Page 64 of Rejected By My Shadow Alpha
She turned to me then, her eyes wide but calm. "Mom, I don't think it's safe. He wants what's in there, but I can feel he will use it for bad things."
She looked back at my father. "You're not a nice man. You hurt and scare people. I won't help open it."
I swallowed hard, my heart twisting. Her voice was still soft and childlike, but steady. Innocent, yet filled with a deeper knowing, like something older was whispering inside her.
"You insolent…" He turned to me, fury rising like a wave. "Make her obey."
I stood in front of her. "No."
"You don't get to decide that!" he roared.
I grabbed Liora's arm and pulled her behind me. "She's not your weapon. She's not your key."
His eyes sharpened. "You convince her, or I'll do what must be done." He turned toward the guards by the door. "Get the power extractor in the lab working."
The guard nodded and left, his face expressionless.
I paled. "You said you wouldn't hurt her!"
"Not if she cooperates," he said smoothly, "but clearly, she needs motivation. I wonder what happens when you watch her die slowly, tied to the extractor."
"Don't you dare."
"I'm tired of your defiance, Ruby. Fix this or I will," he snapped, unmoved by my pleas.
I shook my head. "I can't, Father," I whispered. "Please, let us go."
He snapped to his guards. "Separate them."
"No!" I screamed as they rushed forward. I shoved Liora behind me and fought. I clawed, bit, and kicked. Two of them lunged forward, and I fought like hell.
"Don't touch me!" I snarled, striking the first one with my elbow, twisting out of another's grip. My wolf surged beneath my skin, wild and feral, but I was no match for trained wolves in full armor. One of them yanked my arm back hard enough to send pain shooting through my shoulder. The other grabbed me by the waist and lifted me off the ground.
Liora's eyes widened, but she didn't cry out. She didn't scream. She just stood there, fists clenched at her sides, trembling with a kind of quiet fury that made even the guards hesitate.
"Mom!"
"I'm here!" I shouted as they dragged me to the door. "Don't do anything he says. Don't give him anything!"
The doors slammed shut. The lock clicked. I slumped to the floor in the hallway, my heart cracking open inside my chest.
Something inside me snapped.
The guards dropped me roughly to my feet in the hallway. Before I could lunge back toward the door, each one seized an arm, gripping tightly. My boots scuffed against the marble as they hauled me down the corridor.
I twisted, snarled, and tried to rip free. "Get your filthy hands off me!"
They didn't react or say a word, just silent efficiency. I stopped struggling, not because I surrendered, but because I needed to think, to watch, and strike when it mattered. My breath came hard and fast, fury burning beneath my skin.
My child was alone with him. That monster.
I was being led away like prey, but he'd made a mistake because I was no prey. Tucked between my breasts, warm against my pounding heart, was the silver knife belonging to my mother. My father had called me jittery and falling apart. Oh, he would soon find out I could be quite ruthless.
Chapter 29
Drew
The Wren mansion stood like a fortress of arrogance—cold gray stone, steel gates, and more guards than I'd ever seen stationed outside a single house. Every corner of the property reeked of control and caution. Silvercrest wolves.
