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Chapter forty-four

Sofia

T he man Derek had called Harris stood behind a steel desk. Six men stood around it, tablets and papers scattered across its surface like they’d been planning an invasion. Which, I supposed, they had been. Broad-shouldered with the solid build of someone who could probably open pickle jars without that little grunt most people make, he carried himself with the easy confidence of a man who rarely heard the word “no.” He wore authority like other men wore cologne—too much and hoping you’d notice.

I recognized his type immediately—the same kind who’d order complicated drinks at Bottley Bar, then critique my technique while checking out my ass. But this couldn’t be right. Derek had told me Harris was dead. He’d died trying to protect Derek.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

Harris’s attention snapped to me, his assessment clinical and cold. A muscle twitched in his jaw before his lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile.

“Sorry to disappoint, sweetheart, but as you can see, I’m very much alive.”

So, he was the man Derek had thought of as a brother. What the fuck was going on?

“Kane never blackmailed you, did he?” Derek was laser-focused on Harris. “He never had photos of your sister. It was a lie. You were working with Kane willingly. All along.”

“And he finally catches on.” Harris circled around the front of the desk and then leaned his ass on it. A radio crackled somewhere outside; orders being relayed, troops moving into position. Time slipping away from us.

“Yes, I was working with Kane. You were getting too close. When you found evidence linking me to him, I had to spin a tale you’d believe, buy us time to organize my exit. We had a witch in place for just that eventuality. And they earned their keep; they did a damn fine job of making it seem like I was dead.”

Harris tapped his temple with two fingers. “You know, I had a bet with Kane that you’d work it out months ago. He insisted your brutish little brain wouldn’t be able to connect the dots. Looks like he was right. That’s one of the reasons I follow him, Derek. He sees how things really are.”

Through our bond, I felt Derek’s pain twist into something darker, more primal. The sensation crawled up my spine like icy fingers. Behind us, I heard the soft swish of one of the guard’s weapons shifting against their side, readying.

“Why, brother?” Derek’s voice was rough, like he had to force each word past his teeth. “Tell me why.”

“Why? You really need to ask?” Harris’s expression hardened, the facade of amusement falling away like a discarded mask. “The military was everything to me. I had no family, no friends where I came from. No one except the brothers in our unit. I gave everything for them, for you. You were my family. And I worked twice as hard, trained twice as long, to show you what I could do, to prove I belonged there. But you got promoted to Captain over me. And then,” he shook his head as if in disbelief, “it turns out you didn’t even want it. I heard you on the phone, Derek. You’d submitted a request for an unqualified resignation just because the little bitch had run off her own parents. You were going to leave, to go back to her!”

I looked sharply at Derek, my heart stuttering. I had never known he’d asked to come home early when my parents left. He had tried to get back to me.

“It didn’t matter that you got turned down,” Harris continued. “You chose her over us. Everything I worked for, everything I ever wanted, and you were just going to throw it away. For what? A bit of Shifter pussy?

“So, no, Kane didn’t have to recruit me; I went to him. He showed me your kind only have loyalty to each other. It’s not your fault. It’s in your DNA to betray anyone outside of your Pack. That’s why you can’t be trusted. Why you shouldn’t be allowed to hold positions of power. You will always put Shifters first.”

“Humans don’t win if Shifters lose, Harris.” Derek’s voice dropped to a dangerous timbre. “We’re not enemies competing for the same scraps. We’re neighbors who’ve built something together worth protecting. We work together side-by-side, we shop in the same stores, attend the same schools.” His eyes darkened. “The world you’re talking about—where one side must dominate the other—that’s not protection. That’s you wanting people to live in fear just so you can have power over them all.”

Derek took a step forward. “This war you and Kane are starting, it will result in the massacre of innocent people. Do you understand that? Not just Shifters—human families, too. People who trust you to protect them.”

Harris shrugged, spreading his hands wide. “For the greater good. Disruption now benefits humanity in the long term. If you’re strong enough, you’ll survive, and you’ll deserve to survive. If not? Well, if you’re too weak to make it, you don’t belong in the new order that’s coming.”

Through our bond, I felt Derek’s anger building.

Harris must have sensed it, too, because his smile widened, as if Derek’s rage was somehow invigorating him.

“I’m going to enjoy making you watch as we raze Three Rivers to the ground. The Pack you chose over me. I’m going to make sure not one person will be left alive.”

