The greater good requires personal sacrifice,he snapped—the first crack in his composed facade.Do you think I wanted this responsibility?I gave up a normal life, having a mate, my daughter, because someone must think beyond petty pack politics.
The casual dismissal of their relationship as something he’dgiven upsent fresh pain through her chest.But through the closed mate bond, she felt phantom echoes of Conall’s steady presence—the man who’d chosen connection over convenience, who’d fought to build something together.
You didn’t give up a normal daughter.You created a weapon.Her voice roughened with suppressed emotion.Shaped me from childhood to serve your agenda, pointed me at your enemies, used my grief as a tool.
I gave you purpose.Direction.Skills that have kept you alive.Paternal disappointment crept back into his tone.Everything you are, every strength you possess, comes from the foundation I provided.
Everything I am includes the ability to recognize manipulation when I hear it.The crude honesty felt good.You didn’t create me, Dad.You tried to program me.There’s a difference.
For the first time, Gregory looked genuinely surprised—as if her rejection of his narrative had never seriously occurred to him.
The mate bond,he said suddenly, understanding dawning.That Stewart twin.He’s changed your perspective, made you think personal connections matter more than duty.
The shift to discussing Conall sent alarm bells ringing.Gregory’s tone carried the same analytical interest he’d used when discussing other problems to be eliminated.
Leave him out of this.
I’m afraid that’s impossible.Gregory moved to another terminal, bringing up surveillance photos that made her blood freeze.Conall Stewart represents a significant complication to our operations.His influence on you, combined with his position in Sunburst’s leadership structure, makes him a priority target.
The photos showed Conall’s daily routines—leaving the apartment he shared with Quinton, coordinating with Anders, training with pack members.Someone had been watching him, mapping his patterns, for weeks—much longer than Nadine had even known him.
The interface technology we’ve developed allows for precise behavioral modification beyond Chimera’s original research,Gregory continued with clinical detachment.We can maintain his core personality while adjusting loyalties, priorities, emotional connections.He’ll remain useful to pack operations while serving our larger objectives.
You want to reprogram him.
I want to save him from the distraction of an impossible relationship.Mate bonds are powerful, but they’re not stronger than properly applied neural modification.Our improved protocol of a neural implant combined with chemical controls will make him an excellent agent.Gregory’s expression softened as if he was offering a gift.He’ll be happier without the confusion of conflicting loyalties.More effective when not compromised by emotional entanglements.
Rage flooded her system—pure, undiluted fury that made her wolf surge forward with deadly intent.The easy dismissal of what she and Conall had built, the reduction of their connection to mereemotional entanglement,struck deeper than physical torture.
You bastard,she breathed, the words carrying all the venom she could summon around her elongating fangs, her teeth already beginning to shift.
I’m someone who understands that personal desires must be subordinated to larger purposes.His voice remained calm.A lesson you failed to learn.
I learned plenty.Including how to recognize a sociopath.
His hand moved faster than she could track—the backhanded slap snapping her head sideways with enough force to split her lip.Blood filled her mouth, but the violence shocked her more than the pain.
He’d always been a hard man, but Gregory had never been casually cruel.Not to Nadine.
You will show respect,he said quietly, his voice carrying a dangerous calm.I am still your father.Still owed courtesy from someone I shaped from nothing.
Nadine spat blood out onto the concrete, meeting his gaze with her own defiant one.
What I’ve become is someone who can see through your lies,she said steadily despite the pain.Someone who knows the difference between strength and cruelty, between leadership and tyranny.Someone who’s found something worth protecting from parasites like you.
The claim that she’d found someone worth protecting seemed to strike him more deeply than her defiance.His expression cycled through surprise, disappointment, and something that might have been genuine grief.
The mate bond has compromised you completely,he said, and for the first time, his voice carried real emotion rather than calculated manipulation.My daughter, the weapon I forged through years of training, reduced to nothing more than mere sentiment and attachment.
It’s better than you could possibly understand.
Gregory stared at her for a long moment, and she caught a glimpse in his expression of the father she remembered from childhood.But it vanished before she could process it, replaced by cold calculation.
You were supposed to be my legacy,he said quietly.My successor.The one who would carry on the work when I was gone.
I’m nobody’s legacy but my own.
No,he replied, reaching for something beyond her sight.You’re a loose end that requires resolution.
