Chapter 205
Kael's POV
The blood from Rezar's shoulder wound pooled on the desk between us. Dark. Spreading. The metallic smell filled the small control room.
I kept the pipe pressed against his throat. Watched him struggle to breathe through the pain.
"You want to know what conditions?" I said. My voice came out flat. "Fine. Here they are."
I leaned in closer. Close enough to see the sweat beading on his forehead.
"You restore order on this ship. Turn it around. Head back to port. And Wild Hunt pulls every single hunter off Lynette's trail."
Rezar's laugh came out wet. Choked.
"You think... you think I can just let her go?" He coughed. More blood on his lips. "Wild Hunt doesn't forgive. We don't forget. If I just walk away from this, we lose all credibility in the wolf world."
My jaw clenched. I'd expected this.
"Then we compromise," I said. "This ends here. Tonight. You leave her alone on this ship. And for the next three months—you don't touch her or her family."
His eyes narrowed. "Three months?"
"Three months," I repeated. "After that, if you still want revenge, you follow wolf law. Proper challenge. No ambushes. No targeting innocents."
I pulled the pipe back slightly. Let him breathe.
"And from now on, Wild Hunt stays out of Harrington territory. Completely."
For a moment, he just stared at me. His good hand pressed against his ruined shoulder, trying to stem the bleeding.
Then his expression changed. The pain gave way to something else.
Cold calculation.
"You think I'll agree to that?" His voice dropped. Got quieter. More dangerous. "You think I'll just roll over because you stuck a pipe in my shoulder?"
My hand tightened on the metal.
"Unless you can wipe out the entire Wild Hunt organization," Rezar continued, "the hunt for her will never stop. Never. We have people everywhere. Contacts in every major city. Even if you kill me right now—"
"Shut up."
"—my vitals flatline, and the entire network gets the alert. Every single Wild Hunt member will know you killed me. And then..." He coughed. Blood sprayed from his lips. "Then they'll come for her family. Her friends. Everyone she's ever cared about. They'll make it slow. Painful. Personal."
His smile widened. Triumphant even through the agony.
"So go ahead, Alpha Harrington. Kill me. Start a war you can't win."
My hand tightened on the pipe.
My mind raced through the options.
Let him live? He'd already refused every compromise. Already made it clear the hunt would never stop. Three months, three years—didn't matter. Wild Hunt would keep coming.
And keeping him alive didn't guarantee her family's safety. It just delayed the inevitable.
At least if he was dead, I'd know exactly what I was dealing with. Open war. Clear enemy. No more ambushes disguised as negotiations.
I could protect her family if I knew the threat was coming.
But if I let him walk out of here, he'd just send more hunters. More traps. More "accidents" that I couldn't predict or prevent.
The calculus was brutal. But it was clear.
He had to die.
Not because I was angry. Not because he'd insulted me.
Because dead, he was a known threat. Alive, he was a ticking time bomb I couldn't defuse.
"You're right about one thing," I said quietly. "This will start a war."
Rezar's eyes gleamed. Thinking he'd won.
"But here's what you're wrong about—I can win it."
The pipe moved.
Slashed across his throat in one clean motion.
Not deep enough to kill instantly. Just deep enough to matter.
Rezar's eyes went wide. His hands flew to his neck, fingers scrabbling at the wound. Blood poured between them—hot and fast and too much.
He tried to speak. Couldn't. Just made wet, gurgling sounds.
I stepped back. Watched him slide off the chair onto the floor.
"I'll deal with Wild Hunt," I said. More to myself than to him. "But you won't be around to see it."
My heart hammered. Not from fear. From the weight of the choice I'd just made.
War with Wild Hunt. Protection details for her family. Fortifying Harrington territory. Hunting down their key members before they could strike.
It would be brutal. Costly. Dangerous.
But at least now I controlled the terms.
Rezar's body convulsed. His legs kicked out, heels drumming against the floor. One hand left his throat and reached out—toward the control panel.
I saw it. Understood what he was doing.
I lunged forward.
Too late.
His bloody palm slammed down on the biometric scanner. The screen flashed green—recognizing his handprint even through the blood.
His fingers dragged across the touchscreen. Left red smears as he entered a code. Four digits. Fast. Like he'd practiced it a thousand times.
The final command.
"Warning! Self-destruct sequence initiated! Thirty minutes to detonation!"
The automated voice blared from every speaker. Lights flashed red along the walls. An alarm shrieked—loud and piercing and impossible to ignore.
Rezar collapsed fully. His hand slid off the screen, leaving a long streak of blood across the display.
But his eyes found mine. And even dying, even with his life draining away, he smiled.
That same manic, triumphant smile.
Then the light left his eyes.
"Fuck."
I spun toward the control panel. The screen now showed a countdown timer—twenty-nine minutes, fifty-eight seconds. And below it, a password prompt with biometric lock requirements.
Rezar's authorization. His palm print. His personal code.
All things I didn't have.
And Rezar was very, very dead.
"Twenty-nine minutes, thirty seconds remaining."
I forced myself to think. To focus past the adrenaline flooding my system.
The signal jammer. Rezar had been using it to block all communications on and off the ship.
I scanned the equipment racks. Found the jammer—a large black box with blinking lights. Ripped the power cable out of the wall.
The lights died.
I grabbed my comm unit from my pocket. Pressed the button.
"Drake. Drake, do you copy?"
Static crackled. Then—
"Alpha! Thank god! We've been trying to reach you for the past hour! We're on the water now, fifteen minutes out from your position!"
Relief hit me like a physical blow. But there was no time to enjoy it.
"Listen carefully," I said. "The ship's self-destruct system is active. We have less than thirty minutes before this whole thing goes up."
Silence on the other end. Then Drake's voice came back—tight with shock.
"What? How—"
"Doesn't matter. Get the rescue boats ready. I'm going to get Lynette and we're evacuating. Everyone on this ship needs to get off now."
"Understood. We'll be ready. Alpha..." He paused. "Don't take too long."
I cut the connection. Turned to the bank of security monitors.
My eyes scanned the feeds. Searched for her.
There—third monitor from the left.
Lynette stood in a sterile white corridor. Clinical. Fluorescent lights overhead. The kind of hallway you'd find near a medical facility or research lab.
Bodies littered the floor around her. Wild Hunt members. She was moving—fast—heading deeper into the ship.
Another figure moved with her. Male. Dark hair. Covering her six.
Cole.
I watched them descend a stairwell together. Push through a heavy door. Cole went first, checking corners. Lynette followed close behind.
"Twenty-eight minutes, ten seconds remaining."
I ran.