Chapter 315 Move Over Boy
Elias had barely finished his sentence when Veda’s gnarled hand shot out, physically shoving the world-class surgeon aside.
"Move over, boy," she snapped.
Elias stumbled back, his jaw dropping as he watched the ancient woman. For hours, she had looked like a fragile relic, but now her fingers—twisted by age but moving with a frightening, mechanical precision—began dancing across the keyboard. She didn't just type; she navigated the complex directories Elias had struggled with, her eyes tracking the scrolling data as if she were reading a familiar story.
"See? Look here!" she barked, tapping a fingernail against a specific intersection of genetic sequences. "The boy didn't just 'cage' the rot. He purged it. In the womb, his Alpha lineage fought so hard that he flooded his mother’s system with his own blood to protect her. He didn't just stay a Blackwood boy; he turned his mother’s veins into a battlefield."
She pulled up a side-by-side comparison of Ginny’s current blood markers and the "pure" human samples.
"The Goddess brought Leela to this pack because she was the divine spark," Veda murmured, her voice losing its rattle and gaining a deep, rhythmic authority. "But she brought Ginny for something else. She was human, yes, but she felt the pull. She chose to stay. And now, because of Iggy, she isn't just a human housing a lab experiment. She has the blood of an Alpha King's grandson circulating in her heart. She’s changing, Jax. Not into the Council’s monster, but into one of us."
Jax sucked in a sharp, ragged breath. He looked at the screen—at the golden markers of his son’s blood weaving through the dark, synthetic strands of the Council’s poison.
"I don't think she wants that," Jax whispered, his voice thick with a sudden, crushing guilt. "She never asked for the moon. She never asked to howl. I wanted her to be safe, to be human... to be her."
Veda spun the chair around with a violent screech of metal on metal. She stood up, leaning heavily on her cane, and pointed it directly at Jax’s chest.
"Put on your big boy pants, Jax Blackwood, before you walk another inch out of this room!" she thundered. The force of her voice made the monitors flicker. "Get that doubt out of your head right now. Do not let that woman down by mourning a 'human' who has already fought harder than most Alphas I’ve known. We know nothing yet except for one certainty: she survived because she is strong, and she is changing because the blood of your son won't let her die."
She turned back to the screen, her eyes reflecting the cold blue light like two glowing embers. Elias stood behind her, completely stunned. He had spent twenty years studying medicine, but in a few minutes, this "primitive" healer had deciphered a genomic puzzle that should have taken a supercomputer weeks to map.
"She has the same counts," Veda muttered, her fingers flying again, "but the DNA is behaving differently. It’s not a transition... it’s an evolution. Look at the bridge here, Elias. Explain the protein fold again."
As Elias stepped back in, leaning over her shoulder to explain the molecular biology, he realized the terrifying truth: the old elder had a brain that processed information like a high-speed processor. She wasn't just matching herbs to meds anymore; she was rewriting the science of their survival.
Jax stood paralyzed, watching the ancient wolf and the modern doctor work in a frantic, brilliant harmony. He was a warrior, a Beta who lived by the sword and the claw, but looking at Veda's hands on that computer, he realized the war for Ginny's soul was being fought in a language he was only just beginning to understand.
The blue light of the monitors flickered, reflecting off the faces of men who already knew the bloody cost of their history. There was no need for long explanations; the ghosts of the "Great Harvest" lived in the marrow of every Blackwood. They all knew the stories of the elemental boys, kept alive in cages while their bones were shaved down for magic. They knew why the ancient jewelry—the cuff links, the "ivory" rings, the cane heads—existed: as a desperate camouflage to hide their power from the government’s butchers.
Veda’s fingers didn't slow. She bypassed the historical archives, her mind moving with the speed of the processors she was manipulating.
"You know the past," Veda rasped, her voice cutting through the hum of the lab. "You know why we watered down the blood. But look at what the boy has done. He didn't get the memo about staying hidden."
She shoved the data toward the center of the screen, pointing a gnarled finger at the intersection of Ginny and Iggy’s bloodlines.
"Damon thought he was being a pioneer by splicing Ginny," she continued, her eyes flashing. "But he forgot that the blood of an Elemental doesn't just disappear. It waits. Leela woke the stones at the Grove, and now Iggy—your nephew, Fenn—is using that same stubborn, ancient magic to purge the Council’s rot. He didn't just stay a Blackwood boy; he turned his mother’s veins into a fortress."
Jax leaned in, his face ashen but his eyes tracking the golden markers. He knew the prophecy, he knew the history of the fifteen Alphas who had pledged to Fennigan, and he knew that Leela was the only one ever trusted to carry all four earthstones.
"He’s protecting her the way our ancestors protected the boundaries," Jax whispered, the realization finally overriding his guilt. "The blood he pushed into her... it's acting like the stones."
"Exactly," Veda barked, tapping the glass. "He’s reinforced her. The Council’s synthetic DNA is trying to take over, but Iggy’s Alpha blood is treating it like an invader at the gate. She survived because she is strong, but she is changing because the blood of a Blackwood won't allow her to be anything less."
She turned the chair with a screech, pinning Jax with a look that demanded he stand tall.
"Put on your big boy pants, Jax. You know exactly what happened at the Grove. You saw the Goddess speak through Leela. This isn't just a lab experiment anymore—it's a reclamation. Ginny has Iggy’s blood, and Iggy has the spark of the divine elemental’s family protecting him. Stop mourning the human she was. The Goddess is building a shield, and we’re going to need it when the Council tries to reclaim their 'property.'"
Jax drew a long, steady breath, the suffocating pressure of his earlier outburst finally settling into a cold, lethal resolve. He looked at Fennigan, then back to the ancient healer who had mastered the digital world in a single afternoon.
"Whatever they tried to harvest from those boys," Jax rumbled, "they won't touch her. Tell us what we need to do to help her finish the fight."