Chapter 12
Hadley didn’t sleep that night.
The voice on the phone echoed in her mind like a death sentence. Every instinct screamed it was a trap — but what choice did she have? Whoever they were, they knew about Eric. About her past. And possibly about things she hadn’t even begun to understand.
By morning, she had packed a small bag and left a single note on the pillow beside Eric:
“Don’t follow me. This is my war.”
She was on a plane to Valence before the sun had fully risen.
Valence was nothing like the city she had left behind. Nestled between old forests and jagged cliffs, it was a town cloaked in fog and silence. Cold, ancient — the kind of place where secrets didn’t die, they waited.
She followed the address scribbled on the back of the photo to an abandoned church just outside town. Broken windows, ivy strangling the walls. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in decades.
She stepped inside.
And waited.
Hours passed before a voice spoke from the shadows.
“You look just like her.”
Hadley turned sharply.
A man stepped into the faint light filtering through the cracked stained glass. Older, his face lined, a scar dragging from his temple to his jaw. He wasn’t a stranger. Not quite. Something about him tugged at her memory.
“You knew my mother,” Hadley said, steadying her voice.
He nodded. “I knew her better than anyone. We were part of the same unit. Project Seraph.”
“And my father?”
His expression hardened. “Not who you think.”
He handed her a worn folder, thick with old papers, faded photos, and a single birth certificate — hers.
The father’s name: Classified.
Hadley’s blood chilled.
“You were born into a lie, Hadley,” the man said. “Your mother tried to run from it. Tried to hide you from what you are.”
“And what am I?”
He paused. “You’re not just Alpha blood. You’re something… enhanced.”
Her mind reeled.
“What does that mean?”
“It means they’ll never stop hunting you. Because you’re not just born of wolves. You’re a weapon they created.”
Before she could respond, the windows shattered — smoke bombs flooding the room.
Voices shouted. Boots thundered against the stone floor.
The man shoved the folder into her hands. “Run!”
She sprinted for the back, bursting through a half-rotted door and vanishing into the woods.
She didn’t stop running until the gunfire faded behind her.
When she finally collapsed hours later, hidden deep in the forest, she pulled out the folder again, hands shaking.
Among the documents, she found a name circled in red:
Dr. Elias Vaughn.
The man who designed Project Seraph.
Her real father’s name?
Her creator?
She didn’t know.
But she knew one thing — she needed Eric.
She grabbed her phone and dialed.
It rang once.
Twice.
Then his voice: “Hadley. Where are you?”
Her voice cracked. “I think I just found out who I really am.”