He picked up one of the tablets on his desk, tapped it a few times, and the screen behind him powered up. I frowned, not sure what I was seeing, then my heart stopped.

A live feed from the airfield filled the screen, with the two guards who brought us here walking back to the gate in the lower left corner. Harris tapped his tablet again, and a new feed appeared. Steel cages were being wheeled out of another hangar. Inside each was a person, hands secured with zip ties. The camera feeds flickered, shifting perspectives.

More cages lined the airfield, row upon row of them. The picture zoomed in, and my breath hitched. They weren’t human. Werewolves, their bodies trembling with violent spasms, their skin slick with sweat. Their eyes—Goddess, their eyes—burned red with fever, the whites bloodshot and ringed with deep, dark bruises.

Some of them were bent over, trying to Shift, their mouths open in silent screams. Others curled up, rocking back and forth, arms wrapped around themselves. One man slammed his head against the bars over and over. Blood streaked down his forehead, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” Harris said, studying our reactions. “Fifty of our finest specimens. We’ve been dosing them with ripple for weeks, pushing the limits of what their bodies can handle. They’re completely feral now—nothing of their old selves left at all.”

Along our bond, I felt Derek’s horror mirror my own as we watched soldiers securing the cages to flatbed trucks.

“You’re going to release them in Three Rivers.” My voice came out as a whisper.

“Of course. And when they’re done with your precious Pack, we’ll swoop in, the human heroes eliminating the threat.” Harris leaned forward, eyes bright with purpose. “This is just a correction. Shifters seem to think they are part of some evolutionary process when, in fact, you’re simply a chromosomal mistake. A genetic aberration that we are rectifying. Humans created civilization—laws, medicine, technology. Shifters have been wearing its benefits like borrowed clothes. In reality, though, you’re still brutish animals. We’re just showing the world what’s always been there.”

He gestured at the screen with casual pride. “Imagine the headlines: ‘Werewolf Rampage Decimates Town.’ Your interference actually came at the perfect moment. We needed somewhere to release them, and where better than a predominately Shifter town? If they kill everyone there, imagine what they’ll do to a human town. We’ll film it, of course, then release it across social media. The public will finally see what you really are—what you’re capable of becoming. After that, they’ll be begging us to put you down.”

“They’re sick,” I protested, my eyes fixed on the screens. One of the werewolves caught my attention—a man who couldn’t have been more than thirty. Wire-rimmed glasses lay broken on the cage floor, and his dirty, sweat-soaked dress shirt had the emblem Hedge End High School. A teacher, maybe. Someone who’d once stood in front of a classroom full of kids teaching them literature or algebra, who’d stayed late to help struggling students, who’d written college recommendation letters and chaperoned proms.

Now, he threw himself against the bars, howling in mindless rage. His muscles bulged unnaturally beneath his torn shirt, veins black and prominent against his too-pale skin. But it was his eyes that haunted me—bloodshot and wild, yet somewhere in their depths, I caught a flicker of awareness. Of terror. He was still in there, trapped in his own body as the ripple turned him into something else.

Bile rose in my throat as I watched him slam against the bars again. “You made them like this. This isn’t natural—”

“Natural?” Harris cut me off. “Nothing about you is natural. You’re abominations. This?” He pointed to the screen. “This is just showing the world your true faces.”

“You piece of shit.” Derek moved wolf-fast, his fists, still tied together, slamming into Harris’s cheek.

Before Derek could do anything else, everyone in that room, all six men, had their guns out and aimed at him.

Harris held up a hand, gesturing for them to hold. He touched his cheek with his fingers as he said, “I want you alive, Derek. I want you to watch what I do with your Pack. And I want you to know that I will personally see to it that no one who has connections to Three Rivers is left alive.”

His gaze settled on me, trailing over my body in a way that made my skin crawl. “Well, almost no one. I might keep this one as a pet. You chose her over your brothers-in-arms, Derek, and I’m curious to see what’s so fucking special about her pussy that made you throw everything away.”

“Touch her,” Derek’s voice was pure wolf now, deep and deadly, “and I will fucking rip you apart.”

“There it is,” Harris said, his voice almost gentle. “The animal underneath. That’s what Kane wanted me to show you, brother. What you really are when all civilization is stripped away.”