Chapter 6 - Winterhold Under SiegeEmergency lights flickered on thirty seconds after the estate went dark.
Red.
Dim.
Terrible.
Harper hated them immediately.
Everyone looked guilty beneath red light.
Kane pushed her behind him.
“Stay with Gideon.”
“No.”
He turned.
“Harper.”
“We are not having this argument during an attack.”
“You are unarmed.”
“I am also the person who identified the attack.”
“That does not make you bulletproof.”
“Neither does being dramatic.”
Lucian stared at them.
“Do you always communicate like this?”
“Yes,” Kane and Harper answered together.
Seraphine almost smiled.
A crash echoed from below.
Elias opened a concealed cabinet and removed three handguns.
He tossed one to Lucian.
One to Seraphine.
Kane declined the third.
Harper looked at him.
“You’re not taking it?”
“My hands are more effective.”
“That is an extremely Alpha sentence.”
Gideon tested his radio again.
Static.
“They’re jamming communications.”
Elias moved toward the door.
“Winterhold has a protected control room beneath the west tower.”
“Can it restore communications?” Harper asked.
“Yes.”
“Then that is where we need to go.”
Kane shook his head.
“You need to go to the safe room.”
Harper looked at him.
He knew immediately he had made a mistake.
“Say that again.”
“Harper—”
“Very carefully.”
His jaw tightened.
“This estate is under armed assault.”
“And you need everyone useful.”
“I need you alive.”
“You think those are different goals?”
Before he could answer, an explosion shook the floor.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Somewhere in the corridor, wolves shouted.
Elias opened the door.
Three guards rushed toward them.
“East entrance breached.”
“How many?”
“Unknown.”
“Shifted?”
“Some.”
That mattered.
Humans with weapons were dangerous.
Wolves in full shift inside close corridors were worse.
Kane looked at Harper.
His entire expression changed.
Not Alpha King.
Not ruler.
A man terrified that someone might take away the first thing he had allowed himself to love.
Harper stepped close enough that only he could hear.
“I will not run somewhere you cannot reach me.”
His throat moved.
“And I won’t make you choose between protecting me and protecting everyone else.”
“Harper.”
“I stay with Gideon. I do exactly what he says if bullets start moving. But I’m going to that control room.”
Kane closed his eyes for one second.
Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
Gideon looked offended.
“You say that as if I have agreed.”
Harper took his arm.
“You adore me.”
“I endure you professionally.”
“Wonderful. Let’s go.”
They moved through Winterhold in two groups.
Elias, Seraphine and Lucian headed toward the main hall to organize defenses.
Kane, Harper and Gideon took a servant corridor toward the west tower.
The estate had become chaos.
Guests were being moved.
Security teams ran toward breach points.
Some wolves had shifted, their claws striking stone as they passed.
Harper smelled smoke.
Not heavy enough for a fire.
Probably explosives.
At the first intersection, Kane stopped.
Gideon immediately raised his weapon.
Three figures appeared from the dark.
Not Winterhold guards.
Kane moved before Harper could inhale.
The first attacker hit the wall hard enough to crack stone.
The second shifted halfway, claws extending.
Kane caught his wrist.
There was a sickening snap.
The third raised a gun.
Gideon fired once.
The man dropped.
Harper stared.
Kane turned toward her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Then he looked at Gideon.
“Move.”
They kept going.
Harper realized something disturbing.
The attackers knew the house.
Twice they encountered ambushes at corridor junctions.
Once an emergency door had already been disabled.
Someone possessed internal plans.
“Elias has a security leak.”
Gideon nodded.
“Obviously.”
“Not necessarily a person.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Vivian had access to Croft corporate systems. Did Croft ever perform security consulting for Winterhold?”
Gideon’s face changed.
“Eight years ago.”
Kane looked back.
“My father’s company installed their original surveillance architecture.”
Harper’s stomach sank.
“Then Vivian may have had legacy access.”
“That system was replaced.”
“But drawings remain.”
They reached the west stairwell.
The door was locked electronically.
No power.
Kane grabbed the handle.
Harper stepped back.
He tore the metal mechanism out of the wall.
She stared.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re looking at me strangely.”
“I occasionally forget you can dismantle architecture.”
They entered the stairwell.
Halfway down, footsteps sounded below.
Gideon signaled for silence.
Kane moved in front.
A woman’s voice floated upward.
“Kane?”
He froze.
Harper knew that voice had to belong to Celeste before she saw her.
Soft.
Almost frightened.
“Kane, please.”
Gideon whispered, “Trap.”
Kane’s face became empty.
The woman appeared on the landing below.
Blonde hair.
White coat stained with blood.
She looked exactly like the old photographs except thinner.
Sharper.
Her eyes moved to Harper.
Hatred transformed her face.
“So that’s her.”
Kane did not answer.
Celeste smiled.
“My sister was right. You do look ordinary.”
Harper leaned toward Gideon.
“Everyone keeps telling me that like it’s devastating.”
Celeste’s smile vanished.
Kane spoke.
“Where are the others?”
“What others?”
“The people attacking this estate.”
Celeste laughed softly.
“You still think this is about the estate?”
She took another step.
Gideon raised his weapon.
“Stop.”
Celeste obeyed.
Her gaze never left Kane.
“Do you remember me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember what you did?”
Kane’s body went rigid.
Harper felt his wolf stir.
Celeste saw it.
There.
That was what she wanted.
Harper understood immediately.
Celeste was not trying to win physically.
She was recreating the original psychological conditions.
Blood.
Accusation.
