Chapter Four

​IVARA

"You said you'd be taking me to Lucian and my father!" I hissed, my voice echoing off the damp, narrow walls of the dark passage. I dug my heels into the cold stone, my chest heaving with a mixture of betrayal and raw panic. I felt like a fool to believe him, to expect anything resembling honesty from a Rogue King.

Silas stopped so abruptly I nearly slammed into the broad expanse of his back. He turned, his massive frame nearly swallowing the flickering torchlight. "Shut up and follow me, Ivara," He growled, his voice a low vibration that seemed to rattle my very bones. "There are some things you need to know first."

He didn't wait for me to breathe. He turned back and continued deeper into the bowels of the underground palace, the air grew colder and smelt of old iron and wet earth. Finally, he came to a halt before a pair of towering, iron studded oak doors at the end of the corridor.

He turned back to my face, the shadows of the passage playing over the rugged, lethal planes of his face. "Behind these doors lies the truth they had been holding from for so long."

He didn't even bother to wait for a response. He signaled the guard, who huffed under the weight as he heaved the heavy doors open. I held my breath as the hinges shrieked, and we stepped out of the suffocating darkness and into a vast, silent chamber.

It was more like a laboratory than a throne room. Glass tanks lined the walls, some empty, others containing strange, pulsating organs suspended in luminous fluid.

"Where am I?" I demanded, my voice unnerving in the cavernous space. The guard who followed us in, merely nudged me forward, his intelligent gray eyes fixed on my face. He seemed to understand my distress or perhaps he was merely assessing my compliance.

"Why are we really here-" Then I saw it. In the center of the room, on a polished obsidian slab, was a single, ornate cage. And inside that cage, huddled and trembling was a girl. She looked no older than ten, her hair a pale, wispy white, her skin translucent. And around her neck, a small, silver collar that pulsed with the same blue light as the crystals.

Indira recoiled, a low growl rumbling in my chest.

"What is this?" I asked Silas, who was staring blankly at the child.

The guard nudged me towards the cage as Silas kept silent. As I approached closer, I saw the girl's eyes flutter open. The left eye was the same impossible shade of blue as Silas, while the right....shared the same fierce fire molten gold his wolf did. But they were vacant, filled with a chilling emptiness.

"It's an experiment," Silas’s voice echoed, I spun around to see him standing behind me. His eyes were now gold, but they held a flicker of something I hadn't seen before. Pain.

"An experiment for what?" I demanded, my gaze snapping between the girl and Silas. "You said you were going to take me to my father and Lucian, yet you brought me here?"

"I will show you to them," he said, his voice rough. His gaze flickering to the girl, then back to me. "But this...this is a making that has been happening in the centuries," he gestured to the child. "She's one of the first. A hybrid, created by human hands from pure Alpha blood-"

"From your blood?" The question slipped out before I could stop it.

Silas's expression tightened, the light in his eyes dimming, replaced by pain. "Yes, Ivara. From my blood," he looked away, towards the pulsing crystals. "My father...he was a scientist, a mad scientist. He believed he could engineer perfection. He wanted a son who was both Alpha and human. A perfect hybrid, the first failed...until I was made."

My stomach churned. This was monstrous. "And the other tanks? What does this have to do with my father and Lucian?"

"The other tanks are the success," Silas said, his voice like chipped stone. "And the failures. My father's work was never about creating heirs. It was about creating weapons. And when he died, his assistant, Dr. Vane, continued his legacy. He's the one who's been selling these enchantments to the highest bidder. For example, Your Father, Lucian and the Grand Alpha. Alongside the human billionaire, they want your blood, Ivara,"

"I don't understand what all these have to really do with me..."

"Because just like me, you're an experiment created by Dr. Vane."

Silas gestured to the rows of glowing glass cylinders that lined the far wall, their contents obscured by a thick, bubbling fluid.

