His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 226

12:12 Sun, Jan

Chapter 226

Chapter 226

Claire’s POV

Juhend

Ethan crouched down beside Mason, pressing two fingers to the boy’s neck. Mason groaned, a wet, rattling sound, but he remained unconscious.

“He’s alive,” Ethan noted, his voice devoid of any warmth. “But only because you chose to stop, Elijah. Barely

“I stopped because Claire asked me to,” Elijah hissed, finally turning to face his father.

The sheer intensity of his aura forced one of the younger sentinels in the doorway to avert his eyes and take a submissive step back. “Not because he deserves the breath in his lungs. He brought silver into our home, father. He stood in the place where she sleeps and threatened to stop her heart. There is no political maneuvering that fixes this. There is no ‘perfect‘ response that doesn’t involve the end of the Reed line.”

I felt the shift in the room.

The air didn’t just feel thin anymore; it felt electric. My own wolf was pacing behind my ribs, no longer a separate entity but a part of my very soul, snarling in unison with the man standing before me.

The bond was a live wire between us, pulsing with a shared, righteous fury.

Ethan stood up, wiping a stray drop of Mason’s blood from his thumb onto his slacks.

He looked at the shattered vial on the floor, the pale, ethereal liquid already eating into the finish of the wood. “Silver- distilled essence,” Ethan murmured. “It’s a war crime in the eyes of the High Council. Thomas Reed didn’t just send his son to die; he sent him to provide us with the justification for his own annihilation. He’s forced my hand.”

“Then use it,” Elijah demanded. “Let me go. Now.”

“Felix,” Ethan commanded, his voice suddenly sharp and official. “Secure Mason in the sub–basement. No medical attention beyond what is necessary to keep him breathing for the Council’s investigators. I want a full sweep of the north ridge. If Elijah and Felix found nothing, it means they were looking in the wrong place. The Reeds aren’t hiding in the woods. They’re entrenched.”

“They’re at the distillery,” I said, my voice cutting through the male aggression.

Everyone in the room turned to look at me. I was standing by the bed, my hands still shaking, but my heart was a steady, rhythmic drum. 78 bpm. “What did you say?” Ethan asked.

“Mason… he was talking before he tried to grab me,” I explained, trying to recall the exact cadence of his voice. “He was arrogant. He said his father thought he could win with lawyers, but that some things ‘need to be burned down. He kept looking at the clock. And the smell on his clothes… it wasn’t just dirt. It was yeast and old grain. The same smell that’s always clinging to the trucks that come down from the northern industrial sector.”

Elijah was at my side in a heartbeat. He didn’t care about the sentinels or his father.

He took my hands in his, his thumbs stroking over my knuckles. The heat coming off him was incredible, a localized sun meant only for me.

“The old distillery on the ridge,” Elijah whispered, his eyes searching mine. “It’s been abandoned for years. It sits right on the fault line of the territory. If they take that ground, they have a straight shot into the heart of the valley.”

“And it’s a fortress,” Ethan added, his eyes narrowing. “Stone walls three feet thick. They’ve been stockpiling.” “Which means we don’t wait for the Council to call back,” Elijah said, his voice dropping into that lethal, Alpha register.

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12:12 Sun, Jan 11 G

Chapter 226

“We go tonight. We take the vanguard. If we wait for the sun to come up, Thomas will have his lawyers and his ‘witnesses lined up to claim Mason was kidnapped. We end this in the dark.”

Ethan looked at his son–at the warrior he had become, fueled by the love of a mate he had once been told to reject.

Then, he looked at me. I saw a flicker of something in his eyes–respect. He saw that I wasn’t the liability the pack feared. I was the catalyst.

“Go,” Ethan said, the word heavy with the weight of a thousand years of pack law. “Take the shadows. Leave the sentinels here to guard the perimeter and your mother. Elijah, you and Felix take the specialized unit. Use the silver–shielding we took from the North Ridge raids. If they’re using silver against us, we return the favor in kind.”

“I’m going with him,” I said immediately.

Elijah’s grip on my hands tightened until it was almost painful. “No. Claire, it’s going to be a slaughter. You stay here where it’s safe.”

“Nowhere is safe, Elijah!” I countered, stepping into his space, forcing him to see the fire in my own eyes. “Mason was here. In our bedroom. If I stay here while you’re five miles away, I’ll spend every second wondering if another one is coming through the window. I’m faster now. I’m stronger. And the bond… you know you’ll be weaker if you can’t feel me right behind you.”

Elijah opened his mouth to argue, but Ethan cut him off. “She’s right, Elijah. The bond is a tether. If you leave her here, your focus will be split between the battle and the distance. Take her. Put her in the secondary line with the medic unit, but keep her within the circle of your scent. It’s the only way you’ll fight with your full strength.”

Elijah let out a frustrated, guttural sound, but he didn’t pull away. He pulled me into his chest, his arms wrapping around me with a crushing, desperate force.

He buried his face in the crook of my neck, breathing me in, marking me again and again with his scent.

“If you get a scratch,” he whispered against my skin, “I will level that mountain to the sea.”

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