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My whole body locked up at hearing Wolf’s story. The one he’d been so reluctant to tell. I knew why now. Even I wanted to go back to five minutes ago before he’d started. I’d known for a long time that there was something seriously wrong with our world and that there had to be some powerful people involved. The scale of what he was talking about was unnerving. They’d been manipulating the world for generations, unseen and unknown.How the hell were we supposed to fight that? They had to have layers of security and protection.
All I knew was that we needed to find a way. This was purely another puzzle to solve. And just maybe, this Crash they had caused, would be the key to do it. They were more exposed now than they’d ever been, with all their carefully guarded secrets spilling out. I straightened my spine and Wolf’s eyes glinted in acknowledgment.
“To keep Maven in the family, they had to pass the mantle down to the most dominant alpha. They were so blinded by power, they didn’t care they were harming themselves as well as the rest of the world. They were so used to manipulating everything around them, they figured they could do the same with this problem.
“When the current head of Maven came into power, he started researching prime alphas. He captured a couple when they were young. Then he tested them before he had them killed. He wanted to transform his genetics and make himself into a prime alpha. It never worked. When I was born, I became his backup plan, as well as his test subject. If he couldn’t turn himself into one, he wanted to bite me into the pack, by manipulation or force, but either control me or keep me captive. He knew prime alphas shared their dominance with their packs, so he tried coercion first.
It suddenly became clear to me why Wolf had been so hesitant to tell this tale, beyond the obvious horror. They needed him to keep their power, the one thing they cared about, which meant they would never let him go. His eyes were almost apologetic now, as if he felt guilty for dragging us, his pack, into his world. It wasn’t his fault, though. He wasn’t the one who had broken our world, or dragged us into hell. We were his fate, and his fate was ours.
Wolf’s eyes had remained locked on mine as he talked, not letting me shy away from this. I had the feeling he was testing me, somehow. I didn’t blame him. He needed to know if his pack could handle what was coming for us. I only hoped I passed, because I didn’t want to fail him. If he needed someone to be strong for him, I knew I could be that person. I’d been doing it gladly for my twin for a decade.
But now, his penetrating gaze slid across the room. Everyone followed it as he looked at first Damon, and then Sam.
“Phillip’s change of tactic away from outright killing prime alphas is why Damon and Sam are alive, too. He started monitoring everyone he thought could be a prime. You had him convinced, Damon. He knew you through your father. Phillip tried to throw every obstacle at you he could, to keep you down. He wanted you manageable and compliant, but not dead. He wasn’t as sure of you, Sam. Yet he still tried to make your life difficult in the military. He said you were his test subjects in the wild. He never planned to let you live forever, though. Phillip set you up as competition. He tried to manipulate me by offering to let me kill you both if I joined his pack. If I refused, he would make the offer to one of you. He assumed I would be as power hungry as he was.”
The room went still at that. Damon, Sam, and their packs were tense. “I would never have accepted his offer. From the time I knew you existed, I hoped we could become friends. I didn’t care for any of the wealth in the manor. I craved people, connections. In all Phillip’s years of cruelty, he still hasn’t figured out it doesn’t create loyalty.”
My heart bled for Wolf. His years of isolation, craving basic human contact. Growing up with my twin, I couldn’t even imagine a life without him and the comfort he brought me. I glanced over at Ryder to see he was staring at Wolf, his eyes bleeding sorrow too.
“So you never knew who your parents were?” Hunter asked as he leaned forward in his seat. He’d been lounging next to Damon and Maia, but he’d fixed his eyes on Wolf as soon as we got into the house and his gaze had barely wavered. He watched Wolf with an almost rabid curiosity, and I could see his mind turning too.
I had a horrible feeling I knew where this was going. There was only one reason they would let Wolf live and keep him so close.
“Yes and no,” Wolf said. “Not when I was young. My suspicions grew as I got older, though. I heard them say one night that every prime alpha in their family was born with a white birthmark. I have one on my hip. It seems it skipped their generation, but not mine. Only they didn’t want to hand Maven down to me. They felt cheated that they hadn’t had a prime and experienced that shared power. So they started letting me join them in controlled environments.”
