The chains around my wrists were tight enough to break human skin. Silver-lined—they weren't taking chances. I kept my head down, letting my hair fall forward like a curtain as Kane led me through Silver Claw's gates.'Easy,' Rona murmured as another guard yanked my chain. 'Let them think we're weak.'I stumbled, playing my part. Five years of modeling had taught me how to wear masks, how to become whatever others wanted to see. Right now, I was the broken wolf, the curse-bearer, brought low by betrayal. Just as Viktor expected."Careful with the merchandise," Kane growled at the guard, perfectly playing his role as the mercenary selling me out. Behind his scarred exterior, I sensed his tension. One wrong move and we'd all die.The Silver Claw compound sprawled across what had once been a military base. Guards patrolled the walls, armed with both traditional weapons and modern guns. They'd adapted to their weakening wolves better than Blood Moon had.Silas walked several paces behind,
Viktor's office felt smaller in the daylight. I sat across from him, my mother's journal open between us, while Angela lounged by the window. The chains were gone—they didn't need them anymore. Not when they had what they really wanted."Read it," Viktor said, turning the journal toward me. "Page forty-three."My fingers trembled as I touched the paper. The ink was faded, but my mother's handwriting was clear:*The price of defiance is blood. The Goddess demands balance—a life for a life, power for power. To save my daughter, I offer myself. But the debt remains unpaid. Only the sacrifice of a Luna Priestess's bloodline can break what I've done.*"You see?" Angela's voice dripped with satisfaction. "Mother's little miracle came with strings attached. One of us has to die to fix this."I looked up from the journal. "You knew? All this time?""Not at first." She examined her manicured nails. "But I started digging after that night you shifted. The way your blood glowed? That's not norma
My phone buzzed again—another message from my agency's crisis management team. The video hadn't hit mainstream media yet, but it was spreading through private channels, gathering attention in places that made my skin crawl. Places where people knew what they were really seeing.I stared at my laptop screen, watching the footage that could destroy everything. The quality was poor, deliberately distorted, but anyone who knew what to look for would see it. Me, in the Silver Claw arena. The shift. The fight. Someone had edited it to look like a leaked special effects test, a marketing stunt gone wrong. But the wrong people would know better.'At least they got your good side,' Rona commented. 'Though seriously, what's with the fake CGI overlay? Like anyone's buying that.'"Not helping," I muttered, reading another urgent email from the agency. They were already preparing cover stories: viral marketing campaign, performance art piece, anything to keep the truth buried.Angela stirred in th
Getting out of Manhattan was a blur of broken glass and silver blades. Bella's chemical-enhanced wolves had torn through Veronica's office like a storm, but they hadn't expected me to jump. Twenty stories up, and I'd grabbed Angela, crashed through a window, and landed on the adjacent building's fire escape. Not my most elegant escape, but as Rona helpfully pointed out, we didn't die.'Though next time,' she grumbled as I drove us out of the city, 'maybe don't jump off buildings with the bitchy sister who tried to kill us. Just a thought.'"She's leverage," I reminded her, checking the rearview mirror for pursuit.'She's dead weight,' Rona countered. 'And if she makes one more smug comment about your modeling career being over, I vote we use her as a speed bump.'Angela sat silently in the backseat, but her smirk said enough. The handcuffs were reinforced with silver now—a gift from Veronica's surprisingly well-stocked weapons cabinet. Questions for another time.My phone rang. Silas.
Blood still dripped from my nose, silver instead of red. The Moon Goddess's words echoed in my skull as the pack hall erupted in chaos around me.'Well, that was dramatic,' Rona commented. 'A goddess shows up and suddenly everyone loses their minds.'She wasn't wrong. The elders were shouting over each other, the rogues were still kneeling, and Silas—still on the ground where I'd put him—stared at me like he was seeing a ghost."Your eyes," he said quietly. "They're silver."I reached up, feeling warmth trickle down my cheeks. Not tears. Blood."The ritual site," I said. The certainty hit me like a physical blow. "I need to go to the ritual site. Now."'Bad idea,' Rona warned. 'Very bad idea.'But I was already moving. The underground temple called to me, a pull I couldn't ignore. Footsteps behind me told me Silas was following."Stella, wait—""Either help me or stay out of my way," I snapped, not slowing down. "I just beat you in front of your pack. Don't make me do it again."'I vo
The first of Viktor's altered wolves cleared our barrier with impossible speed. Its body was wrong—limbs too long, joints bending backwards, skin rippling as partial shifts cascaded across its form. One of our guards, raised his silver-loaded rifle and fired. The bullet hit center mass.The creature didn't even flinch."It's not stopping," He said, backing up. "Why isn't it—"The altered wolf's jaw unhinged, splitting its face in half. Before Mark could fire again, it had him. Teeth sank into his shoulder, through the tactical vest like it was paper. But it didn't just bite—it started shifting while its mouth was full of Mark's flesh. Fangs extended, retracted, extended again, shredding meat from bone.Mark's scream cut off in a gurgle.'Well, that's new,' Rona commented grimly. 'And disgusting. Can we kill it now?'Three more guards opened fire. Silver bullets tore through the creature's body, but it kept eating, kept shifting. Only when they finally hit its brain did it collapse.Bu
The temple stairs were slick with blood. Three of Viktor's rejects had followed us down, their bodies contorting as they moved. One's spine cracked audibly with each step, vertebrae pushing through skin before being dragged back in.'Stop admiring the freaks and kill them,' Rona growled.I shifted—not full wolf, just what I needed. Claws extended as I met the first one. It lunged with too many teeth in a jaw that split four ways. I ducked under its strike, drove my claws up through its throat and into its brain. No healing from that.Silas took the second one with a silver blade to the eye. But the third—the third got past us. It caught one of Kane's men who'd followed us down. We watched as it literally pulled him apart, its muscles shifting and multiplying as it tore.The sound of Viktor's approach cut through the man's screams. His footsteps were wrong, arrhythmic. Like he was shifting with each step."Little Stella," his voice echoed down the stairs. "Always running to the temple.
