Chapter 2

The night air pulsed with my fury, but beneath it, something colder stirred. A whisper of warning. The scent of wolfsbane still lingered, curling through the trees like an omen. I wasn't alone, I turned, every nerve in my body on edge, listening and waiting. Silence, too much silence then footsteps, soft, measured, deliberate. Someone was watching me. My hands curled into fists. "Show yourself."

For a moment, nothing. Then, from the shadows, a figure emerged.

A man tall, broad-shouldered, his presence filling the space between the trees as if he belonged to the forest itself. His silver eyes gleamed in the moonlight, sharp as the edge of a blade. I knew him. Ryker, Alpha of Moonstone Pack.

The alpha wolf who should have been my protector, the alpha whose pack had murdered my parents. His gaze locked onto mine, unreadable, but I saw it the flicker of recognition, the quiet weight of something unspoken.

"You shouldn't be here," he said, his voice a low growl.

A cold, bitter laugh slipped past my lips. "Neither should you."

He didn't flinch, but I saw the slight shift in his stance, the tension in his jaw. He had expected me to run, to be afraid. He was wrong.

"I know what you did," I said. The words tasted like iron, sharp and unforgiving. Ryker held my gaze. "And what is it you think you know?"

The way he said it calm and steady sent a chill through me. Because there was something in his voice that told me I didn't know anything at all. Not yet. Then before I could speak, the wind shifted and I caught it, the scent of wolves not just one, many moving fast and coming straight for me. I had walked into a trap and this time, there would be no escape.

The wind carried the scent of wolves, thick and unmistakable. My pulse quickened, the sound of it drumming in my ears like a distant war cry. I had been so focused on Ryker, on the fury burning in my veins, that I had ignored the warning signs the unnatural silence of the forest, the shifting currents in the air. I had walked straight into their jaws.

Ryker hadn't moved. He just watched me, the moonlight carving sharp angles across his face. There was no fear in his expression. No urgency. Because he had already won. I was surrounded, I forced myself to stay still, to listen, to count the heartbeats between the trees. The pack was moving in careful, coordinated steps, tightening their circle around me. I could feel their presence pressing in, a weight in the darkness.

"Breathe" I told myself

My fingers twitched at my sides, itching to shift, to let the wolf inside me rise. But something held me back. "Not yet" still maintaining my stance . "Not until I knew what Ryker wanted".

He took a step forward, slow, measured, a predator in no rush to strike.

"I know you want answers," he said. His voice was deep and steady, too steady to be precise. "But this is not the way."

I let out a hollow laugh, the sound curling in the cold night air. "Not the way?" I echoed. "Your pack slaughtered my parents. And now you expect me to do what? Sit down and talk?"

His gaze flickered, but his expression remained unreadable. "If you're looking for revenge," he said, "you might want to know who your real enemy is."

I bared my teeth. "I know exactly who my enemy is."

Ryker sighed, like I was nothing more than a stubborn child refusing to listen. "You think this is simple," he murmured. "That you've uncovered the truth."

His silver eyes darkened.

"But you don't even know the half of it."

The shadows around us shifted. A branch snapped in the distance, followed by a low, guttural growl. The pack was closing in. A warning, "I have to fine a moment to act quickly" still maintain eye contact with Ryker.

Ryker turned his head slightly, his gaze flickering toward the trees. And in that moment, I moved. I spun breaking into a sprint, my feet barely touching the ground as I raced toward the narrow opening in their formation. If I could get to the river, I could lose them in the currents. Immediately, I saw a blur of motion. Something slammed into my side, hard.

I hit the ground with a sharp gasp, the impact knocking the air from my lungs. The weight of another body pinned me down, a growl vibrating against my skin.

I thrashed, twisting, my claws slicing through the air. My wolf was rising, burning beneath my skin, the shift threatening to take over.

"Enough."

Ryker's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and unyielding.

The weight lifted just enough for me to suck in a breath, but not enough to escape. A massive wolf loomed over me, dark fur rippling under the moonlight, its amber eyes locked onto mine. It was one of Ryker's enforcers. Fangs bared, and one wrong move, and my throat would be torn out.

Ryker crouched beside me, his expression unreadable. "You can fight," he said, his voice quiet. "Or you can listen."

My pulse pounded, my body coiled tight, ready to shift, to rip, to tear but the look in his eyes stopped me. Because beneath the cold detachment, I saw something else, a flicker of hesitation, a whisper of something I couldn't name.

And that's when I realized Ryker wasn't here to kill me he needed me alive. "but why? " I thought "and what could be worse than death"?