Chapter 280

Chapter 280
Nolan POV
The room was unraveling.
People surged toward the exits in blind panic, chairs scraping violently against the floor as bodies pressed together. Shouts overlapped-security commands, terrified cries, reporters shouting questions no one could hear. The sound system screeched as someone bumped a cable, feedback shrilling through the air.
The medic kneeling in front of me was trying to dress the wound, but it was bleeding more than it should due to the adrenaline-fueled racing of my heart.
The noise was too much. It faded into a dull roar, and all that I could hear was Ellie’s voice screaming my name, like the echo of a bad dream.
Her pale face and terrified eyes wouldn’t leave my mind. It made it impossible to stay still.
The medic has taped the bandage in place, but it was quickly darkening with blood. It didn’t matter. It was good enough. It had only taken seconds for him to address the wound, but it was already too long in light of everything happening around us.
I pushed to my feet despite the medic’s protest, shrugging off the hand that tried to steady me.
“Sir, your wound-”
“Later,” I said, already moving.
My vision swept the room in sharp, instinctive arcs. Threat assessment. Crowd density. Exits. Lines of fire. My wolf was still coiled tight inside me, not raging, but alert, guarding, watching, calculating.
Ellie and the boys were gone. Secured. Lance was with them.
That knowledge anchored me.
But the room itself was seconds away from becoming another danger. A stampede would do just as much damage as a gunman if it wasn’t stopped.
I didn’t wait for permission. There was no one to ask, anyway.
The room was buzzing with activity. Cassian’s well-planned security protocols hadn’t accounted for a panicked crowd of journalists and onlookers. The staff and guards were busy trying to keep the audience from crushing each other in their fear and confusion.
I vaulted back onto the stage in two long strides, ignoring the pain that flared along my side as I landed. Someone shouted my name-Cassian, I thought-but it blurred into the noise.
The podium had been knocked aside in the chaos, microphones askew. I grabbed the nearest one, yanked it upright, and stepped forward.
The lights caught me again, hot and unforgiving.
For a split second, I saw myself reflected in the cameras-blood darkening my shirt, jaw set, eyes wild with something I didn’t bother to hide.
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I inhaled once.
Then I spoke.
“STOP.”
The word cracked through the auditorium like a whip.
It wasn’t volume alone that did it-though my voice carried, honed by years of
command. It was instinct. Authority. The kind that didn’t ask for obedience but assumed it. The command of an alpha that wouldn’t be ignored.
“Everyone stop moving. Now.”
The surge hesitated. People turned to the stage, still frightened and confused, but unable to ignore the lone voice rising above the panic.
Another breath.
“Sit down,” I ordered. “If you can’t sit, stand still. Do not run.”
The panic stuttered, then slowed into a cautious and slow shift. The seats that were
still upright slowly filled. Others stood awkwardly along the aisles.
Silence didn’t fall all at once.
It crept in.
Shouts died mid-word. Footsteps faltered. The screech of chairs faded into uneasy stillness.
Even the cameras seemed to hold their breath, lenses trained unblinking on the stage.
Within seconds, the room was still.
“Blind panic in the face of danger only gets people hurt,” I said, my tone tense and scolding.
The other alphas who had just occupied the stage were gone, lost in the crowd or ushered backstage, I wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. I was the only one standing, so I was the one they were looking to.
The room had stilled.
Not calmed-but contained.
I stood there, chest rising and falling, heart hammering so hard it felt like it might break through my ribs. Adrenaline buzzed beneath my skin, every nerve alive, screaming readiness.
I knew that I must look half crazed. My jaw was tight with restraint, my shirt cut open, and blood still staining my side. I breathed evenly, trying to compose myself despite it all.
I managed to still myself,
But beneath it all-
Something else settled.
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