CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
IVANA
Kieran took in the sight of his disheveled office and shook his head. “What a bloody mess.”
My lips twitched. “It could be worse.”
“Hmm,” he hummed, glancing at the items scattered about the floor before shifting his attention to Granger’s prone form. “You should be resting in our nest.”
I blinked, confused by his words for a split second before Quinn slipped into the room with her hand on her rounding belly. “And you should stop telling me what I should and should not do.”
“I’m an Alpha, darling. It’s who I am.”
Quinn snorted and walked over to me, her lips curling more with each step. It wasn’t until she was right in front of me that I started to understand her smile because she leaned forward and sniffed my neck. “He bit you!”
I arched a teasing brow. “That’s a very strange way to greet someone, Quinn.”
“I’m a wolf. I’m pregnant. Every part of me aches. Give me this, Ivana. Because one day, you will understand. Trust me.” Then she opened her arms and threw them around me in an unexpected hug, all while squealing with excitement. “It worked! I’m so excited that it worked!”
I hugged her back, a bit alarmed by her wild emotions and bizarre behavior. Primarily because I feared she was right and that I would soon be acting just like this—sniffing people at random and spouting strange exclamations. “What worked?” I asked her.
“The mating program!” She released me and spun toward an amused-looking Kieran. “I told you this would work.”
“I’m the one who coaxed Cael into joining,” he drawled.
“Yes, because I suggested they would make a fine couple.”
“Indeed,” he agreed.
I frowned. “Hold on, so you did get Prince Cael to join to try to make Cillian jealous?” I demanded. They’d been talking about it while I’d been scouring Ashlyn’s journals earlier, but Kieran had feigned innocence.
Now he looked smug as well.
Meanwhile, Quinn just appeared to be pleased. “It’s about time he claimed you.”
I shook my head. “You two really are meddlers. What if I’d fallen for Prince Cael?”
“Then you would have made a fine couple,” Kieran reiterated. “And Cillian would have regretted losing you for the rest of his long, lonely life.”
I winced at the thought, not liking that notion at all. “He carries a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.”
Kieran sobered a little. “I know. A lot of it is undue, too.”
I swallowed and nodded, not wanting to talk about this anymore. It felt wrong to discuss my mate with his best friend.
Mate , I repeated to myself. My mate.
Because Cillian had bitten me. Twice .
I shivered at the heated promise he’d left behind, the very wicked intentions underlining his words.
Gods, I wanted him.
I wanted him so badly that I could barely think straight.
My thighs clenched, causing my cheeks to warm in response. I needed a distraction. Stat. Something to help cool the inferno building inside me.
Cillian’s claim still hummed through my blood, causing my body to react in kind.
We needed to finish our vows. Tie ourselves together in literal knots. Pleasure one another for days.
It was like my estrus all over again.
Except I wasn’t in heat at all, just very, very turned on.
Clearing my throat, I glanced around the office again, searching for something else to focus on.
Granger instantly caught my attention, his lifeless body taking up residence on the floor. “Do you think he gave us the estrus serum?” I blurted out, grasping for anything I could possibly think of that would turn my hormones off.
My change in topic also seemed to work on Kieran and Quinn because they both instantly scowled. Only the latter finally looked at the male in question, her nose curling in disgust. “He’s definitely the one who visited Bariloche Sector, so he would know all about the serum.”
“And not Dixon, then?” Kieran asked her, falling into work mode.
“There was only one V-Clan wolf I ever scented, and it was this Alpha.” She glared at him. “But what I don’t get is, why didn’t I recognize him the other times I’ve met him? Why does his scent suddenly register as familiar now?”
“Because Ivana did something to unmask him,” Kieran explained.
Quinn gaped at me. “What did you do?”
“I…” I trailed off, my lips twisting to the side as I considered how to phrase what I’d done. “Cillians says I have a natural understanding of psychic processes, so I… I just sort of maneuvered through Granger’s mental barricades to look for the truth beneath all his layers.”
Which gave me an idea now. Cillian had shown me how to access Granger’s memories. Maybe I could find one associated with the estrus serum.
Rather than voice my intentions aloud, I simply prodded Granger’s mind again, curious as to what kind of state it was in after whatever Cillian had done to him. It’d felt like a psychic blast, one I never wanted to be on the receiving end of. It probably felt like being shot in the head. Or perhaps having one’s head blown off entirely.
Shivering, I ignored the underlying sensation that thought stirred inside me and focused on Granger.
Everything seemed murky, which was strange. It’d been categorical and layered before, but now… now it was… almost foreign. Like this wasn’t his mind at all.
That’s odd, I thought, poking a little more and stilling when I found something somewhat familiar.
Only not familiar at all.
That bizarre energy Grey had been omitting earlier was all over Granger. I couldn’t define it or really understand it, but I could feel the potency of it. The danger. The ill intentions.
My eyes widened.
Kieran and Quinn were talking about what she’d experienced in Bariloche Sector, how she used to hide whenever the V-Clan Alpha visited. But she knew his scent. It lingered on some of the Omegas he’d played with there.
“You’re sure it’s Granger?” I asked unsteadily, causing them both to frown at me as I’d interrupted Quinn mid-sentence.
“It’s definitely that scent,” she said slowly. “Why?”
Because I’m no longer convinced it’s actually his, I nearly replied. But a flicker in his mind—a hint of something more —had me not saying a word.
There was something else going on here.
I followed that flicker, searching for the source, only to come up against a wall of massive energy. I jerked back, the wall breaking my fall behind me.
“Ivana?” Kieran prompted.
I gaped up at him. “Something’s coming, Kieran. Something?—”
He stiffened, his gaze swinging to the windows framing his desk. “ Fuck. Run! ”
Quinn grabbed my hand before he even finished the demand, but another hand captured my opposite wrist before I could follow her.
