Chapter 259: The plan

Scarlett’s POV

​Two days later.

​The mansion felt completely different now. The warm, lively packhouse I used to know was gone, replaced by a cold, quiet fortress. Everywhere I looked, people were getting ready for a battle they didn’t know if they could win.

​I stood by my bedroom window, staring down at the courtyard. The sun was just starting to set, casting long, dark shadows across the grass. Below me, the pack was in full military mode.

​Younger omegas and older pack members were busy moving heavy wooden crates filled with silver weapons and medical supplies into the secure underground bunkers. On the main fields, the sound of growling and heavy footsteps didn’t stop. Leonard was pushing the warriors harder than ever. Even from up here, I could see how exhausted the fighters looked, their bodies covered in sweat and dirt as they practiced defense formations over and over again.

​They were preparing for a massacre. My pack was going to bleed because of me.

​"Twenty liters," I whispered to myself, the number still making my stomach twist into painful knots.

​A knock on the door broke the silence. I didn’t even have to ask who it was. The thick, rich scent of pine and rain told me exactly who was standing on the other side.

​"Scarlett?" Liam’s voice came through the wood, sounding incredibly tired. "I brought you some dinner. Can I come in?"

​I took a deep breath, fixing my face into that cold, emotionless mask I had been wearing for days. I walked over and opened the door just a crack.

​Liam stood there holding a tray with a bowl of hot soup and fresh bread. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his usual neat hair was a messy pile. He looked like he hadn’t slept a single wink since we came back from the border. When his eyes met mine, a flash of pure, agonizing pain crossed his face, but he quickly tried to hide it with a small, forced smile.

​"You need to eat," he said softly, holding the tray out. "You barely touched your lunch."

​"Thank you," I said, my voice completely flat. I took the tray from his hands, making sure our fingers didn’t touch. I couldn’t risk feeling the spark of the bond. If I let myself feel anything right now, I would break.

​Liam didn’t move away. He leaned against the doorframe, looking at me like he was begging me to say something else. "The borders are completely secure," he whispered, his voice dropping lower. "We doubled the guards. Leo and Leonard are sleeping down at the training camp tonight to monitor the perimeter. You are safe here, Scarlett. I promise you, we will protect you."

​Every word he said felt like a physical blow to my chest. He was working himself to death to save a girl who had rejected him.

​"Okay," I said, keeping my face like stone.

​Liam’s smile faded completely, his shoulders slumping. He looked at me for a long second, hoping for a crack in my shield, but I just stood there. Finally, he nodded. "Goodnight, Scar."

​"Goodnight, Liam."

​I closed the door slowly, shutting him out. The moment the lock clicked, I set the food tray down on the table without touching a single bite. My throat felt too tight to swallow anything.

​I walked over to the long mirror in the corner of the room. I looked terrible. My skin was way too pale, and my sea-blue eyes looked dark and hollow.

​We only have five days left, my normal wolf whispered, her voice trembling with absolute terror. The vampires are going to attack. The pack will die. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

​I know, I snapped back in my mind, gripping the edges of the sink.

​I closed my eyes, reaching deep down into the darkest corners of my soul, trying to find the other entity living inside me. "Hey," I called out in my mind, my thoughts sharp. "Red Wolf. Talk to me. We are running out of time. If you know how to defeat him, you need to tell me right now!"

​For a long time, there was nothing but a heavy, freezing silence.

​Then, the air in my mind grew cold. A powerful, ancient pressure slammed against my brain, making my breath hitch. The Red Wolf didn’t show her face, but her voice echoed from the dark shadows of my mind, sounding deeper and more dangerous than before.

​The King wants the blood because his own body is rotting, the Red Wolf purred coldly. He thinks my magic will give him eternal life. But he forgets one thing, Scarlett.

​"What?" I asked frantically in my head. "What does he forget?"

​Magic has a price, the Red Wolf whispered, her voice fading away into the dark. And my blood is a poison to those who try to steal it. You do not need to fight his army, little wolf. You just need to give him exactly what he asked for.

​My eyes snapped open in the mirror. My heart was beating like a wild drum.

​Give him what he asked for?

​I stared at my reflection, the pieces of a crazy, terrifying plan starting to form in my head. The triplets were preparing for a war to keep me here. They were ready to die for me. But if the Red Wolf was right... I didn’t need to let them fight.

​I just needed to make a choice before the week was up.

​The thought of what I had to do made my stomach turn over.

