SERA POV
"Three days," I whispered, my mind racing. "We have three days before Elena tries to kill my children and steal their souls."
"Our children," Kade corrected quietly. "And she won't get the chance. I'll—"
A blood-curdling scream cut him off.
We both ran toward the sound—another wing of the infirmary where the sickest children were kept. I burst through the door to find chaos.
A little boy, maybe six years old, was convulsing on the bed. Black veins spread across his skin like poison. His eyes had rolled back in his head, and foam bubbled at his lips.
"He's dying!" the pack doctor shouted, trying desperately to hold the boy down. "The blood sickness—it's accelerating! Nothing's working!"
The boy's mother was sobbing, being held back by two nurses. "Save him! Please, somebody save my baby!"
I shoved past everyone and placed my hands on the child's chest. His skin was burning hot—fever so high it should have killed him already.
"What are you doing?" the pack doctor demanded. "You can't just—"
"Watch me."
I closed my eyes and let my healing power flow. Silver light erupted from my palms, sinking into the boy's body. I could feel the sickness—a dark, twisted thing that was eating him from the inside out.
This was worse than normal blood sickness. This was deliberate.
"Someone poisoned him," I said through gritted teeth. "This isn't natural."
Kade moved closer. "Poisoned? How?"
"I don't know, but whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing." I poured more power into the child, hunting down every trace of poison. "This was meant to kill fast and look like the blood sickness. A distraction."
"A distraction from what?" Elder Thea asked from the doorway.
My blood ran cold. "From the twins."
I yanked my hands back from the boy—he was stable now, the black veins fading—and ran.
Kade was right behind me, both of us sprinting toward the safe room. My heart pounded so hard I thought it would explode.
Please be safe. Please be safe. Please be safe.
We rounded the corner to find Lyra standing guard outside the safe room door, looking calm.
"They're fine," she said immediately, reading my panic. "No one's tried to get in."
I sagged against the wall in relief. "Thank God."
"But you should know," Lyra continued, "Asher's been crying since you left. He keeps saying he can feel your fear through the bond. Kid's an empath like you, Sera. He knows something's wrong."
Guilt stabbed through me. Of course Asher could feel my emotions. He was my son.
I keyed in the code and opened the safe room door.
Both twins launched themselves at me. Aria wrapped around my waist, and Asher climbed into my arms despite being too big to carry easily anymore.
"Mama!" Asher sobbed into my shoulder. "You were scared. So scared. I felt it."
"I'm sorry, baby. Everything's okay now." I kissed his head, breathing in his scent—safe, alive, mine.
Aria pulled back and looked at Kade, who'd followed me inside. Her little face was fierce. "Did you protect Mama?"
Kade knelt down to her level. "I tried. Your mama protected me too."
"Because you're not strong enough?" Aria asked suspiciously.
"Because we're stronger together," Kade said simply.
Aria considered this, then looked at me. "Is he really our daddy?"
The question I'd been dreading. I met Kade's eyes over her head, saw the hope and fear there.
"Yes," I admitted quietly. "He's really your daddy."
"Then why doesn't he live with us?" Asher asked, his innocent question cutting right to the heart of everything.
"Because..." I struggled for words a four-year-old would understand. "Because Daddy made a big mistake a long time ago. He believed lies about Mama and sent me away. I didn't know I was pregnant with you two yet."
"He sent you away while you had us in your tummy?" Aria's eyes went wide. "That's mean!"
"It was," I agreed, not sugarcoating it. "Very mean."
Kade's face looked like I'd stabbed him, but he didn't argue. "I was wrong. The worst kind of wrong. And I've spent every day since trying to find your mama to say sorry."
"Did you say sorry yet?" Asher asked.
"Yes. But sorry isn't enough for something that bad. I have to prove I've changed."
Aria crossed her arms, looking so much like Kade it hurt. "How do you prove it?"
"By protecting you. All of you. By never believing lies again. By putting you and your mama first, always." Kade's voice was fierce. "And by making sure the bad people who want to hurt you never get the chance."
"The bad lady who broke the windows?" Asher whispered. "She wants to hurt us?"
I wanted to lie, to protect them from the truth. But they deserved better than lies.
"Yes. Her name is Elena, and she wants to hurt you because you're special. You have powers that make you different from other wolf children."
