Chapter 5 - The Brother Beneath the Mountain
Kellen stared at the darkness.
"I don't have a brother."
Rowan didn't answer.
The creature stepped beneath the emergency lights.
Mara expected a monster.
What she saw was worse.
A man.
At least he had once been one.
He was enormous, nearly seven feet tall, barefoot, wearing torn gray pants. Black branching veins covered his chest and arms. His body shook as though every muscle were fighting another impulse.
His face resembled Kellen.
Not closely.
But enough.
Same dark eyes.
Same jaw.
Same shape around the brow.
The man looked at Rowan.
"Dad?"
Kellen slowly turned.
Rowan's face had lost all color.
"Jonah."
The man smiled.
Then he charged.
Kellen shoved Mara aside.
Jonah hit him with enough force to throw both of them into the concrete wall.
Mara screamed.
Kellen recovered almost instantly.
He struck Jonah across the jaw.
The sound was sickening.
Jonah barely moved.
He laughed.
"My little brother."
Kellen hit him again.
This time Jonah stumbled.
Rowan shouted, "Stop! He's sick!"
Kellen ducked a swing.
"He seems energetic."
Jonah grabbed Kellen by the throat.
Mara seized a metal emergency extinguisher and struck Jonah across the shoulder.
He turned.
His eyes found her.
Everything stopped.
Jonah released Kellen.
Mara froze.
Jonah inhaled.
"No."
Evelyn stepped between them.
"Jonah."
His face twisted.
"You."
"I'm sorry."
"You left me."
"I tried to get you out."
"You left me."
His voice became a roar.
Kellen attacked before Jonah could reach Evelyn.
They crashed into a steel door.
Rowan shouted at the seven women.
"Move!"
Everyone ran toward the exit.
Mara stayed.
Kellen saw her.
"Go!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
For a fraction of a second, Jonah looked between them.
Then his expression softened strangely.
"You found her."
Kellen stopped.
"What?"
Jonah smiled through blood.
"The eighth."
Mara whispered, "How does everyone know me?"
Jonah's laugh became sad.
"Because we've been waiting for you since before you knew our names."
A sharp electronic tone sounded.
Gas vents opened in the ceiling.
Evelyn looked up.
"Run!"
White vapor flooded the corridor.
Kellen grabbed Mara.
Rowan caught Jonah before he collapsed.
Elise and the others reached the stairwell.
Kellen's vision blurred.
He dragged Mara toward the door.
She stumbled.
"Kellen..."
"I've got you."
The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a figure standing behind the glass observation window above the corridor.
An older man.
Perfect suit.
Silver hair.
Killian Croft.
Smiling.
Kellen woke strapped to a chair.
His wrists were bound with reinforced cuffs.
Mara sat across from him.
Also restrained.
He jerked against the metal.
"Kellen."
"I'm fine."
"You've been unconscious almost an hour."
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
He checked her anyway with his eyes.
No blood.
No obvious injuries.
"Where are the others?"
"I don't know."
A door opened.
Killian entered.
Kellen became still.
Some anger burned hot.
This didn't.
This anger became ice.
"You look well for a corpse."
Killian smiled.
"You look disappointing for a king."
Mara watched them.
This man had raised Kellen.
She could see it immediately.
Not biological similarity.
Something worse.
The way Kellen's body expected attack even when Killian merely approached.
Learned vigilance.
Childhood made physical.
Killian stopped before him.
"I gave you everything."
"You gave me lies."
"I gave you discipline."
"You murdered my mother."
Killian's eyes cooled.
"Rowan told you that?"
"Evelyn did."
"Neither knows what happened."
"Then tell me."
Killian leaned closer.
"Your mother chose him."
Kellen said nothing.
"I loved Helena Croft. She chose Rowan Mercer. She became pregnant with his child while carrying my name."
"And that justified killing her?"
"I didn't kill her."
Kellen searched his heartbeat.
Steady.
Either truth or a man who had spent decades mastering lies.
"Who did?"
"Rowan."
Kellen's stare changed.
Mara whispered, "Why would Rowan kill her?"
Killian looked at her.
"Because Helena refused to give Kellen to the Mercer line."
Mara shook her head.
"Rowan said you stole him."
"Of course he did."
Killian walked toward her.
Kellen's voice cut across the room.
"Stay away from her."
Killian stopped.
Then smiled.
"There."
"What?"
"That."
He looked almost pleased.
"The instinct."
Kellen's fists tightened.
"You orchestrated all this to watch me protect someone?"
"To confirm what you are."
"What am I?"
"The first stable Alpha heir born in generations."
Mara said, "You don't care about him. You care about whatever you think his blood can do."
Killian glanced at her.
"Smart."
"Untie us."
"No."
"Then don't compliment me."
Killian laughed.
Kellen almost admired her nerve.
Almost.
Killian pulled up a chair.
