Chapter Ten
The elevator chimed, the heavy doors sliding open with a hiss.
Klarissa turned as five massive men stepped out.
The first two were on par with Jacob and Mason in size—broad shouldered, built like tanks.
The three behind them were even bigger, their presence filling the space until the air itself felt charged.
They weren’t as lean as Rune and Kamon, but their sheer bulk radiated danger.
Klarissa swallowed hard. Dominance rolled off them in waves, thickening the atmosphere and pressing against her skin like a storm front.
Kamon and Rune moved forward immediately, their shoulders back, welcoming the newcomers like long-lost family.
“Brothers,” Kamon said, clasping forearms with the first of them.
Rune mirrored him, a rare smile breaking his grim features.
But even as warmth sparked between the tigers and their comrades, Klarissa caught the way Kieran and Liam bristled.
The lions of Black Ridge squared off with the three largest men, their gazes locking in silent challenge.
The room vibrated with restrained violence.
Introductions were made quickly. “These two are wolf shifters,” Kamon said, gesturing. “Rafe and Dorian Drake.” The brothers inclined their heads politely, though Klarissa could feel the restrained energy humming under their skin.
Rune continued. “And these three are lion shifters—Caleb, Jackson, and Wyatt Holt.”
The Holt brothers stepped forward, and Klarissa’s pulse stuttered at the sheer dominance rolling off them. They were alphas in their own right, each gaze sharp, predatory. The air bristled with tension as Kieran and Liam matched their stance. For a long moment no one breathed.
Then Wyatt, the youngest, broke the silence with a grin. “Well, damn. Who’s the beauty?” His gaze slid shamelessly to Josie. “Tell me, sweetheart, do you like younger men?”
Josie’s mates growled low and dangerous. Liam spoke first. “Say that again, kitten, and you’ll be picking your teeth up off the floor.”
Kieran stepped in, voice colder. “Touch her, and you won’t live long enough to regret it.”
Wyatt held his hands up, smirking, though his eyes darted to the furious lions at Josie’s side. “Just asking a question.”
“Don’t.” Liam’s tone was a whip crack. Wyatt’s grin faltered.
Finally, with effort, they all found seats. Violet stomped across the room and threw the balcony windows wide, muttering about needing fresh air before all the testosterone suffocated her. A draft rushed in, thinning the thick fog of dominance just enough that everyone exhaled.
Once the silence eased, Rafe spoke first. “We heard the news and have to know if it’s true. Kamon. Rune. Have you really resigned from the ESE?”
Rune inclined his head. “It’s true. We pledged our fealty to Black Ridge. Our blood is theirs now.”
Dorian narrowed his eyes. “And that’s what you wanted? To trade one brotherhood for another?”
Kamon answered firmly. “No trade. No loss. Just growth. We wanted to belong where our mate belongs. This is where we’re needed.” He cast his eyes at the ESE members and landed on their leaders. “But if you have need of us, call. As long as it is all right with our Alpha, we will come.”
Jackson leaned forward, his grin edged with mockery. “And here you are. Playing house with a Pride. What’s next, boys? Book club meetings? Knitting circles? You actually have to ask permission to go on missions? That’s why we will never swear fealty to anyone.”
Kamon bristled, his tiger roaring in his chest. “Back off, Jackson. We’re here because we chose this. We pledged. With blood.”
Kieran didn’t move, didn’t raise his voice—he simply fixed Jackson with a glare so sharp it might have flayed skin from bone.
The effect was instant. Klarissa watched, wide-eyed, as Jackson actually trembled under the weight of it, sweat beading at his brow.
The room pulsed with the silent battle of dominance.
Rune leaned closer to her, voice pitched low. “That’s Kieran exerting his dominance. Telling Jackson his lion is bigger, meaner, and not to fuck him off.”
Jackson cursed, then slowly bared his throat in submission. “Fine. Fuck. Point made.”
Caleb barked out a laugh. “Serves you right, little brother. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before running your mouth.”
The tension eased with that, though the undercurrent of dominance never truly faded. Then Victor Hrytsenko cleared his throat. “Enough posturing. We came for more than greetings. You need to know what we found.”
Ivan stepped up beside him. “Columbus. The crime scene. And a few others since then. You’re going to want to hear this.”
The room fell silent again, all eyes turning toward the ESE bears and their allies. Klarissa’s stomach knotted as she braced herself. Whatever they had brought with them, it wasn’t going to be good.
