CHAPTER 16: THE ESCAPE?

"I do not recall informing you to call the Seer." My voice carried an edge, and she was far too sharp-witted not to hear it.

Veronique tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her expression softening into something almost appeasing. "Vladimir, you know why," she said. "Even if you’re too stubborn to admit it. The sooner, the better. Dealing with a hybrid—" her face darkened, the word rolling off her tongue with quiet contempt, "—should never be drawn out longer than it ought to be."

One brow lifted — not from shock, for she rarely managed that — but from a faint amusement at her assumption she could think for me.

"What?" she pressed, tone almost audacious, as if daring me to disagree. "You know I’m right. The Veil is breaking."

The truth in her words was undeniable.

The Veil was thinning, splintering, and with every fracture, Lunar flux bled into the human realm like water through a cracked dam. Umbra’s reserves were waning in turn — a slow starvation that would leave even the strongest Lycans hollow and powerless. That was without counting the human students already exposed to it.

If the Crest Bearer was not prepared soon, there might be nothing left to prepare her for.

Still, agreement was not permission — and Veronique had the dangerous habit of being too perceptive for her own good.

"I am not ignorant of the stakes," I said at last, my voice level but iron-bound. "But I will not have you making unilateral decisions in my stead. Her readiness will be determined by me — and on my terms."

A flicker of challenge lit her gaze, but she dipped her head in compliance.

I turned away, running my hand through my hair. "You should get to bed."

"Vladimir..."

I halted mid-stride, the shift in her cadence as palpable as the tension that thickened the air. "Yes, Veronique?"

She hesitated, as though weighing whether to speak at all. "Do you think you’ll be able to do it when the time comes?"

The words hung between us like a guillotine above a neck.

"I will do what needs to be done," I said plainly, though the question’s blade tip pressed dangerously close to the heart. "Go to bed, Vee."

She chuckled, eyes glinting with a rare playfulness she never shared with anyone else. "Good night, Vozhak." Her gaze flickered to the place where my left arm had once been, a shadow dimming in her eyes.

The digits of my bionic arm flexed involuntarily.

For a heartbeat, we were back in the Outlands — my mother’s breath warm against the blizzard’s bite.

"...their blood will freeze on your command, Vozhak..."

A chill crept into my bones, a shiver pulled from the past. It was not a pet name, and she knew that. Her saying it had been deliberate — a reminder.

And then she was gone, her steps retreating into the corridor, leaving me alone with the soft click of the door and the echo of her challenge.

I glanced at my bed, laid and ready, yet sleep was the farthest thing from my mind — it always had been.

"Cheer up, why don’t you?"

I rolled my eyes as Zver reverberated in my skull, coloured with the rumbling amusement that had pulled me from the brink more times than I cared to admit.

"You let her get under your thick, frozen skin," he observed, chuckling low. "And you didn’t even growl. You worry me, Vlady."

I cringed at the nickname he refused to let go. I shrugged him off, crossing over to the window that overlooked not only the mansion but the city ahead. The low hanging moon, the sourse of power for the day to day. The human realm might have solar energy, here we had Lunar energy. It powered our lives, the cities of the Wintercrest pack. My domain.

But for how long?

I tapped my metal fingers on the sill, the clicking therapeutic despite the dreadful truth of what lay beneath its reinforced plate, screws, and integrated circuits — the ugly inevitability of reality.

I clenched the foreign hand.

"But you know she’s right?" Zver prodded, refusing to accept my silence. "The Crest-bearing hybrid needs to grow more than just fangs. The Veil needs her before it completely rips. Yet you circle her like you don’t have teeth."

I finally gave in, because though we didn’t share much ,certainly not a personality — our stubbornness was another story entirely.

"Would you have me take a bite out of her now?" I muttered in my mind.

"No, mostly because I trust she’d return the favour tenfold. And we can’t afford losing more limbs." I could almost hear the shrug in his tone. "But at least stop circling like you’re trying not to spook a deer."

"Give me one reason why."

He deadpanned. "She’s not a deer."

I had to agree there. She was not the type to be caught in headlights — she’d charge toward the car.

"And offer said car a proposition," he teased. "Run over my father and you can eat me."

"You insufferable beast," I spat, fogging the glass.

He simply chuckled in my head, enjoying every second of my frustration.

Of all wolves the Moon Goddess could have given me.

"Hey, I heard that," his voice feigned hurt.

Suddenly, my expression darkened as I registered a shift in the air before I could counter and then what followed as a...

A crash — my ears perked up, the hairs on my neck rising. "Did you hear that?" I asked Zver.

Then it dawned—

Lilith.

I was already crossing the room to the door.

I was out of the door in dash, making sure my footfall was hushed enough not to alarm Veronique. She might stay awake for her duties, but once her head hit the pillow, she would be gone like the wind.

I was on the second landing when I heard voices from what was mostly the kitchen.

"Let’s see how your hybrid attempted an escape." Zvar said.

I got to the second floor and followed the sounds to the kitchen indeed.

They had her cornered near the far counter, two of them gripping her arms while a third hovered just out of reach, his hand close to the dagger at his belt. She thrashed once, twice, not like a trapped doe but like a cornered panther — lean, coiled, eyes blazing molten gold despite the desperation in her voice.

"I said let me go!" she snapped, the pitch raw with frustration. "I wasn’t—"

"Alpha," one of the guards cut in sharply as soon as they spotted me. Their grips tightened like they feared she might vanish between breaths. "The hybrid attempted an escape."

Zver muttered dryly in my head.

And here we go...

Lilith’s head snapped toward me, fury flashing under the strands of her dark curls. "I have a name, you know. And if you would just listen—"

"She was out of her quarters without an escort," the second guard interrupted, ignoring her entirely. "Past curfew. She—"

A low, guttural sound tore through the kitchen — not from me, not from Zver, but from somewhere between the three of them. It was primal enough to make even my seasoned guards freeze mid-sentence.

They turned, bristling. "What the hell was that?" one demanded.

Lilith arched a brow, breathless but smiling like she’d just won something. "My stomach," she said flatly. "I’m hungry. I came to fix myself something to eat."

Zver’s laugh rumbled like distant thunder in the back of my skull.

I like her.

I ran my hand over my face before gesturing for them to let her go.

The moment the lessed their hold, she ripped herself away. "Yes, hands of the merchandise." The fact that she said it with such seriousness only made it worse.

Zvar laughed again.

Fiery eyes settled on me as she marched up not intimidated in the slightest. "Help me ask your men who in their right mind would walk risk hyperthermia by escaping this night."

I raised a brow, "Didn’t you try to escape tonight?"

She pursed her lips, a flush spilling over her cheeks. "Fair enough." She bit out before her eyes slipped to my bionic arm.