Page 33 of Traded to the Alpha Wolf

Mara’s eyes flick to me, then away. “We find where they’re making this stuff. We burn it down. We send a message that they can’t play God with our genetics.”

Willow nods, but she’s already flipping through the next slide. “We have one possible location,” she says. “It’s not a main lab, but it’s a distribution site. Remote, but not inaccessible.”

I’m impressed watching Mara command the room, watching her drop fact after fact with a precision that makes even Rowan blink. I feel the pride swelling in my chest as I watch on. She’s so locked in, she doesn’t notice the way Kaiden starts to take notes, or how even Alder leans closer, all the usual bravado gone, replaced by sincere curiosity and respect.

Willow passes Mara the clicker again, and she moves to the next slide, a grainy satellite image blown up on thescreen. “Site’s here,” she says, “old mining town on the edge of the central Idaho range. They’ve been running it as a timber operation for decades, but there’s a secondary building buried in the hillside.” She glances down at her notes. “We’ve got evidence of at least six shipments going in from Europe in the last quarter. All labeled as forestry equipment or medical tech.”

Brooks whistles low. “That’s gotta be the place.”

Mara nods. “It’s remote enough they won’t expect a hard hit, but close enough to the main road that if we move fast, we can block their egress. We’ll need to go in heavy, and we’ll need to go in soon.” Rowan’s already sketching on a legal pad, drawing lines and arrows. I know him well enough to spot the way his eyes flick to Mara every time she speaks, as if he’s trying to decode how she’s gotten this far ahead of the rest of us.

She’s running on nothing but caffeine and willpower, but it’s becoming very clear how she infiltrated the hunters all on her own; she’s damn impressive. “They’ll have security, but they’re not expecting us to know the building exists. If we hit the back side, through the old logging road, we can get within two hundred meters before they’ll spot us.” She looks across the table, and for the first time all morning, I see her hesitate. “But there’s a risk. If they realize who’s coming, they’ll burn the whole place to the ground. They’re not sentimental about research.”

I catch the faintest tremor in her voice. She’s scared. Not for herself, but for the information, for the idea that it could all vanish before we get what we need. I want to walk over and put my hands on her shoulders, ground her, remind her she’s not doing this alone anymore.

So I just say, “We go at dawn. We take out the guards, get inside, and pull every hard drive and sample we can find. We blow the rest.”

Brooks grins. “Knew there was a reason I liked you, Wilder.”

Willow clicks off the projector, and the room goes from war council to aftermath in a single blink. The alphas stand, stretching, murmuring to themselves. I watch Mara gather her notes with hands that only shake a little, and I realize I’ve never wanted anyone as badly as I want her in this exact moment.

I wait for the meeting to wrap and people to start drifting off to refill their coffees and mull over everything that has been said. I know I’m going to need to go over certain bits again, because this is making my head hurt. I go straight up to Mara and pull her into my arms; she immediately softens, and I can feel the tension physically leaving her body. I know what this meant to her.

Turning, I see Rowan approach, his eyes on Mara. “I don’t want to overstep, but I took another look at your parents’ case,” he says, “and I found something you’ll want to see.”

Mara’s head snaps up. “What did you find?”

Willow spreads out a sheaf of papers, tapping a page with a list of names. “We came across this when we were looking for possible donor matches in the old Order records. At first, it seemed like noise, just random names, some crossed out, some not. But I think these are your parents?” She points to the second and third names on the list, and I see Mara’s last name typed in block letters.

Mara stares at it, lips pressed tight. “That’s them. That’s my mom and dad.”

Rowan says, “They’re not the only ones. Every name on this list is dead, except two.” He waits, letting that land. “And what’s more, the dates line up with major shipments. My guessis that this is a kill list. Someone was cleaning house, but leaving just enough alive to keep the project running.”

Mara is very still. “You think my parents were working with them?”

Willow shakes her head. “I think it’s possible that they knew your lineage, perhaps tried to keep their own nature hidden, but they got too close to the hunters when they started shipping through their company. They might not have even known what was happening until it was too late. But someone wanted them gone. And the two left on this list…they might still be out there.”

Rowan leans closer, voice gentler than I’ve ever heard him speak to anyone except Willow. “If you want them, Mara, we’ll help you hunt them down. We’ll figure out their story, and yours.”

The words hit me somewhere deep. Rowan isn’t just offering comfort. He’s offering a weapon. He’s offering a pack. Mara glances at me, and I feel her gratitude through our bond; it's like a golden thread pulling us even closer together.

She nods. “Thank you both,” she says, fighting to keep her voice neutral. “Revenge is all I’ve ever wanted, and now I see that it’s even bigger than me, bigger than my family. I hope we can take them all down.”

Rowan smiles, and I catch a glimpse of the teeth that mark him as different from the rest of us. “With your help, Mara, I know we’re even closer to that happening.”

“And most importantly, you’ve done enough for today,” I tell her. She nods, and I see the emotion in her eyes.

The cool mountain air hits us as soon as we step outside. I pull her closer, glad to be away from the well-meaning alliancefor a moment. I rest my chin on the top of her head, breathing in her scent. “They’d be proud,” I tell her, “that you’ve fought so hard for them, and for yourself.”

I feel the slight tremble of her shoulders as she gives in to the pain for a moment before sniffling. “I think they’d be proud that I’ve let myself be happy,” she says, glancing up at me. “I think that’s what they’d want most of all.”

I smile and lean down to kiss her before pulling her toward the truck. Before she gets in, she turns to me and grins. “I’m absolutely still going to get my revenge, though.”

Chapter 20 - Mara

I never imagined that I’d be the kind of woman who’d have a “getting ready” party. But here I am, sitting in the middle of my living room, surrounded by four women who all seem genuinely happy to be here. There’s laughter, vanilla-sugar candles burning, and a coffee table laden with snacks and drinks. The air is thick with the scent of peonies and citrus from my bouquet and the faint, unmistakable tang of nerves; mine, mostly, as everyone else seems much calmer.

Sara insisted on painting my toenails, and she has my foot up on the stool, painting my toenails with the concentration of a neurosurgeon. “You have really nice feet for someone who’s run for her life so much,” she says, and everyone cracks up except for me, because I’m too busy trying not to kick her in the face every time she tickles the arch of my foot.