Page 48

Chapter thirty-eight

Felix

F elix

Two hours, forty-eight minutes until Gideon’s team arrived. Two hours, forty-eight minutes to convince Annabella of the truth, to get her and her team to safety, to free Talia.

Fucking difficult but not impossible. And I lived for those kinds of odds.

I’d tell Annabella everything. About Webster’s connection to ripple.

About Kane’s plan to weaponize anti-Shifter sentiment.

About how the Council wasn’t what she thought—flawed, yes, but not the evil she’d been taught to hate.

She’d listen. She had to listen. I had the proof; I just needed her to give me the chance to show it to her.

I punched in the access code to the entrance, my mind already rehearsing what I’d say to Annabella. The truth first—rip off the bandage. Then show her the evidence. Appeal to what mattered most to her: Ellie’s safety.

The lock disengaged with a soft click. I pulled the door open, slipping inside.

The corridor was empty. Everything looked normal. Undisturbed. Hopefully, Annabella was still asleep, and I could control this before she called to the others or tried to bash my head in.

I rounded the corner toward the main operations area. It was still quiet—no clicking of Mira’s keyboards, no murmured conversations. Just silence.

Something was off.

I stepped into the room, scanning quickly. Nothing out of place, but my wolf’s hackles rose. I moved toward the corridor that led to Annabella’s quarters.

“Going somewhere?” Duke’s voice came from behind me.

I spun. He must have followed me in, now blocking the door I’d just used, arms crossed over his chest. My pulse spiked. How had he gotten there without me noticing?

Movement to my left—Mira from one of the offices, her tablet clutched to her chest like a shield.

To my right, Lydia stepped out behind a desk.

I could have sworn she hadn’t been there a minute ago.

Had she been under an obscuration spell?

Directly in front of me, Annabella appeared from the shadow of the corridor, her face completely blank.

My wolf went on alert. Something was very wrong.

Annabella’s eyes locked with mine. The emptiness there stole my breath. Those eyes that had looked at me with wonder just hours ago, that had held trust and vulnerability and desire, now looked through me as if I were already dead to her.

“Welcome back, Sam,” she said, her voice flat.

Sam. She’d said Sam.

She knew. She knew exactly who I was.

“Annabella—”

“Sam Shaw,” Mira cut in, her voice uncharacteristically hard.

“Wolf Council member, appointed eighteen months ago. Former co-owner of Shaw Investigations. Brother to Ryan Shaw, Alpha of Three Rivers Pack. Brother to Mason Shaw, Alpha of the Bridgetown Pack. Twin to Derek Shaw, Beta of the Three Rivers Pack.”

I kept my eyes on Annabella. “Let me explain—”

Duke snarled, stepping forward. “Shut the fuck up, Council dog.”

I shifted my weight, ready for the attack that was coming. Looking at the fury in Annabella’s eyes, I wondered if she’d try to stop Duke—or join him.

Human. Wolf. Savior. Brother. Killer. Traitor. Felix. Sam.

I’d run out of boxes to compartmentalize into. And I’d run out of time.

“All this time,” Annabella whispered, her voice cracking slightly. “Everything was a lie.”

“Not everything,” I said desperately. “Annabella, please, you need to listen to me. Webster is—”

Duke moved with unexpected speed for someone his size. My wolf senses kicked in just in time, and I pivoted, catching his fist on my forearm instead of my face. The impact still sent shock waves of pain up to my shoulder.

“Wait!” I growled, dropping into a defensive stance.

Duke didn’t wait.

He closed the distance between us, his expression cold. I pivoted away from his first strike, but he’d anticipated it. As I moved, his boot connected with the side of my knee, nearly buckling it.

I drove up with a sharp strike toward his throat. Duke blocked it with a forearm like iron, the impact sending a numbing vibration through my hand.

“I’ve been looking forward to this.”

I bet he had.

