Jax’s blood ran cold. The Beta recoiled, a wave of pure nausea hitting his stomach. "Goddess... why?"
Fennigan’s hands trembled as he balled them into fists, his silver eyes burning with a murderous, cold fury. "Because he was ready to try what Vane did. He wanted Leela's elemental magic. And the only way to steal it was to take bone fragments from an elemental boy child... while the child was still alive and screaming." Fennigan’s voice dropped to a lethal growl. "He built those soulless replicas to practice on. But tonight, he was ready for the real thing. He was going to carve into his own grandson."
Jax stared at his brother, the sheer magnitude of their father's psychopathic betrayal hitting him like a physical blow.
"I didn't want the bunker to burn," Fennigan rasped, dragging a heavy hand over his face. "I wanted it all preserved for evidence. I wanted the High Council to see exactly what the hell they were funding. But the second I shot him, his associates bit down on cyanide capsules so they wouldn't get caught. And Damon... he had rigged the entire place to self-destruct if his fail-safe protocol was put into motion."
Fennigan turned his gaze back up the mountain, toward the pitch-black entrance of the caves looming in the distance.
"He destroyed the evidence," Fennigan said, his voice turning to ice. "Which means Magda is the only living proof we have left. And she doesn't get to leave this mountain."
Fennigan stopped walking, the heavy crunch of his boots halting on the pine needles. He looked over at his brother in the moonlight, the cold, unbreakable Alpha mask cracking just enough to show the raw, agonizing terror of a father who had almost lost everything.
"You know what the absolute worst part of it all is, Jax?" Fennigan’s voice was a ragged, haunting whisper in the dark forest.
Jax stopped beside him, his jaw tight as he waited.
"Everyone knows the twins haven't shown a single sign of having more of their mother in them than me," Fennigan rasped, his massive hands curling into white-knuckled fists at his sides. "You know as well as I do that Caspian and Briar have never shown a spark of the elements. They are pure wolf. Damon was just speculating. He was going to put them on a table and carve into his own grandchildren on a sick, twisted hunch."
Jax let out a low, visceral curse, closing his eyes and dragging a heavy hand through his hair as the nausea rolled through him again.
"I'm glad Toby shot him," Fennigan growled, the words heavy with absolute, remorseless finality. "I just wish to the Goddess it hadn't been while he was holding my children. They trusted him, Jax. They were giggling. They thought their Papa was just playing a game with them."
Fennigan squeezed his eyes shut, the terrifying memory of that frantic race back to the packhouse hitting him like a physical blow. When the mind-link had violently cracked open with the panicked news that Damon had taken the babies, Fennigan’s mind had completely snapped. The sheer terror had severed his control. He hadn't even been able to hold his human form. He had violently shifted into his massive Alpha wolf right there inside the passenger seat of the Jeep while Jax was red-lining the engine, his giant frame crushing against the dashboard and his claws tearing the upholstery to shreds in a blind, feral panic to get to his cubs.
But he hadn't been fast enough.
By the time Jax had slammed on the brakes and Fennigan’s massive wolf had hit the tree line, Damon already had them near the bunker entrance. Toby, the newly bonded young guard, had been forced to take the kill shot before Fennigan could even reach the clearing.
Fennigan opened his eyes. The vulnerability completely vanished, swallowed up and replaced by the lethal, glowing silver of the Alpha predator.
"He ruined their innocence, and he destroyed my family's peace," Fennigan said quietly, turning his gaze back up the steep incline toward the pitch-black entrance of the limestone caves looming in the distance.Gemini said
The heavy, suffocating silence returned as the two brothers resumed their grueling trek up the steep, jagged incline. The dense pine canopy above them gradually began to thin, giving way to the rocky, unforgiving terrain of the eastern ridge.
As they finally neared the gaping, pitch-black maw of the limestone cave system, the mountain wind suddenly shifted, rolling down the rocks and hitting them squarely in the face.
Both men stopped instantly, their nostrils flaring.
It was unmistakable. Beneath the damp, earthy smell of the cavern was a sharp, acrid stench. It was the sour, metallic scent of sweat and adrenaline—a wolf radiating pure, unadulterated terror. Magda had definitely gone inside.
Fennigan's jaw clenched, his silver eyes narrowing at the dark entrance. He knew better than anyone that a terrified wolf was the absolute most dangerous kind. Fear stripped away logic and replaced it with pure, feral instinct. A cornered, panicked traitor wouldn't try to reason; she would strike out blindly with lethal, unpredictable desperation. She had nothing left to lose.
Jax felt it too. His muscles coiled tight beneath his jacket, his Beta instincts humming with the visceral warning that they were walking right into the den of a desperate animal.
Without a word, the brothers stepped out of the pale moonlight and crossed the threshold, allowing the oppressive, freezing darkness of the cavern to swallow them whole. The air inside was heavy and stagnant, carrying the faint, eerie sound of water dripping and echoing off unseen stone walls.
Fennigan paused, his eyes rapidly adjusting to the gloom as the labyrinth stretched out before them in a dozen different, jagged directions. He reached out, his heavy hand clamping firmly onto Jax's shoulder to anchor them together in the dark.
"Stay close," Fennigan murmured, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that barely scraped against the limestone. "Don't stray from each other. It's too easy to get lost in here, and she's banking on us making a mistake."
Jax gave a single, tight nod, stepping up to move shoulder-to-shoulder with his Alpha. Together, they ventured deeper into the belly of the mountain, following the sour scent of fear into the pitch black.