ALEX'S POV

It’s been five years since I left the Ragriz pack and my hometown altogether, that’s about long enough to forget the shame that had led to my decision to leave everything behind.

But the sound of my knee popping will forever haunt me.

One second I was spinning past the defense. The next, a solid wall of muscle named Reid Maddox rammed me so hard into the boards, the lights flickered.

I remember the silence in the rink being louder than the impact. And after that, the whispers started.

“She doesn’t even have a wolf.”

“Why’d they let her out there in the first place?”

“Replacement for Vicky Deveraux.”

“Russo’s daughter? Please. They just felt sorry for her.”

My pack members were monsters

They didn’t care that I had been rammed to shit by a rival team mate, they cared that a wolf-less girl had made it to the championship.

They never acknowledged my years of training, how hard my father made sure, even without my wolf, I could replace any of his team members if it was needed.

They scorned me.

Mocked me.

Reminded me—

kshhhhk.

A voice crackles in the airport speaker overhead, “Welcome to Crystal Falls. Please proceed to baggage claim two for all incoming flights from Atlanta.”

I blink.

Right.

I’m here.

Home, apparently.

This freezing, miserable town.

The cold hits harder than I remember as I toss my bag over my shoulder, grab my rolling suitcase, and force myself out of the double doors.

For minutes, I wait, shaking in my boots.

Father had told me a ride was coming. What I don’t expect is the ride to be forty minutes late.

I’m pacing near the curb, ready to scream, when I hear the rumble of an engine. It pulls up slow, tinted windows, black jeep and my stomach fucking drops.

Of course.

Two Deverauxs step out.

Not just anyone.

Valek Deveraux leads the way.

Alpha of the Razgriz Pack. Captain of the team. My team. The last time I saw him, he’d stood in front of the whole locker room, in full uniform, and dumped me like I was nothing. One missed shot, one loss to the Paxon Pack, and suddenly I’d humiliated his position. Made the Alpha look weak. So he reminded everyone who really wore the crown.

Now here he is, doing airport pick-up duty like a Uber driver. His twin, Valerie, walks behind him, rolling her eyes like this is the last place she wants to be.

I can’t even blame her.

Why him?

Why them?

Valek’s eyes connect to mine, and it’s like someone shoves a fist into my chest and twists.

I don’t have time to react when another car pulls up.

A blacked-out SUV this time.

My eyes widen.

No.

No, no, no, fuck no.

My head is shaking before he even fully steps out of the car, because I’d know that presence anywhere. It doesn't matter how many years pass.

Perpetrators have strong imprints on their victims.

And sure enough, my senses don’t lie, Reid Maddox steps out. Paxon Pack royalty, my personal hell.

I swear the concrete trembles beneath his feet.

My brain fries trying to process what the hell is happening.

Why the two Alphas from rival packs, and rival hockey teams are standing right here, together, waiting like this is some kind of casual airport pickup.

Royalty.

Both of them.

Huge, tall, arrogant dicks, too handsome for the eyes.

There’s distinct features between them.

Valen Deveraux’s the laid-back one, he has droopy eyes, calm face, that dead-inside Anakin vibe like he’s seen some shit and couldn’t care less.

Reid Maddox looks like trouble. Tousled hair, smug smile, eyes that immediately scan me like I’m meat.

They’re total opposites, but if I didn’t know they’ve nearly beat each other’s brains out on the ice more than once, I’d swear they are brothers.

It won’t take long before the paparazzi start snapping pictures and fans start crowding around, screaming, filming, and posting. Werewolf clans may have kept themselves buried from the human world, hidden in plain sight…But these two?

Valen and Reid?

Even humans know them. The best hockey players to ever exist. Their names were everywhere, sports blogs, tabloid articles, magazine covers. Just enough glamor to distract from the beast underneath.

I’m still trying to get air back into my lungs when it happens, squeals and screeches surround us.

Fans pour in from every corner.

“Oh my God, that’s Reid Maddox!”

“Valen’s here too, what the hell, are they filming something?”

“Wait, they came to pick her up?”

“Is she famous?”

“Get a video! Get a fucking video!”

I don’t wait for them to GET A VIDEO.

I do the thing I’ve always resorted to at the first sight of danger in my entire life.

I run.

I drag my bags behind me like an idiot, the tyres clatter against concrete, they slow me down.

Screw them.

I let go, drop the handle, and take off full speed.

My eyes are burning as I run, and a few drops fall to my cheeks before I realise I’m crying.

