Chapter 179

Kayla

It wasn’t William’s presence that shook me to my core, but my father’s.

Two years. For two years, I’d sat by his bedside, holding his limp hand, begging him to wake up, to move, to give me any sign he was still there. And now he walked in as if the bodily damage he’d suffered from his coma had been nothing but an inconvenience he could discard at will.

“How?” I managed, my voice small and broken.

My father smiled, and that was when I saw a silvery fleck on his teeth, a metallic sheen that caught the dim light of the barn. Silverbite. The drug that numbed pain, heightened reflexes, and gave users supernatural strength beyond even what werewolves naturally possessed. The same drug that had made him a liability to William before.

“You’re high,” I whispered, horror crawling up my spine.

“I prefer to think of it as… enhanced,” my father replied, his voice eerily calm. His pupils were dilated, the black nearly swallowing the color of his irises. “The doctors said I wouldn’t be able to walk again for months, but they were wrong. All I needed was a little… pharmaceutical assistance.”

Nicholas shifted slightly beside me, positioning himself between me and the newcomers. Henry stepped closer to my other side, a low growl rumbling in his chest.

My father tilted his head at him. “Henry, come now. We’re old friends. Why the warning growl?”

The Beta didn’t respond.

“Mr. Sterling,” William Straud said smoothly, stepping forward. “Perhaps you should explain to your daughter what’s happening here, before things get… unpleasant.”

My father’s eyes never left my face. I searched his expression for any hint of the man I remembered—the father who had taught me to ride a bike, who had read me bedtime stories, who had stroked my hair when I was sick. But all I saw was a stranger.

Had that gentle man died with my mother? Or had he disappeared long before that, when greed and ambition consumed him after learning about Luporath’s existence.

“Kayla,” my father said. “This has gone far enough. It’s time to come home.”

“I am home,” I replied. “Nicholas is my home now.”

William chuckled, the sound grating against my nerves. “Such loyalty to a man you’ve only known for a few months. Impressive.” His gaze flicked to Nicholas, contempt curling his lip. “Although I suspect your… attachment… to the Alpha has more to do with the seed he planted in your belly than any true sense of belonging.”

Nicholas stiffened. “Don’t you dare—”

“A seed that will never flourish,” my father cut him off as he took another step forward. “Kayla, listen to me. We can help you with your wolf. William and I have done our research, and we believe that the relic can make your wolf emerge. Make you whole. But you need to come with us if you want to find it.”

I stared at him, then at Nicholas. He’d said that I needed to be alive if we were going to find the relic. At the time, I’d let distrust cloud my interpretation of that, but…

The glance Nicholas gave me was all the answer I needed.

He knew. He knew that the relic might be able to make my wolf emerge, might make it so I could carry this baby to term and finally be complete, and that was why he wanted to find it. He didn’t want to protect it, not completely. He wanted to use it.

For me.

I swallowed hard, returning my gaze to my father even though my heart was thrumming in my chest.

“And what do you want in return?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.

“Just your help finding Luporath,” William replied as if he were asking for nothing more than a cup of sugar. “The compass bracelet you’ve been wearing. We know it points to the entrance.”

My hand moved instinctively to my wrist, feeling the cold metal of the bracelet against my skin.

“And of course,” my father added, his gaze hardening as it settled on Nicholas, “you’ll be free of this… playboy. No more confusion, no more manipulation. You’ll be where you belong—with your real family.”

“My real family?” I blurted out. “You mean with the man who betrayed and possibly killed my mother? The man who’s been lying to me my entire life?” I shook my head, disgust churning in my stomach. “And working with you has somehow made you better than Nicholas?”

My father’s expression darkened, but he composed himself quickly, forcing another smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He extended his hand. “Come to me, Kayla. Come to your father.”

I hesitated, not out of any real temptation, but because memories flashed through my mind in rapid succession—rescuing Grace from the guild cell, celebrating winter solstice in the cabin with my friends, a night of passion spent under the stars with Nicholas.

These past months, I had built more of a family than my blood relation had ever given me, one constructed on love, trust, and compassion, not secrets and manipulation.

I took a step back, pressing closer to Nicholas and Henry. “No,” I said firmly. “You’re not my father anymore. You haven’t been for a long time.”

Something shifted in the air then, like lightning crackling before a storm. My father’s face contorted with rage, the facade of paternal concern crumbling away.

“I was afraid you might say that,” William sighed, not sounding bothered at all. “Unfortunately, that changes our approach… drastically.”

In a fluid motion that seemed impossibly fast, both men shifted, and within seconds, two massive wolves stood before us—my father’s black as midnight, William’s a mottled gray. William loosed an ear-shattering howl, making me instinctively cover my ears.

“Kayla,” Nicholas breathed, turning to me. “Run back to the house. Go—”

But it was too late. The doors to the barn burst open again, and Isabella ran in, already in her wolf form. At the same moment, the Bluemoon warrior who had been guarding Liam spun around, withdrawing a knife not to defend us, but to cut Liam’s bonds.

