The Alpha's hidden heirs-Chapter 24: Lab rat

Dahlia’s POV

Nate hadn’t just been "looking" for us. He had been tracking us. He had been studying our children like specimens long before he ever "rescued" us from the Gala.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

In the center of the room, sitting on a pedestal, was a heavy stone bowl. It was identical to the one Martha had held, the one used to pour the black rot onto the floor. Beside it lay a ledger, open to a page titled: Project Resurrection: The Vessel of the Heart.

My stomach did a sick, violent flip. This wasn’t a new pack house. It was an extension of the old one. Nate hadn’t been building a sanctuary; he had been building a more efficient way to harness the power that had almost killed his son.

I backed away from the door, my boots crunching loudly on the gravel. I stumbled, my hand catching on a rose bush, the thorns tearing into my palm. I didn’t feel the pain. I only felt the cold, hard realization that the man I had spent the night clinging to was the same man who had turned our children into a project.

He hadn’t forged a new future. He had simply moved the laboratory closer to home.

I looked up at the glass windows of the house, seeing Nate’s silhouette in his office upstairs. He looked like a protector. He looked like a King.

But I saw the truth now. He didn’t want a Luna. He wanted a lab technician to help him manage the monsters he was creating.

I wiped the blood from my hand onto my jeans and turned back toward the house. I couldn’t run yet. Not without the kids. But the argument we’d had earlier was no longer about "roles" or "responsibilities."

It was about survival.

I had to get my children out of this house before Nate decided the "Heart" in Axel’s palms belonged to the pack instead of my son. And this time, I wouldn’t just be running from the Elders. I’d be running from the Alpha himself.

I walked back into the foyer, my face was a mask of cold, forced calmness. Elena was still there, directing a team of cleaners to pick up the shards of the vase Nate had broken.

"Dahlia!" she said, her voice bright and hollow. "Are you feeling better? The garden is lovely this time of year."

"It’s very informative," I said, my voice as sharp as a scalpel. "Where are the children?"

"They’re in the medical wing, just as the Alpha requested," Elena said, her smile never wavering. "Just a few routine tests, dear. To make sure they’re healthy."

I didn’t wait for her to finish. I sprinted toward the medical wing, my heart a was drumbeat of war. Nate had said he would protect them. He had lied. And if I had to burn this glass palace to the ground to get them back, I would.

The chaos wasn’t outside anymore. It was in the walls. And I was the only one left to stop it.

As I was midway to the medical wing where the children were, I changed mind and headed to find Nate instead. I used his scent to trace him down to the master bedroom where he was.

"How dare you??" I screamed as I lunged at him with one heavy blow.

He fell to the ground, probably because he was taken by surprise.

"What the hell, Dahlia! What was that for? What’s going on?" he said as he placed his hand over the spot that I hit him.

"What’s going on?" I laughed, but it came out broken and jagged. "You’re running tests on our children, Nate. That’s what’s going on."

His face went still. Too still.

He pushed himself up slowly. "Who told you that?"

"I saw it." My voice cracked into something feral. "Behind the garden. Are you insane?"

His jaw tightened. "Lower your voice."

"Don’t you dare tell me to lower my voice!" I shoved him again, harder this time. "Axel is not a vessel. Aidan is not a backup plan. Ariana is not a variable in your twisted experiment!"

His eyes flashed with an expression I had never seen before. I didn’t know what to make of it. "You think I would hurt them?"

"I think you already are."

The words hit him. I saw the flicker of hurt? guilt? I didn’t care.

"They’re in the medical wing," I said, my chest heaving.

"Probably hooked up to machines like lab rats."

"Don’t be dramatic, Dahlia. They are being monitored," he bit out.

"For what?" I demanded. "For when Axel’s palms glow again? For when the rot comes back? Or are you trying to recreate it?"

He didn’t say a word in his defense, he just looked at me. And that silence was louder than any confession.

My heart cracked open. "You promised me."

"I promised you I would protect them."

"By turning them into research subjects?" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He ran a hand through his hair, pacing now. "You don’t understand."

"Then explain it!"

"I can’t."

