Chapter 74 Into the Wolf’s Den
“Drive faster.” My voice was tight. Controlled. But inside, panic screamed. Clara was awake. Being experimented on. Suffering. Because I wasn’t there yet.
Lycian pressed the accelerator. The SUV flew down the mountain road. Trees blurring past. Gravel spraying. “We’re still twenty minutes out. Going any faster and we crash.”
“Then we crash closer to the facility.” I pulled out weapons. Checked ammunition. Silver bullets. Regular bullets. Knives. Everything we might need. “She’s awake. Scared. Alone.”
“I know.” His hand found mine. Squeezed. “We’ll get her. I promise.”
Through the bond, I felt his determination. His refusal to fail. It steadied me. Reminded me I wasn’t alone.
The facility appeared as full dark hit. Massive concrete structure built into the mountainside. No windows. No obvious doors. Smooth gray walls and a single entrance guarded by four wolves in tactical gear.
“That’s more security than the blueprints showed,” Elena said from the back seat. “They’re expecting us.”
“Good. Let them expect me.” I checked my gun. “They won’t expect the pack coming through the service entrances.”
We stopped a mile out. Parked in a clearing hidden by trees. Everyone moved with practiced efficiency. No wasted motion. No talk.
Lycian pulled me aside. His hands framed my face. “Last chance to change your mind. We can find another way.”
“There is no safer way.” I covered his hands with mine. “I have to save her. You know that.”
“I know you’re brave and stubborn and completely insane.” He kissed my forehead. “And I can’t stop you.”
“You can protect me by being ready when it goes wrong.” I kissed him. Hard. Desperate. “I love you. Remember that.”
“Don’t say it like you’re not coming back.” His arms tightened. “Say we’ll extract Clara and go home together.”
“I’ll see you in an hour.” The words felt like tempting fate. But I said them anyway. “We’ll go home together.”
He kissed me again. Longer. Deeper. Claiming. His wolf rising close to the surface. Possessive. Protective. Mine.
When we pulled apart, his eyes were pure gold. “If you die, I’m following you. Into whatever comes after. I’m not existing in a world without you.”
“Then I better not die.” I stepped back. Before I changed my mind. Before I let him talk me into a different plan. “Forty-five minutes. That’s how long you wait before coming in. Give me time to get to Clara. To draw their attention.”
“Thirty minutes. Not a second longer.” He wasn’t asking. Wasn’t negotiating. “And if I feel you dying through the bond, I’m coming immediately. Plan or no plan.”
“Deal.”
I walked toward the facility. Alone. Hands visible. No weapons drawn. Completely vulnerable.
The guards saw me coming. Raised their guns. Shouted warnings. I kept walking. Steady. Calm. Like I had every right to be there.
“Stop!” The closest guard barked. “Identify yourself.”
“Elowen Hale. I’m here to trade myself for Clara Cole’s release.” I stopped twenty feet away. Hands still visible. Still showing I wasn’t a threat. “I believe I was expected.”
The guards exchanged looks. One spoke into a radio. Listened to a response. Then nodded. “You can enter. But we scan you first. Check for weapons. Tracking devices. Anything.”
“Fine. Scan away.” I spread my arms. Let them approach.
They were thorough. Patting down every inch. Finding the two guns. The three knives. The phone I’d brought as a decoy. They took everything. Left me completely unarmed.
Well. Almost unarmed. They couldn’t take my wolf. Couldn’t take my Moonsilver power. Couldn’t take the weapons I was born with.
“She’s clean,” one guard said into his radio. “Bringing her in now.”
They flanked me. Guns pressed to my back. Marching me toward the entrance. The door was reinforced steel. Biometric lock. It opened with a hiss. Revealing a long corridor. lights. White walls. The smell of antiseptic and fear.
We walked in silence. My footsteps echoing. My heart pounding. But I kept my expression calm. Neutral. Gave them nothing to work with.
The corridor ended at an elevator. We descended. Down. Down. Down. The levels ticking by. Basement one. Basement two. Basement three.
The doors opened to chaos.
Scientists running. Alarms blaring. Someone screaming in the distance. The guards shoved me forward. Into the hallway. Toward the noise.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Your aunt. She’s not responding well to the first round of enhancements.” The guard’s voice was flat. Professional. “Complications. They’re trying to stabilize her before continuing.”
Complications. Such a clinical word for torture. For pain.
We turned a corner into a large medical bay. Beds lined the walls. Equipment everywhere. And in the center, strapped to a table, Clara.
