Chapter 29 029

Chapter 29 029
Chapter Twenty-Nine

Sera

The world was smoke and screaming and Elena crying against my chest. I pressed myself against an overturned bench, trying to shield her from the chaos, my body curled around hers like armor.

Through the bond, I felt Dante—raw fury and protective instinct completely unleashed. He was fighting, tearing through enemies to get to us, but there were too many bodies between him and where I'd taken cover.

"Sera!" Maya appeared through the smoke, bleeding from a cut above her eye. "We need to move. The building's not stable."

"Where's Dante?"

"Fighting Garrett. Half the chamber's collapsed—we're cut off from that side." Maya grabbed my arm. "Come on. Adrian's clearing a path to the east exit."

I stumbled to my feet, clutching Elena. She was still crying, terrified by the noise and violence surrounding us. Through the bond, I pushed calm toward her, though I felt anything but calm myself.

A rogue wolf lunged at us. Maya shifted partially, her claws extending to slash across his throat. He went down, and she shifted back, pulling me forward.

"Keep moving!"

We ran through the smoke-filled chamber. Around us, wolves fought in both human and animal form. I saw Council members being evacuated by their guards, saw Margaret Hayes being dragged toward safety, saw blood and bodies and destruction everywhere.

Adrian appeared, his wolf form massive and intimidating. He jerked his head toward a doorway, and Maya steered us that direction.

"Wait," I said, stopping. "Dante—I can feel him through the bond. He's hurt."

"He'll heal. We need to get you and Elena out of here." Maya tried to pull me forward, but I resisted.

Through the bond, I felt it—Dante's pain, sharp and sudden. Silver. Someone had stabbed him with a silver blade.

"No." I turned back toward the fighting. "I'm not leaving him."

"Sera, you have a baby—"

"And he has a mate who's not abandoning him!" I pulled free of Maya's grip. "Take Elena. Get her to safety. I'm going back."

"That's insane!"

"That's what mates do." I held Elena out to her. "Please. Protect her. I trust you."

Maya looked torn, but she took Elena carefully. "You have five minutes. Then I'm coming back for you whether you're with Dante or not."

She ran for the exit with Elena. I watched just long enough to see Adrian's wolves form a protective escort around them, then I turned and ran back into the smoke.

The bond guided me. Even through the chaos, I could feel Dante's presence like a beacon. I shifted partially, letting my wolf's senses sharpen my vision through the smoke, strengthen my body enough to move faster.

I found him in what had been the Council's section, locked in combat with Garrett. Both were in human form, circling each other. Blood ran down Dante's side from a silver knife wound that wasn't healing.

Garrett held the silver blade, his expression fanatical. "Twenty-five years I waited. Twenty-five years of watching you waste your potential, refuse proper mates, neglect your duties to the bloodline. And then you finally find a true mate and what do you do? Choose some packless nobody who can't even produce proper heirs!"

"Elena is a proper heir," Dante growled, favoring his injured side. "More than you'll ever be."

"That bastard child isn't yours! She's Marcus's spawn, and you're too blinded by bond magic to see it!" Garrett lunged with the silver knife.

Dante dodged, but not fast enough. The blade caught his shoulder, opening another wound that smoked and burned. He stumbled, and Garrett pressed his advantage.

I didn't think. I just acted.

I shifted fully, my wolf form smaller than either of theirs but faster. I hit Garrett from the side, my teeth finding his knife arm and clamping down hard. He screamed and dropped the silver blade.

Dante recovered immediately, his wolf surging forward to pin Garrett to the ground. Through the bond, I felt his surprise at my presence, his anger that I'd come back, his relief that I was alive.

Elena? His thought came through the bond.

Safe. Maya has her.

Garrett writhed under Dante's paws, still ranting. "You can't kill me! Pack law—Council oversight—you'll be exiled for murdering an elder!"

"Pack law ended the moment you hired Vaughn to kill my family." Dante's voice in human form was cold as ice, even though his body remained wolf. "You declared war. I'm finishing it."

"Wait." I shifted back to human, crouching beside them. "Where's Vaughn? I saw him with you during the attack."

Garrett's expression shifted to something like triumph. "Gone. With the real prize."

My blood went cold. "What prize?"

"The child, you stupid girl. While everyone's focused on this battle, Vaughn is collecting what I actually hired him for—Dante's heir. Though I suppose it's Marcus's heir, isn't it? Either way, a powerful Alpha bloodline I can control and mold."

"Elena's with Maya and Adrian," I said, but doubt crept in. "She's protected."

"Is she? Are you sure your friends are actually your friends?" Garrett smiled through bloody teeth. "Vaughn's been here for months, learning your patterns, identifying weaknesses. You think he couldn't turn one of your trusted wolves?"

Through the bond, I felt Dante's horror matching my own. We'd assumed we knew who the traitors were. What if we'd been wrong?

"You're lying," Dante said. "Trying to divide us."

"Am I? Then why isn't Adrian here fighting beside you?" Garrett's smile widened. "Why did he conveniently volunteer to protect the baby, to take her away from the fighting where no one can see what happens to her?"