I matched Duke’s movements, keeping my stance defensive rather than aggressive. “Annabella, Webster is manipulating you. He’s the one behind ripple. He’s manufacturing it, distributing it with Victor Kane—”

Duke feinted left before coming in with a right hook. I deflected it rather than counterattacking, taking a step back.

“He’s using you to destabilize the Council while he positions witches as the solution to the crisis he created.”

“Shut your lying mouth,” Duke growled, launching a series of brutal strikes.

I blocked what I could, absorbing the ones I couldn’t. A punch slipped through my guard, connecting with my ribs with a crack. Pain exploded through my side, but I forced myself to stay upright.

“I have proof,” I gasped. “Financial records. Shipping manifests. All linking back to Webster.”

Duke’s boot swept my legs from under me. I hit the concrete hard, rolling away as his fist smashed down where my head had been a second before. The movement sent fresh agony through my ribs.

“Stay down,” Duke snarled.

I didn’t. I pushed to my feet but didn’t attack. Not fighting back was against every instinct, every bit of training. My wolf howled in frustration, demanding I Shift, demanding I fight. I forced him down. No way would Annabella listen to me if I knocked Duke out.

“Webster’s spell fifteen years ago,” I said, blood trickling from my split lip. “It was designed to enslave all werewolves. The Council didn’t lie about that.”

Duke’s next punch caught me in my stomach, driving the air from my lungs. I doubled over, wheezing. He followed with an uppercut that snapped my head back, vision blurring at the edges.

Duke circled me as I struggled to straighten. “You should hear yourself. Desperate lies from a desperate man.”

Blood ran down the side of my face and into my mouth. “Annabella, the man you’re working for wants to destroy Shifters, not help them.”

Duke grabbed my arm, wrenching it behind my back and upward. The joint resisted, then gave with a wet pop. White-hot pain lanced through my shoulder as it dislocated. A strangled sound escaped me, but I kept my eyes on Annabella, who watched with that same empty expression.

“Ask him,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “Ask Webster about the ripple labs. Ask him about the spell component that makes Shifters turn on their Packs. That makes them see their bonds as impure.”

Duke released my useless arm, sending another explosion of pain through my shoulder. I swayed on my feet, fighting to stay conscious.

“He’s stalling,” Lydia said coldly. “Buying time until his Council friends arrive.”

“No,” I managed, my voice ragged. “If I wanted to stall, I wouldn’t be telling you that an extraction team is coming for Talia in two hours, thirty minutes.”

That got Annabella’s attention. Her eyes sharpened. “What?”

“Council extraction team. Full tactical response. Two hours thirty.” I met her gaze through the curtain of blood trickling from the cut above my eye. “You need to get your crew out of here before they arrive.”

Duke’s fist drove into my kidney. My legs buckled, and I crashed to my knees. Through the haze of pain, I kept talking, the words slurred but urgent.

“In my bag. Left pocket. USB drive with everything. All the evidence linking Webster to ripple production, to Kane, to the attacks.”

Duke grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back. “Enough talk.”

“Annabella,” I paused, blood bubbling between my lips. “Your sister. Webster will destroy her world, not save it.”

Something flickered in Annabella’s eyes—doubt, uncertainty, the barest hesitation.

Duke saw it too. With a roar, he drove his knee into my face. Cartilage crunched as my nose broke, hot blood streaming down my chin. The room spun violently.

I collapsed onto all fours, my dislocated arm giving way so I sprawled onto my side. Each breath sent shards of pain through my ribs. My vision tunneled, darkness encroaching at the edges.

“You need to look,” I whispered, no longer sure if I was even audible. “The evidence. Before it’s too late.”

Annabella crouched down next to me, her eyes studying my face. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

“Because I care more about what happens to you than about completing my mission.”

Her face didn’t change; just stayed that awful blankness, like I was nothing to her.

Then Duke’s boot connected with my temple, and the world went silent and dark.