Chapter 4 The Deadline

(Lucien's POV)

When Nikolai speaks again, his voice has dropped to barely above a whisper. "That's not possible."

"I felt the bond snap into place the moment I saw her. You know I wouldn't lie about this." I run my free hand through my hair, gripping hard enough to hurt. "She's mine, Nik. My fated mate. The one I've been searching for since the curse manifested."

"Lucien..." He sounds anguished now. "Do you understand what you're telling me? This girl is Morrigan Thornewood's daughter. The heir to the pack that's been systematically destroying our territories for two centuries. She's engaged to Casimir Dragomir..."

"I know who she's engaged to."

"...which means in six weeks, the Thornewood and Dragomir packs will unite. That alliance will control sixty percent of European territories. They'll have the resources and manpower to wipe out every Voss wolf in existence." His voice rises despite the obvious effort to control it. "Your mate's marriage will mean genocide for our kind, and you're telling me you can't kill her?"

"She doesn't know." The words burst out of me, desperate. "Thalia doesn't know anything, Nik. Her mother has been suppressing her wolf since childhood, feeding her lies, keeping her isolated from pack politics. She's as much a prisoner as we are."

"That doesn't change the political reality."

"Doesn't it?" I stand, pacing the length of my small bedroom. "If Thalia isn't the complicit monster we thought she was, if she's just another pawn being moved around Morrigan's board, then maybe there's another solution. One that doesn't involve me murdering my own mate."

"What kind of solution?"

"I don't know yet. But give me time. Let me..."

"Lucien, you have thirteen days. That's all the time left before the marriage contract becomes legally binding under pack law. After that, even if something happens to Thalia, the alliance stands. Morrigan will just substitute another Thornewood heir." He pauses, and I can hear him moving, probably to somewhere more private. "And there's something else. Something I haven't told you yet."

The dread in his voice makes my stomach clench. "What?"

"Your mother knows you're in London. She's been monitoring pack communications, and someone tipped her off that you made contact with the Thornewood girl."

"That's impossible. The only person who knows my exact location is you."

"I know. Which means we have a traitor in the Voss pack." Paper rustles on his end, he's probably checking notes. "Ravenna is furious. She's talking about invoking the blood curse if you don't complete the mission."

The blood curse. An ancient punishment reserved for the worst traitors... one that would turn every Voss wolf in my bloodline feral within hours. My cousins, my uncle, my younger brother who's barely sixteen and still figuring out his first shifts. All of them reduced to mindless beasts that would have to be hunted down and destroyed for public safety.

"She wouldn't." But even as I say it, I know she would. My mother loves the pack more than she loves her children. She always has.

"She's desperate, Lucien. The Dragomir-Thornewood alliance terrifies her. She sees it as an existential threat—and she's not wrong. Without intervention, the Voss pack will be extinct within a year." His voice softens. "I'm catching the next flight to London. Six hours, maybe seven. Don't do anything stupid until I get there."

"Define stupid."

"Don't go back to the Thornewood girl. Don't contact her. Don't even think about her if you can help it." He sighs. "I know the mate bond makes that nearly impossible, but try. The closer you get, the harder this will become."

Too late for that. The bond is already wrapped around my heart like barbed wire, and every minute away from Thalia makes it dig deeper.

"I'll try," I lie.

We end the call, and I'm left staring at my phone's blank screen. The calendar app glows with accusatory brightness: thirteen days until the deadline. Thirteen days to either kill my mate or condemn my entire bloodline to death.

I open my notes app and pull up the file I've been building on Thalia. Three days of surveillance, research, intercepted communications. Her daily routines, her security details, her mother's schedule. Everything an assassin would need to plan the perfect kill.

There's a photo I took yesterday—a candid shot from across the street as she stood at her window, backlit by the setting sun. She looks young in it. Fragile. Nothing like the political weapon Ravenna described in my mission briefing.

I should delete it. Should delete all of it and start planning my exit strategy.

Instead, I find myself scrolling through the toxicology reports I showed her. The proof that Morrigan has been systematically poisoning her own daughter for fourteen years. The testimony from Dr. Helena Chen, the physician who tried to intervene and was silenced for her efforts.

Thalia deserves to know the truth. Deserves to make her own choices instead of being another chess piece moved around someone else's board.

But knowing the truth might not be enough. In six weeks, she'll marry Casimir Dragomir regardless of what she wants. The blood oath between Thornewood and Dragomir packs ensures that—breaking it would kill her as surely as any blade.

Unless someone breaks the oath first.

My phone buzzes. Another message from the unknown number: Your hesitation has been noted. Contingency measures are being prepared. Complete the mission or face consequences.

They're running out of patience. Soon they'll send someone else—someone without the complication of a mate bond. Someone who'll put a silver bullet in Thalia's brain without a second thought.

I can't let that happen.

But I also can't kill her myself.

Which means I need a third option. One that nobody's considered yet because it's never been done before.

I need to break an alliance that's been two centuries in the making. Need to find a way to save my mate, protect my pack, and somehow survive the fallout.

Thirteen days.

The clock is ticking.

I look at the calendar one more time, committing the date to memory. Two weeks from today, everything changes. Either Thalia Thornewood will be dead, or I will be, or, if I'm very lucky and very clever, we'll both be alive and the entire supernatural world will have rewritten its power structure.

No pressure.

I close the calendar and open a new note file. Title it "Contingency Plans." Stare at the blank page for five minutes before typing a single line:

Step One: Don't let anyone else kill her first.

It's not much of a plan. But it's a start.

In the living room, Damon shouts at the television as his team apparently scores. Normal human concerns. Normal human joy. I envy him the simplicity of his world where the biggest worry is whether his football team wins.

My world is significantly more complicated.

I have thirteen days to figure out how to save my mate from an assassination I was sent to carry out.