Angela's blood spread across the temple floor, mixing with the silver light from the ritual platform. The black chemicals in her system made it steam where it touched stone.'Finish it,' Rona urged, her voice straining as the ritual pulled at our connection. 'Before he—'Viktor's laugh cut her off. The sound rattled out like breaking glass. His body convulsed, muscles bulging and splitting his skin as he grew. Eight legs burst from his torso—four wolf, four human, bent at unnatural angles. His chest split vertically, revealing a second mouth lined with both fangs and human teeth. His original head remained, but the skin had peeled back, leaving exposed muscle that pulsed and shifted. Three more wolf heads emerged from his shoulders, their snouts too long, jaws unhinging to show tongues that writhed like snakes. Yellow eyes opened across his body—in his chest, along his arms, between the joints of his legs. Black veins spread from the injection ports in his neck, carrying chemicals tha
The elders agreed to my terms, of course. What choice did they have? Silas would die without the ritual, and the pack needed both of us.The ceremony room was deep beneath the pack house, a circular chamber carved from bedrock, walls decorated with ancient symbols of the Moon Goddess. Moonlight filtered in through a shaft in the ceiling, illuminating a raised stone platform in the center. Behind it stood a carved altar bearing ceremonial knives, bowls, and herbs.Zeta Clara, the oldest of the pack elders, supervised the preparations. Pack members laid Silas on the platform, his body covered only by a thin sheet. The black poison lines stood out starkly against his pale skin, like veins of obsidian beneath the surface. I could see how they pulsed with each labored heartbeat."You understand what this ritual entails?" Zeta Clara asked me as I changed into the simple white shift they'd provided."Bella explained it.""Not just physically," she pressed. "Spiritually. Emotionally. You will
Three days. Three fucking days, and Silas hadn't opened his eyes.I hadn't left his side except to piss or when Zeta Ruth forced me to eat something. The room stank of sickness, silver poisoning, and my own unwashed body. Dark circles tattooed themselves under my eyes. I didn't care."His temperature's rising again," Zeta Ruth said, checking the digital thermometer. "103.8."The pack's head healer looked as exhausted as I felt. She'd been working around the clock, trying every treatment in the book and some that weren't. Nothing touched the silver poisoning. The black lines had spread across his entire torso now, up his neck, down his arms. Some had reached his face, thin dark veins like cracks in porcelain."More ice," she instructed her assistant, who hurried off to fetch it. She turned to me. "You need to rest, Stella. You're not helping him by making yourself sick.""I'm fine," I said for the thousandth time.She sighed but didn't argue. Smart woman.The door opened, and Bella wad
I couldn't wait any longer. I reached for that building pressure inside me and PUSHED, just as Rona had suggested.BOOM!The power exploded outward from my chest, following the paths of the needles and tubes. The burning silver became a conduit rather than a barrier. The black lines on my skin brightened to silver-white, spreading rapidly across my entire body."What the—" Logan began, but was cut off as the tubes connected to me burst, spraying blood in all directions.The restraints holding me shattered as the power wave hit them. I sat up, ripping the remaining needles from my body. Each extraction point sealed itself instantly, the white-silver lines on my skin concentrating around the wounds."Stop her!" Logan shouted.The human woman backed away, terror in her eyes. Angela rose from her chair, shifting as she moved. Her pregnant form distorted the shift, making it slower, awkward. Logan reached for something under the console—a weapon, probably.I couldn't worry about them. I tu
She smiled, a cold expression that reminded me of our father. "I made sure you and Silas never completed your mate bond. I made sure you ran. I arranged everything."A chill ran through me. "What?""The attack five years ago," she said, her voice matter-of-fact. "I arranged it. Aaron, Marcus, Jacob—they were all following my suggestion. 'Teach the wolfless bitch a lesson,' I told them. 'Show her what happens to omegas.'"My vision blurred with rage. Five years of nightmares, of trauma, of struggling to survive—all because my sister orchestrated my assault?"You fucking bitch," I snarled, thrashing against the restraints. "You set me up to be raped?""I set you up to be scared off," she corrected, unperturbed by my rage. "The rape wasn't the plan. That was the boys getting carried away. But your leaving was exactly what I wanted. You were supposed to die in the woods, vulnerable and alone. No one expected you to survive, much less thrive.""Why?" I demanded. "What did I ever do to you?
