Page 49 of Their Mate
Edward leaned in closer, studying the screen intently. “Listen—there’s more. Click on that one.”
The video shifted to another entry, clearly later. Dr. Reilly appeared thinner, eyes sunken and shadowed, his voice colder and edged with desperation. “Day 675. We’ve made progress, but the team is divided. My wife, Elizabeth, believes we’ve crossed moral boundaries. She thinks our research is unethical, and too dangerous.” Anger flashed across his features, mingling with bitter hurt. “She’s wrong. We’re humanity’s last hope.”
In the next video, he appeared agitated, pacing restlessly. “Elizabeth left today. She took a group of soldiers with her, fled Ireland entirely. Says she’ll form some sort of watchdog group to protect humanity from threats—including, apparently,me.” Bitterness twisted his expression into something ugly, furious. “She calls her little army ‘the Watch.’ A betrayal, nothing less.”
My breath caught as my throat tightening painfully. The Watch—my organization—founded by his wife? My entire world shifted suddenly, reorienting beneath my feet.
Edward stared at me, realization dawning sharply. “Sera… did you know that?”
I shook my head faintly, numb disbelief settling coldly in my chest. “I had no idea.”
The next video showed Dr. Reilly looking broken, hollow-eyed, and haunted by despair. His voice trembled faintly with barely restrained grief. “Day 823. No more willing subjects. No more research. Humanity rejected its only chance at survival.” His gaze darkened and he looked right at the camera. “I won’t let everything we’ve built die in vain. I’ll become the first stable subject myself and become humanity’s true protector.”
Ominously, he raised a syringe filled with liquid, tenacity blazing in his gaze. “Maybe this is the path I was meant to take all along.”
The video flickered abruptly, cutting off into static. Silence settled heavily around us, broken only by my shallow breathing.
For a moment I thought it was finished, that is until a new entry sputtered onto the screen. This one was darker, the lighting worse, the face looming close to the camera nearly unrecognizable.
Dr. Connor Reilly’s features were twisted grotesquely, his skin pale, veins blackened and bulging unnaturally beneath the surface. His pupils were blown wide, his eyes no longer fully human and shining with feral insanity as his gravelly voice rasped out into the dim space around us.
In a distorted voice, thickened with anguish and rage, he spoke to us. “It’s been five years since I took the injection and it was… more potent than I anticipated. The mutation—it’s taken over. I’m losing myself. Losing control.” His breathing quickened, becoming ragged and uneven, his words trembling with barely contained fury and panic. “The others tried to stop me. I wanted to warn them, but I couldn’t. I bit them and they became like me… changed. Twisted. They were loyal once, but now…” He leaned closer, eyes wild, filled with dark madness. “They’re mindless beasts, animals with no thought, no strategy. Andworse, the mutation is unstable. It kills them, burns them out within a few years, some much less time than that. They drop dead and leave me behind.”
My muscles tightened, dread pooling low in my gut as I absorbed his words. Around me, the others stood silent, each watching in horror as the recording continued.
Reilly’s expression hardened further, his voice turning bitter. “But me? I survived. Somehow the mutation stabilized in my body. I’m stronger, faster, but I can’t shift back. Trapped forever in this monstrous form, yet I still retain my mind. My intellect is intact.”
He paused, lips twisting into a bitter, humorless smirk. “They left me, all of them. My wife betrayed me, humanity abandoned me. And those wolf shifters, they’re the source of everything that went wrong in this world.”
His gaze burned with hatred now, pure venom dripping from each word. “I wanted to protect humanity, to destroy the wolves and save us. But now… I’ve been rejected by humans. Wolves betrayed everyone. I see it clearly now. None deserve survival, not wolves, not humans. I’ll end it all.”
A chill shivered through me at his dark declaration, dismay coiling around my throat as I watched. On screen, Reilly leaned in closer still, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper filled with venomous resolve.
“I’ve learned patience. Strategy. I’m the only lycan capable of rational thought, planning, foresight. I’m bigger and stronger than any other. I’ve survived alone for decades, waiting, building. And when I finally rise, neither wolves nor humans willstand a chance. I’ll destroy them all. They’ll call me a monster, but they created me. Now they’ll suffer the consequences.”
The video crackled once more, before finally fading into darkness. A bated, heavy silence settled thickly over us, broken only by the harsh, uneven rasp of our breathing.
Edward’s voice finally cut through softly, steady despite the grim revelation. “He wanted to save humanity once, but he’s lost all humanity now. A strategic, intelligent lycan bent on total annihilation.”
Logan exhaled grimly. “And Declan’s trapped down here with him.”
Jamie shook his head slowly, disbelief clear in his voice. “We’ve seen dangerous foes, but nothing like this.”
Aidan spoke quietly. “He’s tactical, patient, and he’s been planning for decades. Whatever traps he’s laid down here, they’re going to be deadly.”
Everything had seemed to shift beneath my feet, my perspective suddenly altered completely. My life’s mission—my very identity—felt twisted now. I’d been trained by the Watch, sworn to protect humanity. But the line between protector and monster had blurred dangerously. I’d been hunting wolves as the greatest threat, but the true evil had once been human, and it still possessed human intellect.
I didn’t know what to do, what to think.
Logan turned toward me, his dark gaze intense and searching. “You alright?”
I nodded faintly, forcing a resolute calm into my voice that I didn’t fully feel. “Fine. Just… processing.”
Edward’s quiet voice steadied me slightly. “Whatever he once was, whatever his reasons, he’s beyond redemption now. He’s a threat to all of us.”
I straightened slowly, tightening my grip on my weapon, forcing steel back into my spine. “Then we stop him. Before it’s too late.”
Logan inclined his head, grim approval in his unwavering gaze. “Exactly.”