My father and I had reached a conclusion before I got on the plane. I would return to Crystal Falls, but not to the team, not to the pack, I will stay at the outskirts of the pack's territory and keep a low profile.

I should have known he was baiting me.

Seeing Valen and Reid standing side by side like that is a dangerous combo. I don’t know what the hell they’re planning, but I know it’s not going to end nice for me.

I crash hard into a man’s shoulder.

He curses.

I mumble an apology without stopping.

Someone’s kid yelps as I dodge around them.

A woman swings her bag too wide and it catches my hip.

Doesn’t slow me down.

I glance over my shoulder once, twice, nearly tripping as I skid through the airport.

They’re not behind me.

I make the mistake of slowing down, because when I whip back around, I slam right into a body.

The breath leaves me on impact and my knees jolt, like they remember.

He’s too fast.

He always has been.

His grip clamps around my wrists before I can get out a full gasp, he hauls me towards him. I yank back with everything in me.

Nothing.

The fucker doesn’t even blink.

His head tilts like he finds this amusing. “You know what, Lexy? It’s kind of cute, how your first instinct is to run when you see me.” A grin stretches his lips, “But come on, do me the honour of saying hello first. It’s been five years.”

Reid Maddox. My lungs hitch. My body is quivering like I’m about to pass out, and I swear my heart gives out.

He leans in, breathes me in deep, like he’s waited years to get his fix. Then he growls, “Mate.”

Not figuratively.

Literally.

I think I flatline.

I think I really flatline.

Fuck my life.

Valek

I’d recognize that growl from any wolf.

Reid Maddox just claimed Alexandra Russo right in front of me.

Like I’m not finally standing inches from the woman I’d been dying to touch, to protect, to ruin in ways only I should be allowed.

And now?

Now I’m supposed to just watch while he sinks his teeth into what I’ve been starving for?

I move before I even think. One second I’m still, the next I’ve closed the gap and my hand is wrapped around her arm, dragging her toward me.

“Lex,” I grit my teeth.

She gasps, stumbling between us, wide-eyed and breathless, her skin is pale and she’s shaking like she’s seconds from collapsing.

She doesn’t look like she wants to be with him.

Hell, she doesn’t look like she wants to be with either of us.

But that doesn’t stop me.

Reid’s hold on her tightens immediately.

Like he’s daring me.

For a second, I’m tired of trying to play nice.

My wolf roars inside of me. He’s tearing through me violently, howling in my chest like he’ll rip through skin and bone just to get to her. Just to mark what’s been his since five long years ago. Before she ever packed her bags and vanished out of town, leaving me burning in my own skin.

“You’re going to want to let go of her, Maddox,” I say quietly, trying to level the anger in my voice.

He smirks.

Really smirks.

“She smells like mine,” he says, low, tightlipped. “I’m not letting go of shit.”

I tighten my grip on her. “She’s not yours.”

“I scented her.” He leans in, lips brushing her temple. “So unless your nose is broken, pretty boy, you’re going to want to back the fuck off before you embarrass yourself in front of your… fans.”

The sound I make isn’t human.

My hand flies to his collar, yanking him closer. She stumbles back between us, but he doesn’t let go of her arm, a broken sound escapes her throat.

She’s not fighting, not even choosing, she’s just frozen, stuck between two wolves ready to rip each other apart.

Good.

She needs to see what she started.

Reid laughs arrogantly, “You always did like things cold and quiet, huh, Valek? But you can’t fuck your way into a bond that isn’t yours.”

My wolf claws at my insides.

My skin is burning from the inside out.

My chest is heaving. I tell myself to calm down, there are humans all around, we aren’t in the pack territory, I grit my teeth..

“She is mine.” I growl, spit flying, “She’s been mine since long before you ever knew her name.”

“Oh, yeah?” He cocks his head mockingly, “Where were you when she was bleeding alone on the ice, huh? When she ran?”

“You don’t get to talk about her like you know her.”

“I do know her. And she knows me. She let me smell her, Valek. She didn’t stop me.”

I shout, “You didn’t give her a chance to!”

Reid is unfazed, “You left her.”

“You’re going to die if you don’t let go of her now!”

We're too close. My hand’s still twisted in his collar, his teeth bared, his claws halfway shifted. Reid doesn’t care that we’re in public, he doesn’t care that he is hurting her by digging his claws through her coat.

Lex whimpers again.

And that’s the only thing that stops me from tearing his fucking throat out.

