Chapter 124
Kara
"She's not her mother." Asher's tone was dangerously soft, that lethal calm that meant someone was about to get eviscerated. "And we've already wronged her enough for a lifetime. This family owes her a debt we can never fully repay."
My breath hitched. He said it. Out loud. To them.
They really do feel guilty. This isn't just biological attraction or Heat-driven lust.
They actually... care.
The realization hit me like a freight train, stealing what little air I had left.
"You owe her nothing ." Victoria's voice rose, sharp and cutting. "We took her in. Fed her. Housed her—"
"As a slave ." Blake's snarl carried clearly, vibrating with barely leashed rage. "You made an eight-year-old child scrub floors to pay off her parents' debts. You kept her in a storage closet for ten years. Don't pretend that was kindness, Mom. Don't you fucking dare."
Oh shit. Blake just cursed at his mother.
Silence. Heavy and damning.
My legs felt weak. I pressed harder against the wall, my whole body trembling.
They're tearing their family apart. For me. Because of me.
Should I feel guilty? Triumphant? Both?
Then Marcus spoke, his voice carrying decades of exhaustion. "The boys have made their choice. We can either accept it and keep our family intact, or we can—"
"I can't lose them like I lost Connor." Victoria's voice broke, and for the first time, I heard the grief beneath the venom. Real, raw pain that echoed in my own chest. "What if she leaves? What if she breaks them the way Celeste broke him?"
Oh.
Oh, fuck.
She's not just cruel. She's terrified.
She lost her brother to addiction and debt. She watched him fall apart, watched him abandon his daughter in the snow. And now she thinks I'm going to do the same thing to her sons.
She thinks I'm going to destroy them.
Understanding crashed over me like cold water. It didn't erase the years of cruelty, the verbal abuse, the deliberately withholding warmth. But it... complicated things.
She's a bitch. But she's a bitch who's been hurt.
Doesn't mean I have to forgive her.
But maybe... maybe I can understand.
" Mom. " Cole's voice gentled, and I felt his careful, diplomatic approach through the bond. "Kara isn't Celeste. She won't destroy us. She's already survived us destroying her for years. If anyone should be afraid in this relationship, it's her ."
Through the bond, I felt their love surge toward me like a tidal wave—fierce and protective and so overwhelming I had to bite my lip to keep from gasping. Felt their determination to stand between me and any threat, even if that threat was their own mother.
They mean it , my wolf murmured, wonder and warmth spreading through my chest like honey. They truly mean it.
They'd choose me over her.
Holy shit.
I pulled away from the wall, padding silently toward the master bedroom on shaking legs. My mates could handle Victoria. Right now, I needed—
The bedroom door was ajar.
My wolf froze mid-step. Every hair on my body stood on end.
Something's wrong.
Cold air rushed through the gap—too cold, even for Alaska winter. Wrong. The kind of cold that meant open window and intruder and danger .
The curtains billowed wildly, and through the opening, I caught a glimpse of the massive floor-to-ceiling window.
It was open.
No. Not open. Forced . The lock was broken, hanging loose.
A black-clad figure crouched by the window, a white cloth clutched in his gloved hand. Chemical smell—sharp, medicinal, wrong —burned my nostrils even from the hallway.
Chloroform.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck—
My heart stopped. Then started again at triple speed, adrenaline dumping into my bloodstream so fast I felt dizzy.
Someone's in my room. Someone broke into my room. Someone's waiting for me with fucking chloroform.
The intruder hadn't seen me yet. He was scanning the room, clearly waiting for someone to enter. Waiting for me .
He's here to kidnap me. Drug me. Take me somewhere.
To Konstantin. To whoever killed Scarlett and maybe killed my parents.
I'm going to die. I'm going to disappear just like my parents did.
Every instinct screamed: RUN. HIDE. SHIFT. ATTACK.
But I was frozen. Caught between terror and fury, between the child who'd been helpless and the Luna who'd been claimed by three Alphas who'd burn the world for her.
The intruder's head started to turn toward the door.
Move. MOVE. DO SOMETHING.
My lungs filled with air.
" BLAKE! "
His name tore out of me—not a scream, but a command , raw and desperate, amplified through the mate bond with the force of a lightning strike. Every ounce of my fear, my rage, my need poured into that single word.
Come. Now. Save me. Kill him. Please please please—
---
Blake
The bond detonated .
Terror. Rage. Kara's terror, flooding through our connection like ice water straight into my veins. Her scream—my name, my name, not Asher's or Cole's but mine —echoed in my skull alongside the phantom scent of chemicals and a stranger's intrusion and my mate's panic.
Someone's in our room. Someone's threatening our mate.
Someone's going to fucking DIE.
My wolf didn't think. Didn't plan. Just moved .
One second I was arguing with Mom in the dining room. The next I was there —crashing through the bedroom doorway so fast I might as well have teleported, my vision already bleeding gold, my fire-and-gunpowder scent exploding outward in a wave of pure Alpha dominance and rage.
The intruder had turned toward Kara.
He didn't get another step.
I seized him by the throat, my wolf's strength coursing through human muscles, and hurled him away from her like he weighed nothing. He hit the opposite wall with a sickening crack —ribs breaking, definitely—gasped once, then—
My hand was already around his neck again. Tighter this time. Lifting him off his feet until his boots kicked uselessly against air, scrabbling for purchase that didn't exist.
You touched her door. You breathed her air. You thought you could TAKE her.
I'm going to rip your fucking spine out through your throat.
" Who sent you? " The words came out in a half-shifted snarl, more beast than man, my canines extending as my wolf pushed forward.
Behind me, Asher's black-ebony-and-tobacco scent flooded the room as he caught Kara, pulling her away from the scene, shielding her eyes with one hand while his other arm locked around her waist. " Don't look, " he murmured into her hair, his voice rough with his own barely contained rage. " Don't listen. You're safe. "
Cole burst in next, his mint-and-ozone scent crystallizing into frost. The temperature in the room plummeted. Ice spread across the window frame in jagged patterns, sealing off the intruder's escape route with crackling finality.
The man clawed at my grip, choking, his face turning purple. His dark eyes were wide with fear, and through the black ski mask, I could see the tendons in his neck straining, could feel his pulse hammering frantically against my palm.
Good. Be afraid. Know what's coming.
"Blake." Asher's voice cut through my fury, clinical and cold. "We need him alive for questioning."
No. We need him dead. We need his corpse as a message. We need—
My wolf growled—a sound that vibrated through my chest and into the intruder's windpipe, making him gag and thrash weakly. He made a strangled noise that might have been a plea.
He doesn't get to beg. He doesn't get mercy.
He came for her.
"Blake, wait—" Cole started, his hand reaching toward me.
I didn't wait.
I twisted.
Snap.
The sound of his neck breaking was clean. Efficient. Final.
Beautiful.
The body dropped like a puppet with cut strings, hitting the hardwood floor with a heavy thud that echoed in the sudden silence.
My wolf purred, satisfied. Threat eliminated. Mate protected.
Good.