"The Croft and Mercer lines have been degrading for decades. Jonah proved it."
Kellen's expression changed.
"You experimented on him."
"I tried to save him."
"By turning him into that?"
"Without treatment, he'd have died at nineteen."
"Maybe he would have preferred that."
Killian's jaw tightened.
Mara saw it.
A wound.
Not remorse.
Possession.
Killian continued.
"Jonah inherited unstable Mercer traits. You inherited stability because of your mother's Croft markers."
"And Mara?"
"Carries the Vale modifier."
Mara looked disgusted.
"I'm standing right here."
"Exactly."
Killian leaned toward Kellen.
"With her, your line could remain stable permanently."
Kellen stared.
"You brought seven women into my life hoping I'd bond with one."
"They were preliminary tests."
"You terrorized them."
"I warned them."
"You imprisoned them."
"To protect them from Jonah."
Kellen laughed without humor.
"You have an explanation for everything."
"Because I built everything."
"Except me."
Killian's face changed.
There it was.
The real wound.
Kellen understood.
All those years of punishment.
The impossible standards.
The contempt.
Killian had raised another man's son while trying to shape him into proof that blood mattered less than control.
Mara saw Kellen understand it.
Killian stood.
"At sunrise, this ends."
"How?"
"You choose."
Kellen's eyes narrowed.
"Between?"
"Mara's freedom and the seven women."
Mara said, "They're not your prisoners."
"They are until morning."
Kellen looked at the clock.
Three forty-six.
"Why sunrise?"
Killian smiled.
"Because Jonah's treatment wears off."
Kellen went still.
"What treatment?"
"The one keeping him sedated."
Mara looked toward the door.
Killian continued.
"When he wakes, he will follow the strongest compatible scent."
Mara.
Kellen's face emptied.
"You brought her here as bait."
"No."
Killian smiled.
"As proof."
Kellen lunged so violently the steel chair lifted from the floor.
Killian stepped back.
"Kellen."
"If he touches her—"
"What? You'll kill him?"
Kellen stopped.
Killian's smile deepened.
"Your brother?"
Silence.
"That's the test."
Mara stared at Killian.
"You want them to fight."
"I want to know which son survives."
The door closed behind him.
Kellen pulled against the cuffs until blood appeared at his wrists.
Mara said, "Stop."
He didn't.
"Kellen."
Metal groaned.
"Kellen!"
He looked at her.
"We're getting out."
"How?"
"First, you stop breaking your hands."
He breathed hard.
Mara glanced toward the wall camera.
"He's watching."
"I know."
"So give him what he expects."
Kellen understood.
He stopped struggling.
Minutes passed.
Mara lowered her head as if defeated.
Kellen leaned back.
"Can you reach the pendant?"
She subtly moved her shoulder.
"My mother took it off."
"No. She put it in your coat pocket before we entered."
Mara remembered.
Evelyn's hand brushing her side.
She shifted.
Her fingers reached the pocket.
The silver pendant was there.
"What am I supposed to do with it?"
"Break it."
"Why?"
"Tracking devices have batteries."
She snapped the pendant against the chair arm.
A tiny lithium cell and a narrow metal contact fell into her palm.
Kellen nodded.
"Short the cuff panel."
Mara reached awkwardly toward the electronic lock beside her wrist.
Spark.
Nothing.
Again.
The camera light turned.
Kellen stared directly at it.
"Come on."
Third spark.
Click.
Mara's cuff opened.
She freed herself.
Then Kellen.
They reached the door.
Locked.
Kellen pulled once.
The steel frame groaned.
Mara stared.
He pulled again.
The lock tore free.
"Subtle," she whispered.
"Not a strength."
They ran into the corridor.
No guards.
That worried him.
They found the seven women in a medical room.
Evelyn with them.
Rowan was missing.
"Where is he?" Kellen asked.
Evelyn looked toward the lower level.
"With Jonah."
"Why?"
"He's trying to give him another dose."
An alarm sounded.
Red lights flashed.
A computerized voice announced:
Containment failure.
Kellen closed his eyes.
"Of course."
A scream echoed below.
Rowan.
They ran.
At the lower laboratory, they found Rowan against a wall.
Bleeding.
Jonah stood over him.
Fully awake.
Kellen stepped forward.
"Jonah."
His brother turned.
Then Mara entered behind him.
Jonah inhaled.
His entire body changed.
"Kellen," Evelyn whispered. "Get her out."
Jonah smiled.
Too wide.
"Eight."
He moved toward Mara.
Kellen blocked him.
Jonah's voice broke into something almost childlike.
"Move."
"No."
"She's mine."
Kellen's eyes darkened.
"No one is yours."
Jonah roared.
Then every door in the facility locked.
Killian's voice filled the room.
"Good."
Kellen looked toward the observation window.
May you like
Killian stood behind the glass.
"Now let's see which son she chooses."