Victor’s deep voice carried across the room like rolling thunder. “The scene in Columbus was worse than you heard. Eight wolves, dead within minutes. Three humans—two waitresses and a trucker—collapsed at the diner where the pack was eating. No chance to save them.”
Josie’s hand flew to her mouth, eyes wide. “God...”
Klarissa’s chest squeezed tight. She’d seen the data reports but hearing it aloud—hearing the weight in Victor’s tone—made it real in a way lines of code never could.
Ivan’s jaw ticked as he added, “It wasn’t just death. The toxin left a trace, a signature. Same base compound your father’s been working on, Klarissa. But it’s refined. Controlled. Someone’s perfecting it.”
Her stomach dropped. “Refined how?” Her voice came out smaller than she intended.
Victor’s eyes softened, just slightly. “Less collateral damage than we expected. Humans weren’t supposed to die. Wrong dosage. Wrong dispersal. He’s getting closer.”
Violet slammed her palm against the table. “Closer? That bastard’s already too damn close! People are dead—shifters and humans both!”
Rafe spoke then, calm but edged with steel. “It’s not just Columbus. We’ve tracked similar chemical signatures at two smaller sites—one outside Lafayette, another in Crescent City. Both written off as freak accidents by human authorities. But we know better.”
The room went very still. Even Kieran’s lion seemed to coil tighter under his skin, dominance vibrating in the silence.
Klarissa’s thoughts whirled. Three sites. Progressing faster than she’d calculated but heading in this direction. Her fingers itched for a keyboard, to tear apart the data again, to find the flaw before it was too late.
Jackson muttered, “Sounds like a war’s already started.”
“No,” Kieran said, his voice a growl. “That was a warning shot. War comes when he brings it to our doorstep.” His gaze flicked to Klarissa, hot and sharp. “Which he will.”
Her pulse thudded in her ears. He was right. She could almost feel Caruso’s shadow stretching toward them.
Josie reached across the table, her hand brushing Klarissa’s. “We’ll be ready. He doesn’t get to win. Not this time.”
Klarissa nodded, but inside she wasn’t so sure. She knew the formula, the way the compounds could be shifted, altered, and weaponized. If her father really had perfected it—if he had taken her beginnings and turned them into endings—the cost could be higher than any of them imagined.
Dorian leaned forward, his wolf sharp in his eyes. “Then we stop him before he tests it again. He’s escalating. That means he’s close to deployment, here in Chicago.”
Caleb Holt folded his arms. “Question is, who the hell is helping him? No way one man refines that compound without a lab and serious backing.”
Rune’s expression tightened. “He has both. You know he does. He always had supporters, people who wanted his brilliance more than they feared his madness.”
Victor nodded. “We think someone inside the councils is funneling him resources. Access codes, clearances, supply routes. Columbus was too clean, too organized. He had help.”
Violet swore under her breath. “Which means we’ve got a traitor.”
Liam’s jaw flexed as his gaze swept the room. “Then the circle of trust stays small. We take this to the Pride and ESE only. No one else until we know who we’re dealing with.”
Wyatt grinned, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Finally something I agree with. Traitors bleed easy.”
Klarissa’s throat tightened. She wanted to argue, to remind them that this wasn’t about bloodlust, but the words caught in her chest. They weren’t wrong. Her father’s work was turning into something none of them could contain if they didn’t move fast.
Victor placed a map on the table, sliding it across. Red circles marked each site. “He’s either here already or fucking close. We need to move to intercept, but we need Black Ridge on board. Your Pride has reach we don’t.”
Kieran’s body seemed to swell like his other self was pushing for supremacy, but his voice was steady. “Then you’ll have us. We don’t let threats grow in our shadow.”
All around the table, dominance hummed and resolve settled like iron. Klarissa drew in a breath, her chest tight but steady. Whatever storm was coming, they would face it together.
****
The meeting splintered fast once the map hit the table.
Too many voices, too much fury, and every dominant shifter in the room wanting to lead the charge.
Rune felt it like static in his bones. Warzone mode—this was what it looked like.
Strategy demanded order, but the air was thick with challenge and pride.
Violet’s place had become the hub, her so-called Bat Cave repurposed into a war room.
Monitors cast pale light across faces lined with tension, while the sound of weapons being prepped carried from the adjoining room.
Rune cataloged it all automatically—who stood where, who bristled at whose presence, where the weakest link in the chain might snap.
Years with the ESE had trained him to see patterns of fracture before they broke open.