Double Trouble, Triple Heat

Chapter 18

Sera’s POV

Robert Mitchell. My father.

Leading hunters against my pack.

The world tilts violently, and I grab Dominic's arm to keep from falling. This can't be real. I still cannot believe it. My father was cold, distant, absent—but a killer? A hunter of wolves?

The man who taught me to ride a bike. Who sat beside my hospital bed when I had my appendix out. Who never said he loved me, but showed up to every school play, every graduation, every moment that mattered even when he couldn't find the words.

That man kills werewolves?

"There must be a mistake," I hear myself say. "My father sells insurance. He goes to church on Easter. He—"

"There's no mistake." Eldric's voice is gentle but firm. "Robert Mitchell is legendary among hunters. Thirty years of kills. Dozens of wolves dead by his hand. He's the reason the Eastern packs were decimated in the '90s."

I think about his absences. The scars he never explained. The way he flinched whenever I mentioned my mother, changing the subject with practiced ease.

Oh god. It's all true. Everything I thought I knew about my father is a lie.

"We have a prisoner," Eldric continues. "A scout captured at the border. He's talking."

We follow him to the lodge's basement—a room I didn't know existed, stone walls and chains and the smell of fear. A man hangs from the restraints, bloodied and broken. He looks up when we enter, and even through the damage, I see the defiance in his eyes.

"Tell them what you told me," Eldric commands.

The scout laughs—a wet, ugly sound. "Which part? The part where your precious Alpha’s mate led us right to you?"

Dominic growls, but I step forward. "What do you mean?"

The scout's eyes find mine, and something shifts in his expression. Recognition. Hunger.

"Joseph Webb sends his regards."

The name hits me like a physical blow. Joseph. Of course it's Joseph. It was always going to be Joseph.

"Joseph isn't just a stalker," the scout continues, enjoying my reaction. "He's from a hunter family. Old blood, going back generations. His office job was just a cover—a way to move through the human world, identify targets, recruit new hunters from the corporate ranks."

His smile is grotesque. "He noticed you at the company. Wanted you. Obsessed over you for months before making his move."

"And when I rejected him—"

"You humiliated him. Broke his nose in front of the security cameras. The video made the rounds in hunter circles—Joseph Webb, brought low by a secretary with a stapler." The scout laughs.

"After you fled, he dug into your background. Imagine his surprise when he discovered your father was Robert Mitchell—hunter royalty. And your mother..." He whistles low. "Lena Ashwood. The Prime who got away."

"What opportunity?" Caspian demands.

"To destroy the Blackwood pack and claim glory for himself." The scout's eyes gleam. "He went to the hunter council with everything. The pack weakened by internal conflict. A Prime's grandchild growing in enemy territory. Robert Mitchell's own daughter corrupted by wolf seed."

Corrupted. The word burns like acid.

"Joseph framed it as the ultimate insult," the scout continues. "The great Robert Mitchell's bloodline tainted by monsters. The council mobilized within days."

I'm going to be sick. Joseph orchestrated everything—my stalker, my father, my pack. All of us chess pieces in his twisted game of revenge.

"Does my father know I'm here?" My voice comes out broken.

The scout hesitates—the first crack in his bravado. "No. Joseph kept that secret. He wants the confrontation. Wants to see Robert's face when he realizes his daughter chose the wolves."

"He'll kill her," Caspian says flatly. "If Robert doesn't know she's here, and he sees her with us—"

"That's the point." The scout's smile returns. "Joseph doesn't just want to destroy this pack. He wants to destroy her. Watch her die at her own father's hands, or watch her father die protecting wolves. Either way, he wins."

Silence fills the basement. I feel Dominic's rage through the bond—hot and barely contained. Feel Caspian's fear, his desperate need to protect me.

"We have to warn him," I say. "My father. He doesn't know—"

"Your father killed wolves for thirty years." Dominic's voice is hard. "He knows exactly what he's doing."

"He doesn't know it's me!" I wheel on him, tears streaming down my face. "He doesn't know his daughter is here. He doesn't know about the baby. If we could just—"

"Just what?" Dominic's jaw is tight. "Walk into a hunter camp and hope he doesn't shoot you on sight?"

"He's my father."

"He's a murderer."

We stare at each other—alpha and mate, at an impasse. I feel his terror for me warring with his hatred for hunters. Feel how much he wants to lock me away somewhere safe and never let me face this.

But Caspian steps between us. "She's right, Dom. If there's any chance of stopping this without more bloodshed..."

"There isn't."

"You don't know that."

Dominic's hands clench into fists. "I know what hunters do. I watched them kill my father. I won't watch them kill her."

"You won't have to." I grab his hands, force him to look at me. "But I have to try. If there's any part of my father that still loves me, that remembers I'm his daughter—"

A howl splits the night.

We all freeze.

Then another howl, from a different direction. Then gunshots—sharp and close, echoing through the forest.

"They're attacking," Eldric says, face grave. "The outer perimeter has fallen."

More gunshots. Screams. The unmistakable sounds of chaos erupting outside.

Dominic moves instantly, shoving me toward Caspian. "Get her to the safe room. Now."

"Dominic—"

"Now!" His eyes blaze gold, already half-wolf. "I won't let them touch you. Either of you."

He shifts mid-stride and bursts through the door, a massive black wolf racing toward the sounds of battle.

Caspian grabs my arm. "We need to go."

"I can't just hide while they—"

"You're carrying his child." His voice cracks. "Our child. Please, Sera. For once, let us protect you."

I feel it all. I feel the pack's terror. Feel wolves dying, their connections snuffing out like candles in a storm. Each one is a small death inside my chest—lives I barely knew, extinguished in seconds. Feel Dominic's rage as he throws himself into battle, teeth and claws and primal fury.

Joseph planned this. All of it. Every moment since I walked into that office building, he's been moving pieces into place.

And my father is out there somewhere, hunting the people I love. Hunting the father of my child. Hunting me, even if he doesn't know it yet.

"The safe room," I whisper. "But I'm not staying there forever."

Caspian's jaw tightens. "One crisis at a time."

We run through the lodge, past wolves shifting and racing toward the battle, past the terrified faces of elders and children being herded to safety. The sounds of fighting grow louder—howls and screams and the sharp crack of gunfire.

Inside me, my wolf stirs restlessly. Furious. I feel her pushing against whatever keeps her dormant, desperate to rise and fight.

Soon, I think. But not yet.

As Caspian pulls me toward the safe room, one thought burns through everything else:

My father is out there. And one way or another, tonight we'll face each other.

I just don't know if either of us will survive it.