Fear.
Witnesses.
She wanted Kane out of control.
“You put your blood on him,” Harper said.
Celeste looked at her.
“What?”
“Five years ago.”
Kane’s head turned slightly.
Harper continued.
“You cut yourself and made sure he was holding you when security entered.”
Celeste’s face hardened.
“You know nothing.”
“I know your sister’s records.”
“My sister was weak.”
That surprised everyone.
Celeste smiled bitterly.
“She spent years pretending she was building something brilliant. Then one exhausted accountant found it because Vivian didn’t understand that clever people always overcomplicate theft.”
Harper almost took that as a compliment.
“Vivian is alive,” Celeste continued. “Humiliated. Caged. Everything destroyed because you couldn’t simply be afraid.”
Her eyes glittered.
“So I decided to correct the problem.”
Kane stepped forward.
Celeste’s hand moved inside her coat.
Gideon fired.
The bullet struck the wall as Celeste dropped.
She moved faster than expected.
A knife flashed.
She slashed across her own forearm.
Blood hit the stone.
Kane staggered.
Harper felt his power explode.
The stairwell groaned.
Celeste laughed.
“There you are.”
Kane’s eyes turned gold.
His wolf surged violently.
Harper could barely breathe.
Gideon was driven backward by the pressure.
Celeste moved closer.
“Monster.”
Kane’s claws extended.
“Kane,” Harper said.
He did not hear.
Celeste’s smile widened.
“You remember.”
The walls vibrated.
Harper forced herself forward.
Every instinct screamed to retreat.
She ignored it.
“Kane.”
His head jerked.
Gold eyes found her.
For one instant, there was no recognition.
Harper’s heart hurt more than fear ever could.
She stepped closer.
Celeste hissed.
“Stay away from him.”
Harper ignored her.
“Kane, look at me.”
He growled.
Not words.
Wolf.
Harper continued.
“You are at Winterhold.”
His breathing came hard.
“You are not twenty-nine.”
Celeste’s expression changed.
“You are not trapped in that room.”
One step.
“You know what she did.”
Another.
“You know the blood is hers.”
The pressure pulsed.
Harper’s knees almost buckled.
Kane stared at her.
She placed one hand over her own heart.
“And you know me.”
Something shifted.
Small.
But real.
Kane’s eyes flickered.
Amber beneath gold.
Celeste screamed.
“No!”
She lunged toward Harper.
Kane moved.
Not wildly.
Precisely.
He caught Celeste around the wrist.
The knife stopped inches from Harper’s throat.
Celeste stared.
Kane’s eyes were still gold.
But his voice was human.
“You don’t get to use her.”
He twisted.
The knife fell.
Gideon seized Celeste.
She fought violently.
Kane released her and stepped backward.
Harper went to him.
His hands were shaking.
“You stopped.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“But you did.”
“She nearly touched you.”
“She didn’t.”
His eyes closed.
Harper took his hand.
The wolf beneath his skin was still roaring.
But it recognized her.
Slowly, the pressure faded.
Gideon cuffed Celeste with reinforced restraints.
She laughed from the floor.
“You think this matters?”
Harper turned.
Celeste’s face was radiant with something close to madness.
“The attack isn’t here to kill Elias.”
“What is it for?” Harper asked.
Celeste looked at Kane.
“To make everyone look in the wrong direction.”
Harper’s stomach dropped.
Kane understood at the same moment.
“Croft Estate.”
Celeste smiled.
Gideon swore.
The communications room was three floors below.
They ran.
When they finally reached it, two guards were dead outside.
Kane ripped open the damaged door.
Harper climbed over shattered equipment.
The main communications system was destroyed.
But an old landline emergency relay still had power.
Gideon connected it manually.
After forty seconds, he reached Croft security.
His expression changed immediately.
“What happened?”
Harper stood frozen.
Gideon looked toward Kane.
“Estate perimeter breached forty minutes ago.”
Kane’s face went white.
“How many?”
“Unknown. Security contained most of them.”
“Casualties?”
“Two guards injured.”
Kane exhaled.
Then Gideon stopped listening.
His eyes lifted toward Harper.
She knew before he spoke.
“What?”
“Someone entered the east wing.”
Harper’s blood chilled.
“What did they take?”
Gideon repeated the question.
Silence.
Then his face became confused.
“Kane’s medical archive.”
Kane frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
Harper thought of Vivian.
Five years of medication.
Suppressants.
His damaged wolf.
Malcolm’s treatment.
Lucian’s identical gold eyes.
Then a terrifying possibility formed.
“What exactly was in those medical files?”
Kane looked at her.
“Everything since childhood.”
“Bloodwork?”
“Yes.”
“Genetic testing?”
“Yes.”
“Medication formulas?”
“Yes.”
Lucian’s voice came from the doorway.
They all turned.
He stood there breathing hard, blood on one sleeve.
“Then we have a larger problem.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed.
Lucian stepped inside.
“My medical archive disappeared two months ago.”
Silence.
Harper felt every piece begin moving into place.
Vivian’s conspiracy.
Celeste.
Lucian’s sudden emergence.
Malcolm’s experiments on Kane.
Two brothers carrying an Alpha signature unlike other wolves.
Someone was collecting information about both of them.
Not because of inheritance.
Because of what they were.
“Your father wasn’t only suppressing your wolf,” Harper whispered.
Kane stared at her.
She looked at Lucian.
“He was studying it.”
Lucian’s expression darkened.
May you like
Harper turned back to Kane.
“And somebody just stole thirty years of research.”
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