The night was a heavy, suffocating blanket. The deep silence of the Silverwood compound was broken only by the distant, rhythmic cry of the sentinel wolves. In Allister's wing, there was no rest.
Allister was a ruin. The prolonged, intense mental link with Sunflower had drained him past exhaustion. He stood leaning against the wall, directly opposite the door to her cell. His eyes were bloodshot, and the thin, dark streak of dried blood still marked his face from the intense mental effort. The broken bond was vibrating between them with a frantic, shared anxiety, feeling less like a spiritual connection and more like a live electrical wire ready to snap.
He's late, Allister thought, his mental voice weak and strained. Ivan should have been back hours ago.
He's being careful, Sunflower responded, her tone unnervingly calm, the steady eye in their shared storm. He knows the risk. The price of treason is heavy, Allister. And Celeste is watching.
She can't be watching the archives, Allister argued. She's supposed to be outside my door.
She's playing the Alpha's game, but with a Beta's resources, Sunflower countered. She sent a spy. She smells the truth. The silence here is too loud.
The tension was so thick Allister felt he could choke on it. He slid down the wall, sinking onto the cold stone floor, focusing his fading energy on maintaining the fragile connection.
A soft, almost imperceptible scratching at the outer door finally broke the tension. Ivan.
Allister scrambled up, unlocking the door swiftly. Ivan slipped inside, looking exhausted, his Beta status badge slightly crooked. He reeked of stale library dust and fear.
"Alpha," Ivan breathed, his voice barely a whisper. He held out a bundle of brittle, yellowed receipts and modern printed ledgers, sealed with archive tape. "I found the irregularities. I copied everything. The Northern Watchtower funds it's not a ten percent difference. It's over forty. They were paying for air, Allister."
Ivan looked up, his eyes strained. "Celeste's family signed off on the transfer. But… Alpha, I had to fight off one of Maeve's personal guards to leave the archive. They were waiting. They knew I was coming."
Allister took the evidence, his mind instantly snapping back to razor-sharp focus. "You did well, Ivan. Now stand guard by that door. Do not let Celeste or anyone else near me, no matter what you hear."
Ivan hesitated, looking at the door to Sunflower's room. He smelled the strange, foreign scent mixed with the overwhelming scent of exhaustion and blood emanating from his Alpha. "Allister, what is happening? This isn't a financial probe. This is… this is suicide."
"It's survival," Allister corrected, his voice flat. "Now take your post. Trust me for one more hour."
Ivan, his loyalty strained but intact, nodded slowly and went to guard the door.
Allister spread the receipts across his desk, unlocking Sunflower's door only enough to slide the stack of documents through the crack.
"Find the Cold Iron invoice, Sunflower," Allister whispered, his mind broadcasting the need through the bond. "We need the supplier and the quantity."
The room fell silent as the three wolves the Alpha, the Hybrid, and the Beta worked in a desperate, silent triangle. Allister and Ivan scanned the general ledgers; Sunflower, with her non-wolf intuition and mental focus, tore through the specific receipts on the floor of her prison.
Found it! Sunflower's mental shout was a flash of triumphant lightning. *Transaction 771-B. Kallos Steel. Massive overpayment. The invoice specifies payment for two tons of 'Specialized Iron Alloys, Cold-Treated.' The date is the same as the Northern Watchtower payment, but the signature on the order isn't Celeste's it's Maeve's. *
Allister froze, the blood draining from his face. It wasn't just Celeste. The ultimate treachery came from the top. Maeve wasn't just protecting Celeste; she was funding the Cold Iron deal herself.
He snatched the receipt from the crack in the door, his eyes confirming the ancient, looping signature of Elder Maeve. This was it. Proof of treason, not just of Celeste, but of the most powerful Elder.
But the flash of triumph was instantly annihilated by a sharp, terrible warning from Ivan.
"ALPHA! SHADOWS!"
The outer door burst inward with a sickening sound of splintering wood. Not from the guards but from a swift, determined, and silent assailant.
Celeste. She had used the moment Ivan was focused on the archive to sneak back, confirming her suspicion of a conspiracy. She was pure, unadulterated fury, and she came with a single purpose: to destroy the evidence.
Ivan was too slow. Celeste, driven by fear and rage, bypassed the Beta's clumsy defense and launched herself at Allister.
"You won't ruin me, Alpha!" Celeste screamed, her transformation instant, her wolf form sleek and lethal.
Allister, physically weakened by the psychic drain and unable to fully shift due to the closeness of the mixed-blood, was instantly outmatched. He threw himself over the desk, shielding the vital receipt with his body. Celeste slammed into him, raking her claws across his back. Allister roared in pain, the blood blooming instantly.
He was losing the fight. He knew he couldn't beat her without risking the evidence. There was only one weapon left the one that might kill them both.
He looked over his shoulder, his eyes meeting the terrified, gold-and-purple gaze of Sunflower, who was staring through the crack in her door.
I have to sacrifice the bond, Sunflower. Trust me! he sent, a final, desperate plea for understanding.
Allister plunged his will into the broken bond, not trying to control her, but deliberately forcing the entire, chaotic energy of the mixed-blood the electrical, iron-fearing, pure-other essence to flow directly through the tether and into Celeste's wolf mind.
It was an act of brutal, suicidal mental transference.
The effect was instantaneous and catastrophic. A high-pitched, agonizing psychic scream erupted in the room. Celeste staggered back from Allister, her body seizing up as the foreign, chaotic power of the mixed-blood flooded her pure-blood mind. Her eyes glazed over, and she collapsed, momentarily paralyzed by the agonizing energy.
But the cost was devastating. Allister's physical body violently rejected the massive influx of chaotic power. He collapsed over the desk, his ears ringing, his eyes rolling back. He felt his veins burn, and a dark, hot flood of blood erupted from his nose and ears. His body was rejecting the very power he had just wielded. He was physically shattered.
Ivan, recovering from the shock, roared and surged forward, physically hauling the paralyzed Celeste away from the Alpha.
Allister clung to consciousness, his hand still clutched around the receipt, his blood soaking the paper. He dragged his gaze to the crack in the door.
Sunflower was standing there, her face a mask of horrified agony. She saw the blood, the shattered eyes, and the crumpled body of the Alpha. The broken bond was silent now, severed by the overwhelming force. But the emotional connection was absolute. She felt his immense, crushing pain, and her eyes filled with tears of pure, shared anguish.
He had sacrificed everything to save her.
Allister managed one final, silent thought, sending it with the last shred of his Alpha will, a thought that transcended the bond and cut straight to her soul: The evidence is safe. Now, run.
He collapsed completely, losing consciousness, the blood still dripping onto the treasonous receipt.