LUCIAN’S POV

As far as evil lairs went, Catherine picked the best.

Aboveground, the private island looked untouched by human greed—white sand, endless blue water, luxury villas perched along the shoreline like something pulled from a billionaire’s fantasy.

Belowground, it smelled like blood and death.

I followed Catherine through the underground corridor in silence. The polished white floors reflected cold strips of overhead light while distant machinery hummed somewhere beyond the walls.

The facility was larger than I expected.

Silverpine had always functioned as a stronghold and operational center, but this—this was the heart of it.

Human scientists crossed between secured doors carrying tablets and specimen cases, while witches moved through the halls with the calm assurance of those who believed themselves untouchable.

Magic and science intertwined everywhere.

Symbols pulsed faintly beneath transparent flooring panels while sleek medical equipment lined the walls beside ancient-looking artifacts that radiated enough energy to make my wolf restless beneath my skin.

The pill Catherine had given me days ago still lingered in my system like poison woven into my bloodstream.

I could feel it sometimes when my thoughts slowed unexpectedly or when pressure curled around the edges of my mind like invisible fingers testing their grip.

Control through subtlety was Catherine’s preferred method.

Not domination. Dependency. Conditioning.

Carefully measured pressure until resistance exhausted itself.

I’d survived by adapting. By obeying just enough to avoid becoming another corpse in one of her laboratories.

Catherine walked beside me calmly, her heels clicking softly against the polished floor.

“You should consider yourself fortunate,” she said lightly. “Very few people gain access to the core chamber.”

“I’m overwhelmed by the honor.”

Her lips curved. “You’re still sarcastic. That’s encouraging.”

I said nothing.

The corridor curved ahead, opening into another secured section lined with glass-walled workrooms. Some contained operating tables. Others held containment circles carved directly into the floor.

One room held nothing but suspended wolf skeletons.

Another housed what looked disturbingly like artificial organs floating in silver-blue liquid.

Every step deeper into the facility made my skin crawl.

We moved deeper into the corridor, the activity behind us fading. Then we rounded the next corner, and I nearly stopped walking.

A young woman stood near one of the side terminals, auburn curls pulled back, as glowing symbols slowly rotated across the screen before her.

Witch.

A powerful one at that.

I recognized that instantly, but not because of visible magic.

Because the air around her felt...strange.

Charged. Alive.

Catherine slowed when she noticed her.

“Evelyn.”

The woman looked up immediately.

The moment her eyes met mine, something inside me jolted so sharply I almost gasped.

Rhegan stirred violently beneath my skin without warning.

What the fuck—

The sensation vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind only a strange tightness in my chest that made no sense whatsoever.

Evelyn blinked once, her gaze lingering on me with visible confusion before shifting toward Catherine.

“Who’s this?”

“An associate,” Catherine answered smoothly.

Evelyn’s brows pulled together. “Since when do you bring ‘associates’ down here?”

Catherine continued walking without slowing. “Since I decided I needed one.”

I followed automatically, though my attention betrayed me for one brief moment longer.

Evelyn was still looking at me.

Not with curiosity or suspicion—more like she was trying to place something she couldn’t quite identify.

Unease crawled beneath my ribs.

I forced my attention forward immediately.

Whatever this feeling was, it was dangerous.

“You’ve been avoiding me all week,” Evelyn said, falling into step beside Catherine. “Every time I ask about the containment breach, you change the subject.”

“There are more important matters right now.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“No,” Catherine agreed mildly. “It isn’t.”

Evelyn exhaled sharply through her nose. “You’re doing it again.”

Catherine finally glanced toward her. “Paranoia doesn’t suit you, darling.”

The younger witch crossed her arms. “And evasiveness suits you too well.”

Catherine smiled faintly at that, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Curiosity is healthy, Evelyn. Obsession is not.”

“I learned from the best.”

For a second, silence stretched between them.

Then Catherine reached out and adjusted a strand of hair away from Evelyn’s face with almost unsettling gentleness.

“You’re overworking yourself again,” she murmured.

Evelyn looked annoyed by the gesture more than comforted.

“You say that every time I start asking questions.”

“Perhaps because exhaustion makes you imaginative.”

I clenched my jaw.

Manipulation.

Catherine redirected conversations the same way constrictors tightened around prey—slowly enough that by the time you noticed, breathing had already become difficult.

Evelyn’s gaze flicked toward me once more.

