65

65

Aiden's POV

All tension, Marcus spreads aerial satellite detail images across the large oak table, his face ominous under the bright fluorescent light. From above it looks like a confusing network of corrugated metal and shattered concrete, but I can already tell why Xavier picked this place. Multiple points of entry, a million places to set up an ambush, and according to our intelligence, it's built right on top of what used to be an old ritual site.

“This,” he says, motioning to a large building with smaller buildings surrounding it. Synopsis: This is the battlefield where Xavier wants the fight to go down. But check out these heat readings from last night.”

In the infrared images, dozens of heat signatures are scattered throughout the complex, well beyond what would be necessary for a ceremonial duel between two Alphas. The others would do as well." I grit my teeth, shelving my anger as I take in at least thirty people posted in calculated locations.
“He’s not even pretending about it any longer,” I growl, my wolf pacing beneath my skin. “This ain’t got nothing to do with honor or pack law. It's a full-scale operation."

“And then it gets worse,” Marcus continues, flipping over another stack of documents. I had our tech whiz do a survey of the area. The warehouse complex was constructed on top of an ancient Native American holy site – namely a site of the convergence of several ley lines.”

Xavier's not only looking to kill you in battle," she adds, studying the sat images with seasoned eyes. He's going to sacrifice you as part of a bigger rituals. Then ley lines converge, the moon's full tomorrow night, both kids are here -- it's all designed to help him harvest as much magic as possible."

"What kind of ceremony would that take?" I inquire, although I have an inkling what the answer is.
The voice of Elder Patricia falls to just above a whisper. A prophecy fulfillment ceremony. If the ancient scrolls are true, then Xavier can steal prophetic power from both of the children by doing the ritual at that moment of high magical formation."

I ball my fists, and when the extent of Xavier’s plot forms in my mind I can’t help but clench them even more. “He is using the fighting as a diversion. "Everyone is fixed on our fight, and he can surgically send in the Shadow Faction to take the twins and start the ritual."

“That is our judgment,” Marcus confirms. “But here’s the part that makes absolutely no sense – why fight you in ritual combat? Why not just take the children themselves?”

“,”Getting the mate bond severed, first, Grandma Patricia replies. So long as Haylee is connected to you—perhaps even tethered through the child you share—she is protected by the very supernatural forces that render her more difficult to manage. Unless you’re killed in honorable battle..."

“The bond will naturally break, and she’ll be left defenseless,” I conclude, my stomach turning with what that means. “And with me gone, there’s no one with the power to dispute his ownership of her and the kids.”

"Exactly. It’s kind of brilliant, in an entirely evil way,” Marcus groans. He kills you, takes Haylee and both kids as his, preforms his power suck dry ritual- all in one night."

I stand suddenly and start to pace while my wolf snarls for vengeance. The fluorescent lights cast dusky shadows that move with me, adding to the satellite images’ sense of unease. “So we don’t give him the opportunity. “Let’s go after the complex tonight, not when he’s prepared.

"With what army?" Marcus asks pointedly. Our intel indicates he has at least thirty trained fighters, as well as however many Shadow Faction operatives are supporting him. We've got mayhap fifteen warriors we know we can trust full-safe, an' half of 'em're bounden here to protect th' packhouse.
“Then we throw the book at them,” I say, my wheels already turning. “Alpha Stone—the one from the Northern Territories, Alpha Reyes, from the Coastal pack, perhaps even—”

My phone sounds, interrupting my plotting and planning. Haylee’s name lights up the screen, and something in the urgency of the call has my wolf turning to stone with dread.
"Aiden, I need you here now. Lior is—"

“I’m coming,” I cut in, grabbing my jacket, hurrying for the door even as she keeps talking. I can feel the fear in her voice, ripping through me like ice, and I can hear Marcus and Elder Patricia following her in her tracks.

“Marcus just received word that Xavier’s shifted the battlefield. We believe it’s a trap, but Haylee, there’s more. The new site is on a magical convergence of ley lines. And if he’s making whatever sort of ritual” —

“He is,” she interrupts me, and there’s a broken undertone to her voice, one that makes my chest constrict. “We don’t have time to wait for your prearranged combat. Xavier's soul link is slowly killing Lior as we speak, and we have twelve hours at the most to save him.

The words strike me as something that would have a physical impact, and I have to clutch the doorframe for momentum. Soul tether. The word retrieves scraps of ancient pack myth, tales spun around the fires of long past regarding the foulest blood magicks. If Xavier has lassoed Lior to himself with an ugly witch ceremony…

“We’re on our way to you,” I somehow manage to say, my voice gravelly with emotion. “Whatever happens next, we face it together.

I hang up, then turn to see Marcus and Elder Patricia looking at me with matching expressions of horror.
"Did she say soul tether?" “What do you think?” inquires Elder Patricia, speaking barely above a whisper.

"Yes. Xavier somehow bound Lior to some ritual when he was born and that’s what is killing him.”

Elder Patricia collapses into the nearest chair, her face going white. "Dear goddess. If that’s the case, then everything we’ve been planning will have been for nothing.”

"What do you mean?”

