Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Came Back From the DeadHarper woke on the floor with Kane’s hand behind her head.
Someone was saying her name.
She opened her eyes.
Kane’s face appeared first.
Terrified.
Then Chloe.
Crying.
Then the impossible woman standing behind them.
Marianne Hayes.
Her mother.
Harper closed her eyes again.
“No.”
Kane leaned closer.
“Harper.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“I’m hallucinating.”
“You’re not.”
“That is statistically less likely.”
Despite everything, Kane almost smiled.
Harper opened her eyes.
Marianne had not moved closer.
That mattered.
She stood near the laboratory door with both hands visible.
Waiting.
Not demanding.
Not performing motherhood as if seventeen missing years could be crossed in three steps.
Harper slowly sat up.
Chloe was still crying.
“Mom?”
Marianne’s face crumpled.
“My girls.”
Chloe moved first.
She crossed the room and threw herself into Marianne’s arms.
The sound her mother made broke something inside Harper.
Memory flooded back.
Pancakes on Saturdays.
Marianne brushing Harper’s hair before school.
Her mother secretly replacing money Richard lost.
Arguments behind closed doors.
A hospital room.
A coffin Harper had never been allowed to open because the doctors said the aneurysm caused extensive complications.
Harper stood.
Kane rose beside her.
Marianne looked over Chloe’s shoulder.
“Harper.”
She could not answer.
Her mother released Chloe slowly.
“I know.”
“No,” Harper said.
Marianne stopped.
“You don’t know.”
Her voice came harder.
“You don’t know what it was like.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Harper’s hands shook.
“You died.”
Tears filled Marianne’s eyes.
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“I organized your funeral.”
Kane’s hand found hers.
“I chose flowers because Dad couldn’t get out of bed.”
Marianne covered her mouth.
“I called the insurance company. I filed school paperwork for Chloe. I cooked dinner because nobody else remembered.”
Chloe began crying harder.
Harper’s throat closed.
“I was seventeen.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
The word echoed.
Harper’s entire life had been built on other people offering apologies after she had already carried the consequences.
“I don’t want sorry yet.”
Marianne nodded.
“All right.”
“I want the truth.”
Gray watched from the upper walkway.
Kane looked at him.
“You stay where I can see you.”
The doctor smiled.
“I have no intention of leaving.”
Gideon’s team secured the exits.
Lucian moved toward the research terminals.
Harper never released Kane’s hand.
Marianne sat at a table.
Harper sat across from her.
Chloe took the chair beside Harper.
For several seconds, none of them spoke.
Then Marianne began.
“Northstar discovered the Hawthorne trait before Malcolm Croft found me.”
Harper frowned.
“How?”
“My mother participated in voluntary medical research when I was a child. They noticed unusual neurological patterns in dominant wolves when she was present.”
“Stabilization.”
“Yes.”
Kane’s fingers tightened around Harper’s.
Marianne looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
His face remained cold.
“Continue.”
“Malcolm became interested after Kane’s abilities began manifesting.”
Harper glanced at him.
Marianne continued.
“He believed a sufficiently powerful stabilizing mate could allow his son to use extreme Alpha projection without losing cognitive control.”
Kane laughed bitterly.
“So he tortured me to test the theory.”
Marianne looked toward Gray.
“That was not the original plan.”
Gray spoke from above.
“History is rarely kind to original plans.”
Kane moved.
Harper caught his wrist.
“Later.”
Gray’s smile widened.
Marianne continued.
“When Harper was born, tests showed she carried the Hawthorne markers more strongly than I did.”
Harper felt sick.
“And Dad sold access.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you find out?”
“When you were sixteen.”
One year before Marianne’s supposed death.
“I confronted Richard.”
Harper’s mouth tightened.
“He promised to stop.”
“Of course he did.”
“He was drowning financially. Northstar had paid pack debts for years.”
“So he kept doing it.”
Marianne lowered her head.
“Yes.”
Chloe whispered, “What happened the night you died?”
Marianne went silent.
Gray answered.
“She tried to expose us.”
Harper looked up.
He descended the stairs slowly.
Gideon raised his weapon.
Gray stopped.
Marianne’s face hardened.
“I copied research files. I intended to take Harper and Chloe away.”
“Why didn’t you?” Harper asked.
Marianne looked directly at her.
