Brooke POV:
The room shrank.
"You shouldn't have run, Brooke," Caleb said, deceptively calm. "Makes you look guilty."
"Guilty of refusing to be abused?" I shielded my stomach.
"Treason," Krystal chimed in, picking at her nails. "Running to Blood River? Death sentence."
"I haven't told them anything yet," I lied. The drive burned against my skin. "Let me go, and I disappear."
"Can't take that risk," Caleb said, stepping closer. He smelled like burning rubber-aggression. "And we can't let you take the pup. That is Pack property."
"Property? It's a child!"
"It's my heir!" Caleb roared. "I decide its future!"
I glanced at the bathroom door, seeing the bottles of my lotion visible on the counter-the ones Krystal had been stealing.
"Stay back!" I warned.
Caleb laughed. "What are you going to do?"
He moved faster than I could track. One moment he was by the door, the next his hand was wrapped around my throat. He lifted me off the ground.
"Caleb!" I choked.
"You need a time out. Until you give me the encryption key."
He dragged me toward the bedroom. Not to the bed, but to the walk-in closet. My "Faraday Cage"-a reinforced room I built for sensitive hardware testing.
"No!" I kicked out. "Caleb, please! The walls are lined with silver mesh!"
He threw me inside. I crashed into the shelves, shoulder taking the impact.
"Lock it," he ordered Krystal.
Krystal slammed the heavy door. The deadbolt slid home.
"Let me out!" I pounded on the door. "Caleb!"
Then, the pain started.
The silver mesh in the walls-designed to block signals-was reacting to my wolf. It felt like my skin was being held over an open flame. My wolf howled in agony, retreating deep into my mind.
"It burns!" I screamed, sliding down the door. "Caleb, the silver radiation! You're killing us!"
"Stop being dramatic," Krystal's muffled voice came through. "It's just a closet. Give us the password, and you come out."
"I can't... breathe..."
The silver suppressed my healing. It suppressed my strength. And it was attacking the most fragile thing in my body.
A sharp, tearing pain ripped through my abdomen.
I gasped, doubling over. A knife twisting inside.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."
I felt warm wetness between my legs. Blood. Bright red, soaking my jeans.
"Help!" I shrieked. Pure, primal terror. "My baby! I'm losing the baby! Caleb!"
"She's faking it," Krystal said. "Don't open it, Caleb. She's trying to trick you. She knows we need the key."
"Are you sure?" Caleb sounded hesitant.
"Trust me. She's an Omega. She's manipulating you."
The pain came in waves. Black spots danced in my vision. I curled into a ball, clutching my stomach, trying to hold the life inside.
Hold on, little one, I pleaded.
But the connection-that tiny spark-was fading. The silver was poisoning it.
"Caleb..." My voice was a whisper. "You're killing... your son..."
Silence.
I lay in the pool of my own blood. The burning became a dull thrum. The cold took over.
I felt the exact moment the spark went out.
It was like a light switch flipping in my soul. The future I dreamed of vanished.
My wolf let out a sound that wasn't a howl. It was a death knell.
Then, darkness took me.
