The kitchen was empty when I slipped in, the fluorescent lights humming overhead like trapped insects. I'd been avoiding the main areas of the pack house for days now, taking the long routes, keeping my head down. Three more hours until moonrise. Three more hours until Micah and I could disappear into the forest.

I was reaching for a glass when I caught her reflection in the window.

"You've been skipping breakfast." Bria's voice was silk over steel. She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, her dark eyes tracking my every movement. "That's not like you."

I turned slowly, keeping my expression neutral. "Just haven't been hungry."

"Mm." She pushed off the frame and glided closer, circling me like a predator. "You smell different. Stronger. Like something's changed."

My pulse kicked up, but I forced myself to stay still. "I don't know what you mean."

"Don't you?" She stopped in front of me, close enough that I could see the gold flecks in her irises. "You know, Cassius was particularly... energetic last night. Kept me up for hours." Her smile was razor-sharp. "He has this thing he does with his tongue that makes me—"

"I don't want to hear this." The words came out harder than I intended.

Her smile widened. "There she is. I was wondering when you'd grow a spine." She leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Did you really think we wouldn't notice? That we wouldn't smell the change in you?"

My hands clenched at my sides. Every instinct screamed at me to lash out, to finally tell her exactly what I thought of her and her poisoned tea and her fake concern. But that's what she wanted. An excuse.

"I have nothing to say to you." I moved to step around her.

Her hand shot out, gripping my wrist. "You're not going anywhere."

I yanked free, harder than I'd ever dared before. The surprise in her eyes was almost worth it. Almost.

"Touch me again," I said quietly, "and you'll regret it."

For a moment, we just stared at each other. Then she laughed, the sound brittle and sharp. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

She turned and walked away, but I saw the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers flexed like she was imagining claws. She knew. Maybe not everything, but enough.

I had to get out. Tonight. Before she could act.

The hours crawled by. I packed light—just a backpack with clothes, the ledger, and what little money I'd saved over the years. Micah had the rest of the supplies stashed at the old creek. The plan was simple: meet him at the servant's entrance at midnight, slip into the forest during the shift change of the border patrol.

Simple. Clean. Nothing could go wrong.

The pack house was quiet when I crept down the back stairs, my footsteps muffled by the worn carpet. The servant's entrance was just ahead, a plain wooden door that led to the delivery area. Freedom was twenty feet away.

I reached for the handle.

"Going somewhere?"

My blood turned to ice.

Bria stepped out from behind the storage shelves, her smile predatory in the dim light. "I had a feeling you'd try something stupid."

"Get out of my way."

"Or what?" She tilted her head. "You'll shift? Oh wait, you can't."

I moved toward the door. She moved with me, blocking my path.

"Last chance," I said.

Her eyes flashed gold. "No. Last chance for you."

The shift rippled through her in seconds—bones cracking, skin splitting to reveal sleek black fur. Her wolf was beautiful and deadly, all coiled muscle and bared fangs. She crouched low, a growl rumbling from her chest.

I stumbled backward, my bag hitting the floor. This was it. She was going to kill me, or maim me badly enough that I'd never leave.

She lunged.

A blur of motion slammed into her from the side, sending both bodies crashing into the shelves. Cans and boxes exploded across the floor. Micah—still in human form—had Bria's wolf pinned, his hands locked around her throat with a strength that shouldn't have been possible for a Beta.

"Run!" he shouted at me.

But I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Because Bria was shifting back, her body contorting, and she was screaming—high and piercing and fake.

"Help! Someone help! She's trying to kill me!"

Footsteps thundered down the hallway. The lights blazed on. And then Cassius was there, flanked by Gamma Ryan and three other warriors, his eyes taking in the scene: Micah holding Bria, me standing frozen with my escape bag at my feet.

"She had a silver dagger!" Bria sobbed, clutching her throat even though there wasn't a mark on her. "She tried to stab me! Micah stopped her!"

"That's a lie," I said, but my voice came out weak, shaky.

