The air around the ST's tactical site felt thick, suffocating. A low, persistent hum of the ventilation system was the only sound battling the silence. As Trinity continued to monitor the security cameras, a profound unease settled in her gut. It wasn't just the failing equipment; it was a significant, unsettling shift in the atmosphere between her and the rest of the Wolves. She could feel the collective tension like a physical weight pressing on her chest.
After the first two cameras flickered to black, three more followed in rapid succession. Suddenly, the high school's rear exit—a potential danger zone—was completely blind to their surveillance.
The deliberate, precise nature of the outages made it chillingly clear that something specific was underway, a chilling knowledge that left everyone on a razor's edge. This wasn't a city of strangers. Everyone here knew someone at the school—a neighbor, a younger sibling's friend, a kid they'd babysat. Every Wolf in the room had a tangible tie to the potential victims.
Then there was Trinity, the outsider. The one without any deep, tangible roots in the community. Her only connections were her parents and a handful of other inner circle removed individuals. The harsh glances and palpable tension directed her way became increasingly difficult to ignore, stinging her with their implicit accusation.
The overly bright, white fluorescent lights above didn't just feel oppressive; the entire atmosphere did. A dense, suffocating silence seemed to press the air out of the room, heavy with the premonition of disaster.
Even Wesley seemed off-kilter. His normally cool, aloof demeanor had cracked, replaced by a visible agitation that only subsided when his eyes fogged over, a tell-tale sign of a mental message. His entire body looked ashen, his skin stretched taut across his cheekbones.
As the mental fog cleared, his bright blue eyes snapped to hers, sharp and analyzing. Around her, a low, guttural growl began to ripple through the room as other Wolves' eyes glazed over with the same urgent mental communication. Trinity's heart hammered against her ribs; she didn't understand, but she knew this was not good.
Wesley had just received the devastating news: the defectives at the high school had attacked students. One pup was dead, and the rest were being held hostage and tortured. The pack's pups, their most vulnerable, were in need of immediate protection. This wasn't a spontaneous schoolyard fight; the attackers had come prepared, armed with fine silver dust used liberally to restrain the pups and as a deterrent against any approaching Warriors.
He had to alert the Warriors. Normally, he would send a mental message to the Beta, but with the Beta gone, he contacted Gibson, relaying the critical information. As he communicated, he subtly moved closer to Trinity. He wanted to keep a vigilant eye on a possible operative who might act with the same sudden viciousness as the others, but more urgently, he positioned himself in case the other Wolves completely lost control.
Rumors had already reached him that the defective house was surrounded by Wolves, their sanity fraying, intent on a visceral, bloody retribution.
Wesley exchanged a charged look with Trinity's guards, knowing they would have caught Gibson's urgent commands through the mental link.
"She's not involved," Speed stated definitively, his voice low and firm, as her four guards immediately circled around her, facing outwards. They created a living barrier, a thin space of neutrality between her and the rising feral emotion of the ST's.
"What happened?" Trinity asked, her voice tight. The way they were looking at her now was worse than the usual condescension; it was raw malice, hatred, and the crushing weight of suspicion.
"A defective killed a wolf!" Kael answered honestly, his back still to her, his gaze locked on the agitated Wolves surrounding them. Their eyes were shifting, flashes of brown, blue, and green giving way to the obsidian black of their inner Wolves. Some seemed stuck on the black, their human skin rippling with the tell-tale signs of an impending, violent shift.
"And why would that have anything to do with me?" Trinity asked, genuine confusion etching her features. She hadn't harmed anyone.
"She's just as culpable as the rest of them!" a high-pitched voice screamed from the edge of the room.
"Those monsters killed the pup."
"The defective house is empty! This was planned! They want to kill us all," another Wolf roared.
The hysteria in the room ballooned, swallowing all logic. The young Wolves had already tried and condemned Trinity, cementing their belief that this was not an isolated incident but a targeted attack aimed at the total annihilation of the pack.
"You think defectives—the ones you all consider weak and helpless—planned to kill thousands of Wolves? That we would devise such a stupid plan? There are less than thirty-six of us," Trinity's astonishment forced the words free, her voice laced with incredulity at the thought process of the supposed "superior species."
"Not only are we formidable enough to wipe out three thousand of you, but we're also stupid enough to believe we could then make it back to human civilization—a place none of us knows how to reach! We were brought here as captives, stolen from our homes, and you have the nerve to think we have some grand, coordinated plan—"
"A pup is dead, your kind needs to pay for it!" a Wolf yelled, shoving past his teammate.
