Chapter 4: Kieran

Elara is still talking about increased patrols and wolfsbane toxicology, but her words fade as my attention locks onto the girl at the coffee counter.

Sienna Hart.

When the sun is shining, she looks different. She seems softer. She is wearing a simple dress, with her legs showing, and her hair tied back in a casual way. She is not trying to stand out or attract attention; she just looks natural.

She’s at the campus café, ordering coffee, laughing at something the barista says.

Except she’s not safe. Not with the Architects circling.

Elara is talking. I should listen. She’s not just a pack doctor; she’s been with me through every crisis since I took over as Alpha. Every scar, every broken bone, every fever. She’s saved more lives than I can count.

It was only temporary and physical. She wanted more, but I couldn’t give it to her.

Then I see Sienna lean over the counter and point at something on the menu board. My wolf slams against my ribs so hard that I almost shift right there.

Mine.

“She sees you,” Elara murmurs beside me, her voice low, edged with something sharp. “And she isn’t afraid.”

I don’t reply because Sienna has spotted me in the café and her smile, which is soft and almost teasing, hits me like a punch. She’s only twenty-one, too young, too human, and too much like her mother.

Dr. Lilian Hart was a genius. She was the first geneticist to map werewolf DNA and understand how the shift worked at a cellular level. My father trusted her; they worked together to build something they thought would change the world.

Then Lilian discovered the truth about how the Architects were using her research. She tried to stop them, so they killed her and made it look like an accident.

My father tried to expose them. They killed him, too, and made it look like a challenge gone wrong. And now her daughter? She will get herself killed if she’s not careful.

Now her daughter is walking toward me carrying two coffee mugs like she owns the place, completely unaware that she’s inherited her mother’s death sentence.

“Here,” Sienna says, sliding a mug toward Elara and another toward me. “The barista was drowning, so I jumped in to help.”

As she leaned in, her scent hit me—coffee, something herbal, and that faint, natural sweetness of her skin.

Elara watches her like a wolf circling prey. “You knew these were ours?”

“Of course,” Sienna shrugs, acting like it was no big deal. “Bitterroot blend. Wolves use it to steady themselves after a partial shift. My professor says it's an old Norse thing, something the wolf-cults used in blood rituals before a fight.” She pauses, her eyes lighting up. “Though honestly, the science is way more interesting than the myths. It's actually pretty brilliant.”

“And how would a little human know that?” Elara raises her eyebrow at this human girl.

Sienna leans her hip against the table, eyes glinting with challenge. “Because you’re Elara Vayne. Pack doctor. Healer. You wrote the seminal paper on lycanthropic regeneration three years ago. I’ve read it four times. Cited it in my thesis.”

Elara shoots me a look, as if asking if this girl is real.

 Sienna doesn’t stop. “I’m not that kind of Luna Chaser. I’m not here to flirt my way into a bite. I study anthropology. Myth and monster integration post-Exposure. Werewolves are my focus.” Her voice softens. “You’re not just predators. You’re living history. The stories warned about you and worshipped you in equal measure.”

Elara cuts in, lips curling. “Careful, girl. Wolves don’t like being studied. Some of us bite.”

Sienna smirks. “Then maybe wolves should stop being so fascinating.”

Her chin tilts up, bold, reckless. She’s testing boundaries she doesn’t understand. Poking at predators who could end her.

Just like Lilian.

“Anyway,” she says lightly, eyes flicking to me, holding just a beat too long, “Thanks for last night, Alpha. For the warning.”

She turns to leave. Long legs, simple grace, sunlight catching in her hair. But she glances back once—not at Elara. At me.

Heat sparks in her eyes, her mouth curving just slightly. Not seduction. Invitation to something deeper.

Tell me your secrets. Show me what you’re hiding.

My wolf roars.

Elara’s voice cuts through the moment. “She’s her mother’s daughter.”

I finally look at her. “I know.”

“Lilian Hart died because she asked the wrong questions.” Elara leans closer, voice dropping. “And you’re going to let her daughter do the same thing?”

My jaw locks. “I’m not letting her do anything.”

“Really?” Elara’s smile is cold. “Because you’re watching her like she’s already yours.”

The growl rises before I can stop it. Low, dangerous, vibrating through the space between us.

“Careful,” I murmur. “I’m still your Alpha.”

She looks at me, but I see a flicker in her eyes like memory, heat, the ghost of what we were.

“You think I don’t see it?” I continue, voice dropping lower. “She’s a researcher. A groupie with a degree. You think I don’t know what she is?”

Elara’s lips part, but she stays silent.

“You think I don’t know she’ll burn out just like all the others?” My hand tightens around my cup until the cardboard groans. “That I haven’t seen a hundred like her walk in, burn bright, then disappear when they realize wolves aren’t fantasy?”

“And yet,” Elara says softly, “you’re still seeing the door she walked out of.”

I don’t answer because she’s right and because Sienna Hart isn’t like the others.

She is curious, but dangerous. She carries her mother’s legacy like a loaded gun pointed at both of us.

The Architects want her. They’ll come for her.

Sienna walks out of the café. Inside me, my wolf went dead still.

A black sedan whips around the corner and mounts the curb, heading straight for Sienna. She is mine.

 I move.