"What powers?" Aria asked.
Elder Thea stepped into the safe room, her expression grave. "May I?"
I nodded, and Thea knelt beside the twins.
"You two are twin flames," she explained gently. "It means you share a connection deeper than normal siblings. You can feel each other's emotions, share strength, and when you're older, you'll be able to do amazing things together. Things that can help our world."
"Like what?" Aria demanded.
"Like bringing peace between wolves who've been fighting for a long time. Like healing sicknesses no one else can heal. Like building a future where everyone is safe."
"That sounds nice," Asher said quietly.
"It is nice. But some people are scared of how powerful you'll become. So they want to hurt you before you can grow up."
Both children pressed closer to me. I wrapped my arms around them, rage burning through my chest. They were four years old. They should be worried about bedtime stories and playing with toys, not about adults trying to steal their souls.
"No one will hurt you," I promised fiercely. "I'll die before I let anyone touch you."
"We both will," Kade added, his Alpha voice making it an oath.
Aria looked between us. "Together?"
"Together," Kade confirmed.
"Does that mean we're a family now?" Asher asked hopefully.
I opened my mouth, not sure how to answer. We weren't a family. Kade and I weren't together. We barely trusted each other.
But before I could speak, alarms blared throughout the packhouse.
Finn's voice came over the intercom, tight with urgency. "Alpha! Security breach! Someone got past the perimeter—"
The lights cut out.
Complete darkness swallowed the safe room.
Aria screamed. Asher grabbed my hand in a death grip.
"Stay calm," Kade ordered, his Alpha power rolling through the darkness. "Sera, keep them close."
I pulled both children against me, my wolf senses straining. I could hear footsteps in the corridor outside. Multiple people, moving with predator silence.
The safe room door was reinforced steel. Nothing could get through it.
Then I smelled it.
Gasoline.
"They're going to burn us out," I breathed.
Kade moved to the door, listening. "There's at least ten of them out there. Maybe more."
"We're trapped," Lyra said flatly. "No windows. One exit. They just have to wait for the fire to force us out, then pick us off."
"Or we burn alive in here," I finished.
Through the door, I heard Elena's voice, sweet as poison.
"Hello, Sera. I know you can hear me. You have two choices—send out the twins, or watch them burn. You have sixty seconds to decide."
A match struck.
I heard the whoosh of flames catching.
Smoke began seeping under the door.
Asher started coughing. Aria was crying, her small body shaking against mine.
"Mama, I'm scared," Asher whimpered.
"I know, baby. I know." I looked at Kade desperately. "There has to be another way out."
"There isn't," Elder Thea said quietly. "This room was designed to keep threats out, not to provide escape routes."
The smoke was getting thicker. The twins were both coughing now, their small lungs struggling.
Elena's voice drifted through the door again. "Forty-five seconds, Sera. Make your choice. The twins die either way—but you can choose whether it's quick or whether they suffer."
Kade grabbed my shoulders. "The mate bond. If we combine our power like before—"
"That was healing power. This is fire and steel and—"
"Trust me," Kade interrupted. "Please. Just this once, trust me."
I looked into his silver eyes—the same eyes my children had—and made a choice.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Drop your walls completely. Let the bond fully connect us." Kade's hands were gentle on my face. "It's going to hurt."
"I don't care. Save them."
I dropped every wall, every defense, every protection I'd spent five years building.
The mate bond exploded between us.
Power—raw, ancient, unstoppable—flooded through our connection. Silver and gold light erupted from our joined hands, so bright it hurt to look at.
"Everyone get behind us!" Kade roared.
The safe room door exploded outward.
Through the smoke and flames, I saw Elena's shocked face as the blast of power sent her flying backward.
"Run!" I screamed, scooping up both twins.
We burst through the inferno, the mate bond's power creating a shield around us. Elena's rogues tried to stop us, but Kade's Alpha rage was a physical force that sent them scattering.
We ran through burning corridors, my lungs screaming, both children clinging to me.
Almost there. Almost to the main hall where Kade's warriors could protect us.
Then Asher screamed.
Not from fear.
From pain.
I looked down and saw blood spreading across his shirt—a deep slash across his side.
Elena stood behind us, her claws dripping red, her smile vicious.
"Got him," she purred. "And that blood? That's all I need for the ritual."