Trinity let out a sharp, cynical scoff. The irrationality was laughable. She wasn't blind or deaf to the plight of the other defectives, but the Wolves seemed to be, acting as if they were utterly bewildered that anyone would turn on their captors.
"Because you are just the nicest captors, right? You don't deserve anybody's malice! You're all so kind!" The sarcasm dripped from her tongue, burning with every word. "When you punch and kick and beat us, force us into unspeakable acts, how many of you haven't forced yourself on us? Do any of you think you're truly innocent?"
Cocoa's fingernails elongated and hardened into claws, the sound a soft, dry scrape, as Trinity's words slammed into her like physical blows. The callous, uncaring assessment of a life she didn't value was too much. Cocoa stood abruptly from her console, her newly shifted nails fully exposed. Her brown eyes flickered rapidly between their natural color and the chilling, obsidian black of her Wolf.
"And yet we always leave you alive! We are innocent, we protect you. We didn't steal you away from your perfect little lives. We saved you! And this is how you return the favor? By killing your saviors? We haven't killed any of you. I mean, not a scratch on you," Cocoa hissed, her voice shaking with rage and self-righteousness.
The gold flecks in Trinity's blue eyes pulsed, a fierce, internal light. They thought she was evil. She was only spared the worst because of her parentage, a twist of the pack's sickening hierarchy. It wasn't as if others hadn't tried to target her before.
"It's only because you guys have some sort of sick hierarchy raging through this place that I am not as tormented as my friends, as my own people—"
"Your people! See! They don't consider themselves Wolves," Cocoa shrieked, turning to the surrounding ST's.
"You don't consider us!" Trinity growled, the word ripping from her throat.
A conspiratorial edge entered Cocoa's voice, pulling in the wavering attention of the ST's. Whatever new lie she was spinning, they seemed ready to believe it. "You are the Beta's daughter, aren't you—" She turned back to the Wolves, her gaze serious, forcing them to pay attention to every word. "I bet this was her plan! We all see her! Of these defective scum, she's the strongest. Where there's strength, there's power. This is her plan."
The suspicion that had once been confined to a few pairs of eyes and the simmering anger in the room climbed to a fever pitch. Even her own Team 11 looked at her now with a mixture of hostility and wavering fealty. In the short time they'd been a unit, Trinity had thought they'd formed a fragile respect, a sense of shared responsibility. Their eyes now showed only malice.
"Go back to your computer now!" Wesley commanded, his voice sharp. He could see the situation spiraling out of control. Hundreds of Wolves were packed into the underground bunker, with few avenues of escape. He and the guards could perhaps contain the situation, but not without risking the lives of his pack. He didn't want to fight his family.
Luca strode down the cold stone pathway, the sound of raised, frantic voices echoing above him. He could smell the acrid scent of anger and fear clinging to the feral air of the ST's underground chamber. He heard Trinity's words being volleyed at someone, accelerating his rush until he burst upon the chaotic scene. Cocoa was clearly egging on the Wolves, but Luca couldn't grasp the full scope of what was happening.
"No! I'm not going to stand side-by-side with a murderer! She killed our family, our pack. She has to die!" Cocoa screamed, her voice a cracked, high-pitched wail.
Trinity didn't hesitate. She still had the weapon every Wolf was mandated to carry. Unlatching the strap that held her gun to her thigh, she drew the weapon in a practiced motion. The roar of the gun momentarily silenced the hysterical room as she fired three times. Silver bullets ripped through the air and slammed into Cocoa's thigh.
Cocoa dropped to her knees, a guttural scream of pure pain tearing from her throat. Trinity's eyes narrowed on her. "I didn't kill anyone!" she spat.
Clutching her bleeding thigh, Cocoa continued to shriek. "She wants to kill me too! They're going to kill us all!" The metallic, coppery scent of her blood perfumed the air, a potent, intoxicating draw for every Wolf in the room. Her fingers trembled violently as she tried to staunch the deep wounds.
"Fuck!" Ian groaned, the word a strained exhale. He tore at the leather straps of his armor, loosening the bindings. His body convulsed as he rapidly shifted, his large, powerful sandy-brown Wolf form erupting. His snout pulled back in a vicious snarl as he eyed the frenzied pups around him. He didn't want to hurt them, but he would, if necessary.