He glanced at Ryder, who gave him a sad smile. “One of the pack was an adrenaline junkie. He bought us dirt bikes and would ride around the estate with me. He took me to jump out of a plane at a private airstrip nearby, too. After so long in isolation, I craved the contact and the limited glimpses of the world. By the time I was eighteen, they let me go to small parties they held at the manor. It took far too long for me to figure out they were trying to bribe me with more freedom, and with women, so I would let them claim me as a pack mate.”
His eyes shifted to Ava on his lap briefly, and he looked nervous when he mentioned the women, but she only hugged him tighter. “They never brought their wives to the manor, so I never met my mother. One of them slipped and called me son sometimes, but I still wasn’t sure. Not until just before they brought me here, when I overheard my dad talking about me one night. He let it slip, but I don’t think he meant to. He was drunk, which was rare. I’d thought Maven was the only chance at family I had. That night, I realized what they had done to me. They always said they were keeping me safe, but never told me from what. I thought they were my protectors until I realized they were the monsters.”
I noticed a look pass between Nick and Max, and my gut dropped even further. They knew something. I’d suspected Nick was up to something when he kept jumping in on Ava’s phone calls. He’d also been cagey when I first found him down in the labs, but I’d hoped he’d tell me himself. I’d wanted to earn his trust.
“Wolf isn’t your full name, is it?” Nick asked.
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Wolftiltedhisheadslightly as he shook it. “It took me a while to remember. A lot of things fade when I get wild. Nelly called me Wolf, and it was the only name that stuck living in that cage, but my full name is Wolfgang Kingsley.”
Hunter’s entire body spasmed as if something had electrocuted him. Max looked devastated. The rest of his pack mates looked appalled, and reached for Hunter, but Maia had her nose crinkled in confusion. “What is it, Hunt?”
“You can’t be. You died,” Hunter whispered hoarsely, his voice barely audible, even with the silence of the room. The hairs on my arm stood on end, reacting to the electric feeling of the air as Maia gasped. Damon’s lightning scent was surging through the room.
“Hunter?” Wolf breathed out. He looked as shell-shocked as when Maia had first spoken to him earlier. I’d thought he’d zoned out a bit when everyone was getting introduced. He’d seemed overwhelmed. Now I was sure he had. “They told you I died?”
I couldn’t hold back from reaching for Wolf any longer. The draw to him became an insistent beat in my blood as his emotions spiraled. I slid along the couch and put my hand on his arm. There was a fine tremor running through him. Nick had moved instinctively too, and was standing behind Wolf now, his hand on his shoulder.
“How long have you known about me?” Hunter asked him. His tone was harsh. He sounded almost angry.
Wolf’s face crumpled, yet he looked conflicted. “I didn’t know until the night I found out for sure about my dad. Our dad. He was actually talking about you. He complained that by taking me, they had forced him to have another son so he’d have a legal heir. But that something was wrong with you and he’d had to send you away to a school.”
Hunter’s jaw clenched, and his whole body looked drawn tight.
“I wanted to find you. I’d thought I was alone in the world,” Wolf said, his eyes boring into Hunter. “Knowing that I had a brother out there, and you might need me, made me desperate enough to risk an escape. I was young and stupid, though. I knew nothing about the outside world. They caught me before I got far. I was so angry with them for keeping you from me. I told them I’d never join their pack. As punishment, they sent me here. To the labs and a cage. I’ve been here ever since. If I could have made it to you, I would.”
Hunter went deathly pale. He started gasping for air, like he was going to hyperventilate, before he got up and bolted from the room. Maia jumped up to follow him, but Damon gently maneuvered her into Leif’s lap and said, “I’ll go. Stay here.”
Maia opened her mouth as if she was about to argue, but Leif whispered in her ear and hugged her tightly before turning to Max.
“You don’t look shocked, Max. Did you and Nick know about this and not say anything?” Leif asked him quietly.
