Scarlett POV
The silence in the armored SUV was a living thing, coiling around my throat like a noose. Outside, the landscape blurred into streaks of gray and green as we tore down the highway, but inside, the air was so cold I could see my breath.
Kaelen sat like a statue beside me, his jaw clenched tight enough to snap bone. I pressed myself against the door, trying to make myself invisible, but his Alpha aura was suffocating—a heavy blanket of ozone and dark chocolate that made my inner wolf whine in submission.
Suddenly, Kaelen's body jerked.
His eyes, which had been fixed on the road ahead, glazed over as a Mind-Link hit him. I watched the color drain from his face, leaving him ashen. A low, guttural sound tore from his chest—half growl, half sob—that made the hair on my arms stand up.
"No," he whispered, the word cracking.
Before I could blink, he moved.
With the speed of a striking viper, he lunged across the leather seat. His hand slammed against the window beside my head, boxing me in. The scent of a thunderstorm exploded in the confined space, thick with panic and rage.
"What did you do?" he roared, his face inches from mine. His eyes were bleeding into pure black, his wolf surfacing. "How long did you make her wait, Fiona? How long did you let her suffer while you played your little games?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" I cried, shrinking back. "Kaelen, please—"
He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look into the abyss of his fury. "My Beta just linked me. Genevieve... her heart is failing. She's slipping away." His voice dropped to a terrifying whisper, vibrating against my skin. "If she dies... you die with her. I swear it on the Moon Goddess herself. I will bury you at her feet."
I stopped breathing. The threat wasn't a bluff; it was a promise carved in stone.
The SUV screeched to a halt before I could respond. We had arrived.
Blackwood Manor loomed against the twilight sky like a beast crouching in the shadows. It was a fortress of dark stone and gothic spires, radiating power and ancient blood. Warriors lined the driveway, but Kaelen ignored them all. He dragged me out of the car, his grip bruising my arm, and hauled me up the stone steps.
We didn't stop for pleasantries. We ran through endless corridors adorned with portraits of scowling ancestors, the scent of antiseptic and decay growing stronger with every step.
Kaelen burst through a set of double mahogany doors.
The room was vast, smelling of lavender and impending death. In the center, beneath a canopy of heavy velvet, lay a woman who looked like a porcelain doll broken by time. Her silver hair was fanned out on the pillow, her skin translucent.
But it was the sound that froze the room.
A high-pitched, continuous drone.
Beeeeeeeeeeep.
The heart monitor showed a flat green line.
Kaelen stopped dead. His hand fell from my arm as he staggered forward, falling to his knees beside the bed. "Grandmother?" he choked out, reaching for her limp hand. "Nana?"
The Pack doctor, a gray-haired man with sorrow etched into his wrinkles, lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Alpha. She's gone."
The wail that ripped from Kaelen's throat was the sound of a soul shattering. It was raw, primal, and utterly devastating.
But not everyone shared his grief.
"Look at this," a cold voice sneered from the shadows.
A man stepped forward. He looked like Kaelen, but where Kaelen was rugged and imposing, this man was polished and sharp—like a knife hidden in a velvet sheath. Duncan Blackwell.
"Look what your weakness has brought upon this family, brother," Duncan said, his voice smooth and venomous. He didn't look at the dead woman; his eyes were fixed on Kaelen's bowed back. "Your inability to control your own Mate has killed our grandmother. You are unfit to lead."
Kaelen didn't move, his forehead resting against Genevieve's cold hand.
"That is enough, Duncan!"
Another man limped forward from the corner, leaning heavily on a cane. Ellison. His face was pale, his eyes kind but filled with pain. "She hasn't been cold for a minute, and you're already circling like a vulture? Have some respect."
"Respect?" A woman standing beside Duncan laughed. It was a harsh, brittle sound. Chastity Blackwell stepped into the light, her lip curled in disgust as she looked at the crippled brother. "And who are you to speak of Pack matters, Ellison? A broken wolf who can't even complete a full Shift."
Ellison flinched as if struck.
"You offer nothing but a drain on our resources," Chastity hissed, stepping closer to him, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor like gunshots. "Perhaps you wish for a share of the power too, now that you can't earn glory on the battlefield? Go sit in the corner, cripple. The adults are talking."
The cruelty in the room was suffocating. I looked at Kaelen, expecting him to rise, to defend his brother, to silence them with an Alpha Command. But he remained on his knees, broken by grief, deaf to the sharks circling him.
My heart hammered against my ribs. Duncan was making his move. If Kaelen fell, I would be the first casualty of the new regime.
I looked at the flatline on the monitor. Then I looked at the woman on the bed. My grandmother had taught me things—ancient things, dangerous things—before she passed. I wasn't just a florist. I was something the Pack doctors had forgotten existed.
I took a step forward. The air in the room shifted.
I had to do the impossible.