"You shouldn't have done that!" Speed mirrored Ian, grappling with his straps and transforming into his massive, coiled gray Wolf.
"She's lucky I didn't kill her!" Trinity didn't care about the consequences. Whatever feral essence was infecting the room and taking hold of the others seemed to have found a lethal residence in her own mind. She felt utterly, ruthlessly lethal.
"What the hell are you all doing!" Luca's deep, resonating voice, thick with the power of a future Alpha, slithered around the room, momentarily imposing a fragile calm on the volatile scene.
"Her kind killed a pup at the school!" Zack, the team leader, said, his lips pulled back in a deep growl, his human fingernails already hardened into vicious claws.
"None of you have the right to execute any other pack member!" Luca commanded, his voice shaking with restrained authority.
"She's not pack. Just a rabid dog! She shot Cocoa!"
"Said the mutt!" Trinity hissed back, refusing to stand idly by while insults were hurled at her. Trinity would not be a passive victim.
Kael closed his eyes in a moment of frustrated resignation. His jaw clenched so tight his teeth ached as he wondered when she would stop doing stupid, reckless things. He hadn't yet found his mate, and he certainly didn't intend to die before experiencing the mate bond. If he remained Trinity's guard much longer, however, death seemed a highly probable outcome.
Without a moment of hesitation, he placed his large palm firmly but gently over her mouth, gripping her cheeks. "Don't say a word!" He had concluded that Trinity was wholly unsuited for any form of public discourse, unless it was a war cry.
The growing tensions seemed to momentarily settle. Wesley, however, wasn't willing to take any chances. He needed Trinity out of the ST's underground, away from the Wolves who could only smell her and see her as a clear-cut target.
"Luca, where have you been?" Wesley asked, his tone a normal, authoritative teacher's voice, attempting to redirect the attention away from Trinity.
"I needed some air," Luca shrugged, confused as to why this was important when the Wolves seemed on the verge of skinning Trinity alive.
"This isn't a sleepover. You left your post, abandoned your team. Four nights in the dungeon. Trinity, escort him there."
With Kael's palm firmly covering her mouth, Trinity couldn't protest. She narrowed her eyes at Kael, but then nodded to Wesley.
Instead of releasing her, the three guards circled Luca, Trinity, and Kael. Kael kept his hand clamped over her mouth, physically forcing her movements forward, unwilling to risk her offending anyone else on the way out.
"Don't let her go! Kill her! She killed one of us, she's going to kill us all!" The cacophony of Cocoa's screams and the enraged shouts of the Wolves followed them, intensifying as they left the room.
Once they reached the surface, Kael finally removed his hand from Trinity's mouth. "We are here to protect you! And the more stupid things you do, the harder that job becomes. Do not make me explain to your father that you died because of your own stupidity!" Kael growled, his face inches from hers, lecturing her on her recklessness.
The only thing holding Trinity back from a furious retort was the thought of Boris. She knew he would be devastated if she died, and he was so far away.
"We should all probably lay low. We can go to the Beta house," Luca suggested, his voice hopeful.
Speed chuckled darkly. "You're going to the dungeons! Abandoning your post is a serious offense!"
Luca felt his breath catch in his chest. He had thought the dungeon threat was a clever ruse, not actual punishment. He was the Alpha's son, the next in line for Alpha—there was no way they would put him in the dungeon.
Trinity's heart picked up its pace as the word "dungeon" was spoken. Timothy was in the dungeons. The dream. She knew how to change Timothy back, or at least she desperately believed she did. The dormant side of her—the part with the power—felt awake, coursing with the adrenaline that flooded her system. She needed to get there before the feeling wore off.
But her friends... She couldn't help but worry. "Jess, Ryan, and Mona? They're going to go after them," she said, the fear building in her chest. She knew she would lose herself to her Wolf if anything happened to them.
"Warriors have already been dispatched. They will be fine. I promise!" Speed was the first to speak, having already shifted back into his human form now that the immediate danger had passed.
"Okay," Trinity breathed, a knot of dread still in her stomach.
They rushed towards the detention cells. Unbeknownst to her guards, Trinity's plan was not simply to drop Luca off and return. She was going to see Timothy. When they reached the entrance of the underground dungeons, the Wolves who normally stood guard were absent, having been dispatched towards the school due to their proximity.
Ian placed his hand on the scanner, the door hissing open. As he moved to enter the dungeons with Luca, Trinity tried to follow, only to be stopped by her other two guards.
