Chapter 463
I didn’t blink. I looked over my shoulder at my Gamma. “Vance. Tell me you recorded that.”
“Every word, Alpha,” Vance Decker replied, his stoic face illuminated by the tablet’s blue glow.
“Send it to Kaelen,” I ordered, my voice dead. “Let my father choke on his blind faith.”
I turned back to Estevan, my grip tightening on his throat. “You bought yourself thirty seconds. Give me a reason not to let them start with your spine.”
“Adella!” Estevan gasped, clawing at my wrist. “The hospital — when she had the allergic reaction to the silver-laced cake — it wasn’t just an allergy!”
My heart stopped. The phantom pain of my severed mate-bond flared in my chest. “What did you do?”
“Not me! Seraphina and Katherine!” Estevan sobbed, spit and blood mixing on his chin. “They paid Nurse Anya. She put micro-doses of liquid silver into Adella’s IV drip. They wanted to induce cardiac arrhythmia and paranoia. Seraphina wanted to prove to the Elders that a wolfless girl was too weak and unstable to be Luna!”
The air pressure in the container plummeted. The overhead bulb flickered and shattered as my Alpha aura exploded outward. They had poisoned my mate. While I was pacing the halls of that medical center, Seraphina had been pumping liquid silver into Adella’s veins.
Lock down the medical center, I mind-linked Vance, my mental voice a demonic roar. Find Nurse Anya. Bring her to me alive.
I released Estevan, letting him gasp for air, and turned my back on him. The stench of his cowardice was making me nauseous. I needed air.
I stepped out of the shipping container and into the freezing downpour of the Blackwood Docks. The heavy rain hammered against my face, washing away the sweat, but it couldn’t cool the inferno raging in my chest.
Vance stepped out behind me, the heavy metal doors of the container left cracked open. Estevan’s muffled whimpers leaked out into the storm.
“What are your orders for him, Alpha?” Vance asked, his voice cutting through the sound of the rain.
I looked down at my leg, feeling the phantom agony of the silver that had crippled me — the same poison they had used on my innocent mate. I let the crushing weight of my Alpha’s Command bleed into my voice, leaving no room for mercy.
“Break his hands and his legs. I want him to feel what it’s like to be broken. Make sure he never touches a piece of machinery again.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Vance said, turning back toward the container.
I leaned heavily against the cold metal of my bulletproof SUV, my hands trembling. A violent cough tore through my throat, and I tasted the metallic tang of blood. The silver poison in my own veins was accelerating, feeding on the trauma of the Rejection.