“You can only break a soul tether by killing the caster,” she says, words tumbling down in frantic beats. “But if you get the timing wrong, if the magical backlash isn’t careful nourished, the bound victim dies as well. It's impossible to save the child except by killing Xavier at the exact instant of a counter-ritual.”

Marcus rakes both of his hands through his hair, looking frazzled. "So, we cannot wait till the fight next night and attack and kill Xavier, we are unprepared if we do. "And in the meantime, a 6-year-old is dying.”

“We’ll adjust,” I whisper grimly, snapping into leader mode even with panic stabbing at my heart. “Change the timeframe, change the strategy, but keep the same target. We rescue Lior, prevent Xavier, and keep the Shadow Faction from both kids."

"How?" Marcus asks bluntly.

Before I can respond, I get a text from an unfamiliar number. The words send shivers down my spine:

Your son is fading with every hour that passes. If you want to save him, come alone to the warehouse complex. Bring the other child. You have until midnight. - X

"Whoa, okay— he's moving up his timetable too," I say, passing the message to Marcus and Elder Patricia. “It’s got to be something that’s pushing his hand.”

“The soul tether,” Elder Patricia realizes just in the nick of time. “If Lior is dying months ahead of schedule, Xavier must complete his own ritual tonight or else he will lose touch with both offspring for good.

My wolf snaps with anger and frustration, but my human mind is thinking strategically. "Then we hit him tonight. No choice."

“This is what he wants, Aiden,” Marcus protests. “He’s luring you into a trap.

"Maybe. But if Lior dies because we waited for better odds, I won’t forgive myself. And neither will Haylee."

I make my decision and walk again toward the door. "Get our men prepared for a night attack. Cash in every favor Cutie Don and I are owed, call every friendly pack even remotely close enough to drive to. If Xavier wants a war tonight, we’ll give him one.”

"Where are you going?" Marcus calls after me.

"To find Haylee and the kids. If we’re walking into a trap, we’re walking in together as a family.”

The door swings open before I can even knock, and there's Ha-lee holding Lior's limp body in her arms. The image of my son — pale, weak, gasping for breath — is like a punch to the solar plexus.

"How bad is it?" I murmur, brushing my hand across Lior's forehead. His skin is cold and clammy, and there is something fundamentally off about his scent – as though part of his deep-rooted wolfness is oozing out of him, slowly but surely spiralling down the drain.

“Dr. Chen says, maybe twelve hours before it’s going to be too late,” says Haylee, her voice unfaltering but her bloodshot eyes sparking with unshed tears. “But I talked to a healer from my old pack. There may be a way to give us more time.”

She bores right in to the counter-ritual possibility, and I’m torn between hope and despair. A brief reversal will buy us some time, but what we need to do is follow in the footsteps of Xavier’s binding spell – back to the place where somewhere where in the woods she stumbled and fell six years ago.

“I can follow it,” I volunteer at once. "Equal the dust of disappeared hope and it's fine dust will rise."Even after all this time there should be enough magic residue that I can trace their scent trail."

“It’s scary,” Haylee says. “If Xavier feels what we’re doing..."

“Everything now is dangerous,” I respond gravely. “But at least it gives us a fighting chance.”

That’s when I see Kael, the son, standing at the door just behind Haylee with a young face creased with determination in ways that cut me to the bone, because I looked the same at that age. My second son- the one I missed the first six years of his life, the one I am just getting to know- steps forward with a primeval swagger of a natural Alpha son.

I want to save my brother,” he says, so matter of fact, and there is so much quiet strength in his words that my chest feels like it is going to burst with pride and my heart to crumble with the enormity of what these children have had to endure.

“Kael, darling, it’s too dangerous,” Haylee starts, but he shakes his head.

“Lior needs both of us,” he insists, taking his brother’s white hand in his own. “I can sense his wolf speaking to mine. He’s scared and he’s hurting, and he needs to know that his family is not going to leave him.”

Before either Haylee or I can speak, Lior cracks her eyes, hazy and slightly glazed from the fever. His mouth opens to speak; and instead of the sound of Xavier’s voice, we hear our son’s tiny, scared whisper:

"Daddy? The bad man says you are going to leave me here. If nobody really wants to save me because I wasn’t really yours.’

The words break something deep inside my chest, and I cradle Lior from Haylee’s arms, holding him against me and gazing into his wide, frightened eyes.

‘Now you listen to me, my son’ I talk with all the love and conviction in my soul. You are mine in all the ways that count. I will never abandon you, and I will never stop fighting for you or your brother, and I will die before I let anyone else hurt you.”

Lior shifts his gaze at me, eyes so deep it’s like staring into his future, which already seems far too old for a six year old child. "Promise?"

"I promise."

But even as the words fall out of my mouth, I can see the black veins spreading out from his heart, visible through his white skin like some terrible sickness. Whatever Xavier did to him is speeding up, and we’re running out of time faster than anyone anticipated.

Haylee catches my eyes above Lior’s head, and I can see in her own eyes the same desperate epiphany. We don't have twelve hours. We might not even have six.
“We have to leave,” she says finally. "Now.”