Again, that strange sensation hit unexpectedly beneath my ribs, a low ripple of awareness sliding through my system.

Evelyn’s expression shifted slightly, like she felt something too.

No.

Impossible.

I buried the thought instantly.

Catherine noticed neither reaction—or pretended not to.

“You should get some rest,” she said calmly. “Maybe you’ll be clear-eyed after a couple of hours of sleep.”

Something flickered across Evelyn’s face, but she quickly masked it and nodded. “Yes, Mother.”

I flinched.

Mother??

What the hell? Since when did Catherine have children?

Still reeling from the revelation, I forced my shock into a mask of my own and turned away from Evelyn. As Catherine continued deeper into the facility, I followed, leaving Evelyn behind near the terminal.

I didn’t look back again.

But I felt her eyes on me anyway.

Our descent finally stopped. The core chamber sat beneath the lowest level of the underground facility.

Massive reinforced doors slid open slowly as Catherine approached, revealing a chamber so large it resembled an underground cathedral.

Machines lined the outer walls beside glowing ritual circles carved directly into black stone flooring.

Technology and witchcraft fused so seamlessly that you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Catherine said, pride bright on her face.

It was beautiful—in the way a black mamba was before it struck.

At the center was a large operating table.

A man lay restrained atop it.

Old. Dying.

Even from across the chamber, I could smell the terminal illness that had consumed him from the inside out long before Catherine got her claws into him.

His breathing rattled wetly in his chest while IV lines pumped glowing liquid through his veins.

But despite the decay eating through his body, hope still burned in his eyes.

“Alpha Bernard volunteered willingly,” Catherine said as we approached. “Late-stage degeneration. His wolf was failing alongside his body.”

The Alpha’s cloudy gaze shifted weakly toward Catherine.

“You promised,” he rasped painfully. “My pack...needs me.”

“And they shall still have you,” Catherine assured him softly.

Lie.

But he was desperate enough that she could have promised to put the moon on a ring for him, and he would believe her.

Witches moved around the chamber, preparing symbols, while scientists adjusted the machinery surrounding the table.

Catherine glanced toward me. “Watch carefully, Lucian. Very few people ever witness rebirth.”

The ritual began moments later.

Silver restraints ignited first, locking the Alpha completely motionless while glowing symbols spread outward beneath him like veins of light.

The man screamed weakly, as if his body no longer possessed enough strength for proper agony.

Then the symbols beneath the table ignited.

My stomach twisted as I recognized pieces of the magic.

Soul-binding.

Extraction.

Containment.

And something older underneath it.

Something warped beyond recognition.

Whatever this was, it sure as hell wasn’t rebirth.

The chanting intensified.

Then his wolf emerged.

Spectral silver light tore violently from his chest in fragmented bursts while blood flooded from his mouth.

The machines activated. Metal arms descended around the spectral wolf while witches redirected energy through containment circles pulsing brighter with every passing second.

“Beautiful,” Catherine whispered.

Horror crawled through every inch of me.

The wolf fought wildly at first, thrashing against the symbols restraining it while the Alpha convulsed violently on the table beneath it.

“You promised—” he choked desperately.

Catherine didn’t even look at him.

“Continue.”

The chamber trembled violently as magic collided with machinery.

Then suddenly, the wolf solidified.

Massive. Dark-furred. Far larger than any ordinary wolf.

It collapsed heavily onto the floor beyond the ritual circle, breathing hard while the Alpha’s heartbeat monitor flatlined behind it.

Dead.

But the wolf remained alive.

Excitement erupted across the chamber immediately.

Scientists scrambled to document readings while witches stared at the creature in awe.

Catherine looked triumphant.

“The wolf survives separation,” she said softly. “Exactly as predicted.”

The wolf slowly lifted its massive head.

Confused.

Distressed.

Alone.

A low, grieving sound escaped it.

And something inside me broke.

Standing there in that chamber, watching a dead Alpha’s wolf mourn beside his corpse while Catherine celebrated her success, I understood something with horrifying clarity.

There was no fixing this from within anymore.

No justification left.

No acceptable compromise.

Every step I had taken beside Catherine had stained my hands deeper than I could ever wash clean.

I had told myself that surviving inside this nightmare gave me a chance to destroy it eventually.

I had told myself I stayed because I needed answers.

Because I needed Zara.

But if I continued helping Catherine now, if I kept standing beside this, then someday I would become just as monstrous as she was.

And there would be nothing left in me worth saving.