Chapter 6 FRACTURED LOYALTIES

Isabel's POV

The motel room smelled like stale cigarette smoke and desperation. I pressed my back against the peeling wallpaper, my heart hammering as Lysander stood in the doorway with that glowing restraint in his hands. Logan stood behind him, and the devastation on his face made my chest constrict in ways the severed bond never had.

"Put that thing down," Kael growled, positioning himself between Lysander and me. His body was tense, ready to shift, and I could feel the rage rolling off him in waves.

Lysander's gray eyes, so much like Logan's, held an exhaustion that seemed to age him decades. "I didn't come to hurt her. I came because if she doesn't tell me what she's figured out about the prophecy, we're all going to die."

"The prophecy," I repeated, my voice steadier than I felt. "You mean the one that says an omega-Alpha hybrid will either unite or destroy supernatural hierarchies?"

The shock that crossed Lysander's face was genuine and it gave me a perverse satisfaction. He'd spent so much time thinking he controlled all the information and all the variables, but I'd been a Pack Historian for years. I knew how to find things people wanted hidden.

Logan stepped forward, his presence filling the cramped space. "How long have you known?"

"Three days," I said, meeting his gaze directly despite the phantom pain that shot through my chest. "I found references in the oldest pack records, the ones written in the language that predates modern hierarchy. My mother taught me enough to translate basic phrases."

"Elara," Lysander breathed. "Of course. She was always too intelligent for her own good."

Kael's hand found mine, his touch grounding me even as my world tilted sideways. "Someone wants to explain what the hell is happening? Because from where I'm standing, the man who ordered my exile and the Alpha who destroyed my brother's mate are asking us to trust them."

"Your brother," I said slowly, turning to look at Kael. The pieces clicked into place with sickening clarity. "Logan sent you to find me. You're not just some rogue Alpha who happened across me bleeding in the forest. This was planned."

Kael's amber eyes held guilt and defiance in equal measure. "Yes, Logan sent me. But everything that happened after, everything between us, that was real."

"Was it?" The words came out sharper than I intended, but betrayal tasted bitter on my tongue. "Or was that part of the plan too? Get close to me, make me trust you, make me feel something so I'd be easier to control?"

"Isabel, please," Logan said, and the rawness in his voice made me want to scream. "I rejected you to save your life. The fated bond would have trapped you in pack politics. A bonded mate can't leave, can't refuse, can't exist outside the hierarchy. I broke the bond so you could be free."

"Free?" I laughed, the sound brittle and harsh. "You destroyed me in front of everyone I knew, stripped me of my home and my pack, and sent your secret half-brother to manipulate me. That's your definition of freedom?"

Lysander stepped closer, the magical restraint still glowing in his hand. "This isn't about feelings or personal betrayals. The prophecy states that when the hybrid awakens, the Primordial Council will move to eliminate the threat. They've already started. The warehouse fire wasn't random. The hunters knew exactly where to find you because someone on the council is tracking your every move."

"The Primordial Council," I said. "The group that created the Dominance Covenant eight hundred years ago. The ones who've been manipulating pack politics ever since."

"You have figured it out," Lysander said, something like respect flickering across his face. "Isabel, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I've spent the last three years trying to protect Logan from the same fate that killed your father. Dominic Ashford discovered the omega culling program and was going to expose it. The council had him assassinated and made it look like a territorial dispute."

The room spun. My father. Dominic Ashford. The Alpha I'd never known, who died when I was an infant.

"You're lying," I whispered, but even as I said it, I knew he wasn't. The gaps in my mother's stories, the way she'd always refused to discuss my father's death, the terror in her eyes whenever I asked too many questions.

Logan moved closer, stopping just outside Kael's protective range. "The council operates through magical compulsion and political manipulation. They place operatives in key positions, amplify Alpha dominance artificially, and eliminate anyone who threatens their control. Three years ago, I discovered my father was working with them. I've been trying to dismantle their network from the inside while keeping you safe."

"By publicly humiliating me and throwing me to the wolves?" My voice cracked despite my best efforts.

"By making you worthless to them," Logan said softly. "A rejected omega with no pack, no status, no visible power. They wouldn't waste resources tracking someone so thoroughly broken."

Kael's grip on my hand tightened. "Except she's not broken. She's awakening abilities that terrify them, which is exactly what you planned, isn't it? You freed her from the bond so she could become what she was always meant to be."

"And what am I meant to be?" I demanded, looking between the three men who'd shaped my life through lies and manipulation. "A weapon? A symbol? A sacrifice?"

Lysander raised the magical restraint, the runes pulsing with increasing intensity. "You're meant to be the first omega in eight hundred years with the power to challenge the council directly. But they know about you now. They're coming, Isabel, and if you're not prepared, they'll kill everyone you care about to get to you."

The walls of the motel room suddenly felt too thin, too fragile. I could sense something approaching, a presence that made my newly awakened abilities scream in warning.

"They're already here," I said, and the window exploded inward in a shower of glass and dark magic.

Figures poured through the opening, moving with inhuman speed. Lysander threw the restraint aside and shifted, his wolf form massive and silver-gray. Logan shifted a heartbeat later, positioning himself between me and the attackers. Kael pulled me backward, toward the door, but more figures blocked our escape.

"The hybrid comes with us," a woman's voice said, cold and ancient. She stepped through the shattered window, her form shimmering between human and something else entirely. "The council has questions. Whether she survives the interrogation depends entirely on her cooperation."

My omega abilities surged without my conscious control, reaching out to sense the emotional currents in the room. The attackers felt wrong, their emotions muted and distant, like they were operating on someone else's commands. Magical compulsion, just like Lysander had described.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said, surprised by the steadiness in my voice.

The woman smiled, revealing teeth that were too sharp. "That wasn't a request, child."

She raised her hand and the air itself seemed to solidify around me, crushing inward. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think through the pressure. Kael roared and lunged at her but was thrown backward by invisible force. Logan and Lysander attacked in coordinated strikes but more figures emerged from the shadows, surrounding us completely.

The woman's face was the last thing I saw before darkness claimed me, and her words followed me into unconsciousness like a curse.

"The council sends its regards, daughter of Dominic Ashford. Your father died screaming your name, and now you'll learn why.”