"Because he's loyal," I said, but uncertainty gnawed at me.

Garrett laughed. "Loyal to what? To you? To a pack he's been passed over for leadership of for fifteen years? Or to the generous payment Vaughn offered him to deliver one small baby to a predetermined location?"

"No." Dante's weight shifted on Garrett's chest, and I heard ribs crack. "Adrian wouldn't. I've known him for—"

"For fifteen years. And how much of that time did he spend resenting you? Resenting that he'd never be more than second? That he'd serve you his entire life and get nothing but loyalty's burden?" Garrett coughed blood. "Vaughn found his weakness. Everyone has one. Adrian's was ambition he'd never admit to himself."

I reached through the bond for Elena, trying to sense her through the connection we shared. She was alive—I felt that much. But she was moving away, getting farther from the Council Hall with every moment.

"We need to go," I said to Dante. "Now. If Garrett's telling the truth—"

"He's lying. He has to be lying." But Dante's voice lacked conviction.

A crash from across the chamber made us both turn. Vaughn stood in the doorway we'd entered through, his expression calm and professional despite the chaos around him.

"Garrett's telling the truth," he said simply. "Adrian was easier to turn than expected. Bit of money, bit of persuasion about what he deserved, and he folded like a cheap deck. The baby's already en route to the buyer."

"Buyer?" My voice came out as a whisper.

"Did you think this was just about pack politics? About grief and revenge?" Vaughn tilted his head. "True mate children are rare. Powerful. There are collectors who pay extraordinary amounts for them. Raise them right, and you have a weapon no pack can stand against."

He pulled out a gun—not a normal one, but something that gleamed with silver bullets.

"Garrett hired me to eliminate obstacles to his succession plan. But I'm a businessman. When I found out about the true mate baby, I contacted some specialty clients. They paid triple what Garrett offered." Vaughn aimed the gun at Dante. "Now I tie up loose ends. Alpha dies heroically protecting his mate during an attack. Mate dies of grief and wounds. Baby disappears in the chaos. Clean, tragic, profitable."

The gun fired.

Dante moved, shifting to throw me aside. The silver bullet meant for my heart hit his chest instead.

He went down hard, the silver burning through him, preventing his healing.

"No!" I scrambled to him, pressing my hands against the wound. Silver smoke rose from where the bullet had entered, and through the bond I felt his life force weakening.

Vaughn reloaded calmly. "Touching. But pointless."

He aimed again, this time at me. No Dante to take the bullet, no cover to hide behind. Just me and a professional killer who'd already won.

I closed my eyes, pushing love through the bond toward Dante one last time.

The shot rang out.

But the impact never came.

I opened my eyes to see Elder Thomas standing between Vaughn and me, blood blooming across his chest. He'd taken the bullet meant for me.

"Run," he gasped, already falling. "Save... daughter..."

More wolves poured into the chamber—Council guards, finally responding to the attack. Vaughn assessed the situation, calculated odds, and made his decision. He ran, disappearing through the same doorway he'd entered.

I wanted to chase him, to tear him apart for shooting Dante and Elder Thomas. But Dante was dying in my arms, and Elena was somewhere with a traitor, being taken to buyers who'd turn her into a weapon.

"Sera." Dante's voice was weak, his hand finding mine. "Go. Find Elena. I'll be—"

"You'll be fine. You're healing, the silver's working its way out—"

"Sera." Firmer now. "Go. Our daughter needs you. I'll catch up."

Through the bond, I felt his absolute conviction. He was ordering me as my Alpha, as my mate, as Elena's father.

I kissed him hard, pouring everything I felt into it. "Don't you dare die. You promised we'd face this together."

"And we will. After you get our baby back." He pushed me away weakly. "Go!"

I ran, following the bond's pull toward Elena. Behind me, I heard Council guards working to stabilize Dante and Elder Thomas, heard the continued fighting as Garrett's mercenaries were overwhelmed.

But ahead of me was my daughter, being taken farther away with every second I wasted.

Maya found me in the corridor, her face grim. "Adrian took her. Got past our guards somehow, shifted and ran. I tracked him as far as the forest edge, but he's fast and he has a head start."

"How long?"

"Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen." Maya held out a knife. "I'm coming with you."

"No. Stay with Dante. Make sure he doesn't die while I'm gone." I took the knife. "This is my fight."

"Sera—"

"My daughter. My responsibility. My choice." I shifted, my wolf form ready to run faster than I'd ever run before.

Through the bond with Elena, I felt her fear and confusion. She was calling for me, for Dante, for the safety she'd known in our arms.

I'm coming, baby, I promised through whatever connection we shared. Mommy's coming.

And then I ran, following the bond, following my instincts, following the desperate need to save my child before she disappeared forever into a world of collectors and weapons and everything I'd fought to protect her from.

Behind me, the Council Hall burned.

Ahead of me, my daughter needed saving.

And nothing—not distance, not traitors, not professional killers—would stop me from bringing her home.