Stop.
The command came from someplace deeper than conscious thought, deeper than the interface could reach.
Remember what you learned.Remember what the mate bond really means.
The connection hadn’t been about dependency or consuming passion that destroyed rational thought.It had been about choice—the conscious decision to make someone else’s well-being as important as your own survival.
Conall had made that choice.Had demonstrated it every time he’d supported her through devastating revelations about Gregory’s nature, every time he’d chosen partnership over pack politics, every time he’d offered protection without demanding submission.
The doubt cracked and fell away, taking with it the last of the interface’s hold on her decision-making processes.
You’re wrong about the mate bond,she said, adjusting position to keep Dr.Petrov between herself and the growing number of weapons being drawn.Wrong about what makes people strong.Wrong about what I’m willing to do to protect the people I choose to love.
Love is weakness,Gregory replied with absolute conviction.It makes you predictable.Vulnerable.It’s why your mate will choose familiar loyalty over uncertain connection when pressure becomes too great.
Maybe,Nadine agreed, recognizing the truth in his assessment while rejecting its assumptions.But even if he does, even if the mate bond isn’t enough to overcome a twin bond—it was still worth choosing.Still worth fighting for.
Still worth dying for, apparently,one of the operatives said, raising his weapon despite Dr.Petrov’s position as human shield.
We’ll see,Nadine replied and smiled with the kind of anticipation that could have made a professional killer take a step back.
Then she moved.
CHAPTER 25
THE LABORATORY BECAME Awhirlwind of violence as Nadine flowed between threats with fluid grace.Years of Gregory’s instruction, meant to make her the perfect weapon for his purposes, now turned against his operatives with devastating effect.
Dr.Petrov became a living shield and strategic asset, her body positioned to block lines of fire while Nadine used the laboratory’s equipment as improvised weapons.Surgical instruments became throwing knives.Chemical containers became caustic distractions.Monitoring equipment became electronic barriers between herself and increasingly desperate gunfire.
Take her alive!Gregory shouted over the chaos, authority carrying even as his operation collapsed around him.The interface technology requires a living subject!
But his operatives were learning what Nadine had spent years trying to forget—that Gregory’s training had created something far more dangerous than a compliant asset.She was an apex predator who’d been pretending to be domesticated, and now the pretense was over.
The first operative went down to a precisely thrown scalpel that found the gap in his body armor.The second caught a face full of industrial solvent that sent him screaming toward the emergency shower station.The third found himself on the wrong end of his partner’s weapon.
Around them, the operatives were learning that although Gregory Torrance had been considered one of the most dangerous individuals in covert shifter operations, his daughter was better.
Even if you escape,Gregory said, falling back on the last psychological weapon in his arsenal,even if you somehow warn your precious pack about what’s coming—you’re still my creation.Still built from everything I taught you.How long before you become exactly what I made you to be?
The question struck at her fear that Gregory’s influence had shaped her so fundamentally that she could never truly escape his vision of what she should become.
A killer.A manipulator.
Someone who saw other people as assets to be used rather than individuals to be protected.
But even as doubt whispered poison into her mind, another voice cut through her uncertainty—Conall’s, so real that she could almost believe she was really hearing him rather than imagining it.
You are whoever you choose to be.
You are my mate.
You want to know what I learned during my time with the Sunburst Pack?she asked, using Dr.Petrov’s body to shield herself as she moved toward the lab’s exit.I learned that strength comes from protecting people, not from controlling them.That real power comes from building trust, not from exploiting fear.
With one hand, Nadine reached behind her and opened the emergency door, meeting Gregory’s gaze as she backed away.
Most importantly,she continued,I learned that love isn’t weakness.It’s the thing that makes all the knowledge worth having.
This isn’t over,Gregory said, ignoring her words.Even if you warn them, even if you somehow prevent the primary operation—I know you too well.Know your patterns, your psychology, your fundamental need to save everyone.