"You don't have to go down!" Kael said, blocking her path.
"I know, it's fine. Wesley said I have to bring him. Orders are orders," she shrugged, keeping her voice casual.
Sighing, Speed let her pass, allowing her to follow Ian and Luca. Deeper in the cells, Trinity saw that most were empty. They went further into the darkest part of the facility, where she finally saw them: two Wolves. One was a frenzy of blonde fur and muscle, throwing himself against the silver-coated bars, howling in enraged, complete madness.
A lone guard stood before his cell, trying to verbally calm him down. Trinity knew it had to be Timothy from the unusual blonde fur.
"Tim!" The tightness in Trinity's throat returned as she rushed past Luca and Ian. "Timothy, don't worry. I know how to help."
His frantic movements paused only for a flicker of recognition before the large Wolf resumed slamming himself against the bars, desperate to be free.
"Why is he doing this?" Trinity asked, her voice cracking.
The guard, who had come to check the cells when he heard the commotion, nodded once to Ian, allowing him to speak.
"Wolves rarely lose all sense of self-preservation. When a Wolf is willing to throw themselves against silver, it most likely has to do with his mate. She's probably in danger," Ian stated, relaying the common belief.
"He doesn't have a mate. He hasn't found her yet," Trinity refuted immediately.
Ignoring what she had just learned, she closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. She tried to find that voice she'd heard in the dream, that undeniable, resonant tonality of power. "Mendose!" The word left her lips like a soft whisper.
Timothy's massive blonde Wolf stumbled back, his eyes squinting shut as if trying to shake off an unpleasant sensation. After a moment, he growled once more and threw himself against the bars.
"Fuck!" Trinity swore, pulling her hands up. She stretched them a few times, then steeled herself and gripped the silver-coated bars. Her flesh instantly burned, smoke sizzling from her skin. Her eyes squeezed shut as the agony radiated through her. She let the pain burn, letting the Wolf inside her scream in silence. Just as a full-throated cry threatened to escape her, she spoke the word.
"Mendose!" The word emerged strong, powerful, and utterly clear. Her eyes snapped open, no longer blue, but fully encapsulated in a brilliant, searing gold. Both Wolves in the cells howled as their bodies began to crack and break, their bones reforming with sickening speed, a wet, gravelly grinding sound that scraped against the stone. Their thick fur receding and dropping off in wet, steaming piles. Their human skin took form again.
Trinity felt light-headed. Releasing the bars, she collapsed backward. Her eyes fluttered, her hands clutched to her chest. The skin was burned beyond recognition, some parts already turning black. Her hands quivered violently as she tried to stifle her scream.
"Trinity!" Luca panicked, rushing to her side. He didn't care about the implications. Shifting into his Wolf form, he gently examined her hands. The intimacy was something reserved for family or mates. If anyone saw this, they would believe he had defiled her, in a way too shameful to ever be mentioned, but he didn't care. The power of his Alpha saliva could heal her. It wouldn't be as good as a mate's or family member's, but he had to try.
He watched as the burnt, seizing skin of her hands began to heal. Blood seeped back into her flesh, the blisters slowly fading, and the angry red skin turning back to its pale white. Trinity's forehead was beaded with sweat, and her breathing came in slow, shallow gasps.
"Trinity, thank you," Timothy's voice was ragged. He was hunched on the floor of his cell, trying to let his body heal from the damage he had inflicted. Burned patches littered the left side of his body from throwing himself repeatedly against the bars. He needed to rest.
"Open the cells," Trinity whispered.
"What did you do to me?" Neve asked, confused and furious. She had been in her beautiful Wolf form, and now she was trapped in unfamiliar skin, still locked in this underground prison. They had stolen her true form, her pelt, and left her bare.
The guard, who had been tending to Neve for years, watched in astonishment as the girl who couldn't shift back was finally in her human form. His eyes snapped back to the girl entangled with their Alpha's son. What the hell did she do? How could she force a Wolf to transform when their own Alpha could not? He took a stunned step back from her, convinced she had to be a witch.
Noticing the change in the guard, Ian acted swiftly. He smashed his head against the stone post, rendering him unconscious, before shoving him into one of the empty cells. "We need to leave! Now!"
Authors note:
We are almost there. This is officially chapter 99. Y'all better vote. I want some love in the comments. We're about to make it to chapter 100. This is the time to make noise lol!