The silence was the loudest, most terrifying sound Sunflower had ever heard. The moment Allister forced the mixed-blood energy through the bond, the mental connection had gone dead snapped by the force of the transference. There was no more buzzing, no more shared thoughts, only the absolute, deafening empty space where her mate's mind had been.
Ivan roared, wrenching the dazed, paralyzed form of Celeste off the desk. He shoved her into the heavy interrogation chair they had used yesterday, binding her tightly with thick leather cords while she still thrashed weakly, her mind overwhelmed by the chaotic psychic surge.
Then, Ivan turned to Allister. He saw the Alpha's crumpled body, the raw claw marks blooming red on his back, and the horrific trickle of blood from his nose and ears.
"Allister!" Ivan dropped to his knees, his voice cracking with pure panic. He was faced with the ultimate betrayal of duty: the Alpha was dying, and the evidence the reason for the sacrifice was still clutched in his unresponsive hand.
Sunflower watched, her gold and purple eyes wide with horror, through the crack in her door. The decision was no longer political; it was immediate, physical, and agonizingly personal. The man who had been her captor, her opponent, and the subject of her dark wit, had just nearly died to protect her, powered by a bond he officially despised.
Survival instincts, honed by a lifetime of running, took over. Sunflower's hand found the lock. She didn't use a key; she used the small silver-tipped tool she had hidden. A click, a soft whir, and the heavy door eased open.
She slipped into the carnage.
Ivan, startled by the sound, spun around, his eyes wide. "Stay back, mixed-blood! Don't move! He's..."
"He's dying," Sunflower cut him off, her voice low and steady, stripped of all sarcasm. She moved past Ivan, not toward the outer door, but toward the desk.
She didn't look at Celeste. Her focus was only on the receipt clenched in Allister's bloodied hand. Gently, she pried his stiff fingers open, retrieving the crumpled, blood-stained proof of Maeve's treason. She quickly tucked it safely inside the small black book Allister had retrieved from the wall the only solid thing she owned.
She glanced at the outer door. Ivan was distracted, struggling with the horror of his Alpha's critical state. Celeste was immobilized. Freedom was right there. She could be through the main gates and into the forest before Ivan even recovered.
She looked at the corner of the room, towards the area where she had been digging at the boundary wall. It was a clear, viable escape route. The hybrid part of her mind screamed at her: Go! Run! He bought you your freedom!
But as she turned, her gaze fell back on Allister. He was pale, barely breathing, his dark hair matted with blood. His powerful body, usually a picture of control, was broken.
Sunflower knelt beside him. She reached out a hesitant hand, the gesture soft and intimate, and brushed the dark, wet hair from his forehead. The scent of him cedar was overpowering, mixed now with the metallic tang of his blood. The silent, emotional connection snapped into agonizing focus.
She felt his pain, not as a phantom ache, but as a real, visceral compression in her own chest. She felt the heavy, unspoken weight of his duty the duty he had just sacrificed for her. She knew that if she ran now, Ivan would confirm her betrayal to the Elders. Maeve would execute Celeste for the cover-up, and then, for the greater crime of weakness and compromised authority, Maeve would finish the job on the broken Alpha. Allister would die alone, having failed the pack for her.
The overwhelming clarity of this realization was her choice. Her heart the strange, hybrid heart could not bear the cost of his sacrifice.
Sunflower closed her eyes. She placed both her hands, one on his still chest, the other on the savage claw marks on his back. She concentrated, not on escape, but on the primal, unknown energy of her own being.
A faint, internal golden glow ignited deep within her core the source of her strength, the reason she was sensitive to cold iron. It wasn't the violent, disruptive energy she had just channeled. This was pure, calming essence. She pushed the strange, warm light out through her palms and into Allister's body, directly into the shattered spiritual center where their bond had connected.
The healing was only partial a tiny, agonizing fraction of what he truly needed. But the bleeding stopped. His breathing deepened, stabilizing just above the critical level. She had bought him time. She had ensured he would survive the sunrise.
Sunflower pulled back, her own face drawn, the effort leaving her temporarily depleted. She quickly replaced the bloodied scroll in the black book, and tucked the book into her inner vest.
She stood up, locking the cell door with a definitive click locking away her freedom.
She turned to face Ivan, who had watched the entire exchange the defiance, the tenderness, the strange, brief glow with stunned silence.
"Ivan," Sunflower commanded, her voice ringing with a new, terrifying authority an authority backed by the secret knowledge of his Alpha's sacrifice. "Allister is stable for now. He will not wake before sunrise. You have two orders. First: Get a healer here in thirty minutes, or the bleeding will restart. Second: You will tell no one that I was here. I am still the prisoner. I will present the evidence at dawn."
Ivan stared at her, then at the dying Alpha, then at the terrifying, purple-gold conviction in her eyes. He saw the Alpha's blood on her hands, the evidence secured on her person, and the absolute certainty in her manner. He knew, with sudden, terrifying clarity, that the mixed-blood the prisoner was the only thing left that could honor his Alpha's insane, desperate final act.
"What… what are you doing?" Ivan whispered, his voice shaking.
Sunflower walked back to her cell door and opened it, stepping inside and locking the door behind her.
"I am finishing the fight Allister almost died for," she said, her voice now coming from behind the locked door, cold and final. "And I am not running. Not until I see Elder Maeve pay the price of treason. Now, move, Beta. Dawn is coming."