CHAPTER 12: IRIS’ GIRL

Just what I needed—a scorned Alpha stopping my car with the prize he couldn’t win.

I stepped out, letting the door shut with a finality that echoed down the frost-laced street.

Kustav stood across from me, hands buried in the pockets of a midnight coat stitched with ego and bloodline. His smile was still in place—tight, lazy, amused. But the twitch in his jaw betrayed him.

He was pissed.

And losing composure by the second.

"I admit," he began, voice syrupy smooth, "your taste surprises me. I didn’t think the High Alpha would bid on a girl just because she had a mark."

"And what about it?" I asked, voice even. "It was an open auction."

Kustav’s smirk twitched. "I’ll give you something in return," he said, casually brushing imaginary lint from his coat. "Anything you want."

I lifted a brow. "You couldn’t outbid me, Kustav. What makes you think you have anything I’d want?"

His jaw ticked.

Then, like the snake he was, he smiled through it, dragging two fingers beneath his eyes in mock sorrow. "Ouch. That’s mean, Vladimir. Making fun of my poverty? I thought we were friends."

We were never friends.

And we both knew he wasn’t poor.

He was just bitter.

I turned my back to him with a flick of my coat. "Move your car."

But his voice came again, smooth as oil and just as toxic. "I know who you’re really looking for."

I stopped.

The wind held its breath.

He took that as his opening and stepped closer. "Your sister. The little shadow you lost in the dark. What was her name again? An—"

"Finish that sentence," I warned, voice low, "and I’ll make sure you never speak again."

Kustav smiled wider, ignoring the warning. "I might know where she is," he said, lips curling like the words themselves gave him power. "All I want in return is the girl. The Hybrid. She’s not your blood. She’s not even—"

"She’s mine," I said coldly.

He stilled.

I didn’t turn to face him. He would never be worth it.

"And your words?" I added, walking back toward my car, "They hold as much value as your morals."

Kustav didn’t respond.

A sudden metallic rip tore through the stillness like claws down steel.

I turned instinctively, coat flaring at my heels.

The roof of my vehicle buckled.

A blur of bronze muscle and fury launched from the crumpled roof like a thunderbolt from the gods, jaws wide, claws extended. Kustav barely had time to curse before the wolf collided with him mid-sentence, slamming him hard into the pavement with a sickening crack that echoed between the buildings.

I didn’t flinch.

Kustav let out a strangled growl, struggling beneath the beast that pinned him with terrifying ease. The wolf’s red eyes blazed with feriousity. A warning laced into every bared tooth. So much rage and power morphed into something formless and dangerous.

It wasn’t just any wolf.

It was hers.

I saw it in the slant of its jaw.

The wildness in its posture.

Lilith’s wolf had awakened.

And she wasn’t just emerging, she was claiming ground. Istepped toward them finding myself intrigued.

Kustav spat blood, still pinned.

Kustav’s men moved first, two stepping out from the shadows, hands flexed, ready to strike.

But Kustav raised one hand without even looking at them.

"Are you kidding me?" he said, voice gravel-thick with amusement, despite the blood in his mouth. He chuckled, a deep sound that rippled with something unhinged. "I haven’t had this much fun in ages."

And then he shifted.

The coat tore clean down the middle as his body twisted, cracked, expanded. Limbs stretched. Fur burst through skin. Bones broke and reformed. In seconds, the Alpha of Nightbane Pack stood on four legs, towering, bronze, and monstrous with red eyes that burned hotter than ever.

Lilith braced, but she was too new. Too small.

He lunged.

She met him in kind, leaping up to sink her teeth into his shoulder, but he moved faster. Too fast. His massive paw slammed into her side and caught her mid-air by the scruff. He whipped his neck around and launched her like a toy.

"Lilith—!" I growled, already moving.

I shifted mid-step.

Bones broke. Heat roared through me. Power surged under my skin, the old, familiar burn of command. Fur spilled across muscle. My vision sharpened.

I met her in the air.

Her body hit mine like a stone, limp from impact, blood misting the air. I caught her with my jaw before her skull hit concrete. Held her like a pup. Cradled her like glass.

She whimpered.

My body shielded hers, tail arched in warning.

Kustav slowed.

My paws hit the ground with barely a sound.

I towered over her, fur bristling, breath steaming the frozen air.

Shift.

The command pulsed.. Not a word, just will. She was in my pack, she was my subject so my will was absolute.

Now.

She obeyed even if she did not mean them to.

Bones cracked as she shifted beneath me, back into bare skin and bleeding flesh. Her shoulder was wrong—dislocated or worse—but she tried to stand anyway, snarling, trembling, eyes locked on Kustav like she meant to kill him with her soul if her body failed.

I blocked her path.

She shoved at me. "Move."

I didn’t.

She shoved harder. "I said—move, you bastard!"

Her nails dug into my fur, desperate, wild. "He’s a monster! A fucking criminal! A—" Her voice cracked, rage shaking her broken frame. "—a rapist!"

The street went still.

Even Kustav’s wolves faltered.

Lilith’s voice cracked again, but she didn’t stop. "You sick son of a bitch, I know what you did—what people like you do!"

Her hands curled into fists as she bared her teeth at him, unafraid. "You think you could hurt her, you could defile her the way you did and escape. Like a fucking coward. You should have stayed, I will fucking kill you."

She lunged again, and I caught her mid-swing. One arm around her waist, the other holding her wrist gently but firmly.

She fought me. "Let me GO!"

But I didn’t because she wasn’t just furious.

She was remembering, I could see it in the way her frame quivered with emotions that wrought through her like thorns.

Kustav’s smirk faltered for half a heartbeat, then curled cruel.

He sniffed once and tilted his head, like a predator.

And smiled.

"Iris’s girl?" he said softly.

The name hit her like a bullet.

I felt her freeze in my arms.

Felt the blood drain from her limbs.

Her heartbeat, thunderous seconds ago, stuttered, then slowed.

Her shoulders slumped.

"The Marked Hybrid is my fucking daughter," Kustav pronounced, cackling, his eyes glinting with victory. "She is fucking mine."

And knew right there he had just found a way in.