Page 115 of The Alpha's Fallen Spell
I try to lunge at him, but my coordination is already suffering. The world slants sideways, and I barely stop myself from falling with the help of a medical cart.
When I catch a glimpse of Fiona’s terrified face, something horrible occurs to me. “No!” I roar. The suicide pill, her final insurance against capture. “Fiona, don’t you dare!”
“Strap him down,” Mathew orders.
I may be weakened, but I still have years of hand-to-hand combat under my belt. My training kicks in, overriding the poison’s effects through pure force of will. I grab a scalpel from the cart and drive it deep into Dylan’s thigh, severing the femoral artery. He screams and staggers back, blood spurting between his fingers.
“You’re too late,” he gasps, still smiling despite the pain. “The process has already begun. Look at her eyes.”
I turn toward Fiona, and my blood freezes. Her gray eyes are flickering with gold. This is not the controlled shift I’ve seen before, but something wild and unrestrained.
“It’s not working!” Olivia sounds frustrated. “Her wolf is suppressed too deeply.”
“The compound reverses the suppressant,” Mathew is trying to sound calm, but I can hear the frustration in his voice. “It should work.”
Olivia moves toward Fiona with another syringe, but Alex suddenly comes to life on his table.
“Leave her alone!” he shouts, somehow breaking one of his restraints. He throws himself at Olivia with desperate strength.
She turns toward him with what looks like a taser, but Alex doesn’t stop. The electrical shock hits him full force, sending both of them to the ground in a tangle of sparking wires and screaming voices.
The smell of burning flesh fills the room as electricity courses through both bodies. Alex convulses once, then goes still. Olivia’s scream cuts off abruptly.
With Dylan and Olivia out of commission, Mathew’s the only one left.
I try to stand, to reach Fiona, but the poison in my system chooses that moment to hit with full force. I collapse, vomiting blood as my enhanced physiology tries to fight off the foreign chemicals.
Mathew laughs, moving to a cabinet filled with syringes and vials. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Twenty years of research distilled into the perfect weapon against shifter physiology. You’re experiencing cellular breakdown in real time, Commander. Your wolf is dying, taking your enhanced abilities with it.”
He selects a syringe filled with something dark and oily, then another filled with clear liquid. “For myself,” he explains conversationally. “I’ve always been curious about the shifter experience, but I lack the natural genetics. Fortunately, science has provided alternatives.”
“You’re insane,” I gasp, still retching blood.
“Am I? The natural-born shifters have ruled for centuries, hoarding power, keeping humanity in the dark about their existence. But artificial shifters—enhanced artificial shifters—represent evolution. The future.” He injects the dark substance into his arm, then follows it with the clear liquid. “I have perfected what the Silver Ring began. Not just activation of dormant genes, but enhancement beyond natural limits.”
The change begins immediately. Mathew’s scent alters, becoming something that makes my dying wolf recoil in horror. This isn’t a normal shifter transformation—it’s something else entirely. Something wrong.
His muscles expand, bones cracking and reshaping, but the process is different from any shift I’ve ever witnessed. Morecontrolled, more deliberate. And when it’s complete, what stands before us is neither fully wolf nor fully human.
It’s something else. Something new.
The creature retains human intelligence and speech but stands seven feet tall, covered in dark fur that seems to absorb light. Its eyes glow with predatory intelligence, and when it speaks, the voice is perfectly articulated despite the elongated muzzle.
“Magnificent,” it says, examining its clawed hands that end in razor-sharp talons. “All the advantages of the shifter form with none of the limitations. I can speak, reason, plan—while possessing strength that surpasses any natural-born wolf.”
“Is this what this whole thing has been about?” I snarl. “You wanted to become one of us?”
“One of you?” The creature—Mathew—sounds amused by the idea. “Look at me! I am more than just a shifter! I am superior to your kind! You wolves are so simpleminded. When I was first recruited into the Silver Ring, your kind just wanted to overthrow the royal families. But there was so much more potential. I have always been curious about your bodies. I knew that there were still limits your kind had not crossed. I cross them all today!”
His laughter holds a hint of insanity. “Those animals didn’t even know what they wanted. Or how to go about it. I brought that change. I decided to separate the wolf from the human side. It was my formula that worked. I hit a snag with your brother, though. Maya would have made an excellent protege. It’s too bad she decided to switch sides.”
He glances down at Dylan, looking a little irritated. “This one was not as smart as Maya, but he was close enough. You really shouldn’t have killed him. All that effort to transform his blood, and now he’s dead. But no worries.”
His mood brightens with startling speed as he looks toward Fiona. “This one has enough genetic material. I thought Fiona was a failed experiment till I found out she was your fated mate. There must have been something to her if your two wolves were connected. I needed to see what it was about her that stood out from the other artificial shifters. Those foolish humans. They were so lost in their own despair that they didn’t know I was leading the new organization. I needed to see how they fared in the outside world.”
His eyes dart toward Alex, slightly annoyed. “He was a disappointment. An anomaly, but a disappointment. He was born in one of the cages, you see? To one of the artificial shifters. He can shift, but his scent is that of a human. A new subspecies. I wanted to study him, but then the facility in the Northern Kingdom got attacked. It took some time to track him down and convince him to work for us. Foolish boy didn’t know any better. I didn’t think he would get so attached to the woman.”
I glance at Alex, who is twitching but unconscious. Fiona is still struggling with her restraints, and I can feel my wolf fading. Where are my men?