Cassius's gaze locked on mine, and I saw the calculation there. The choice he was making in real-time. Believe his fated mate, or believe the lie that kept me trapped.

"Norah Carter," he said, his Alpha Tone rolling through the room like thunder. "You are under arrest for attempted murder of a pack member."

"No." The word ripped from my throat. "No, she attacked me! She—"

"Gamma Ryan, take her to the cells."

Ryan's face was conflicted, but he moved forward anyway, duty overriding doubt. Micah released Bria and stepped toward me, but Cassius's voice cracked like a whip.

"Stand down, Beta. That's an order."

Micah's whole body went rigid, fighting the Alpha Command. His eyes met mine, gold bleeding through the brown, and I saw the promise there. This isn't over.

Ryan's hand closed around my arm, gentle but firm. "Come on, Norah. Don't make this harder."

I let him lead me away, my legs moving on autopilot. Behind me, I heard Bria's fake sobs, Cassius's low murmur of comfort. The sound of my freedom dying.

The cell door slammed shut with a finality that echoed in my bones.

The Alpha Command hit me like a freight train.

One moment I was standing in the dungeon corridor, Ryan's hand still on my arm. The next, an invisible force crushed down on my skull, driving me to my knees. My forehead cracked against the stone floor. Something warm trickled from my nose.

"You will stay here," Cassius said, his voice layered with that supernatural authority that made every cell in my body scream to obey, "until you understand that you belong to me. Until you remember your place."

I tried to lift my head. Couldn't. The weight of his command pinned me like a butterfly under glass.

"She's clearly unstable," he continued, and I realized he was talking to Ryan now, to the other warriors. Building his narrative. "Attacking a high-ranking pack member, trying to flee in the night. She needs time to recover. To heal."

Heal. The word was a joke. A lie wrapped in concern.

"For her own protection," Cassius finished, "she stays in the silver cells."

Silver. My stomach dropped.

Ryan's hands were gentle as he lifted me, but I saw the doubt in his eyes. He'd known me since I was sixteen. He'd watched me fail trial after trial, but he'd also seen me get back up every single time. This didn't fit.

But orders were orders.

The cell door was pure silver, the bars gleaming dully in the torchlight. The moment Ryan guided me inside, my skin began to burn where it touched the metal. I jerked back, but there was nowhere to go. The entire cell was lined with it—bars, chains bolted to the wall, even silver dust scattered across the floor.

For wolves who couldn't shift, silver was just painful. For wolves who could, it was agony. A suppressant that burned through fur and flesh alike.

Cassius thought I was the former. He had no idea what he'd just done.

The door clanged shut. Ryan's footsteps faded. And then there was only silence and the smell of my own blood.

I don't know how long I sat there. Hours, maybe. Long enough for the burning to become background noise, for my body to go numb in all the wrong places. The cell was cold and damp, water dripping somewhere in the darkness.

No wolfsbane tea. The thought drifted through my mind, detached and strange. For the first time in seven years, there would be no morning cup. No bitter herbs coating my tongue. No poison shutting down the part of me that was supposed to be wild.

My nose had stopped bleeding, but my head still throbbed where it had hit the floor. I leaned back against the stone wall, as far from the silver bars as I could get, and closed my eyes.

That's when I heard it.

*Finally.*

The voice was clear. Strong. Unmistakably female and absolutely not my own thoughts.

My eyes snapped open. "Hello?"

*You can hear me.* Relief flooded through the words, though I didn't understand how I could feel emotion in a voice inside my head. *Oh thank the Goddess, you can finally hear me.*

"Who—" My throat was dry. I swallowed and tried again. "Who are you?"

*Who am I?* A sound that might have been a laugh, if laughs could exist without lungs. *I'm Sasha. I'm your wolf. I'm the part of you he's been drowning for seven years.*

Sasha. The name from my dreams. The presence I'd been searching for every time I tried to shift.

"You're real," I whispered.