That hand yanked me back down to the ground, causing me to land with an Oomph .
Granger was suddenly on top of me, his gaze wild as he wrapped his palms around my throat like he fully intended to rip my head off.
My yelp was silenced by my inability to breathe, his nails digging into my skin and drawing blood.
Gods, he really is going to rip ? —
“You fucking cunt,” he snarled, his expression holding a touch of insanity to it. Almost as though he’d lost his mind.
To something else? To someone else? Is it even him?
I clawed at his wrists, trying to dislodge him, but he was too big. Too massive. Too strong.
He released a sound that reminded me of a rabid dog, his eyes seeming to clear for half a beat as a hint of horror struck his features.
It was jarring compared to the murderous rage from a second ago.
Then suddenly he disappeared.
Vanished .
And Kieran stood above me, his hand wavering in front of me.
I glanced to my left, searching for Granger’s body.
But he wasn’t there.
He’d… he’d shadowed out of the office before Kieran had even been able to reach him.
Over and done that fast.
I gasped in air, my fingers touching the gouges in my throat. Only to yelp as Kieran reached for me and pulled me to my feet. His gaze went to my abused neck as a blast of healing energy swam over my skin, the source of it him.
Then he abruptly pushed me toward Quinn with a snapped “ Go! ”
Confusion billowed around me, the world spinning.
Everything had happened so quickly, maybe within the breath of a few seconds.
And I was suddenly experiencing déjà vu by Quinn grabbing me again. Only this time, she jerked me forward, wrenching me out of Kieran’s office a mere instant before glass exploded everywhere in our wake.
I shuddered and tried to keep pace with a now sprinting Quinn. She was quick for someone so far along in pregnancy.
She started toward one of the rooms, only to pause and double back toward the stairs.
Chaos erupted behind us, Kieran’s growls thundering through the building as the scent of metallic tang hit my nostrils. Blood .
His bellow soon followed, causing Quinn to skip a step.
I caught her by the arm, hoisting her back up before she could fall. But she halted entirely, her expression contorting with terror as she glanced over her shoulder.
Then Kieran howled, a warning underlining that single haunting sound.
And Quinn began to run again.
No words. No cries. No hisses or growls. Just quiet feet up the stairs and down the hallway toward their quarters.
I’d been in this corridor before, but not in their actual nest.
However, Quinn yanked me right inside and slammed the door behind us with a thunderous click.
Then bolted for the wall.
Ripping a panel away, she revealed a keypad beneath where she punched in a series of numbers. I gaped as a secret room appeared filled with security consoles that all fired to life upon her entry. “What…?”
She ignored me, sitting down to pull up an image of Kieran’s office and the violence unfolding inside it.
Kieran was in the process of fending off three or four Alphas. I couldn’t quite count, as it was all a blur of men that were moving too fast for the camera to focus on.
But his growls could be felt and heard all the way up here, almost as though he stood beside us.
Quinn cursed, then pulled up a few other images within their compound to see several Alphas running up the stairs.
The same stairs we’d just climbed.
“Inside!” she shrieked at me, that single word sending me sprinting forward. I turned toward the door and trembled as the front entry to her nest caved beneath one solid kick from an Alpha.
His multicolored irises met mine a hairsbreadth before I slammed our iron door closed. Quinn leapt up to flip some sort of automated lock just as that hulk of a male crashed into the entry from the outside.
The iron held.
And another series of locks clicked into place.
Followed by a thin metallic shield that covered the entire wall.
“We’ll be okay in here,” she whispered. “There’s a protective enchantment that prevents them from shadowing in, and the iron should hold. For a while, anyway.”
I swallowed. “What the hell is going on?”
Obviously, we were under attack. But by whom? And why?
She just shook her head. “I don’t know, but I need to warn the others.”
I was about to ask who she meant by others when she pulled up a screen and typed out a message that read, BSUA . Then she selected Jas’s name and hit Send.
“BSUA?” I repeated out loud.
“Blood Sector under attack,” she replied as a buzzing sounded from her wrist. She tapped it, showing me Jas’s reply of P . “And that means they’re preparing.”
“To come help?”
“No. To defend the Sanctuary,” she said. “In case something happens to me. Or to Kieran.” She glanced at the screens as she uttered that last line, her jaw tightening. “There are too many of them.”
But just as she said it, Kieran roared and threw several wolves back out the window and onto the street.
Then he leapt after them.
“Shit,” Quinn muttered, pulling up another screen just as Kieran appeared on the ground. He must have shadowed to the street from midair—an impressive trick—and was already healed from whatever had happened before.
His power warmed the air, commanding every aspect of the sector and proving his place as King.
Quinn shivered, then slumped in her chair and pressed her palm to her belly. “Yeah, your daddy is kind of a badass,” she whispered. “But I need you to calm down and let Mommy think, okay?”
“Can you message Cillian or Lorcan?” I asked.
“Yeah, I?—”
Another wave of energy pulsed through the sector, cutting off her response and causing the screens all around us to freeze before burning out.
She tried to click a button, to turn it back on.
But in the next moment, the power died completely, casting us into darkness.
“The generators will kick on in a few minutes,” she whispered, her voice holding an edge to it.
An edge I understood all too well.
Because a lot could happen in a few minutes.
“But I should be able to call Cillian.” Quinn flicked her watch, bringing up a message screen. However, the disconnected sign hung in the top right corner, confirming what we both knew had really happened.
That surge hadn’t just taken out our electricity; it’d disconnected us from the satellites above.
Which meant whoever was attacking Blood Sector had arrived with destructive weapons.
And a whole hell of a lot of supernatural power…