“Harris!” Henry shouted, recognizing the traitor in our midst.

Freed, Liam wasted no time shifting into his wolf form, joining our enemies. Five against three, the doorway blocked, and one of us without a wolf to call upon.

Nicholas shifted immediately, his massive dark wolf lunging toward William with a ferocious snarl. Henry was a half-second behind him, his dark brown wolf smaller but no less fierce.

I backed away, panic clawing at my chest, useless in my human form. The barn erupted into chaos—snarls, growls, the sound of bodies slamming into each other, teeth tearing into flesh.

Nicholas fought valiantly, but he was quickly overwhelmed. William and my father coordinated their attacks with practiced precision, one distracting while the other struck. Blood matted Nicholas’s silver fur, and when Liam joined the fray, he was driven to the ground, pinned beneath their combined weight.

Henry fared no better. Despite his decades of experience, his older wolf was no match for the enhanced strength of my silverbite-fueled father. One powerful blow from William was all it took to send Henry crashing into the barn wall, where he slumped, unconscious, his wolf form shifting back to human.

“NO!” I screamed, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst from my chest. I surged toward him, but Isabella leapt in my way, teeth snapping. Yelping, I backpedaled, only to back into another wall behind me.

She approached, hackles raised, head lowered, fangs bared. There was blood on her teeth. Blood.

I closed my eyes, concentrating with everything I had, willing my wolf to emerge. Please, please, just this once, when I need you most…

Nothing.

I opened my eyes to see Nicholas bleeding on the ground now in his human form, his injuries too great to remain a wolf. He was still fighting but weakening by the second. Desperation flooded through me, and suddenly, I knew what I had to do.

I ripped the compass bracelet from my wrist, holding it high. “Is this what you want?!” I shouted. “Come take it!”

The attack paused. Even Isabella halted, looking to her cohorts for guidance. The compass dangled from my fingers, swinging enticingly.

“No, Kayla! Don’t give it to them!” Nicholas managed to growl, even as blood dripped from multiple wounds.

My father’s wolf broke away from the others, stalking toward me predatorily. I scooched along the barn wall, still holding the compass out, until I hit the corner. Shit. I had nowhere left to go.

And his eyes… His eyes, even in wolf form, were wild and unfocused from the silverbite, pupils so dilated they nearly turned his eyes black. Saliva dripped from his fangs, another side effect of the drug.

“No!” Nicholas grunted, straining against the wolves pinning him down. “Kayla, no—our mothers—” His voice was cut off by the weight of them pushing on his back, choking the life out of him.

Our mothers.

Just as my father reached me, I dropped the bracelet to the ground and, before he could react, crushed it beneath my boot with all my strength. The metal cracked, the glass of the compass face shattering into tiny fragments.

Useless.

My father’s wolf recoiled in shock.

“You know as well as anyone, Father,” I spat the word like a curse, “that I am more like my mother than I was ever like you. And I will die protecting the relic, just as she did.”

His shock quickly morphed to rage. With the compass destroyed, I was worthless to them. Worse than worthless—I was a liability, a loose end. In their eyes, both Nicholas and I were better off dead.

My father’s wolf crouched, muscles bunching as he prepared to lunge. I braced myself, knowing I stood no chance against him, but refusing to close my eyes. If this was how I died, I would face it head-on.

But the attack never came.

Instead, the barn doors burst open once more, and four wolves leapt into the space—Marcus, Noah, Jade, Emma. They moved as one, a coordinated pack, immediately assessing the situation and leaping into action.

Marcus and Noah tackled William, driving him away from Nicholas. Jade went for Isabella, who had been circling back toward me. Emma threw herself at my father just as he was about to spring, knocking him aside with the force of her charge.

The barn erupted into renewed chaos, but this time, the fight was more evenly matched. I ran to Nicholas, helping him drag himself away from the center of the battle, leaving smears of blood on the straw-covered floor.

“Henry,” Nicholas gasped, nodding toward the still form of our friend.

We made our way to him, and I nearly wept with relief when I saw his chest rising and falling. He was alive, but badly injured. Just as we reached him, Ava burst into the barn, her face pale with fear.

“Henry!” she cried, dropping to her knees beside him, tears streaming down her face as she gently cradled her husband’s head.

The sounds of battle began to die down. I turned to see the traitorous Bluemoon warrior lying dead, his neck broken. Isabella had fled, true to her cowardly nature. Liam was unconscious, bleeding but alive. William and my father were pinned to the ground by our friends, subdued but still snarling and thrashing.

I breathed heavily, the adrenaline beginning to ebb from my system, leaving me shaky and drained. We had survived. Against all odds, we had—

My heart stopped.

Across the barn, Emma lay motionless on the floor in her human form, a puddle of blood spreading beneath her.