Chapter 8 - The Bullet Meant for the Alpha
The smell of Ronan’s blood erased the room.
Juliet saw only red.
The silver bullet had entered beneath his left shoulder.
He tried to rise.
His front leg collapsed.
The gunman chambered another round.
Something ancient opened inside Juliet.
Her command was no longer a voice.
It was force.
Every wolf in Moonstone Hall felt it.
Every window rattled.
Every light fixture shook.
“NO.”
The human attacker froze.
Not because her Alpha power could command him.
Because the wolves around him surged as one.
Crescent Ridge.
Blackwood.
Mercer.
Neutral council guards.
For one extraordinary second, every pack distinction vanished.
They moved for Juliet.
The attackers were overwhelmed in less than a minute.
Juliet shifted back beside Ronan.
She did not care that she was naked until Maya threw a coat around her shoulders.
“Move,” Maya ordered.
Juliet moved.
Maya knelt beside Ronan.
He had shifted back to human form, pale and sweating.
The wound hissed faintly where silver poisoned the tissue.
Juliet grabbed his hand.
His eyes opened.
“Hey,” he said.
She stared at him.
“Hey?”
His mouth twitched weakly.
“You look angry.”
“You got shot.”
“I noticed.”
“You pushed me out of the way.”
“That also happened.”
“Stop being funny.”
“I’m not very funny.”
“That is the first intelligent thing you’ve said.”
His fingers tightened around hers.
Then his face twisted with pain.
Maya cut open the shirt around the wound.
“Silver fragment is still inside.”
Juliet’s stomach dropped.
“Can you remove it?”
“Not here.”
Council medics arrived with a stretcher.
Ronan resisted until Juliet leaned close.
“If you argue with the doctors, I will command you onto that stretcher.”
His eyes opened.
“You wouldn’t.”
Juliet let a fraction of power into her voice.
“Try me.”
Even injured, he smiled.
“Yes, Alpha.”
They transported him to Blackwood Medical Center, a private hospital forty minutes away by helicopter.
Juliet sat beside him the entire flight.
The mate bond throbbed between them.
Not marked.
Not completed.
But alive.
She could feel his pain like heat beneath her skin.
At the hospital, surgeons took Ronan away.
Juliet stood in the corridor with blood on her hands.
Bradley approached slowly.
He had a cut above one eye.
Juliet’s wolf bristled.
“He saved you,” Bradley said.
“Yes.”
Bradley looked toward the operating-room doors.
“I would have too.”
Juliet turned to him.
“Don’t.”
His face tightened.
“I’m not trying to make this about me.”
“You just did.”
He looked away.
After a moment, he nodded.
“You’re right.”
Juliet was too tired to enjoy the admission.
Bradley sat in a chair across the hall.
“My father escaped during the attack.”
Juliet froze.
“What?”
“The temporary guards transporting him were hit near the service corridor. One was killed. Grant disappeared.”
Juliet closed her eyes.
Of course.
“What about the shooters?”
“Two alive. One dead.”
“Who hired them?”
“They’re refusing to talk.”
Juliet opened her eyes.
“Humans?”
“Yes.”
That explained why her command had not stopped them.
Stella appeared at the end of the corridor.
Her sweater was covered in her father’s blood.
Juliet stood.
“Thomas?”
“In surgery.”
Stella’s face was numb.
“The bullet missed his heart.”
Juliet nodded.
Stella looked at Bradley.
Then at Juliet.
“My father told me something before they took him in.”
Juliet’s pulse jumped.
“My brother?”
Stella nodded.
“He said the infant was transferred under a false name to a private pediatric facility.”
“Where?”
“Blackwood Children’s Hospital.”
Juliet stared.
Ronan’s family hospital.
Stella continued.
“The transfer happened the same night your parents died.”
Bradley stood.
“Blackwood knew?”
Juliet’s head snapped toward him.
“Not Ronan.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
The certainty surprised even her.
Bradley opened his mouth.
Juliet’s glare stopped him.
Stella said quietly, “Thomas claimed Lucian Blackwood arranged the transfer.”
Juliet’s stomach tightened.
Lucian.
Again.
The brother who betrayed her parents.
The brother who later died.
The brother Grant said discovered something in Mara’s blood work.
Maya emerged from surgery forty minutes later.
Her cap was still on.
Juliet stood so quickly the chair tipped backward.
“He’s alive,” Maya said.
Juliet’s knees nearly gave out.
“The bullet missed his heart and major artery. We removed the silver. His wolf is already healing.”
Juliet covered her mouth.
Maya caught her shoulder.
“He’s going to recover.”
Juliet closed her eyes.
For several seconds, everything inside her went quiet.
Then the mate bond pulsed.
Warm.
Alive.
She laughed through tears.
Maya smiled.
“You can see him in a few minutes.”