“Because they took you first.”
Harper froze.
“What?”
“You don’t remember?”
“No.”
Marianne’s face went pale.
Gray seemed fascinated.
Harper’s skin prickled.
Marianne leaned forward.
“Three days before my disappearance, you were missing for fourteen hours.”
Harper stared.
“I was never missing.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You came home after midnight.”
Harper searched her memory.
Nothing.
Seventeen years old.
School.
Exams.
Her mother’s death.
But there was a gap.
A strange weekend she had always remembered as illness.
She remembered waking with a fever.
Richard saying she had fainted at a friend’s house.
Harper looked toward Gray.
“What did you do?”
He smiled faintly.
“Memory suppression was more primitive then.”
Kane’s power hit the room like a physical force.
Glass trembled.
Gray’s smile disappeared.
Harper squeezed Kane’s hand.
Not because she wanted his anger gone.
Because she needed him beside her.
“What did you do?” she repeated.
Gray looked at her.
“We tested proximity response.”
“With Kane?”
Kane turned sharply.
“I never met her.”
Gray looked almost pleased.
“Yes, you did.”
Silence.
Harper’s heartbeat became painful.
Kane stared.
“No.”
“You were heavily sedated.”
Gray folded his hands.
“Malcolm wanted to determine whether Hawthorne stabilization occurred without emotional attachment.”
Harper felt nauseated.
“You put us in the same room.”
“For forty-three minutes.”
Kane’s face lost color.
Gray continued clinically.
“Your distress response dropped eighty-two percent. Kane’s Alpha projection reduced almost immediately.”
Harper thought of the first night at Croft Estate.
Her exhaustion.
The strange instinctive absence of fear.
Kane’s wolf becoming quiet.
Not because destiny had magically begun that night.
Their bodies had encountered each other years before.
Under fluorescent lights.
Drugged.
Observed.
Used.
Kane whispered, “You erased it.”
“Both of you.”
Harper wanted to scream.
Instead, she became terribly calm.
“What happened after?”
Marianne answered.
“I found you at Northstar.”
“You came for me?”
“Yes.”
“They released you because Malcolm ordered it. He considered the test successful.”
“And you?”
“I stole copies of everything.”
Gray’s voice hardened.
“She attempted blackmail.”
“I attempted exposure.”
Marianne looked at Harper.
“They came after me.”
“The aneurysm.”
“Staged.”
Chloe covered her mouth.
“How?”
“Northstar had access to hospital systems. A woman approximately my age died in an accident that night. Records were altered. Richard was told identifying the body would be traumatic.”
Harper closed her eyes.
Of course Richard accepted that.
He accepted anything that allowed someone else to handle difficulty.
“Why didn’t you come back?”
That question hurt most.
Marianne’s tears fell.
“Because Dr. Gray found me two weeks later.”
Harper looked up.
Marianne touched the scar near her temple.
“They kept me in facilities for nine years.”
Chloe sobbed.
Harper could not breathe.
“Nine?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get free?”
“Vivian.”
Everyone looked at Gray.
He smiled thinly.
Marianne continued.
“Vivian took control of Northstar assets after Malcolm died. She hated Gray.”
“Because she wanted the project,” Harper said.
“Yes. She released me as part of removing his leverage.”
Harper frowned.
“Then why didn’t you find us?”
“I tried.”
Marianne’s voice broke.
“Vivian threatened both of you. She showed me surveillance photographs. Your apartment. Chloe’s school. Richard’s house.”
Harper’s anger became cold.
“She kept you hidden.”
“Yes.”
“But you worked for her.”
“For a while.”
Kane understood.
“You helped develop the stabilization research.”
Marianne looked ashamed.
“I was trying to sabotage it.”
Gray laughed.
“She was excellent.”
Marianne ignored him.
“When Harper entered Croft Estate, everything changed.”
Harper stared.
“You knew?”
“I saw security reports.”
Her mother’s face softened.
“You stayed.”
Harper’s eyes filled.
“Then Vivian lost control of Kane’s decline. She panicked. I realized she could no longer protect the project or threaten me effectively.”
“So you ran?”
“Yes.”
“Here?”
“No.”
Marianne looked toward Gray.
“He found me again.”
Kane turned toward the doctor.
Gray sighed.
“Everyone describes this as kidnapping. I prefer protective containment.”
