Chapter 363 - 97: High Price

Dane felt Destiny’s fear sharpen through their bond. He moved forward again, ignoring the sword that rose between them.

"You will not experiment on my wife."

Vance’s grip tightened. Destiny winced.

Dane stopped. Every instinct urged him to tear through the guards and reach her, but he could not risk a blade at her throat. He forced himself to hold still, though his wolf strained beneath his skin.

Marcus stepped forward, the Heart Stone held against his chest. "You keep talking as though Destiny is an object you can pass between yourselves. She has already given enough to save Dane. Nobody is cutting her again because you want to see what happens."

The stone’s silver lines flickered.

Dane saw the light catch Marcus’s fingers. Destiny stiffened, and Vance immediately looked toward the stone.

"Keep it away from her," the Alpha warned.

Marcus stared at him. "You just said you needed it."

"I said I needed it intact."

"That wasn’t what you meant a moment ago."

The Alpha’s jaw tightened. Behind him, one of the cursed wolves began to growl. Another pressed a hand to its chest, its body trembling as the black veins spread farther along its throat. The Alpha glanced back, and the growling stopped almost at once.

Dane saw the exchange. The wolves were not merely obeying him out of fear. They were waiting for him to decide what happened next.

"You can control them," Henrik said quietly.

"Some of them," the Alpha replied. "For now."

"And you want Vance’s warriors under the same control."

"I want the curse contained before it consumes everyone."

"By spreading it to more Alphas?"

"By giving it leaders who can retain enough of themselves to command those who cannot."

"That’s your idea of containment?" Dane asked.

"It’s the only plan anyone has offered."

"No. It’s the plan that gives you more power."

The Alpha’s face darkened. "You think I wanted this? You think I chose to watch my people lose their minds, their bodies, and their lives? I have spent two years trying to keep them alive. I have buried the ones I couldn’t save. I will not let them die because you prefer a clean answer to a difficult choice."

For the first time, Dane heard something beneath the Alpha’s certainty. It did not make him trustworthy. It did, however, explain why the man had gathered the afflicted wolves around him rather than abandoning them.

Dane did not accept his reasoning. Twenty wolves stood behind the Alpha, and others had died before they ever reached this clearing. The man was trying to preserve what remained of his pack, but he was willing to make other people pay for it.

"And Destiny is the price?" Dane asked.

"She may be the answer."

"You don’t know that."

"Neither do you."

Destiny turned her head toward Dane. "He’s right about one thing. We don’t know what the stone will do."

"Destiny—"

"But we know what happened when it was used on you. We know it reacted to my blood. We can’t ignore that just because Vance wants to use it."

Dane hated that she was right. He also knew what she was not saying. She was afraid that refusing to help Aurora might cost more lives. He had seen that same fear lead her to offer herself up before, and he would not let anyone turn her compassion into a weapon against her.

"We’ll find another way," he told her.

"Will we?" she asked softly.

He had no answer that would convince her. He could promise to protect her, but he could not promise to cure the curse. The distinction sat between them, painful and unavoidable.

Vance used the silence to pull Destiny closer.

"Give Marcus the stone," he ordered. "Then we can settle this without further bloodshed."

Marcus did not move.

"You don’t get to order us around," Helena said, raising her blade.

The Silvercrest guards closed ranks. Henrik moved beside her, while Dane kept his attention on Vance and Destiny. Across the clearing, the cursed Alpha watched them all with unsettling patience.

Aurora stood beside him, no longer looking pleased. Her eyes moved between her father and the Alpha, and Dane understood that she had not secured the position she thought she had. She had traded one danger for another, and now she was caught between men who saw her as a means to an end.

"You said the stone would save me," she told the Alpha.

"It may."

"And if it doesn’t?"

He did not answer.

Aurora’s hands curled into fists. The skin along her knuckles darkened, and her shoulders jerked as another wave of the curse passed through her. She gritted her teeth until it eased.

Vance watched her, and for a moment the certainty left his face. He had come here believing he could bargain for a cure. Now he was looking at his daughter and seeing how little time she might have left.

Dane seized the opening.

"Let Destiny go," he said. "Marcus gives you the stone, and you take Aurora back to Silvercrest. You can work with the priestess there, under proper conditions. No one has to be bitten. No one has to die here."

The Alpha shook his head. "You still think this is a negotiation."

"Then tell me what it is."

The Alpha looked at Destiny. "A choice. Her blood, the stone, and the curse. We need to find out whether they can be separated without killing her."

"And if they can’t?" Destiny asked.

"Then we will know what the price is."

Dane felt his control slip. He took another step, and the guard’s sword pressed against his chest.

"Touch her again," Dane said to Vance, "and I will stop caring how many men you brought."

Vance stared at him. For a moment, neither man moved.

Then Destiny looked directly at her father.

"Let me go."

Vance’s grip loosened, but he did not release her.

"Destiny," he said, "you don’t understand what is at stake."

"I understand that you came here to take something from me. I understand that the man standing beside your daughter wants to infect you, and that neither of you has been honest about what happens if the stone fails." She drew a careful breath. "If you want my help, stop holding me like a prisoner and start telling me the truth."

The clearing fell silent.

Dane watched Vance’s face, waiting for the threat, the insult, or the order that would turn the standoff into a fight.

Instead, Vance looked at the Heart Stone in Marcus’s hands.

"There is something you haven’t been told," he said to Destiny. "Something about your blood that the priestess may not have understood."

Dane’s stomach tightened.

"What?" Destiny asked.

Vance finally released her arm.

"The stone did not simply cure Dane," he said. "When it reacted to your blood, it left something behind. And if we are going to save Aurora, we need to know what it was."