Chapter 219 Insider job
chapter 219: insider job
Milo pov
I woke to bright lights and the smell of antiseptic.
My head throbbed where they had struck me, each pulse of pain making my vision swim. My limbs felt heavy, disconnected, like they belonged to someone else. I tried to move and realized with dawning horror that I was strapped down... thick leather restraints around my wrists and ankles, another across my chest pinning me flat.
"He is waking," a voice said from somewhere to my left, clinical and detached.
I forced my eyes to focus through the pain and disorientation. I was in some kind of medical facility, though it looked more like a laboratory from a nightmare. Stainless steel everywhere, gleaming under harsh fluorescent lights. Strange equipment I did not recognize: tubes and monitors and things with blades. And surrounding me, moving with practiced efficiency, were doctors in white coats, their faces hidden behind surgical masks.
"Good," another voice responded, this one female and cold as winter. "Begin the preparations. The Queen wants this done before she marches to meet the traitor army. We have less than an hour."
I shut my eyes tight, as the mention of the queen caused memories to flood inside my head.
The throne room, Ella getting beheaded, the news of the unrighteous packs uprising, the command to seize me…
The memories continued to rush inside my head like a flood.
I remembered standing in the hall, unchained, purple energy surrounding me… then blackout.
Terror gave me strength. I pulled against the restraints, but they held firm. Worse… I could smell wolfbane coating the leather, burning my skin where it touched.
"Please," I gasped. "Please do not do this. The baby…it is too early…please…"
None of them even looked at me. They moved around the room with clinical efficiency, preparing medical instruments that gleamed wickedly under fluorescent lights.
I tried to call my power, that purple energy that had exploded from me in the throne room. But the moment I reached for it, agony lanced through every nerve. I gritted my teeth in pain.
Wolfbane!!
And it was not just on the restraint, I could feel it tearing through my system, suppressing any form of ability.
they had injected me with it!
"Stop struggling," one of the doctors said without emotion. "You will only make the procedure worse."
"Please," I begged, not caring how my voice sounded so broken. "Please, I will do anything. I will cooperate. I will stay here willingly. Just do not take my baby…"
"Your baby," the lead doctor said with a bitter laugh, "stopped being yours the moment you became a prisoner. You are simply the vessel. The incubator. And incubators do not get a say in when their cargo is removed."
He picked up a scalpel, examining it in the light.
I screamed.
I screamed until my voice gave out, until my throat bled, until there was nothing left but hoarse gasps. But no one came. No one cared. I was alone, strapped to a table, about to lose everything that mattered.
Through the laboratory windows, I could hear distant sounds. Shouting. Running footsteps. The organized chaos of an army preparing for war.
"The Queen has marched out," one of the doctors announced. "She is taking her full force to meet the unrighteous alliance. And to kill the traitor Selene."
"What about internal defenses?" another doctor asked, his voice edged with anxiety. "If the fortress is breached…"
"Aldrich has been tasked with defending the castle interior," the lead doctor replied, though I detected uncertainty in his tone. "The Queen's orders were explicit. He commands all forces that remain within these walls."
The mention of Aldrich's name sent ice through my veins. The man who had struck me down. The man who had whispered his apology even as he betrayed me.
The lead doctor nodded approvingly. "Then we have time. Let us take this slowly, Carefully. The extraction must be perfect if we want the specimen to survive."
Specimen. They were calling my baby a specimen.
He approached with the scalpel, the blade catching light in ways that made my stomach turn.
I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my face.
I was sorry. Sorry to Damon, who I would never see again. Sorry to our baby, who deserved so much better than this. Sorry to Lior, who I had failed so completely. Sorry to everyone who had believed in me, in us, in the possibility that we might actually win.
The scalpel touched my skin, cold and sharp…
And somewhere in the distance, something exploded.
The whole building shook. Lights flickered around us, Alarms began to wail.
The doctors looked at each other, uncertainty finally cracking through their professional
"That came from the eastern wall," one of the younger doctors said, his voice climbing with panic. "But the attack is supposed to be from the north…"
"Multiple fronts," the female doctor breathed, her eyes wide above her mask. "They are attacking from multiple fronts."
A third explosion rocked the building so violently that cracks appeared in the walls. The lights flickered again, stayed on for a heartbeat, then died completely. Emergency lighting kicked in after a moment, bathing everything in an eerie red glow.
"We need to contact Aldrich," the lead doctor said, his clinical composure finally shattering. He rushed to a communication panel on the wall, pressed the button repeatedly. "Aldrich! Commander Aldrich, respond! We need immediate protection in the medical wing!"
Static.
He tried again, his movements becoming frantic. "Anyone! Security! We have prisoners here and the fortress is under siege!! We need…!"
The line went dead completely.
Nothing. Not even static now. Just dead silence from the panel.
"Someone cut the communication lines." The female doctor whispered.
"That is impossible," another protested. "Those lines run through reinforced conduits throughout the castle. You would need to know exactly where…"
"An inside job," the lead doctor said flatly. "This is an inside job."
Terror rippled through the room like a physical wave. The doctors looked at each other, then at the doors, then at me…as if somehow I might be responsible for this nightmare unfolding around them.
The lights continued to flicker again. On. Off. On. Off.
"We should evacuate," one of the younger doctors said suddenly, already backing toward the door. "Get to the safe rooms…"
"The Queen's orders were explicit," the lead doctor snapped, though his hands were shaking. "We must complete the extraction. We…"
The main door to the medical wing burst open.