Lucian spoke from the computer.
“I found something.”
Everyone turned.
His face had become grim.
“What?” Harper asked.
“Gray wasn’t working for Vivian.”
Gray smiled.
“Finally.”
Lucian rotated the monitor.
Financial transfers filled the screen.
Northstar.
Mercer Holdings.
Offshore companies.
But above them all was another organization.
A consortium Harper recognized.
Not a pack.
Not a family.
A multinational pharmaceutical group with medical contracts across human and supernatural territories.
Aurelius Biogen.
Harper frowned.
“They’re publicly traded.”
“Yes,” Lucian said. “And worth forty-eight billion dollars.”
Kane looked toward Gray.
“What do they want?”
Gray’s expression changed.
For the first time, arrogance disappeared.
“Survival.”
Harper stared.
“Explain.”
Gray walked slowly toward the glass wall.
“Wolf birth rates are declining.”
Harper knew that.
Most packs did.
Not catastrophically.
But enough to concern elders.
Gray continued.
“Alpha lines are declining faster. Strong dominance traits are becoming less common each generation.”
Lucian crossed his arms.
“So?”
“So pack society is heading toward structural collapse.”
Kane’s voice turned cold.
“And you decided to breed weapons.”
“I decided to preserve strength.”
“You tortured children.”
“I studied rare traits.”
Harper stood.
“You abducted wolves.”
“Necessary losses.”
“You imprisoned my mother.”
“Necessary.”
Kane moved so quickly Gideon barely reacted.
He grabbed Gray by the throat and slammed him against the glass.
Harper did not tell him to stop.
Not immediately.
Gray’s feet left the floor.
Kane’s eyes burned.
“Say necessary again.”
Gray struggled to breathe.
Harper approached.
“Kane.”
He looked at her.
She did not ask him to release Gray for Gray’s sake.
“We need what he knows.”
Kane’s grip tightened.
Then released.
Gray collapsed coughing.
Harper crouched in front of him.
“Where is the final Project Apex site?”
Gray looked at her.
“You still misunderstand.”
“What?”
“This is the final site.”
Harper’s blood chilled.
Lucian moved toward the monitors.
“What does that mean?”
Gray smiled through the pain.
“You came exactly where Aurelius wanted you.”
A warning alarm began beeping.
Not loud.
Steady.
Harper looked toward the nearest monitor.
Numbers appeared.
Remote transfer initiated.
Genetic archive upload: 72%.
Lucian swore.
“They’re stealing the database.”
“Stop it.”
“I’m trying.”
Gideon shouted orders.
Harper looked at Gray.
“Where is it going?”
He smiled.
“You can shut down every laboratory you find.”
Upload: 81%.
“You can imprison Vivian.”
85%.
“You can kill me.”
89%.
Kane’s claws extended.
Gray laughed.
“But blood is information.”
94%.
“And information travels.”
Harper ran toward the server rack.
“Pull power!”
Lucian tore cables free.
Nothing.
Backup batteries.
98%.
Harper grabbed the emergency fire axe.
Kane understood.
Together they struck the primary server.
Sparks exploded.
99%.
Harper hit it again.
The screen went black.
Silence.
Lucian stared at the terminal.
“Did we stop it?”
Gideon checked.
“Maybe.”
Gray smiled from the floor.
Harper turned.
“Why are you smiling?”
His eyes moved toward Kane.
Then toward Harper.
“Because you think this project requires files.”
Harper’s stomach dropped.
Gray looked at her abdomen.
Kane saw it.
The room changed.
Harper instinctively stepped backward.
Gray’s smile widened.
“You two completed the bond weeks ago.”
Kane’s voice was deadly.
“What are you saying?”
Gray laughed softly.
“I’m saying nature may already have done what thirty years of laboratories could not.”
Harper’s hand moved unconsciously to her stomach.
“No.”
She had been tired lately.
But she was always tired.
Her appetite had changed.
She blamed stress.
Her cycle—
Harper stopped breathing.
Kane looked at her.
“Harper?”
She could not answer.
Chloe’s eyes widened.
Marianne stood slowly.
Gray whispered the sentence that turned every person in the room silent.
“Congratulations, Alpha King.”
May you like
Kane’s face went white.
“You may finally have created the first naturally stabilized Apex heir.”
