HIS to CLAIM ALPHA ZEKE

LAYLA'S

POV

Callum, one of Theseus's personal guards, ran into the lab with his face flushed red from exertion like he'd sprinted the entire way here.

"Alpha," he gasped out while trying to catch his breath. "We have a problem at the surface."

"What kind of problem?" Theseus demanded while already "moving toward the door like his instincts told him this was going to be bad news.

"Zeke is here." Callum straightened up despite still breathing hard. "He's at the main entrance to the territory demanding to see you."

The words hit the room like a bomb going off. Everyone froze in place while the full implications sank in because if Zeke was here that meant he'd already figured out Theseus's involvement and he wasn't coming for a friendly diplomatic chat.

"How did he find us this fast?" Brock pulled out his gun and checked the clip like that would somehow help if Zeke's entire

warrior force decided to storm the building.

"Does it matter how he found us?

" I snapped while my mind raced through options and escape routes. "What matters is he's here and we need to figure out what we're going to do about it."

"I'll go talk to him and buy us some time." Theseus headed for the door while already shifting into his Alpha mode where he became all authority and controlled power.

"The rest of you stay down here and keep the boy quiet because if Zeke finds out we have his son in this

building there's no talking our way out of what comes next."

"What are you going to tell him?" Fatima asked while wrapping her arms around herself.

"I'll figure it out when I get up there

." Theseus paused in the doorway and looked back at all of us with an expression that promised consequences if we messed this up. "No one makes a sound and no one does anything stupid until I get back with a better sense of what we're dealing with."

He left with Callum following close

behind and the heavy door sealed shut with a metallic clang that echoed through the underground space. The silence that followed felt suffocating like the concrete walls were pressing in from all sides.

I moved to Golden's bedside and stared down at his pale face while my thoughts spun in circles.

Zeke was upstairs right now probably demanding answers and making threats and he had no idea his son lay unconscious just one floor below his feet. Part of me wanted to march up there and tell him

everything just to see his face when he realized how close he'd come to finding Golden without actually succeeding.

But that would ruin everything we'd worked for and I hadn't

come this far to give up now just because things got risky.

"We need to move him,"

Brock said suddenly while looking around the lab like he expected Zeke to come crashing through the ceiling at any moment. "If Theseus can't convince Zeke to leave peacefully and they start searching the building this is the first place

they'll look."

"Where exactly do you suggest we move him?" I asked while gesturing to all the medical equipment keeping Golden alive. "We can't exactly carry an unconscious child through the territory without someone noticing."

"There's another exit through the maintenance tunnels." Brock moved to the far wall and pressed something that made a hidden panel slide open to reveal a dark

passageway. "It leads to an abandoned warehouse about two miles from here and we can hide there until this blows over."

"That child cannot be moved in his current condition," Fatima protested while positioning herself between us and Golden's bed like she could physically stop us.

"His vitals are already unstable and transporting him could trigger the premature emergence we've been trying to prevent."

"Then I guess we better move fast and hope for the best because staying here is guaranteed to end badly for all of

us." Brock started disconnecting the medical equipment with rough efficiency that suggested he didn't actually

care whether Golden survived the move or not. "Help me get him ready to transport."

I hesitated for just a moment while looking down at the small boy who'd caused all this chaos without even meaning to. He looked so fragile lying there with tubes in his arms and monitors tracking every heartbeat, his life hung by the thinnest thread imaginable.

Then I thought about how Zeke had abandoned me when he chose Cecelia over our bond. I thought about watching them play happy family if he gets Golden back while

I pretended everything was fine. I thought about the power contained in this child's blood that could change everything if we could just hold on long enough to take it.

I started helping Brock disconnect the equipment.

Fatima made a sound of disgust before turning away like she couldn't watch what we were doing.

"You're going to kill him."

"Maybe," I agreed while carefully removing the IV from Golden's tiny arm. "But at least we'll go down fighting instead of just handing him

back and hoping Zeke shows us mercy."

"There's something seriously wrong with both of you," Fatima said but she didn't try to stop us as we worked to make Golden mobile enough to move through the tunnels.

Brock lifted the unconscious child with surprising gentleness considering how rough he'd been with the equipment.

Golden's head lolled against Brock's shoulder and his breathing got even more shallow like his body knew something bad was happening even

if his mind stayed trapped in whatever dreams unconscious children had.

"Let's go before Theseus comes back and stops us." Brock headed for the hidden tunnel entrance while I grabbed the portable medical bag Fatima had prepared earlier with emergency supplies.

"This is a mistake," Fatima called after us but she didn't follow as we disappeared into the dark passageway with Golden's life literally in our hands.

The tunnel smelled like mold and

old concrete while we moved through the darkness with only Brock's phone flashlight to guide us. I could hear water dripping somewhere in the distance and feel the weight of the earth pressing down from above like the whole structure

might collapse at any moment.

Golden made a small sound against Brock's shoulder, something between a whimper and a cry that made my chest tighten with emotions. His little hand clutched at Brock's shirt like even unconscious he was searching for

something to hold onto.

"How much further?" I asked while trying not to think about what was happening above ground between Zeke and Theseus.

"Another mile or so." Brock adjusted his grip on Golden while ducking under a low hanging pipe. "Just keep moving and try not to make too much noise because these tunnels carry sound further than you'd think."

We walked in silence after that while I counted my steps and tried to calculate how long we had

before everything fell apart completely. Zeke wasn't stupid and if Theseus couldn't provide satisfactory answers to whatever questions were being asked then it wouldn't take long for the investigation to expand into searching the entire

territory.

And when they found this lab with all its equipment set up for extracting magic from a child, there would be no talking our way out of the consequences.

Golden whimpered again and his body jerked in Brock's arms like something inside him was fighting

to wake up. His eyes moved rapidly beneath closed lids and his breathing turned ragged.

"Something's wrong," Brock said while stopping in the middle of the tunnel. "He's seizing or something."

I moved closer with my phone light and saw that Golden's skin had gone from pale to almost gray. His little chest heaved like he couldn't get enough air and his fingers had started to curl inward.

"It's the premature emergence," I realized with growing dread. "Moving him triggered exactly what

Fatima warned us about."

"What do we do?" Brock looked at me with actual fear in his eyes for

I stared down at the dying child in his arms and felt the weight of every choice that had led us to this moment pressing down like those tons of earth above our heads. We

could turn back and try to get him medical help but that might mean facing Zeke. We could keep going and hope he stabilized once we reached the warehouse but that seemed increasingly unlikely based on how fast he was declining.

Or we could finish what we started and extract the last of his magic right here in this tunnel before his body gave out completely.

Before I could decide which option seemed least terrible, Golden's eyes snapped open and they glowed with an unnatural blue light that shouldn't have been possible for a child his age.

His wolf was emerging.