"The other tanks are the success," he said, his voice like a chipped stone. "And the failures. My father's work was never about creating heirs. It was about creating weapons. And when he died, his assistant, Dr. Vane, continued his legacy. He's the one who's been selling these enchantments to the highest bidder. For example, Your Father, Lucian and the Grand Alpha. Alongside the human billionaire, they want your blood, Ivara,"

I felt a cold, oily slick of dread wash over me. My legs felt like lead, and the heavy emerald robes suddenly felt like a shroud. "I don't understand what all these have to really do with me..." I whispered, my voice trembling as my gaze darted between the floating, preserved horrors in the tank and the man standing before me. I felt like a bird watching the trap snap shut.

Silas stepped closer, his massive frame swallowing the light, his glacial blue eyes burning with a dark, pained intensity. "Because just like me, you're an experiment created by Dr. Vane," He reached out, his thumb grazing the line of my jaw with a possessive, rough tenderness that made my skin ignite. "And to their utter shock, they stumbled onto a masterpiece no being could imagine. They resurrected a lineage that was supposed to be extinct. The Blood Healer and The White Wolf- two ancient powerful races, fused into one being. You."

Silas walked away from me, his heavy boots echoing against the stone as he came to a stop a few feet away. He stood before a wall covered in ancient, jagged carvings that seemed to writhe in the flickering torchlight.

"The real prize was always the Lunar Heart," he said, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper. "The power you carry. Your father promised it to Vane, but he ditched him. He went to the Grand Alpha instead, and those power hungry humans. Now Vane is on the loose hunting for the only thing that stabilizes his monsters. You."

He turned back to me, stepping into my space with a sudden, predatory grace. His eyes had shifted to a molten glowing gold, the raw intensity of the mate bond pulsing between us like a physical heartbeat. "They want to weaponize you, Ivara. They want to turn you into a breeding machine for their hybrid armies. They wanted to destroy me by taking what's mine. But I won't let that happen," He reached out, his thumb gently brushing away a stray tear that escaped my eye. "You're not a weapon, Ivara. You're my mate. My queen, and together, we'll stop them."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

The voice was like ice down my spine. We both spun around to see Lucian, Vane and Patrick- my own father standing at the entrance. Lucian looked like a demon birthed from the dark, his hand drenched in fresh, steaming blood as he causally squeezed the life out of the guard's heart he had just ripped from a chest.

"Ivara, darling," Lucian said, his voice a mockery of affection as he tossed the mangled organ aside. "Why are you here? Our wedding is waiting for you, you know?"

Silas didn't hesitate. He stepped in front of me, his body coiling into a lethal stance as he shielded me with his massive frame. Within seconds, the room was surrounded by Silas's own elite guards, their silver tipped spears leveled at the intruders.

Indira was still weak inside of me, reeling from the dark truth she had just learnt. But I stood firmly behind Silas.

"You broke out of prison?" Silas let out a dark, amused rumble. "Quite impressive. But you'll die here today."

Lucian clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, a chilling, rhythmic sound. "I wouldn't be so sure of that...Isn't every parent's wish that they die before their child, isn't it so? Father?" He gave a sharp, subtle signal. My heart plummeted as the guards-men who had sworn their lives to Silas- redirected their weapons in a single fluid motion. Every spear, every blade was now pointed directly at Silas and me.

Father? The word echoed in my head, a sickening realization blooming in the pit of my stomach as I began to see the resemblance between Silas and Lucian.

I watched Silas's body go rigid, his scent turning to sharp ozone and pure, unadulterated rage. Vane walked forward, the traitorous guards clearing a path for him as if he were a god, my father and Lucian remained behind.

I wanted to speak.

I wanted to scream.

But for some reason my body remained frozen to the spot.

I couldn't move or even connect to my wolf.

What's happening?

"Before you die, Silas, here's a truth you should know," Vane said, his voice devoid of any warmth as he walked closer. "Your father never needed you. You were never the masterpiece. Lucian was always his aim. Your father made you, and made Lucian from you. You were just the scrap material. At least before you die, know the truth of your worthlessness."

I watched in silent horror as Vane moved closer towards Silas. A sudden, deafening sickening sound filled the air- the sound of breaking glass and a high pitched psychic frequency that made my ears bleed. Silas let out a choked roar, his legs buckling as he crashed to the stone floor, his golden eyes flickering and going dark.

Vane looked up at me, his gaze cold and calculating. He stretched his hand forward, his fingers stained with blood. "Now, Ivara. We have a deal to finish."