​Give him what he asked for. The Red Wolf wanted me to hand myself over. She wanted me to let that monster drain my veins, trusting that the ancient magic in my blood would poison him before it killed me. It was a massive gamble. If she was wrong, I would die a slow, agonizing death in a dark cave, and the vampires would destroy my pack anyway.

​But if we fought a war right now, even a pack as massive and legendary as ours would suffer massive losses. The Full Moon Pack wasn’t some small, weak territory—we were one of the largest and most powerful werewolf packs in existence. We had thousands of elite warriors, endless resources, and enough advanced weapons to crush any normal enemy. But the Vampire King wasn’t a normal enemy. He was an ancient nightmare. A war would mean a total bloodbath, and I refused to let our people die just to protect me.

​I looked back out the window. The sky was completely dark now, the stars blocked by heavy black clouds. Down in the courtyard, I could see Liam walking toward the guard towers. His shoulders were tense, his head turning at every little sound in the trees. He looked so heavy, carrying the weight of our massive pack’s survival on his back.

​I pulled the heavy curtains closed, shutting out the sight of him. I couldn’t look at them anymore. Every time I saw them working themselves to the bone, the guilt grew heavier until I could barely breathe.

​The next morning, the heavy tension in the house finally exploded.

​I walked down to the kitchen to get a glass of water, trying to avoid everyone. But as I passed the dining room, the sound of slamming fists made me freeze in the hallway.

​"The western border is completely reinforced!" Liam’s voice roared, raw and stressed. "We’ve moved hundreds of our top warriors to the tree line, but the vampire scouts keep dodging our patrols. They are tracking our movements before the fight even starts!"

​"Then we change our strategy and use our underground tunnels to outflank them," Leonard’s voice came back, tight and completely calm, though I could hear the underlying pressure cutting through his words. "We have the numbers and the best arsenals in the werewolf kingdom, Liam. We have four days left. If we don’t fix the gaps in our patrol schedule, they will try to slip past our main army."

​"And what about Scarlett?" Leo snapped, his voice rough. I could hear him pacing the floor, his heavy boots clicking against the wood. "She hasn’t left her room in days. She’s barely eating. We are out here preparing our entire army to save her life, and she won’t even look at us! I went to check on her this morning and she wouldn’t even open the door!"

​"Leave her alone, Leo," Liam muttered, sounding completely exhausted. "She’s terrified. Anyone would be. She knows that monster wants to bleed her dry."

​"I don’t think she’s terrified," Leonard said quietly, making the room go dead silent. "I think she’s planning something."

​My breath hitched in my throat. I pressed my back against the wall in the hallway, holding my breath, praying they wouldn’t smell me standing there.

​"What do you mean?" Liam asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous, protective register.

​"Think about it," Leonard explained. "She’s been too quiet. Scarlett is a fighter. If she was truly scared, she would be demanding answers, or trying to find a way to train. But she’s just sitting in that room, staring out the window. She told us to let her speak first at the border. She’s trying to protect us. I know my mate. She is thinking about sacrificing herself to save this pack."

​"No way," Leo growled, a heavy chair scraping against the floor as he stood up. "Over my dead body. I will lock her in the royal bunker myself before I let her walk across that border line."

​"We all will," Liam said, his voice absolute and terrifyingly firm. "We are the largest pack for a reason. We fight until our last breath. If the vampires want her, they will have to kill every single warrior we have first."

​Listening to them talk about starting a world-ending war for me made a tear slip down my cheek. They were so stubborn. They thought our massive size and infinite Alpha power could solve everything, but they didn’t understand the real trap here.

​The King didn’t just want any blood—he wanted my blood because his own body was rotting. And the Red Wolf’s plan wasn’t about running away or fighting an army. It was about turning my own body into a weapon. If I infused my blood with the ancient, dark magic of the Red Wolf, it would become a lethal poison. When the King tried to drain me, the very power he was stealing would destroy him from the inside out.

​But for this plan to work, I couldn’t slip away like a thief in the night. If I ran away, the triplets would immediately unleash the entire pack army and launch a full-scale invasion into vampire territory to rescue me, ruining the trap before the poison could even take effect.

​I couldn’t do this behind their backs. I had to face them. I had to convince the three most stubborn, protective Alphas alive to actually let me walk into the jaws of the beast.

​I took a deep, steadying breath, wiping the tear from my cheek.

​I turned the corner and pushed the dining room doors open, stepping straight into the room. The three triplets snapped their heads toward me, their eyes wide with shock.

​"We need to talk," I said, my voice ringing out clear and firm. "And you need to listen. Because I am going to give the Vampire King exactly what he wants—and you three are going to let me."