*As real as you are. More real than you've been, lately.* Her voice turned sharp. *That poison. It didn't just stop you from shifting. It built a wall between us. Brick by brick, cup by cup, until I was screaming and you couldn't hear a sound.*

Tears burned behind my eyes. "I thought I was broken."

*Never broken. Just buried.* Something shifted inside me, a warmth spreading through my chest. *But the poison is fading now. I can feel it leaving your system. And I can finally start fixing what he destroyed.*

The burning in my skin began to ease. Not much, but enough to notice. The throbbing in my head dulled to a manageable ache.

"You're healing me?"

*Trying to. Silver makes it harder, but yes.* A pause. *Norah, there's something you need to know. About what you are. What we are.*

"What do you mean?"

*That ledger you found. The one that said 'royal bloodline.' He wasn't exaggerating. We're descended from the Silvercrest line. The last of the Moon Goddess's chosen guardians.* Her voice dropped lower. *That's why he poisoned us. Not because we were weak. Because we were too strong.*

I pressed my hand against the cold stone, trying to process. Royal bloodline. Guardians. It sounded like a fairy tale.

*It's real,* Sasha insisted. *And when I finally break through, when you finally shift, everyone is going to know it.*

"When?" The word came out desperate.

*Soon. Days, not weeks. Your body needs time to purge the toxins, to remember what it was before he broke it. But we're close, Norah. So close.*

Footsteps echoed in the corridor above. A door slammed. I tensed, but the sounds faded.

"What do I do until then?"

*You survive,* Sasha said simply. *You stay alive. And you trust that help is coming.*

"Micah."

*Yes. The Beta with the hidden Alpha blood. I can smell it on him, even through the silver. He won't leave you here.*

I leaned my head back against the wall, exhaustion pulling at my edges. But for the first time in seven years, I wasn't alone in my own skin.

*Sleep,* Sasha murmured. *I'll keep watch. I'll keep healing. And when the time comes, we'll show them exactly what they tried to destroy.*

I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me, her presence a warm ember in my chest.

Two nights later, I woke to the sound of a body hitting the floor.

The dungeon guard—a young Delta named Marcus—crumpled outside my cell, Micah's arm still wrapped around his throat. Micah lowered him gently, checking his pulse before looking up at me.

His eyes were pure gold.

"Time to go," he said, and pulled a lockpick from his pocket.

The jeep's engine roared as Micah pushed it harder, the speedometer needle climbing past seventy. Trees blurred into dark smears on either side of the dirt road. My hands gripped the dashboard, knuckles white, heart hammering against my ribs.

"How far to the border?" I asked.

"Ten miles. Maybe less." His jaw was set, eyes fixed on the road ahead. "We'll make it."

Then the howl came.

It split the night like a blade—long, furious, unmistakably Cassius. The sound crawled under my skin, primal and commanding, and every instinct I had screamed to stop, to turn back, to submit.

*Don't you dare,* Sasha snarled inside me. *Keep moving.*

The pack mind-link exploded open. I'd never been fully connected to it—another side effect of the poison, I realized now—but this was so loud, so forceful, it crashed through anyway.

*Kill the traitor. Bring her back alive.*

Cassius's voice in my head, cold and absolute. I heard the responding howls, felt the surge of loyalty from dozens of wolves as they obeyed their Alpha's command.

"They're coming," I whispered.

Micah's hands tightened on the wheel. "I know."

The first impact came from the left—a massive gray wolf slamming into the side of the jeep. Metal shrieked. We swerved, tires skidding on loose gravel. Micah fought to keep us on the road, but another wolf hit us from the right, and then a third leaped onto the hood, claws screeching against metal.

The jeep spun out. We hit something—a tree, a boulder, I couldn't tell—and the world became a chaos of breaking glass and twisting metal. My seatbelt locked, crushing the air from my lungs. Then everything stopped.

Smoke poured from the crumpled hood. The windshield was a spiderweb of cracks. Through it, I saw the river—the border—maybe two hundred yards ahead. So close.