“Let go of her,” I whisper, voice shaking with restraint. “Before I break your fucking spine.”

His eyes flick to Lex, then back to me. “Make me.”

And for a moment, I actually might.

Right here.

Right now.

In front of the cameras.

In front of the fans dead quiet all around while the airport voice overhead drones on in the distance. Boarding gates, last calls, terminal announcements…

Everything around us is noise.

But all I hear is her breath hitching.

And all I feel is my wolf, breaking inside me, screaming her name. “Alexandra is ours! OURS! OURS! TAKE WHAT IS OURS!”

I can barely stop shaking, the taste of blood spilling to my tongue through a cut in my cheek.

I’ve spent years pretending she was just a memory. That her scent didn’t haunt everything I touched. That I didn’t regret the last mistake that had torn us apart.

I should’ve fought harder to find her.

I should’ve torn the whole world apart.

Instead, I sat through pack meetings pretending to care about peace with the Paxon clan.

Nodded along while they made alliances out of pity. My father died with a smile on his face, proud that we’d chosen diplomacy over rivalry.

I gave him that.

I let that smirk on Reid’s face slide for months. Held back my fists and my anger for the sake of keeping what little balance we had left.

And Reid Maddox has used that against me.

Over.

And over.

And over again.

He calls me weak when he strikes, and I don’t retaliate.

The weak Alpha of the Ragriz pack, weak captain of the Ragriz hockey team.

Like I can’t have his flesh ripped into shreds within seconds.

I fear that Reid plans to rip Lex’s arm clean out of its socket with the way he clutches and tugs.

“Let her go,” I repeat, gritting my teeth.

He smirks, doesn’t move. “She’s not yours anymore. If she ever was.”

“LET. HER. GO.”

Reid leans closer, “We’re not enemies anymore. Remember? Our fathers saw to that. You really want to break a peace treaty over one girl?”

“She’s not one girl.”

Reid shrugs like he doesn’t care. “Then let her choose,” smug as hell, “If she wants to go home with you to Ragriz,” he says, glancing at me like he’s already won, “so be it. I’ll see her at practices, and matches. And you get to own her full time.”

Then he leans in and looks at me dead on.

“Or… she can come with me. You know. Just in case she wants something a little less cold.”'

I see red. “To hell with this.”

I let go of Reid’s collar and clench my fists.

I don’t care about treaties. I don’t care about legacies. I care about the girl standing between us who hasn’t said even one word.

Then she speaks.

Barely a whisper.

But it cuts through everything.

“I’m going with Reid.”

Everything stops.

Even my wolf.

Even my breath.

ALEX

I’ll never forget the look on Valek Deveraux’s face when I make my decision.

But I don’t even have time to see it through the blur in my own eyes, or to register it before Reid starts tugging me away.

"Come on," he mutters smugly. Pain throbs where he holds me, and I hate that I don’t pull away.

I hate that I don’t fight.

I look back once.

Then again.

Valek doesn’t move.

He doesn’t even look back at me.

"You're not going to cry, are you?" Reid huffs, half-amused.

I don't answer.

What would I even say?

At this point in my life, it almost feels safer to be in my enemy’s pack than to be in a home where all my packmates do is scorn me. Where my lover says nothing, where my father stays silent, like I’m not his only daughter.

Like I don't exist beyond the talent I bring to the game.

He promised he’ll never force me to return to the pack against my will, but I’m back in town and the first person he sends my way is the Alpha of the pack.

How ironic.

And Reid.

I don’t ask why he’s here spontaneously.

I don’t even ask how he knows I will return today.

We push through the glass doors into the cold air outside, and I immediately shudder.

Leaning against the hood of Valek’s jeep, arms crossed, is Valerie Deveraux, pale blonde hair, silky straight, black leather fit.

Her lip curls when she sees me.

"Oh, look. The golden bitch arrives."

Reid’s grip on my wrist tightens slightly. “Ignore her.”

We continue walking to his SUV.

But she’s already pushing off the Jeep and coming closer.

“I told Valek you hadn’t changed,” she sneers. “Told him it was a waste of time picking you up. You’re still the same pathetic mutt who left us when shit got real.”

“Val,” Reid warns, jaw tight.

Valerie scoffs. “Oh, please. You two deserve each other. Cowards and losers. I told you Reid, that you’ll finally find someone—”

“Say one more word,” Reid growls, stepping in front of me, “and I’ll rip your tongue out right here.”

He’s not bluffing.

I know it.

But she doesn’t seem fazeed.