I'd heard enough. I needed to see what I was dealing with before bursting in. Near the ceiling was a ventilation grate. I jumped, grabbed the edge, and pulled myself up. The metal groaned under my weight but held. I peered through the slats.The room beyond was larger than the others, clearly the main lab. Scientific equipment lined the walls—centrifuges, computers, machines I didn't recognize. In the center was a metal table, and strapped to it was Silas.My breath caught in my throat. He was naked except for a cloth draped over his hips, his body covered in fresh cuts and burns. Silver-infused needles pierced his arms and chest, connected to tubes that ran to collection bags hanging beside the table. The bags were already half-filled with dark red blood.Logan stood at a workstation, examining something on a computer screen. He'd removed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, looking like a fucking corporate exec taking a casual Friday. Angela sat in a chair nearby, one hand res
I didn't go back to the pack house. There wasn't time.The fading scent trail led northeast, toward the old industrial district. I followed it at a dead run, not bothering with stealth. Logan had given me twelve hours, but the silver-laced blade he'd pressed against Silas's throat would still be burning, still be poisoning him. Every minute counted.That tiny thread of our broken bond pulled me forward like a compass needle. I could feel Silas's pain—distant, muffled, but there. It had surprised the hell out of me when our bond snapped partially back during the attack. Five years of nothing, and now this. Fucking inconvenient timing.I stuck to the woods when I could, avoiding the roads where someone might spot a blood-covered woman sprinting through the night. The last thing I needed was human interference. Luckily, at three in the morning, even the occasional passing car didn't slow down.The industrial district loomed ahead, a collection of abandoned warehouses and factories that h
The tunnel was narrow, barely wide enough for two wolves to walk side by side. The walls were rough-hewn stone, occasionally reinforced with rotting timber supports. Water dripped somewhere in the distance, and the air smelled of damp earth and mold. And blood. Fresh blood.We found the first body about fifty yards in—a young pack member named David. I'd seen him at training sessions, eager to please, always trying to impress the older wolves. Now his throat was torn out, his eyes staring sightlessly at the tunnel ceiling. He couldn't have been more than eighteen.Liam made a pained sound beside the body. I placed a hand on his trembling shoulder."We keep moving," I said, my voice harder than I intended. "We'll come back for him after."The tunnel forked ahead, splitting into three separate passages. I closed my eyes, focusing on my senses. The smell of chemicals and wrongness was stronger in the center tunnel."This way," I said, pointing.We moved deeper, the ceiling growing lower
Screams tore through the darkness, yanking me from sleep.Not nightmare screams—I knew those too well by now—but real ones. The wet, gurgling kind that meant someone was dying, and they were close. Too close.My limbs wouldn't fucking move. Heart pounding, lungs burning, but I couldn't even lift a finger. Couldn't blink. Sweat soaked the sheets under me while the screams got louder.Get up.Rona's voice cut through the fog in my head.GET UP NOW.Spots clouded my vision. I realized I hadn't breathed since the screams started. My lungs hurt.STELLA!I finally gasped for air, my body responding at last. I fell off the bed, shoulder hitting the floor hard. The pain shocked me alert. Adrenaline kicked in, my hand shaking as I grabbed the wall and pulled myself up.More screams, now closer, and beneath them a sound from below—stone grinding against stone. The tunnels. Someone was coming through the tunnels.I took one step toward the door, then my brain fractured. The hardwood under my fee
The hours before sunset passed in a blur of preparations. After Silas left to investigate the tunnel entrance, I forced myself to eat, knowing I'd need my strength for whatever came tonight. My body still ached from the wolfsbane withdrawal, muscles trembling occasionally as the last traces worked their way out of my system.I had just finished showering when a hesitant knock sounded at my door. I opened it to find a teenage girl, maybe sixteen, shifting nervously from foot to foot."Alpha Morrigan asked if you could come to the training hall," she said, eyes downcast. "Some of the younger wolves want to try shifting before..." She swallowed hard. "Before tonight."My first instinct was to refuse. These weren't my problems. This wasn't my pack. But the fear in the girl's eyes struck something in me—the memory of my own desperation to shift, years of failure and humiliation."Fine," I said. "Give me five minutes."The training hall was in the east wing of the pack house, a large open s