Chapter 5 Silver and Smoke

ADRAIN's POV

The air in the office didn't just vibrate; it hummed with a frequency that made my canine teeth ache.

When my skin brushed the pulse point on Lena's neck, I hadn't expected a spark. I'd expected the soft, yielding warmth of a human or the hollow, stagnant scent of a wolfless girl. Instead, I had been hit by a bolt of pure, unadulterated lunar energy. It felt like sticking my hand into a live socket, but the electricity was silver, ancient, and tasted like the dark side of the moon.

The lights overhead shattered. Glass rained down in slow motion, glinting like diamonds in the sudden gloom.

Then Marcus burst in, his voice a jagged edge in the silence. "The Northern Pack is at the gates. They say we're harboring a fugitive."

I didn't move. I couldn't. I was too busy watching the way Lena's pupils blown wide, swallowing the hazel of her iris until her eyes were twin pits of obsidian. She looked terrified, yes, but beneath that fear was a shimmering, hidden power that made my wolf stand on his hind legs and howl.

"A fugitive?" I echoed, my voice a low, dangerous rasp. I didn't let go of her neck. My thumb stayed pinned to her pulse, feeling the way her heart galloped-not like a frightened rabbit, but like a warhorse charging into battle. "Is that what you are, Lena? A thief? A runaway?"

"I'm nothing," she whispered again, but the lie was rotting on her tongue. The smell of ozone was so thick I could taste it.

"The Northern Pack," I said, finally turning my head to look at Marcus. "You mean the Vane Pack? Those scavenger bastards think they can march to my front door and demand anything?"

"They brought a legal writ from the Council, Adrian," Marcus said, his face pale in the emergency red lighting. "And they brought Silas Vane. He's claiming she belongs to them. He's calling her a 'stolen asset.'"

The word asset triggered something primal in me. My wolf surged, my vision bleeding into a deep, predatory crimson. No one referred to a member of my circle-certainly not my mate, whether I accepted the bond or not-as an asset.

I turned back to Lena. Her face was ashen, her lips trembling.

"Silas Vane," I said. "Why does a High Alpha from the frozen wastes think he owns my assistant?"

"He doesn't own me," Lena snapped, her voice cracking but her eyes flashing with that strange, silver light again. "But he wants to. He's been hunting my family for years."

I felt a cold, hard knot of possessiveness tighten in my chest. I reached out, my hand sliding from her neck to cup the back of her head, forcing her to look at me. "He's not getting you. Not today. Not ever. Do you understand me?"

I didn't wait for her answer. I grabbed her hand-the contact sent another jolt of silver fire up my arm-and pulled her toward the door.

"Marcus, clear the lobby. Call the Enforcers. If a single Northern wolf sets foot on my marble floors without an invitation, rip their throats out. I'll be down in five minutes."

"Adrian, wait-" Marcus started, but I was already dragging Lena toward the private elevator.

The elevator ride was silent, save for the heavy thrum of the machinery and the frantic beat of two hearts that seemed to be trying to sync up. I could smell her fear, but more than that, I could smell her potential. It was like standing next to a dormant volcano.

"You're a Siphon," I said suddenly.

The elevator doors reflected our images-me, a towering shadow of a man in a ruined shirt, and her, small but radiating a strange, ethereal glow.

She stiffened, her hand twitching in mine. "How do you know that word?"

"I'm an Alpha of the Blackwood line, Lena. We have records. I thought your kind was extinct. The Council claimed the last Siphon died fifty years ago because their bodies couldn't handle the strain of the moon." I leaned down, my nose brushing her temple. "But you... you're vibrant. You're overflowing."

"I'm a freak," she hissed. "And Silas Vane wants to turn me into a battery for his Enforcers. He'll drain me until there's nothing left but a husk. That's why I'm 'wolfless,' Adrian. My wolf didn't die. She was consumed by the light. I am a void."

"You are not a void," I growled, the elevator doors sliding open to reveal the chaos of the lobby. "You are mine."

The lobby of Blackwood Holdings was a battlefield waiting to happen. Twenty of my best Enforcers stood in a phalanx, their eyes glowing gold and blue, teeth bared. Opposite them, standing just past the glass revolving doors, were twelve wolves in heavy furs, despite the city heat.