She was seizing. Body jerking. Foam at her mouth. Eyes rolled back. Machines screaming. Scientists surrounding her. Injecting. Adjusting. Panicking.
“Stop!” I lunged forward. Guards grabbed me. Held me back. “You’re killing her.”
“We can’t stop mid-enhancement. It would kill her faster.”
The voice was familiar. I turned. Dr. Rivera stood there in a lab coat. Calm. Watching.
My stomach dropped. “You’re working with them. Actually working with them.”
“I told you I consulted. I told you they forced me.” Her expression was wrong. No guilt. Just calculation. “You didn’t believe me.”
“You’ve been Collective the whole time.” Everything clicked. “You’re Nightshade.”
She smiled. “You trusted me. Right up until now.”
“Where’s Clara’s antidote? The reversal.”
“There isn’t one.” Dr. Rivera checked a monitor. “The enhancement takes or she dies. She has ten minutes.”
“Let me heal her.” I strained against the guards. “My power can save her.”
“Oh, I’m counting on that.” She gestured to the room. Cameras. Sensors. Equipment everywhere. “We want to study your Moonsilver power. Record it. Learn how to replicate it. Go ahead. Save her.”
It was a trap. They wanted my power.
But Clara was dying. Seizing on the table. Minutes from death.
I didn’t have a choice.
The guards released me. Stepped back. Giving me space. Giving me access to Clara.
I ran to her side. Placed my hands on her chest. Reached for the Moonsilver power. Felt it rise. Silver light glowing from my palms.
The light touched Clara. Flowed into her. Seeking the enhancement. Finding it. A chemical compound woven into her DNA. Changing her. Killing her.
I pushed the power deeper. Burning away the enhancement. Purifying her bloodstream. Her organs. Her cells. Everything.
Clara’s seizing slowed. Stopped. Her breathing steadied. The machines quieted. She was healing. Stabilizing. Surviving.
But the power was draining me. Faster than before. More completely. Like the enhancement was designed to be harder to purify. To resist Moonsilver power.
Stop, my wolf warned. You’re burning through too much energy. You’ll collapse.
I can’t stop. She’ll die.
Then we both die. And the Collective wins.
She was right. But I couldn’t let Clara die. Couldn’t stop healing her. Couldn’t choose myself over her.
The power drained to nothing. I collapsed. Hitting the floor hard. Vision blurring. Consciousness fading.
Dr. Rivera stood over me. Smiling. “Perfect. Absolutely perfect. We got everything. Every measurement. Every energy signature. Every detail of how Moonsilver purification works.”
“Why?” I managed. Voice weak. “Why betray us? We trusted you.”
“Because the Collective offered me something you never could. Immortality. They’re working on a serum derived from wolf genetics that extends human life indefinitely. All I had to do was help them understand Moonsilver power. Help them neutralize their greatest threat.” She crouched beside me. “You were never going to win. You were just a data point. A research subject.”
Footsteps. Heavy. Multiple people entering. Through my blurred vision, figures in white coats appeared. Carrying equipment. Syringes. Restraints.
“Take her to conversion room three,” Dr. Rivera ordered. “Begin the programming immediately. I want her loyal within the week.”
“What about the aunt?” someone asked.
“Dispose of her. She served her purpose.”
“No.” I tried to stand. Couldn’t. My body wouldn’t respond. “You promised. You said you’d let her go.”
“I lied. Obviously.” Dr. Rivera brushed off her coat. “Goodbye, Elowen. When we meet again, you’ll be calling me Master.”
They lifted me. Carried me toward the door. Away from Clara. Away from escape.
Through the bond, I felt Lycian’s panic. His rage. He knew something was wrong.
Come, I thought at him. Desperate. Come now.
But would he make it in time? Or would the Collective finish what they started? Turn me into the weapon they’d always wanted.
The conversion room opened. A chair. Restraints. Machines built to break minds. To erase everything I was.
They strapped me in. Tight. Inescapable. Electrodes on my head. My chest. My arms.
Dr. Rivera entered, holding a syringe. Clear liquid inside. “This will hurt. But soon you won’t remember the pain. Won’t remember anything except serving the Collective.”
She injected the liquid. Cold. Burning. Spreading through my veins like acid.
The pain hit. Overwhelming. Absolute. I screamed. Couldn’t stop screaming.
And the last thing I saw before consciousness fled was Dr. Rivera’s smile.