Chapter 39 Breeding Facility
ZARA'S POV
I woke up the following morning to a new development in the academy. Mira was giving instructions and putting things in order like Dr. Voss would. It was off. I tried approaching her a few times but she had been too occupied with trying to set up one thing or the other.
"Today is a day for a ritual." Mira announced over the school media.
"Prepare to be mated... This is for those that are up to the age of being mated with."
My heart lurched in my throat. I hadn't reached the stage to be given out for mating and deep down, I just felt like I was never going to be given out as a mate to anyone. I hadn't seen Kai since I left his room, neither Rex nor Luna.
"Earth to hell young lady." Luna said bringing me out of my subconscious thoughts.
I laughed lightly. It felt good to laugh. It had been a crazy past few days.
"Sorry... Did you say anything else to me?' I asked.
She looked at me for a minute before huffing and shaking her head sideways.
"Let's go for our class for the day." She said as she linked her hands with mine
"I haven't seen Dr. Voss anywhere." I said in a light voice.
"Oh!!! I heard that she's under the weather at the moment." She responded nonchalantly.
"You didn't do anything bad to her right?' I asked again.
"C'mon .. I'm not a killer." She stated.
I snickered.
"Says someone who destroyed her world." I said in a cold voice.
"It wasn't intentional." She defended.
I just nodded as we walked towards our first class for the day. We entered class expecting to see Professor Ajax already writing strange symbols on the board as usual, but the room was empty and cold. This cold had a way of getting on my nerves. It stung badly.
Luna’s hand tightened around mine.
"Something is wrong," she whispered.
Then there was flickering of lights. Once.... Twice and then it completely died.
A low hum rose beneath our feet, like the academy itself was waking up from a long sleep.
I remembered this feeling. It first happened when I saw holographic pictures of myself.
Mira’s voice crackled through the broken speakers above us, distorted, glitching.
“Students… please… report to...”
Static swallowed the rest.
Everyone froze.
"What's going on?" I asked, eyes searching everywhere for something, anything.
I didn't even know what I was looking for, I just knew that my mind would be settled when I found what I was looking for.
Then the floor beneath the last row of seats shifted.
At first, I thought it was an earthquake. But no… the tiles were separating, forming a neat square as if cut by invisible blades. A hidden platform rose slowly from the darkness.
Luna cursed under her breath.
“What the hell is that?”
The platform stopped with a metallic thud, and a faint blue glow leaked from below.
Something was down there.
Something huge.
Before I could react, Luna dragged me backward toward the wall. My heart slammed painfully against my ribs as the air became thick with strange energy that was way too familiar, too wrong.
A voice drifted through the hallway.
“Everyone, remain calm.”
Kai.
I whipped around and saw him approaching from the doorway. His expression was tense, jaw clenched, eyes flickering between human and something brighter. Almost… silver.
“Kai,” I breathed.
I did not realize how much I needed to see him until that moment. He stepped in front of me protectively.
“You should not be here, Zara.”
His tone rattled me. It was not his usual firmness. It was fear. Not for himself but for me. And in that split second, he didn't look like my Kai.
Before I could question him, the ground vibrated again.
Another section of the floor broke open, more deeper, wider and revealing a circular shaft plunging into darkness. A cold wind rushed out from below, carrying with it a scent I did not recognize.
Not wolf. Not human.
Something older.
Kai exhaled shakily.
“They activated it.”
“Activated what?” I demanded.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he reached for my hand, then jerked away as if touching me burned him. A flicker of silver ran under his skin. His programming was glitching again.
Luna stepped forward.
“Kai. Focus. You know she needs to see this.”
Kai’s jaw tightened.
“She’s not ready.”
“Yes, she is,” Luna said softly.
“She has to be.”
My pulse thundered.
“Ready for what?”
Neither of them responded.
Mira suddenly appeared at the doorway, eyes bright, breathless like she had been running.
“Down,” she said urgently.
“All of you. NOW.”
Without waiting, she jumped onto the circular platform and grabbed the lever, one I was sure hadn’t existed moments ago. The platform shuddered, then began descending into the darkness.
Kai looked at me one last time, guilt shadowing his features.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“For everything you’re about to see.”
He stepped onto the platform beside Mira.
Luna squeezed my wrist, then tugged me forward.
I looked into Kai's eyes again. It really wasn't Kai. It was Rex.
I stepped onto the platform with trembling legs.
The descent began.
The deeper we went, the colder the air became. A mechanical hum echoed around us, mixed with… breathing.
Dozens of them.
No… hundreds.
The shaft opened into an enormous underground chamber, glowing with pulsating blue light. Towers of machinery rose like metals connected with tubes that pulsed with energy.
I gasped.
Across every wall…
Stretching endlessly into the darkness were pods.
Small pods.
Thousands of them.
Bodies floating inside each one, suspended in glowing blue liquid.
Werewolves just unmoving, eerily peaceful, as if dreaming.
My stomach dropped.
My knees almost buckled.
“This…” I choked.
“What is this place?”
Mira swallowed hard.
“The academy is not just a school.”
Luna looked away, struggling to keep her voice steady.
“This is where they store them.”
Kai shut his eyes.
“The Harvest Chamber.”
My heart cracked.
My breath vanished.
I looked towards Mira and got the confirmation that I needed that this was all real from the look on her eyes.
This was not a school.
It was a breeding facility.