I froze. "You can’t... or you won’t?"

His voice dropped, it was rough and strained. "There are things happening in this pack you don’t see. Forces you don’t understand."

"Oh, I understand perfectly." My voice turned ice-cold. "You’re afraid. And when you’re afraid, you control, dissect and study."

He stepped toward me. "I am not dissecting my children."

"Then what are you doing, Nate?" I screamed. "Because from where I stand, it looks like you’re preparing them to be weapons!"

His wolf surged closer to the surface. I could feel it pressing against mine, as his Alpha heat was filling the room. "Watch your words."

"Or what?" I stepped closer to him, refusing to back down. "You’ll mark me again? Lock me in this room? Tell yourI’m hysterical?"

His nostrils flared. "What are you even saying? I have never—"

"You tracked us," I cut in. "You studied them before you ever brought us here. The garden house isn’t new. It’s an extension of the old pack. Don’t insult me by pretending it’s a sanctuary."

He was quiet again. That was answer enough.

My voice broke, just slightly. "How long, Nate? How long have you been planning this?"

He looked at me then. Really looked at me. And for a split second, I saw the man I loved. The man who had held me through nightmares.

"Since the Gala," he said quietly.

The air left my lungs.

"So while I was bleeding," I whispered, "while Axel was convulsing in your arms... you were already designing phase two."

"That’s not fair."

"Fair?" I let out a hollow laugh. "You forfeited fair the moment you wrote their names in that ledger."

His expression darkened. "I am trying to save this family."

"By sacrificing it?"

"I am not sacrificing anyone!"

"Then why can’t you tell me the truth? Why are you leaving me to guess? Leaving it all to my imagination?!" I shot back.

He opened his mouth, then closed it. His fists clenched at his sides. Because he couldn’t.

Because whatever truth he was hiding was worse than what I’d imagined.

I stepped back, as my skin buzzed with fury. "I’m taking them."

His head snapped up. "No."

"You don’t get to decide that."

"Yes, I do," he growled. "I am their father. I am your Alpha."

"And I am their mother!" My voice shook the room. "And I will not let you experiment on them to satisfy some prophecy or pack paranoia."

"It’s not about prophecy!" he roared.

"Then what is it about?"

There was silence again.

My chest tightened. "You’d rather lose me than tell me."

His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. "You think I don’t see what this is doing to you? You think I don’t feel it tearing me apart? But if I tell you, I put you in danger."

"I am already in danger!" I screamed. "My children are under some strange investigation. Undergoing bizarre experiments!"

"They are safe!"

"They are scared!"

That hit him.

I could see it in the way his shoulders dropped just a fraction.

"You don’t get to decide fear for them," I said, I was quieter now but no less furious. "The children are six, Nate. Aidan cries when he gets a splinter. Ariana still sleeps with that stupid stuffed wolf you pretend to hate. Axel pick his nose and eats it. They are children."

"And they are not ordinary," he shot back, his voice cracking. "You saw what Axel did.

"Yes," I said fiercely. "And I saw him terrified of himself."

A long, brutal silence stretched between us.

"I will not let the Elders take them," he said finally.

My blood ran cold. "The Elders?"

His jaw snapped shut.

So that was it.

"They’re coming," I breathed.

He didn’t answer.

"You’re testing them because the Elders are coming," I realized aloud. "You’re gathering data to prove what? That they’re stable? That they’re controllable?"

He looked away.

Rage flooded me anew. "You are preparing to hand them over."

"I would never hand them over!" he barked.

"Then why is their power documented like an inventory list?"

"Because if I don’t control the narrative," he thundered, "the Elders will!"

The room fell into a charged silence.

I swallowed hard. "So this is about power and politics."

"It’s about survival," he said through clenched teeth. "If they believe our children are unstable, they won’t ask for permission. They will take them."

The words chilled me to the bone.

"And you think poking and prodding them will stop that?"

"I think proving they can be managed will."

"Managed?" I echoed faintly.

His voice softened. "Dahlia... I am trying to keep them here. With us."

"By turning them into something the pack can own?"

"No," he said desperately. "By making them indispensable."