Chapter 465:

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That was what the Chimera had discovered: their creations could still remember who they had been. And they didn’t care. They encouraged it, because anger made them stronger. I had heard one of their physicians say those words as casually as another wolf might discuss the weather. I had wanted to kill him then. Instead, I had smiled.

That was the hardest part of this place. Not the blood. Not the screams. The pretending.

Mitch touched my sleeve. I looked at him. “Something is wrong.”

I lowered my voice. “What?”

He pointed toward the tent behind us. “The creature stopped making noise.”

𝖣о𝘯’t mіѕs ո𝗲𝗐 𝘳𝗲l𝖾𝘢se𝘴 оո 𝗴𝗮𝗹𝘯о𝘷e𝗹s.𝘤𝗼𝘮

I listened. Nothing. My instincts sharpened. “Keep walking.”

We did. When we reached the experiment tent, two Chimera wolves stood outside the entrance. One of them looked at me. “Alpha Manuel.”

I gave him a respectful nod. “I’m expected.”

He stepped aside, and Mitch followed me inside.

The room was larger than it appeared from the corridor. Stone tables covered the floor, each holding bowls, bottles, pieces of parchment, and strange instruments whose purposes I had not yet discovered. At the far end, three wolves were chained to the wall. One was unconscious. Another was shaking. The third stared directly at me. His face was swollen, and deep cuts ran across his chest. I forced myself to keep walking.

The physician approached. “You came at an interesting time.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“We have made progress.” He sounded proud.

I looked toward the chained wolves. “On them?”

“On the creatures,” he corrected.

That word again. Creatures. Never wolves, never victims.

The physician walked toward a large table covered in records. “We have finally discovered how to multiply the strength of their bones without killing the subject.”

Mitch’s eyes moved across the papers. I noticed, and so did the physician. “You may examine them,” he told Mitch. “The Chimera said you were to be treated as special guests from Moonstone.”

Mitch sat down and began reading quickly, his finger moving beneath the lines of writing. Then he stopped. “Alpha.”

I crossed the room. “What?”

He turned the parchment toward me, but the physician intercepted it. “That’s enough, Alpha Manuel. The Chimera demands my attention. Kindly see yourselves out.”

The door closed behind us.

We continued down the corridor at an ordinary pace, neither of us looking back. The guards remained where they were, and I could feel their eyes following us until we turned the corner. Only then did I breathe properly. We passed two more doors before I finally stopped beside an empty alcove. Mitch nearly walked into me.

I turned to him. “What did you see?”

He held the bundle of papers tighter against his chest. “The room.”

I stared at him.

Mitch looked uncomfortable beneath my attention, but he didn’t look away. “The table near the window had been moved.”

I waited.

“The first day we came here, it was against the wall. Yesterday it was near the window. Today it was back against the wall.”

My eyes narrowed. “Why would anyone move a table?”

“I don’t know.”

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