Chapter 5 5

Kaelen POV

The flight was a blur of turbulence and sterile silence. By the time the armored convoy tore through the iron gates of the Graves Dominion estate in the Hamptons, the freezing rain had turned into a torrential downpour.

I was shoved through the grand foyer, my muddy boots leaving tracks on the pristine marble stairs as we rushed toward the Alpha's Sanctum.

The heavy oak doors burst open. The massive bedroom was a chaotic collision of ancient wolf totems and cutting-edge medical monitors blaring frantic red warnings. In the center, on a massive four-poster bed, lay Alistair Graves. The former Lycan King was drowning in his own blood, his skin like old parchment mapped with terrifying, pitch-black veins.

The air was thick with the metallic tang of blood and that unmistakable, acrid burn. Silver.

"His airway is collapsing! Prep for emergency intubation!" Dr. Sterling shrieked, snatching a plastic tube from a terrified nurse.

My mother's notes flashed in my mind. I knew exactly what that toxin was doing.

"Don't," my voice cut through the chaos, cold and absolute. "You'll kill him."

Dr. Sterling froze, her head snapping toward me. "What did you say, you filthy stray?"

"The silver toxin has his inner wolf backed into a corner," I said, stepping further into the room. "If you force that tube down his throat, his wolf will perceive it as a lethal attack. It will shred his lungs from the inside out trying to fight it."

"Get this lunatic out of my ER!" Dr. Sterling screamed, pointing a trembling finger at me. "Guards!"

Two massive Warriors stepped forward, their hands reaching for my arms. My heart hammered against my ribs. If they threw me out, Alistair died, and my only leverage in this nightmare died with him.

Desperate, my eyes darted to the wheelchair in the corner. Damian sat slumped, his eyes vacant, playing the broken invalid to perfection. But as the Warriors closed in, I saw it.

His right index finger, resting on the armrest, tapped twice.

It was a microscopic movement, but Gamma Gunner Mathis moved like a freight train. He stepped between me and the Warriors, a wall of unyielding muscle.

"Wait," Gunner rumbled, his voice vibrating with absolute authority. "Let her speak."

"Are you out of your mind, Gunner?!" Dr. Sterling gasped. "She's a wolfless nobody!"

I didn't waste the opening. I closed the distance to the bed, leaning over the dying Elder. I peeled back his pale lips. Black lines traced his gums-the signature of a silver-based neurotoxin designed to sever the soul from the body.

I reached down to my muddy boot and drew my blade. The dark, volcanic glass gleamed under the harsh medical lights.

"I need to cut the energy nodes to release the pressure," I stated.

Dr. Sterling's eyes bulged. "She has a weapon!" she shrieked, abandoning all professionalism as she lunged at me like a rabid animal, hands clawing for the obsidian knife.

Before her fingers could graze me, a guttural, bone-rattling roar shattered the room.

Damian violently convulsed in his wheelchair. He thrashed with terrifying, feral strength, his massive arm sweeping out and sending a metal medical cart crashing to the floor in a shower of glass vials.

"OUT!" Damian roared, his voice a distorted, agonizing snarl that demanded absolute submission. "NOW!"

Gunner didn't hesitate. "My Alpha is in distress! Clear the room!"

He grabbed Dr. Sterling by the back of her lab coat, hauling her backward as she kicked and screamed. The Warriors and nurses scrambled out in a blind panic, driven by the terrifying command of a suffering Lycan.

Gunner dragged the doctor into the hall and slammed the heavy oak doors shut. The lock engaged with a heavy, final *clack*.

Silence instantly descended on the room, broken only by Alistair's ragged breathing.

The violent thrashing stopped.

Damian calmly reached up and wiped a line of fake saliva from his chin. The vacant, broken stare vanished, replaced by eyes as cold and sharp as obsidian. The suffocating aura of a dying man evaporated, and the true, terrifying weight of an Alpha King filled every corner of the room.

He stood up from the wheelchair, his towering frame casting a long shadow over the bed. He looked down at me, his gaze locking onto the blade in my hand.

"Save him."