Valerie Deveraux is just as fearless as Valek.

She cackles mockingly. “Go ahead. Protect her. She’s good at hiding behind people. Bet you don’t even know your daddy’s dying, do you?”

My chest twists.

She steps closer, eyes gleaming. “Didn’t think so. He never told you? That’s what happens when little dogs run with their tails between their legs. You have one chance to be back at the pack but if you leave with—”

"Reid," I whisper.

I don’t want to be here anymore.

Especially not with Valerie already losing her temper, and just seconds away from throwing fits.

I beg Reid through the blur of my eyes when he peeks back at me over his shoulder.

Valerie’s voice is rising now. “You lose access to the pack. You lose access to your father.” She is shaking with rage, “You lose your access to the team, Russo.”

Reid doesn’t flinch. “Move.”

She steps even closer, eyes wild. “You really think we’re going to lose her again? After we built her up, she’s gonna throw it away for the asshole who tanked her career?”

Reid’s jaw tightens. “Last warning.”

“She’s not leaving,” Valerie spits. “Not with you. She’s our best center. You think I’m letting you steal her out of spite?”

I freeze.

This was never about me.

Just the game.

Reid tries to grab the door handle.

Valerie shoves his chest back. “You don’t get to wreck her life twice.”

Reid shoves her out of the way, and opens the car door. “Get in now.”

I climb into the back seat.

And the sound shuts off.

Like someone hit mute on the whole world.

Outside the glass, Valerie’s mouth is still moving, her arms flailing wildly.

I slump into the seat, and pull my knees to my chest.

Tears slip down before I can stop them.

One of Reid’s men tosses my duffel into the trunk. Another loads the last suitcase.

Reid slides in beside me. The door clicks shut.

He stares at me.

Like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t know if he should.

I don't look up.

And I don’t stop crying.

~~~

The Paxton pack is miles from the city. Ragriz’s a little closer to the human border. This? This feels like nowhere. Nothing but trees, long stretches of road, and silence thick enough to choke on.

During the ride, Reid doesn’t say anything, he looks like he is fuming, jaw clenching, eyes blazing red.

His phone chimes all through the ride and his hand tightens around it so hard his knuckles are pale.

By the time we pull into his estate, my eyes are swollen as shit.

Reid doesn’t look at me right away. Just grits, “Get yourself together,” like it’s a favor.

The car stops.

He opens the door before anyone else can, and steps out.

I wipe my face, trembling now as I reach for the handle. I don't know if it's the ride, or the fact that I'm stepping into another pack that doesn’t belong to me.

But Reid doesn’t wait.

He slams his door and starts walking.

I want to ask, what now?

What do I do now that I’m here?

But I’m not even given the chance to say a word.

One of the men opens my door. “Let’s go.”

I blink at him, still catching my breath as I step out. Another one’s already unloading my things from the trunk.

“Keep close,” the first man says. “Don’t stop, don’t speak, just walk.”

When I hear the gasps, I almost retreat into the car.

People are everywhere.

Spread out across the huge estate like they’d been watching from the moment we pulled in. Some lean on balcony rails, others linger by the steps and garden paths. Their clothes are all shades of black and grey.

Reid’s inner circle maybe.

One guy standing near a motorcycle has dried blood down his jaw like he forgot to wipe it off, he grins at me when our eyes connect.

I feel like I’m being walked into a mafia’s territory rather than a pack with families. For a second, my mind runs wild with thoughts.

I should’ve never come to Crystal Falls.

I should’ve run harder at the airport.

I shouldn’t have gotten into Reid’s car.

God. I chose this.

I came home with a demon.

And just as I expect, they start murmuring.

“Who the hell is that?”

“She’s not one of ours.”

“She doesn’t smell like pack.”

“She human?”

“Nah. Look at her eyes. She’s something.”

“Think she’s a rogue?”

“A rogue? He wouldn’t—”

“Why would Reid bring her in?”

“His mate?”

“She’s not wearing a mark. So not claimed.”

“What about—”

“—Shh!”

My stomach clenches as Reid’s men fall into place. One ahead, one behind, both close. I realize they’re shielding me from the attention.

They don’t say anything, but they move in sync.

I keep my head down.

We pass two girls sitting on the low stone edge of a fountain. One nudges the other, not even bothering to hide it.

“She’s shaking.”

“She should be.”

“If Reid brought her in, and he’s got his men guarding her... that means he’s got his eyes on her.”

I gulp.

The voice drops to a whisper, “We all know how that ends.”