Chapter 12: The Night They Stole Me

Marcus's words echoed through the archive.

Laurel… you were never supposed to survive.

I stared at him, unable to move.

For twenty-four years, I had believed I was simply an unwanted child who had been lost and forgotten.

But I hadn't been forgotten.

I had been deliberately taken.

“Who tried to kill me?” I asked.

Marcus's lips tightened.

“You aren't ready to hear the answer.”

Emmett stepped forward.

“Then start talking.”

His Alpha pressure filled the room.

Marcus's face turned pale, and several of the surrounding elders lowered their heads.

Still, he refused to speak.

“The person who ordered it is protected by someone far more powerful than you realize.”

Victor's expression hardened.

“Marcus, enough.”

Marcus looked at him bitterly.

“You knew too.”

Victor went silent.

My heart sank.

“You knew?”

Victor looked at me.

“I suspected.”

“That's not the same thing.”

My voice shook for the first time.

“You all knew there was something wrong, yet nobody told me.”

Victor lowered his gaze.

“We didn't know where you were. By the time we found evidence, you had already been raised elsewhere.”

“And when I was brought back three years ago?”

Victor didn't answer.

I understood.

They had known more than they had told me.

Before anyone could explain further, a loud crash came from the corridor.

The guards immediately drew their weapons.

Emmett moved in front of me.

“Stay behind me.”

Several figures rushed into the archive.

They wore dark masks and moved with trained precision.

One of them threw a smoke device across the room.

Within seconds, thick gray smoke filled the chamber.

I heard shouting.

Then a sharp crack.

Someone had fired a weapon.

Emmett grabbed my wrist.

“Run.”

We moved through the smoke toward the rear exit.

A masked figure suddenly appeared in front of us.

Emmett shoved me aside and struck him across the chest.

The attacker crashed into a shelf.

I stumbled backward.

My pendant suddenly began burning against my skin.

A strange pulse of energy exploded from my body.

The lights in the archive flickered.

Every wolf in the room froze.

Even Emmett stared at me in shock.

The masked attacker looked terrified.

“She's awakened.”

Then he fled.

I stared at my hands.

“What just happened?”

Emmett approached carefully.

“Your wolf responded to danger.”

“But I didn't shift.”

“You didn't need to.”

His eyes remained fixed on me.

“That wasn't an ordinary wolf response.”

The guards secured the archive within minutes.

Several attackers had escaped, but one had been captured.

Emmett knelt beside the prisoner.

“Who sent you?”

The man refused to answer.

Emmett's expression hardened.

“You have one chance.”

The prisoner laughed bitterly.

“You think killing me will change anything?”

Emmett grabbed his collar.

“Who sent you?”

The man's eyes shifted toward me.

“Ask your bride why the Jennings family wanted her dead.”

My stomach dropped.

“What did you say?”

He smiled.

“Your mother knew exactly what she was doing.”

The room became completely silent.

Diana.

The woman who had called herself my mother.

The woman who had forgotten my allergy.

The woman who had watched me leave without shedding a tear.

Could she really have known?

I stepped forward.

“Tell me what she did.”

The prisoner looked at me.

“She signed the order.”

My blood ran cold.

Victor's face turned grim.

“That's enough.”

The prisoner laughed again.

“You can't hide it anymore, old man.”

Then he bit down hard.

The guards rushed toward him, but it was too late.

He had swallowed a poison capsule.

His body went limp.

I stood completely still.

Emmett came to my side.

“Don't believe everything he said.”

I looked at him.

“But what if it's true?”

He didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he took my hand.

“Then we'll find the truth.”

I squeezed his hand.

For the first time, I wasn't afraid of what we might discover.

I was angry.

And somewhere deep inside me, the wolf that had been silent for twenty-four years was beginning to wake.