CHAPTER 28

JAYDEN

We almost fought over something as ridiculous as whose car to take. Gabriel with his smug tone insisting his rental was “more reliable,” me not about to sit behind his wheel like a damn passenger. In the end, neither of us gave in. Fine. We each drove our own, me trailing him through Vienna traffic like a shadow that refused to leave.

We cut through the city, across the Donaukanal Bridge, and farther east, the roads thinning into countryside. The farther we went, the less civilization clung to us. Asphalt gave way to winding lanes that clung to the mountainside, sharp bends forcing us to slow.

Hours bled into hours. The drive stretched long and heavy, only the steady hum of the engine and the mountains rising higher around us. At last, the pavement ended. A battered sign warned the road ahead was closed to vehicles.

We parked. My wolf snarled inside me at the thought of leaving the cars behind, but there was no choice. If anyone wanted to find us—or the cars—it would be easy. I only hoped they’d be untouched when we got back.

I slammed my door shut and adjusted my jacket. “Of course,” I muttered, scanning the rocky path ahead. “Of all the beautiful places to live—a city, a castle, even a damn forest—witches just have to pick the mountains. Complicated, every last one of them.”

Gabriel moved past me with a faint smirk, his boots crunching on gravel. “That would be the good part,” he said dryly. “The bad one is when you find out she’s relocated… and you’ve just wasted half your life trying to find her.”

I clenched my jaw, following him up the path. Every step closer to Selena Jones felt like walking into a trap.

The path wound endlessly upward, roots tangling under our boots, the canopy above so thick it strangled out most of the light. We walked until my calves burned, until my wolf growled with impatience.

And then—suddenly—we were back where we started. The same broken tree stump. The same moss-covered boulder.

I stopped dead, staring. A low chuckle escaped me despite the frustration clawing my insides. “You got to be fucking kidding me.”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes, scanning the treeline. “She must have known we’re here.”

I turned to him with a smirk, though irritation pulsed under my skin. “Does she know us?”

“Not personally,” Gabriel replied, his tone clipped. “But a witch like Selena would immediately sense Alpha wolves lurking around her property. She’s probably playing tricks on us. Magic illusions until we give up and retreat.”

I scoffed, glancing at the ground we had already walked. “We’re not even on her property. Isn’t this supposed to be government land? Who the hell signs over a mountain to a witch?”

Gabriel shot me a look. “That’s not helpful.”

I barked a laugh. “Neither are you.”

He shrugged, unbothered, like he had already decided patience wasn’t worth wasting on me.

“You’ve met her?” I asked, eyes narrowing. “Or are you just chasing rumors?”

His jaw tightened. “I met her once. Years ago. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good meeting—and it made me swear I’d never cross her path again. Yet here I am.” He paused, scanning the twisting forest. “But I’ve never seen restrictions like this in her woods before.”

I turned slowly, eyes dragging across the towering pines, the shadows that seemed to shift when I blinked. The forest pressed heavy around us, too quiet, too watchful.

A cold thought slithered through me.

What if this isn’t Selena’s magic at all?

My wolf stirred uneasily as the memory of Catriona’s words returned, the old man’s voice echoing in my head.

What if it was him?

The forest pressed in on us, tall pines standing like silent sentries. Their branches swayed in the mountain wind, yet not a single leaf touched the ground. The air was too still, too heavy. Every instinct in me told me this wasn’t just nature at work.

I slowed my steps, letting my eyes sweep the treeline once more. Gabriel was a few paces ahead, moving with that same controlled confidence that always managed to grate on me.

“This isn’t her doing,” I said at last, my voice breaking the silence.

Gabriel glanced over his shoulder, brows raised. “What?”

I gestured around us, my tone sharp. “This loop we’re stuck in—this endless circling back to where we started. It doesn’t feel like Selena’s magic. It feels like something else. Someone else.”

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t stop walking. “You’re suggesting…?”

“The old man,” I cut in. “The same one who’s been haunting Catriona. The one who’s already reached inside my son’s mind.” My jaw clenched so tight it ached. “I think he’s the one pulling this trick. Not her.”

Gabriel finally stopped. He turned fully, his posture rigid. “That’s a bold assumption.”

“No,” I said coldly, stepping closer. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Selena wouldn’t waste her power chasing us in circles. She’s clever, not petty. This—” I gestured to the suffocating forest. “This is taunting. And he’s good at taunting.”

Gabriel’s mouth pressed into a thin line, the faintest crease forming between his brows. For once, he didn’t have a smug retort ready on his tongue.

“You think he’s already one step ahead,” he said finally.

I gave a bitter laugh. “He’s been one step ahead since the beginning. He’s inside my son’s fucking head, Gabriel. Inside my mate’s fears. I'm very certain he’s the one behind this, because he already knows we’re trying to reach Selena.”

Gabriel’s gaze flicked to the treeline again. “If you’re right, that means we’re not just walking into Selena’s traps… we’re walking into his.”

“Exactly.”

For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The mountain air was cold against my skin, but sweat slicked my palms. My wolf strained, restless, furious at the thought of being played with.

I broke the silence, my voice low and hard. “So tell me, Gabriel—do you still think this is about Selena? Or do you finally admit he’s in this with us, every step of the way?”

Gabriel’s jaw ticked. His silence stretched, as though he hated the words before he even spoke them.

