Chapter 6 - The King Who Needed Dashiell Dead
“No.”
Kiara said it softly.
Dashiell did not breathe.
Bianca dropped beside her brother.
“No, no, no.”
Tomas reached for Dashiell's neck.
Nothing.
Silver nitrate had entered his bloodstream.
His heart had stopped.
Kiara heard everyone around her.
Bianca crying.
Owen calling for medical supplies.
Tomas swearing.
Footsteps somewhere above them.
But beneath all of that, she heard another sound.
A heartbeat.
Not Dashiell's.
Hers.
And underneath her heartbeat lived something enormous.
Old.
Waiting.
Sweetheart.
Rosa's voice.
Power is not obedience.
Kiara pressed her palms to Dashiell's chest.
“Tell me what to do.”
Tomas understood.
“Kiara—”
“Tell me.”
“If you awaken fully, Lucian will feel you.”
“I don't care.”
“You should.”
“My question was simple.”
Tomas stared at her.
“Crown blood can break the silver's bond to his body.”
“How?”
“You command the poison to release him.”
Kiara almost laughed through her tears.
“I'm supposed to talk to poison?”
“No.”
Tomas looked into her eyes.
“You speak to his wolf.”
Kiara closed her eyes.
She expected darkness.
Instead she found Dashiell.
Not the man.
Something deeper.
A massive black wolf lying in snow.
Silver chains wrapped around its body.
Its breathing had stopped.
Kiara approached.
The wolf opened gray eyes.
Go back.
Dashiell's voice.
“You don't get to order me around inside my own hallucination.”
Not a hallucination.
“Great.”
She knelt.
“Then help me.”
The chains burned her hands.
Dashiell's wolf growled weakly.
If you break them, Lucian will know.
“I know.”
He'll come for you.
“He already did.”
Kiara.
“Stop trying to die politely.”
The wolf's eyes changed.
For one absurd second, she knew Dashiell was amused.
Then the chains tightened.
Kiara felt his pain.
Rage flooded her.
Not domination.
Not control.
Choice.
That was what Rosa had said.
The Crown existed to end forced bonds.
These chains were a forced bond.
Silver ordering Dashiell's body to die.
Kiara placed both hands on them.
“No.”
The word shook the snowy world.
The chains cracked.
Outside, Dashiell's body arched violently.
Bianca screamed.
Kiara did not hear her.
She looked at the wolf.
“You are not allowed to die because another man decided you should.”
The final chain broke.
Dashiell inhaled.
A violent, gasping breath.
Kiara opened her eyes.
His back lifted from the floor.
Blood ran from his wound.
But the black veins around it were disappearing.
Bianca sobbed.
Dashiell coughed.
Kiara laughed and cried at the same time.
Then every light in the building exploded.
Darkness swallowed them.
Far away, wolves began howling.
One.
Then ten.
Then hundreds.
Tomas stared upward.
“He felt it.”
Kiara looked at him.
“Lucian?”
“Every Alpha within fifty miles felt it.”
Dashiell opened his eyes.
His hand found Kiara's.
“You did it.”
“You're welcome.”
“You shouldn't have.”
“Then give the life back.”
A rough sound escaped him.
Half cough.
Half laugh.
She had never heard Dashiell laugh before.
It lasted only a second.
But it changed his face.
Then he tried to sit up.
Kiara pushed him back.
“You were dead thirty seconds ago.”
“I've had worse mornings.”
“No, you haven't.”
“No.”
He looked around at the clinic.
“Probably not.”
Tomas found emergency medical supplies.
The bullet had passed through.
Without the silver poisoning, Dashiell would survive.
But they had another problem.
Lucian now knew exactly where Kiara's awakening stood.
And midnight was three hours away.
They abandoned the clinic after discovering it had been mostly a staging facility.
Sophie and Elena were never there.
But Kiara found something Lucian had not expected them to find.
A patient log.
Thirty-four names.
Women.
Mostly wolves.
Several listed as “bond-resistant.”
Three as “Crown-compatible.”
Kiara stared at the pages.
“He's been experimenting.”
Tomas nodded grimly.
“Trying to reproduce your bloodline.”
“For how long?”
The oldest entry was seventeen years old.
Dashiell looked at his father.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“I'm getting tired of that answer.”
