His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 289

Chapter 289

Claire’s POV

The air in the Manor had curdled. It was no longer the scent of home-of cedar, wet earth, and the comforting warmth of the pack. Now, it smelled of ozone and suspicion.

The medical crates from the Regency sat in the courtyard like Trojan horses, their sleek, grey surfaces reflecting the moon with a clinical coldness that felt like an insult to the ancient stone 68 bpm.

I stood by the window of the library, watching the shadows stretch across the grass. My body felt like a tuned instrument that had been played too hard; the “hollowness” from the first discharge hadn’t gone away.

Instead, it had settled into my bones, a quiet, humming void that made me hypersensitive to every shift in the air.

“You haven’t touched your tea, Claire.”

I turned to see Elijah standing in the doorway.

He looked like a man who was holding a crumbling ceiling up with his bare hands. His shoulders were tense, his jaw perpetually locked. The golden light in his eyes was muted, flickering with the stress of a thousand arguments with the elders.

“I can’t taste anything,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “Everything tastes like… pennies. Like metal.”

Elijah walked over, his presence a localized storm of heat.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind, pulling me back into the solid strength of his chest. For a moment, the static in my head cleared. The bond was a low, vibrating hum-a sanctuary.

“It’s the sensors,” he murmured into my

“Silas and the tech team are installing the hair.

Regency’s border dampeners tonight. They say it’ll mask our heat signatures from the Southern satellites. It’s supposed to make us invisible.”

“Invisible,” I repeated. The word felt wrong. “Or blind?”

I didn’t have time to explain the feeling. The peace of the moment was shattered by a sudden, jagged spike in the bond-not from Elijah, but from the pack outside. It was a flare of pure, unfiltered aggression.

Then, the scream began.

It wasn’t a wolf’s howl. It was a human sound-a raw, agonizing cry of pain that echoed up from the courtyard.

Elijah was moving before the sound even finished. He shifted mid-stride, his clothes tearing as his massive, silver-grey form slammed through the library doors.

I followed, my heart hammering against my ribs, the sapphire light in my veins surging in response to the chaos.

The courtyard was a nightmare of blue sparks and shifting shadows.

In the center of the yard, three of the younger wolves-including Kael, the messenger who had helped me in the tunnels- were collapsed on the ground.

They were convulsing, their skin rippling with a sickly, violet light. It wasn’t the natural glow of an Anchor; it was a digital infection.

“What did you do?!” Elijah’s roar shook the very glass in the windows.

Standing over the crates was Kane. The elder wolf’s face was twisted in a mask of righteous fury, his hands gripping a small, pulsing device he had ripped from the side of a medical container.

“I saved us!” Kane yelled back, his eyes glowing a manic, desperate red. “You brought their poison into our home, Elijah! You let the girl sell our strength for these…. these trinkets!”

“Kane, put it down,” Silas commanded, stepping out of the shadows with his claws extended. “That’s a proximity sensor. It’s not meant to be triggered manually.”

“It’s not a sensor,” Kane spat, throwing the device to the ground. I didn’t shatter; it began to hum, a high-frequency whine. that made my teeth ache. “I opened the crates, Silas. I looked beneath the bandages and the serums. They didn’t send medicine. They sent inhibitors.

They’ve been tagging us. Every wolf who took the ‘treatment’ is being mapped. They aren’t hiding us from the satellites- they’re painting a target on our hearts!”

I looked at the convulsing wolves on the ground. The violet light was intensified near the sites of their injuries-the places where the Regency’s “healing” serum had been applied.

“It’s a resonance tap,” I whispered, the

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