Micah kicked his door open, already moving. "Run!"

I fumbled with my seatbelt, fingers clumsy with adrenaline. The buckle finally gave, and I stumbled out into the night. Three wolves circled the wreckage, their eyes reflecting the moonlight. Delta warriors. I recognized their scents—Marcus, Devon, and Sarah. Wolves I'd eaten breakfast with, trained alongside.

Now they were here to drag me back.

Micah stepped between us and them, his body shifting in a way I'd never seen before. Not into a wolf—he stayed human—but something changed. His shoulders broadened. His eyes blazed that impossible royal blue, bright enough to cast shadows.

"Stand down," he said, and his voice carried a weight that made even me want to obey.

Marcus shifted back to human form, naked and breathing hard. "Beta Micah, don't make this worse. The Alpha's orders—"

"The Alpha," Micah cut him off, "has been poisoning his fated mate for seven years. I'm done following his orders."

Devon lunged.

What happened next was almost too fast to follow. Micah moved like water, like violence given form. He caught Devon mid-leap, twisted, and slammed the wolf into the ground hard enough to crack stone. Sarah came at him from behind, but he spun, his fist connecting with her jaw with a sound like a gunshot. She dropped.

Marcus hesitated, his wolf form rippling with uncertainty.

"Go," Micah said to me, not taking his eyes off the remaining Delta. "Cross the bridge. Now."

"I'm not leaving you—"

"Norah." He looked at me then, and the gold in his eyes was so bright it hurt. "Run."

More howls echoed through the forest. Closer now. The rest of the pack, closing in.

I ran.

My feet pounded against dirt, then wood as I hit the old bridge spanning the river. The planks were slick with moss, treacherous, but I didn't slow down. Behind me, I heard snarls, the impact of bodies colliding, Micah's roar of defiance.

I was halfway across when I felt it—that crushing presence, that weight of authority that could only be one wolf.

Cassius stood on the bank I'd just left, his massive black wolf form radiating fury. Even from here, I could see his eyes, could feel the bond between us pulling tight like a noose.

*Come back,* his voice whispered through the mind-link, seductive and commanding. *Come back to me, Norah. This is where you belong.*

*Like hell,* Sasha spat.

I took the last three steps and crossed the territorial line into neutral ground. The moment my feet touched the far bank, something shifted in the air—a barrier I couldn't see but could definitely feel. Ancient magic, enforced by the Lycan Council. No pack could cross it without declaring war.

I turned to face Cassius.

He stood at the water's edge, trembling with barely contained rage. Behind him, a dozen wolves emerged from the tree line, all watching, all waiting for their Alpha's command. Micah was there too, bloodied but standing, his eyes still that blazing blue.

"You can't run from this," Cassius said, his voice carrying across the water. "You're mine. The bond—"

"The bond," I interrupted, surprised by the steadiness in my own voice, "was built on lies. On poison and manipulation and seven years of making me believe I was nothing."

His wolf form shimmered, and then he was human, naked and furious in the moonlight. "I made you strong. I made you—"

"You made me a prisoner."

The words hung in the air between us, final as a death sentence.

Cassius's face twisted. For a moment, I thought he might try to cross anyway, council be damned. But then Micah stepped forward, placing himself at the edge of the border, a clear challenge.

"She's under my protection now," Micah said. "You want her back, you go through me."

The two of them stared at each other across the water, Alpha power crackling in the air like lightning before a storm. Then Cassius smiled, cold and cruel.

"This isn't over," he said. "You're still my mate, Norah. And I always get what's mine."

He turned and disappeared into the forest, his pack following. Only Micah remained, crossing the bridge to my side with careful, measured steps.

"Come on," he said softly, taking my hand. "There's a safe house nearby. We need to get you inside."

I let him lead me away from the border, away from the pack that had been my prison. But with each step, something inside me began to burn—not the poison, not the silver. Something else. Something that had been sleeping for far too long.

*Soon,* Sasha whispered. *Very soon now.*