“I admit,” he said finally, voice rough, “that if it’s him… then we’re walking blind into his game.”

I gave a grim smile, though it didn’t touch my eyes. “Then we’d better figure out the rules before he decides to end it.”

We stood opposite one another, the weight of the forest between us. Neither of us wanted to admit it, but there was no way forward unless we did something drastic. This wasn’t a human trap—it wasn’t even a witch’s game. This was the work of a motherfucking spirit, the kind that fed off fear and confusion.

Gabriel’s lips curved with reluctant thought. “If we shift, we might be able to cut through it. Our wolves can fight whatever shit he—or Selena—put around this place.”

I hated that it made sense. But I gave a short nod. “Fine.”

We stripped quickly, folding our clothes and leaving them tucked against a mossy rock so we’d find them later. My muscles tightened, bones cracking as I let the shift take me. The wolf surged forward.

The forest was sharper in this form. Every sound, every shift of the air magnified.

Then—

A scream ripped through the silence. High, terrified.

Both Gabriel and I whipped our heads toward the sound, ears pricked. Another shape cut between the trees—no, two shapes. Human. An older couple running clumsily down the slope.

“Fuck,” I growled, already sprinting.

We reached them in a heartbeat. The woman stumbled and fell hard, frozen in horror as her husband bolted forward without so much as a backward glance.

Gabriel shifted back just enough to laugh, his voice edged with dry amusement. “Chivalry’s dead, apparently.”

The woman’s eyes widened, her hands shaking as she scrambled back. To her, we weren’t men—we were wolves, predators closing in.

Gabriel jerked his chin toward the fleeing man. “I’ll get the coward. You deal with her.”

I glanced at the woman again. Hiking sticks lay abandoned beside her, a half-empty bottle of water spilling into the dirt. They were hikers. Just fucking hikers. Wrong place, wrong time.

I exhaled hard through my nose. What the hell am I supposed to do with her now?

I shifted back, skin prickling as the mountain wind hit my bare flesh. The old woman scrambled further, her eyes wild with terror.

I crouched before her, voice low, deliberate. “I could kill you right now. But I won’t.” I leaned closer, letting the weight of my words sink in. “That doesn’t mean I won’t—if you tell anyone what you saw. That’s when I will kill you.”

Her breath hitched, her lips trembling. Before she could scream, I struck the side of her head with the heel of my hand. She crumpled instantly, unconscious. Even if she did speak one day, no one would believe her rambling about human shiftters in the Austrian mountains.

Footsteps crunched behind me. Gabriel appeared, an unconscious old man slung over his shoulder like a sack of grain.

I straightened, eyeing him. “You killed him?”

Gabriel shot me a glare. “Is that what you take me for?”

A bitter laugh left my throat. “Everyone knows that’s what you do.”

He smirked, unbothered and dropped him carelessly onto the ground, dust puffing up around the body. If the poor man woke, he’d probably spend months cursing his back.

“They’ll both think they were dreaming,” Gabriel said dryly, brushing his hands off as though it was finished business.

I didn’t bother answering. Instead, we both shifted again, the wolves surging forward. Power exploded through my muscles as my paws struck the earth, the forest rushing past in streaks of green and shadow.

This time, when we ran, the path didn’t curl back on itself.

The shroud broke.

Gabriel kept pace at my side, his brown wolf form cutting through the trees. His voice brushed my mind through the bond of our wolves, almost smug.

Motherfucking hell… it worked.

I didn’t answer, not with words. My wolf’s eyes just swept the path ahead, ears pricked, waiting for whatever came next. And I ran harder, refusing to slow until I saw what lay beyond this cursed forest.

We slowed, paws crunching against pine needles, our wolves alert. The air felt different here—denser, charged. I scanned the trees, the slope, every shadow. Nothing but endless forest.

Then Gabriel’s voice slid into my mind, dry and clipped. We should be seeing it by now. Selena’s house.

I bared my teeth in frustration. So where the hell is it? Did she shift to another location?

Gabriel snorted through the link. Wouldn’t surprise me.

I ignored him and padded forward a little farther, senses straining. That was when I caught it—a faint shimmer, just at the edge of sight. Like heat rippling off stone. Subtle, almost nothing. But it was there.

Looks like there’s an invisible barrier, I mindlinked, my hackles rising. She hasn’t moved. She’s still here.

Gabriel trotted up. What are you talking about? There’s nothing here.

He pushed past me, determined to prove me wrong—

And the world exploded.

A force slammed into him, hard enough to lift his body clean off the ground. He yelped, a vicious sound, before being hurled backward into the trees. Bark splintered as he crashed into a trunk, the impact knocking him out of his wolf form and into his human form. He hit the earth with a groan that rattled the air.

The shimmer pulsed, then slowly unraveled—fading like a soapy bubble popping in slow motion.

And before my eyes, the illusion dropped.

A house emerged from the haze. Dark stone walls veined with ivy, windows tall and narrow, their panes glowing faintly as though firelight flickered behind them. The roof pitched high and jagged, crowned with iron spires.

And at the threshold, framed by the fading magic, stood Selena Jones.

Her profile was sharp, commanding, her gown trailing like smoke. Eyes black as obsidian fixed on me, glittering with a knowing smile.

Are you looking for death?