In the center stood Silas Vane. He was older, his hair a shock of white, his face scarred by a hundred battles. He looked like a man who had forgotten the meaning of mercy.

"Adrian Blackwood," Silas called out, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "I see you've found my runaway. I'll make this simple. Hand over the girl, and we leave your city in peace. Keep her, and the Council will declare you a rogue for harboring a fugitive of the North."

I stepped forward, keeping Lena firmly behind me. I felt her hand grip the back of my shirt, her fingers digging into my spine. The touch fueled me. It turned my blood to molten lead.

"You're a long way from home, Vane," I said, my voice carrying the weight of a mountain. "And you seem to be under the delusion that anything in this city belongs to you."

"She is a ward of the Northern State," Silas sneered, stepping onto the Blackwood seal embedded in the floor. "Her father stole her before her training was complete. She is a dangerous, unstable element. I am here to secure her."

"She is an employee of Blackwood Holdings," I countered, my wolf beginning to push against my skin, demanding the shift. "And as of ten minutes ago, she is under my personal protection. Which means if you want her, you have to go through me."

Silas laughed, a dry, wheezing sound. "You would risk a pack war for a wolfless girl? A girl who can't even give you an heir? A girl who is essentially a human with a glow-stick inside her?"

The insult to Lena snapped the final thread of my control.

I didn't just shift; I exploded into my wolf form.

Bones cracked and reformed in a heartbeat. My clothes shredded as six hundred pounds of midnight-black muscle and fur took my place. I was a monstrosity of nature-an Alpha Prime. I stood seven feet tall on my hind legs, my eyes burning like twin suns.

The Northern wolves flinched. Even Silas took a step back.

I let out a roar that shattered the remaining windows in the lobby. The sound wasn't just a noise; it was a physical wave of authority that forced every wolf in the room-mine and his-to drop to their knees.

Except Lena.

She stood behind me, her hand still resting on my fur. I felt her power bleeding into mine. The Siphon wasn't just a battery; she was an amplifier. My wolf felt twice as strong, my senses so sharp I could hear the heartbeat of a bird on the roof forty floors up.

I lunged.

I didn't kill Silas-not yet. I wanted him to feel the fear first. I moved like a blur of shadow, my claws swiping across his chest, shredding his furs and drawing four deep lines of red. He shifted mid-air, a grey, mangy wolf that looked like a pup compared to me.

We collided in the center of the lobby. The sound was a symphony of snarls and snapping bone. I pinned him to the marble, my jaws closing around his throat. I didn't bite down, but I let him feel the pressure. I let him smell the death on my breath.

Tell your Council, I sent the message directly into his mind, the Alpha's link a burning brand. That Lena Hart is the Luna of the Blackwood Pack. And if anyone so much as whispers her name again, I will hunt your lineage until the North is nothing but a graveyard.

I threw him toward his men. They scrambled to catch their Alpha, their eyes wide with the realization that they had brought a knife to a nuclear strike.

"Leave," I growled, the word vibrating in the very foundations of the building.

They didn't need to be told twice. They dragged Silas out, the glass doors swinging shut on a trail of blood.

I stood in the center of the lobby, my chest heaving, the bloodlust still singing in my veins. I turned my massive head to look at Lena.

She wasn't cowering. She was looking at me with a mixture of awe and something else-something that looked like hunger. The silver light around her was fading, but the Bond between us was glowing like a live wire.

I shifted back, the process painful and slow this time because I didn't want to let go of the power she had given me. I stood before her, naked and covered in the dust of shattered glass, my eyes still glowing gold.

"You're not wolfless," I whispered, reaching out to cup her face with a shaking hand. "You're the moon itself."

Lena looked up at me, and for the first time, she didn't look like she wanted to run. She leaned into my touch, her skin humming against mine.

"And you're still a monster," she said, a small, broken smile touching her lips.

"Your monster," I promised.

But as Marcus approached with a cloak to cover me, his face was set in grim lines.

"Adrian," he whispered. "Vane didn't come here alone. He was just the distraction. While we were fighting in the lobby, someone broke into the secure archives. They didn't want Lena. They wanted her father's research on the Siphons."

I looked at Lena, and the fear returned to her eyes. The war hadn't ended; it had just moved into the shadows.