Maya POV
I rip the IV out of my arm.
The nurse said to rest. The doctors said I need at least three days in the hospital. My body is yelling that I should stay in this bed and not move for a week.
But Dominic has maybe 20 hours left to live, and I'm not losing a single second.
I pull on my wrecked clothes—torn, bloodstained, but they'll have to do. Every step hurts. My ribs are hurt. My arm where Victoria clawed me throbs. But the mate tie in my chest hurts worse. It's like a rope pulling tight, stretched too thin, ready to snap.
Dominic is dying. I can feel it.
I have to move faster.
The hospital hallway is empty at 3 AM. I slip past the nurses' station, keeping my head down. Someone calls out behind me but I don't stop. I hit the stairs and run.
Kane Enterprises is only six blocks away. I can make it.
The night air is freezing. I'm shivering by the time I reach the building. My badge still works—Marcus the security guard must not have canceled it yet. The hall is dark and empty.
I take the lift to floor forty-seven. Dominic's room.
The door is locked but I know where he keeps the extra key—taped under his desk, because for all his perfection, he's predictable about some things. I find it, open the door, and slip inside.
His office still smells like him. Pine and fancy cologne and something wild underneath. My wolf—because I guess I have a wolf now, or at least some wolf instincts—whimpers at the smell.
I miss him. How is that possible? I've hated this man for eight months and now I miss him so badly it physically hurts.
Focus. The safe.
It's behind the huge painting of a wolf pack on his wall. I pull the picture aside and stare at the digital keypad.
Code is his mother's birthday.
But I don't know his mother's birthday. I don't know anything about his mother except that she died when he was fifteen.
Think. What would Dominic use?
I try his birthday first—I know it from his job file. 05-13-1992.
INCORRECT.
My birthday next. 08-22-1999.
INCORRECT. TWO ATTEMPTS REMAINING.
My hands are shaking. If I get this wrong, the safe will lock fully and I'll need a code from security. Which means telling people. Which means Dominic dies.
Wait. The text said "his mother's birthday." Not the date she was born—the date she became a mother. The date Dominic was born.
I try 05-13 again, but this time just the month and day without the year.
The safe clicks open.
Inside is a small wooden box, old and carved with symbols I don't know. I open it slowly.
Sitting on black satin is a stone. It's about the size of a golf ball, smooth and dark, with lines of silver running through it like lightning frozen in rock. It's warm to the touch—warmer than it should be.
The alpha stone.
I don't know what it does, but I can feel power coming from it. Old power. Dangerous power.
This is what Richard wants. This is what will save Dominic.
I'm closing the box when I hear it.
A growl.
I spin around. Standing in the doorway of Dominic's office is a wolf. Not a full wolf—something in between, like Marcus was in the elevator. Half-human, half-beast.
But this isn't Marcus.
The wolf's fur is brown and gray. Its eyes are clever and angry. It stalks toward me, lips pulled back from very sharp teeth.
"The Luna shouldn't be out of bed," it says in a voice that's barely human. "Alpha's orders."
"Alpha's orders?" I hug the box to my chest. "Dominic is in surgery. He can't give orders."
"Not that alpha." The wolf-thing tilts its head. "The old boss. Richard Kane. He said you'd try to steal the stone. Said to stop you. By any means necessary."
My blood runs cold. Richard knew I'd come here. He's been three steps ahead this whole time.
"I'm not stealing it," I say carefully, backing toward the window. "I'm taking it. To save Dominic. Your real alpha."
"Dominic is weak. Richard says so. Richard is king now." The thing takes another step forward. "Give me the stone, Luna. Or I'll take it from your body."
I look at the window behind me. Forty-seven floors up. Again.
"Why does Richard want the stone?" I ask, begging for time.
"Power. Control. Same thing all alphas want." The wolf lunges.
I dive to the side. Its claws rake across the desk, leaving deep gouges in the wood. Papers fly everywhere.
I run for the door but it's faster. It tackles me from behind. We crash into the shelves. Books rain down on us. I swing the wooden box at its head. It hits with a solid thunk.
The wolf yelps and releases me.
I climb up and run. Out the door, down the hallway, toward the escape stairs. Behind me, I hear the wolf recovering, growling, chasing.
I hit the stairs and start running down. My lungs are burning. My legs are shaking. But I can't stop.
The wolf crashes through the door above me. Its claws scrape on the concrete as it runs down the stairs, taking them three at a time.
It's going to catch me. I can't beat a shifter. I'm just human—barely human anymore, maybe, but still human enough to be slow and weak and prey.
Floor forty-two. Forty. Thirty-eight.
The wolf is getting closer. I can hear its breathing. Can smell its wet fur smell.
Floor thirty-five. Thirty. Twenty-eight.
My foot catches on a step. I stumble but catch myself on the ledge. The box flies out of my hands.
The alpha stone tumbles down the stairs in slow motion.
The wolf and I both dive for it.
I get there first. My fingers close around the stone—not the box, just the stone itself. It's burning hot now, almost too hot to hold.
The wolf's jaws close on my arm.
I scream. Pain bursts white-hot. Its teeth are grinding against bone.
But I don't let go of the stone.
And then something impossible happens.
The stone pulses. Once. Twice. Three times like a heartbeat.
Power rushes into me. Not through my hand—through the mate tie. Through my link to Dominic. The stone recognizes me as his mate and reacts.
Light bursts from the stone, bright white and blinding.
The wolf screams and releases me, scrambling backward. Its hair is smoking where the light touched it.
I stare at the stone in my hand. At the light pouring from it. At the wolf cowering in the corner of the stairs.
"What—" I start to say.
Then the stone stops shining. The power cuts off like someone flipped a switch.
And I fall.
The last thing I see before everything goes black is a guy appearing at the top of the stairs. Not Richard. Someone else. Someone young with kind eyes.
The real Lucas Kane.
"Found you," he says, running down toward me. "Maya, are you—"
Then I'm falling into darkness, the stone clutched tight in my hand, the mate bond in my chest pulling tighter and tighter like it's trying to drag me somewhere.
Trying to drag me to Dominic.
When I wake up, I'm not in the stairs.
I'm not in the hospital either.
I'm in a car. Moving fast. Someone is driving—Lucas, I think. I can see his face in the rearview mirror.
"Welcome back," he says. "We need to talk. About Richard. About the stone. And about what's really happening to your mate. "
I try to sit up but my body won't obey. " Dominic—" "Is stable. For now. The stone is keeping him living through your bond. But Maya—" His voice turns grave. "That wolf that attacked you? That was Sarah Martinez. She used to be Dominic's helper. Before you."
"So?"
"So she quit eight months ago because Dominic was terrible to her. Made her life terrible. Just like he did to you." Lucas meets my eyes in the mirror. "Except she didn't quit. Richard killed her and replaced her with a shifter loyal to him. Just like he killed Victoria Cross and replaced her. Just like he's been changing people in Dominic's life for years."
My blood runs cold. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Richard has entered everything. The company. The pack. Everyone Dominic trusts. He's been deliberately isolating him, controlling him, breaking him down." Lucas's hands tighten on the wheel. "And I'm saying there's a very good chance that I'm not the real Lucas either."
The car swerves sharply to the right.
Lucas—or whoever is wearing Lucas's face—smiles at me in the mirror.
And his eyes flash yellow.
"Surprise," he says in Richard's voice.