Chapter 6 : The Silver Twist.

Lila’s POV

The moon was bloated, malicious eye staring through the skylight of my room. I couldn't sleep , the silk of the nightgown felt like spiderwebs against my skin and the air in the penthouse had grown thick, charged with an energy that made the fine hairs on my arms stand up.

It wasn't just the nursery or Elena’s strange warnings that kept me awake. It was the sound.

From somewhere deep within the bowels of this stone fortress, a low, rhythmic thudding vibrated through the floorboards.

It sounded like a heartbeat but one too slow and too heavy to be human.

Jamie.

The name was a constant ache in my chest. Leander’s men had taken him and despite the billionaire’s promises, I hadn't seen my brother since the night of the attack.

I had to find him.

If Leander was a monster, then my brother was a lamb in a wolf’s den.

I slipped out of bed, ignoring the stinging protest of the stitches in my arm.

I didn't head for the stairs this time. Instead, I followed the vibration i moved like a ghost through the shadows, my bare feet silent on the cold marble.

I found myself in a part of the west wing I hadn't seen a corridor where the walls weren't adorned with art but with heavy reinforced steel.

As I rounded a corner, a door stood slightly ajar. The air coming from within smelled of old paper, ozone and something metallic like the taste of a penny on my tongue.

I pushed it open.

The room was a sanctuary of secrets. Floor to ceiling shelves were packed with leather bound books that looked centuries old. But it was the glass cases in the center that stopped my heart.

Inside were weapons alongside beautiful and terrifying things. Daggers with filigree hilts, crossbows of blackened steel and vials of a shimmering, translucent liquid.

I walked toward a central table where a large, hand drawn map was spread out. Beside it lay a heavy iron bound journal. I hesitated, then opened it.

The handwriting was elegant but looked hurried ,my breath hitched when I saw a sketch of a crest.

It was a stylized arrow piercing a wolf’s heart. The same crest I’d seen on a dusty old locket my stepmother had tried to pawn years ago.

I flipped the page and froze.

“The Cross lineage the silver thirst. We do not just hunt the beast we are the cage that holds it. Our blood is the lock. The Vekaris line has sought the Pure Strain for generations, unaware that the Hunter’s blood is the only thing that can stabilize their primal rot.”

My hands shook so hard the parchment rattled. This wasn't just mafia business. I wasn't just a "carrier" for an heir. I was a genetic antidote. My family wasn't victims, we were the predators of the things.

A howl shattered the silence.

It wasn't a dog or a wolf. It was a pure, agonizing sound of bones breaking and reforming.

It came from directly below me.

I bolted from the room, driven by a frantic, terrifying realization.

Jamie……All those years of his sickness, the fevers that broke the thermometer, the way his eyes would turn amber in the moonlight, the strange strength he’d have during his fits. I thought it was a bizarre ailment.

He wasn't sick. He was turning into them. And if Leander knew…

I ran toward the sound, descending a narrow spiral staircase to the sub-basement. The air grew cold enough to see my breath. At the bottom, a heavy iron grate separated the hall from a reinforced chamber.

I peered through the bars and my knees nearly gave out.

Leander was there. But he wasn't the cold man in a suit. He was stripped to the waist, his back to me. His skin was rippling, muscles bulging and twisting in ways that defied human anatomy.

Dark, coarse fur was erupting along his spine, and his fingernails were lengthening into jagged black talons.

He slammed his fists against the stone wall, cracking the masonry.

"Cassian!" Leander’s voice was no longer a rumble, it was a guttural snarl that sounded like two grinding stones. "The girl... keep her... away..."

He turned, and I let out a strangled gasp. His face was a mask of primal fury. His grey eyes had turned a glowing, predatory gold, the pupils slitted like a cat’s.

He looked at the bars, no, at me and a predatory hunger flared in his gaze that made my soul recoil.

"Lila," he rasped. A string of saliva escaped his bared teeth.

He lunged and hit the reinforced silver bars with a force that should have killed him. The metal sizzled against his skin, smelling of burning flesh, but he didn't back away.

He gripped the bars, his hands smoking, his gaze locked on mine with a terrifying, obsessive intensity.

"Run," he growled, the word ending in a snap of teeth.

I couldn't move. I was paralyzed by the sight of the beast beneath the billionaire.

But then, from the shadows of the neighboring cell, I heard a small, whimpering cry.

"Lila? It hurts... it hurts so much."

I spun my head toward the sound. In the smaller, padded cell next to Leander’s, a boy sat huddled in the corner.

His shirt was torn, and his skin was flushed a deep, feverish red. His eyes, Jamie’s eyes, flickered between their usual soft brown and a terrifying, glowing gold.

"Jamie!" I screamed, throwing myself at his cell.

"Don't touch him!" Leander roared, his voice shaking the entire basement. He was fighting the change, his body contorting as he tried to maintain enough humanity to speak.

"His blood... is reacting... to yours. You’re triggering... the shift!"

I looked at my bandaged arm. I was acting like a catalyst, pulling the wolf out of my brother before he was ready.

I was the very thing that would destroy his humanity.

Leander threw his head back, his spine snapping into a curve as the full moon reached its peak.

His human mask shattered completely. A massive, shadow-black wolf stood where the man had been, its shoulders brushing the ceiling. It let out a roar that promised only death.

The beast lunged at the bars again, the silver searing his fur, but he didn't care.

He wanted me.

I backed away, the weight of the journal still tucked into my waistband, the knowledge of my ancestors screaming in my head. I looked at Jamie, who was beginning to howl, and then at the monster that was Leander Vekaris.

I turned and fled back up the stairs, the sound of splintering wood and howling wolves echoing in my wake.