Chapter 73 Siege at the Gallery
NATHAN'S POV
I approached the gallery with Ryan and Daniel and eight warriors backing us up through the city streets. We had tracked Lisa's scent here through blocks of expensive shops and restaurants but something was wrong with the entire scene. The street was too quiet for a weekday afternoon when people should be shopping and eating lunch. Humans had closed for the day and the shops were closed with their lights off and their doors locked.
Someone called in a gas leak warning according to the signs posted on nearby buildings and police barriers at the intersections. Clever way to clear civilians without raising weird suspicions. Marcus Krane's forces were positioned on the south side of the gallery building and rogues on the north. Everyone was waiting for something to happen.
"This is a trap," Daniel muttered as he scanned the building for entry points and weak spots in the architecture. "Three different factions converging on a locked building with Lisa inside at the same time. Someone orchestrated this. Someone wanted all of us here at the same moment."
Ryan's eyes were pure gold and his wolf was barely controlled beneath his skin. I could see the tremors running through his friend's body. "I do not care if it is a trap or a setup or whatever game someone is playing. She is in there, possibly in danger, pregnant with my child. I am getting her out." His voice shook and he fought so hard not to shift right there in broad daylight on a city street.
I grabbed his arm hard enough to bruise his flesh. "Think for one second. If we rush in without a plan, we will trigger a three-way war in the middle of a human city. Marcus Krane wants Lisa alive to claim her under the pack law. The rogues want her alive for the prophecy they have been waiting for. We want her alive because we love her and need her. But if fighting starts, people will definitely die. Human casualties and people will film it on their phones. Exposure of the werewolf world to the media and governments. Council intervention, trials, and executions."
Ryan jerked free and his muscles coiled for action like a spring wound too tight. "Then what is your plan, Nathan? Stand here and watch?"
I took my time to study the building with my mind which made me Beta and kept Southern Pack alive through conflicts. "I will go in alone and talk to whoever has her. This should buy time for Lisa to escape through a back exit or for us to understand what we are actually dealing with here." I could see the exits and the angles and the places where snipers could hide if this turned into a shooting war.
Daniel laughed bitterly and the sound was like he was mocking me and it hurt. "Noble of you. Stupid, but noble." He pointed to a third-floor window that reflected light differently from the others around it. "That is silver-lined glass. Someone converted this building into a supernatural trap. Dante Moretti prepared for wolves specifically. Probably other defenses we cannot see from out here."
The door opened and Dante emerged with his hands raised in surrender. He looked calm and almost amused by the armed wolves surrounding his property from multiple directions. "Gentlemen! No need for violence or property damage. Lisa is inside, perfectly safe, and we have been having a lovely conversation about her future and her options."
Ryan lunged forward but I held him back with both arms wrapped around his chest. Dante smiled wider like he was enjoying the show and the tension. "She is at a crossroads, you see. I have offered her something none of you can give her. True freedom. An escape from destiny, from prophecies, from all of you who claim to love her but really just want to control her path. She is considering it quite seriously."
Daniel's voice was dangerous and low enough to make even hardened warriors take a step back. "Where is my sister?"
Dante stepped aside with a theatrical gesture and Lisa appeared in the doorway. She looked calm and composed and was holding something in her hands that made my blood run cold. The journal Dante probably gave her. Her mother's forbidden writings about something that would be bigger than us.
"I am right here, Daniel. And I have just learned some interesting things about our family history. About what silver wolves really are and what they were meant to do."
She looked at Ryan, at me, at all of them with eyes that seemed older somehow. Eyes that had seen truths that changed everything. "Did any of you know my mother was planning to destroy the pack system entirely? That the prophecy is not about unity or peace, it is about revolution? About tearing down every structure we have built over centuries and starting over from nothing?"
Before anyone could answer or deny or explain, Marcus Krane's voice boomed from the south side like thunder rolling across the sky. "This conversation is fascinating, but I am on a schedule. Lisa Marcus, you will honor the marriage contract your mother signed or my son will challenge you now, in this street, in front of humans if necessary. We are done waiting."
The rogue leader stepped forward from the north side of the building. An older man with scars covering half his face and power radiating from every movement he made. "The girl comes with us. Silver wolves belong with rogues, not packs. We have been waiting twenty years to claim our prophet and we will not wait another day."
Dante looked at Lisa with something like genuine concern on his face. "See? Everyone wants to own you, control you, and use you for their own purposes and agendas. I am offering you the only real choice that gives you freedom. Walk away from all of them."
Lisa stood in the doorway, pregnant with Ryan's child, holding her mother's forbidden journal, three factions demanding she choose. Her voice carried clearly and strongly. "I choose violence."