Chapter 313 Experiments
The blue light of the monitors flickered rapidly, reflecting in Jax and Fennigan’s eyes as a cascade of data began to flood the air-gapped system. Rows of genetic code, highlighted in aggressive reds and yellows, scrolled past at a dizzying speed."
It’s not just Ginny, and it’s not just the Elementals," Elias said, his voice dropping to an awed, horrified whisper. "Look at the timestamps. This spans fifty years."
He opened a folder labeled Project Chimera. The screen filled with grainy, digitized photos of medical charts and anatomical sketches that made Jax’s stomach turn.
"Damon didn't invent this obsession; he just inherited it and gave it a playground," Elias explained, scrolling through the data. "They were trying to bypass the Goddess entirely. There are files here showing they were attempting to splice regular wolf DNA into human subjects as far back as the late seventies. But look at this section..."
He clicked on a sub-file that looked like a series of nursery logs. "They weren't just trying to make humans into wolves. They were going the other way, too. They were transferring human DNA into young, pure-blooded wolf cubs. They wanted to see if they could 'dilute' the feral side to make a more controllable, intellectual soldier. Or maybe they were trying to create a wolf that could hide in the human world without ever being detected by the moon’s pull."
Jax let out a low, guttural growl, his teeth bared in a primal snarl. The idea of Council scientists—and his own father—mucking about with the sanctity of a wolf cub’s spirit was an abomination.
"They were treating our species like Lego sets," Fennigan rumbled, his golden eyes glowing with a cold, royal heat. "Breaking us down to see if they could put the pieces back together in a shape that suited them."
"And that’s the danger for Iggy," Elias said, turning back to the current data. "If your father succeeded in stabilizing the transfer in Ginny, Iggy isn't just a 'big baby.' He is the culmination of fifty years of failed experiments. He is the bridge they’ve been trying to build for half a century."
Elias pointed to a line of code that looked like a jagged scar across the screen. "Damon’s notes here say the 'Subject'—Ginny—was the first to survive the third-trimester integration. Every other human woman they tried this on in the past... they didn't make it past the first month. Their bodies literally tore themselves apart trying to house the wolf strands."
Jax’s face was ashen, his hand trembling as he reached out to touch the screen where Ginny’s name was listed next to a string of cold, analytical numbers. "So my father... he watched all those women die? He knew the odds when he went after her?"
"He didn't just know the odds, Jax," Elias said quietly, his heart breaking for the man standing beside him. "He was trying to beat them. He viewed Ginny as his masterpiece. He wasn't trying to save her; he was trying to prove he was smarter than the Goddess herself."
Fennigan gripped the back of Jax’s chair, his presence a steady, heavy weight. "He failed, Elias. Because he forgot one thing: a Blackwood doesn't belong to a laboratory. We belong to the pack."
The air in the lab grew heavy, the sterile hum of the servers sounding more like a funeral dirge as Elias pulled up a final, hidden directory. He didn't just find numbers this time; he found a memo, a transcript of a high-level Council meeting that had been transcribed with a chilling, clinical coldness.
"They weren't only after Leela and her elemental magic," Elias whispered, his eyes scanning the text in disbelief. "I mean, yes, she was the prize—the divine spark they thought they could harness. But the Council’s long-term goal was always a perfect human specimen. They needed someone with a specific genetic resilience, someone who could house the mutation without the DNA collapsing into a rabid mess."
He hit 'Enter,' and a side-by-side comparison of Leela and Ginny’s genomic maps filled the screen.
"Imagine how delighted they must have been," Elias said, his voice trembling with a mix of disgust and awe. "The Council had been searching for decades, and then the divine elemental herself walks right into Damon’s lap, mated to his eldest son, the future King. It was a miracle for them. But then..."
Elias looked at Jax, his expression pained.
"But then she brings him the final piece. She brings him Ginny. The one human specimen whose markers were a one-in-a-billion match for the synthetic splice. The woman who would mate his youngest son, Jax. Damon didn't just see a daughter-in-law; he saw the perfect vessel to complete a fifty-year-old blood-rite. He saw the chance to anchor his lineage in both divine magic and perfected science."
Jax let out a sound that wasn't human—a low, vibrating snarl of absolute, soul-deep betrayal. He slammed his fist into the edge of the mahogany desk, the wood splintering under the force of his Alpha-lineage strength.
"He played us," Jax rasped, his eyes flashing a dangerous, unnatural gold. "He sat at our table, he watched us fall in love, and all he saw was a laboratory success story. He watched Leela and Ginny walk through his doors and thought the Goddess was hand-delivering his test subjects."
Fennigan stood as still as a statue, though the air around him seemed to crackle with a suppressed, royal fury. The realization that their entire lives—their mates, their joy, their very union—had been viewed by their father as a convenient biological harvest was almost too much to bear.
"He thought he was the architect," Fennigan rumbled, his voice low and vibrating with a lethal finality. "He thought he could use the love we have for our mates as a cage for his experiments."
Jax looked at the screen, his face pale and ashen as he stared at the data mapping out his son’s hijacked biology. "He didn't care about the risk to Ginny. He didn't care if she survived the birth. He just wanted the result."
"And he got it," Elias said, pointing to Iggy’s growth charts. "He got a nine-pound 'preemie' who is already stronger than most human toddlers. He got the bridge."
Jax turned his gaze toward the door, his mind racing back to the room where Ginny and Iggy lay sleeping under the watchful eyes of the women. "He's dead and gone, but he left his poison in my mate's veins. Elias, I don't care about the Council's 'perfect specimen.' I want the man I love back, and I want the woman I chose to be whole. You tell me right now—can we undo the splice? Or is my son the first of a new, cursed breed?"