“So am I.”
Owen searched the names.
Then stopped.
His face collapsed.
“Sophie.”
Her name was there.
Not as a patient.
As a genetic match.
Owen gripped the paper.
“Why my daughter?”
Tomas examined the lineage column.
“Her mother.”
Owen went still.
“My wife was human.”
“No.”
Tomas pointed at the code.
“Her family descended from one of the seven Covenant lines.”
Owen staggered backward.
Lucian had not taken Sophie merely for leverage.
He had taken her because her blood might work if Kiara refused.
Kiara looked at him.
“We're getting her back.”
Owen nodded.
This time, he believed her.
A hidden address appeared in the clinic records.
Not a safe house.
A church.
St. Gabriel's Abbey.
Abandoned for twenty years.
Tomas knew it immediately.
“Crown ceremonies were held there.”
Dashiell checked the time.
“Then that's where he'll be at midnight.”
Bianca looked at him.
“And Mom?”
“There too.”
Kiara frowned.
“Why keep Elena alive?”
Nobody answered.
The question bothered her.
Lucian had supposedly murdered Elena six years earlier.
If he had spent all that effort stealing her from the grave, why?
They found the answer in a locked cabinet.
Medical files.
Elena Garcia.
Blood samples taken every six months.
Neurological tests.
Bone marrow extraction.
Kiara turned pale.
“He's been using her.”
Tomas closed his eyes.
“For Warden blood.”
Dashiell frowned.
“My mother wasn't a Warden.”
“No.”
Tomas opened another record.
“But she carried the recessive marker.”
Lucian had spent six years attempting to manufacture resistance to Crown commands.
He wanted Kiara's power.
But he did not want that power ever used against him.
Dashiell read the final report.
TEST SUBJECT L.V. — RESISTANCE STABLE.
Lucian Vale.
Kiara understood.
“He made himself immune to me.”
“Partially,” Tomas said.
Dashiell looked at the date.
“Two weeks ago.”
Which meant Lucian had chosen tonight because he believed he was finally ready.
Kiara sat on the edge of a desk.
Her body suddenly felt heavy.
“Everyone keeps calling me powerful.”
Dashiell looked at her.
“Kiara—”
“But the one person I need to stop might be immune.”
“He isn't immune to this.”
Dashiell touched the gun at his side.
Kiara looked at him.
“You got shot forty minutes ago.”
“Technicality.”
“You died.”
“Also temporary.”
She stared.
He stared back.
Bianca whispered to Owen, “Are they flirting?”
“No,” Kiara and Dashiell said together.
Bianca raised both hands.
“Terrifying.”
Despite herself, Kiara smiled.
It disappeared when Dashiell stepped closer.
“Listen to me.”
His voice was low.
“No ritual. No prophecy. No bloodline gets to decide what you do tonight.”
“What about the hostages?”
“We save them.”
“And if I have to use the Crown?”
“Then you use it because you choose to.”
Her throat tightened.
“Your father said a chosen bond between us could destroy Lucian's entire system.”
Dashiell's expression changed.
“That is not a reason to choose me.”
“What would be?”
His gaze held hers.
“Forgetting all of this exists.”
The room seemed to disappear around them.
“If there were no packs,” he said, “no Crownline, no Warden blood, no Lucian, no prophecy… and you still wanted me near you.”
Kiara's pulse quickened.
“And if you wanted me?”
“I already do.”
Silence.
Bianca very deliberately looked away.
Kiara forgot how to breathe.
Dashiell touched her cheek.
Barely.
No possession.
No command.
A question.
Kiara leaned into his hand.
Then a phone rang.
Lucian.
Dashiell answered.
“What?”
Lucian's voice sounded pleased.
“Very romantic.”
Everyone froze.
There was a camera.
Somewhere.
Dashiell looked around.
Lucian laughed.
“I told you, Warden. I planned this better than your parents did.”
Then Elena's voice came through.
“Dashiell?”
His face changed.
“Mom.”
“She lied to you.”
Lucian sounded amused.
Elena began crying.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
Her breath shook.
“For why I kept Kiara away.”
Dashiell glanced at Kiara.
Elena forced the words out.
“Lucian wasn't the only person the prophecy said might destroy her.”
A long silence.
May you like
Then:
“It said you would too.”
