Damien POV:
"Look at him, Damien. He has your nose."
Victoria handed me the bundle of blankets. I looked down at the baby. He was red and wrinkly, squalling at the top of his lungs.
I smiled, but it felt forced.
Something was wrong.
Ever since Sophia told me the Rogue had gone quiet, a weird anxiety had been clawing at my gut. I told myself it was just the stress of the prophecy.
I held the baby. I sniffed him.
I frowned.
He smelled like... milk and vanilla. Just like Victoria.
He didn't smell like me.
Usually, an Alpha's pup carries a strong, distinct scent of pine and earth from the father. This baby smelled weak. Like a Beta, or even an Omega.
"Is he okay?" Victoria asked, wiping sweat from her forehead. She looked beautiful, perfect. Not like that dirty Rogue in the basement.
*"He's... quiet," I muttered. I leaned closer, inhaling deeply, searching for the Alpha spark.*
*Nothing.*
*The realization hit me like a bucket of ice water. The prophecy said the "first wolf born" would inherit the fortune. But this child... he felt empty. Ordinary.*
*"Victoria," I said slowly. "Why doesn't he smell like the Pack?"*
*Before she could answer, a pain shot through my chest.*
It wasn't a heart attack. It was worse. It felt like someone had reached into my ribcage and severed a vital artery with a dull knife.
I gasped, nearly dropping the baby.
"Damien?"
I fell to my knees. The room spun. My inner wolf, who had been strangely silent all day, suddenly threw back his head and howled in agony.
*GONE. SHE IS GONE.*
"Who?" I choked out.
The door to the suite burst open. My Beta, Samuel, stood there. His face was pale as a sheet.
"Alpha," Samuel said. "You need to come. Now."
I handed the baby to a nurse and staggered to my feet. The pain in my chest was throbbing in time with my heartbeat.
I followed Samuel into the hallway. He led me to the adjacent room. The room reserved for the dying.
Dr. Evans was pulling a white sheet over a body.
The smell hit me.
Blood. Silver. And... fading rain and dark chocolate.
My scent. Mixed with hers.
"No," I whispered.
I pushed past Samuel and ripped the sheet back.
It was Elena.
Her skin was grey. Her lips were blue. Her eyes were open, staring at nothing, glassy and vacant.
"She... she's cold," I said, touching her cheek. It was like touching marble.
"Time of death, 11:42 PM," Dr. Evans said softly. "Cause of death: Acute silver toxicity leading to cardiac arrest."
"Wake up," I commanded. I poured my Alpha aura into her. "Elena, get up! Stop acting!"
Nothing happened. The Alpha Command doesn't work on the dead.
"The baby?" I asked, my voice trembling.
Dr. Evans shook his head. "Stillborn. The silver killed him hours ago."
My knees hit the floor.
"But... she was just a Rogue," I muttered, trying to make sense of the hole in my chest. "She wasn't my mate. She couldn't be."
"We ran a DNA test," Dr. Evans said, handing me a tablet.
I looked at the screen.
*Paternity Test: Positive.*
*Mate Compatibility: 100% - True Mate.*
The tablet slipped from my fingers and shattered on the floor.
I had killed them. I had ordered her to hold the baby in. I had denied her medical care. I had let my sister poison her.
"ARGHHHHHH!"
I screamed. I grabbed Elena's shoulders and shook her. "Come back! I command you! I reject your death! I reject it!"
*The air in the room suddenly warped. The pressure dropped, popping my ears.*
*A swirling vortex of blue energy tore open in the center of the room. A Portal.*
*"Secure the target!" a voice shouted.*
Four figures in tactical gear rappelled *out of the rift*. They moved with a speed that wasn't human. They were Elites.
"Get away from her!" I growled, shifting my hands into claws.
One of the soldiers raised a hand. He didn't hold a gun. He held a staff made of black obsidian.
He slammed the staff on the ground.
A shockwave of pure magic blasted me backward. I slammed into the wall, pinned by an invisible force.
"Who are you?" I choked out.
A man in a bespoke suit stepped through the *portal*. He had silver hair and eyes that glowed with a terrifying, ancient power.
He looked exactly like Elena.
He didn't look at me. He looked at the body on the bed.
"My daughter," he whispered. His voice broke.
He gestured to the soldiers. "Take her. And the child."
"You can't take her!" I yelled, struggling against the magic. "She is my pack member! My property!"
The man turned to me.
The pressure in the room increased a thousand times. It wasn't just Alpha Command. It was Alpha Prime Command.
I was forced flat onto my belly, my face pressed into the broken glass.
"Your property?" The man's voice was ice. "She was the Princess of the Sterling Dynasty. And you, Damien Blackwood, have just declared war on the entire werewolf race."
He turned away. The soldiers lifted Elena's body.
Wait.
As they lifted her, I saw something. Her finger twitched.
Just a fraction of a millimeter.
Was she alive? Or was it just a muscle spasm?
Before I could shout, the man with the staff threw a vial onto the floor. Purple smoke exploded, filling the room.
When the smoke cleared, they were gone. *The portal had collapsed.* The bed was empty.
Only the bloodstain remained on the sheets.