Ronan woke near midnight.
Juliet sat beside his bed.
His eyes opened slowly.
“You stayed.”
“Apparently I enjoy hospitals.”
His mouth curved.
“You should get some sleep.”
“You were shot six hours ago.”
“Yes. You’ve mentioned it.”
Juliet leaned closer.
“Do it again and I’ll kill you myself.”
“Efficient.”
Her eyes filled.
Ronan’s smile vanished.
“Hey.”
Juliet looked away.
His hand moved slowly over the blanket.
She took it.
“I thought you were going to die.”
“I didn’t.”
“You don’t know what that felt like.”
His thumb moved over her knuckles.
“I know exactly what it felt like when the rifle pointed at you.”
Juliet looked at him.
Ronan’s eyes were dark and serious.
“I didn’t make a decision, Juliet. My body moved before thought existed.”
She swallowed.
“That isn’t romantic.”
“No.”
“It’s terrifying.”
“Yes.”
She stared at his hand in hers.
“The bond is getting stronger.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if we keep refusing it?”
Ronan was quiet.
“Nothing fatal. We may feel each other more strongly. Distance may become uncomfortable. But you remain free.”
Juliet looked at him.
“You really researched that.”
“I had several hours while you were sleeping Christmas night.”
“You researched how not to claim your mate?”
“I researched how to make sure fate didn’t become another cage.”
Juliet’s throat tightened.
She leaned forward and kissed him.
Ronan went completely still.
The kiss was not dramatic.
No fireworks.
No audience.
Just warmth.
Choice.
When Juliet pulled back, Ronan’s eyes had turned gold.
“That,” he said roughly, “was unfair.”
She smiled.
“You can survive a bullet.”
“I’m less confident about this.”
She kissed him again.
This time, his hand rose to her cheek.
He still did not pull her closer until she moved first.
When the kiss ended, Juliet rested her forehead against his.
“I’m not ready for a mark.”
“I know.”
“But I wanted that.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“So did I.”
At 1:17 a.m., Maya returned carrying a tablet.
“I hate to interrupt whatever painfully restrained thing this is.”
Juliet sat back.
Ronan glared at her.
“What?” Maya asked. “You’ve been impossible for years. Let me enjoy this.”
She handed Juliet the tablet.
“Security found something in the old Blackwood Children’s Hospital archive.”
Juliet’s heart began pounding.
A patient record filled the screen.
Male infant.
Approximately thirty-two weeks gestation.
Emergency delivery following maternal trauma.
Transfer authorized by Lucian Blackwood.
Birth mother: Mara Dawson.
Juliet gripped the tablet.
The child had no legal name.
Only a temporary identifier.
Baby D.
Then, at the bottom of the page, an adoption transfer.
New guardian: Helen and Robert Avery.
Residence: Burlington, Vermont.
Juliet’s eyes blurred.
“Is he alive?”
Maya nodded.
“We found a current identity.”
Juliet looked up.
Maya turned the page.
A photograph appeared.
A man in blue surgical scrubs stood beside a hospital sign.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Thirty-one years old.
Dr. Daniel Avery.
Pediatric trauma surgeon.
Juliet stared.
“My brother is a doctor.”
Ronan looked at the photograph.
Then his expression changed.
“What?” Juliet asked.
He pointed to the logo on Daniel’s scrub jacket.
Blackwood Children’s Network.
Juliet looked from the screen to Ronan.
“He works for your hospital system.”
Ronan stared at the photograph.
“I’ve met him.”
Juliet’s breath caught.
“When?”
“Three months ago. At a foundation dinner.”
“You met my brother?”
“I didn’t know.”
She believed him.
Maya scrolled farther.
“There’s more.”
A note had been attached to Daniel’s transfer record eleven years earlier.
Handwritten.
If Grant learns the boy survived, he will use him against the girl. Keep both children apart until evidence is secure.
L.B.
Lucian Blackwood.
Juliet stared at the initials.
The man she had been told betrayed her parents had saved her brother.
Ronan closed his eyes.
“My brother wasn’t working for Grant at the end.”
Maya nodded slowly.
“Looks like he was trying to undo what he’d done.”
Juliet touched the screen.
“Grant killed him.”
Ronan’s eyes opened.
Gold burned through them.
This time Juliet understood the fury.
Not only hers.
His.
Their families had been destroyed by the same man.
Ronan’s phone buzzed on the bedside table.
Maya picked it up.
Her face changed.
“What?” Ronan asked.
She turned the screen toward them.
A security alert from Blackwood Estate.
FIRE ALARM — NORTH ARCHIVE WING.
Then a second alert.
PERIMETER BREACH.
Juliet’s blood ran cold.
Grant.
He was not running away.
May you like
He was destroying the evidence that could prove everything.
And perhaps more importantly, he now knew there was another Dawson heir alive.
