Chapter Four: Breach

The loud and long sound came again, closer this time, and the torches along the walls shined like they felt it too.

Adrian moved fast, he pulled Mira behind him without thinking, she leaned in his body while she was taken down the stairs.

"Get her to the safe room," Adrian said to the man with yellow eyes. "Now."

"No," Mira said. "Tell me what is happening first."

"There is no time to argue." Adrian's voice was sharp, edged with something animal. "The Dravens do not knock, Mira. They break down doors and take what they want."

The woman with the strange shadow stepped forward, her voice was calm despite the chaos rising around them. "Adrian, if they are already inside the grounds, the safe room is not far enough. We need to move her out through the tunnels."

"There is no time for the tunnels either," Adrian said. He turned to Mira, his eyes gold and fierce. "Stay close to me and do exactly what I say. Can you do that?"

Mira's heart pounded so hard, she thought everyone in the room could hear it but she nodded.

"Good." Adrian said and took her hand again, and this time his grip was firm, almost bruising, like he was afraid she would slip away if he let go even slightly.

They moved up the stone stairs together, the man with yellow eyes close behind, the woman with the shadow melting into the dark corners of the hallway like she was made of it.

At the top of the stairs, the bookshelf door was already open. Someone had been through it.

Adrian froze, one hand out to stop Mira from moving further. "Stay behind me."

The hallway beyond was empty, but the air smelled wrong, sharp and metallic, like blood mixed with something wild. Mira's stomach was turned.

A crash sounded from somewhere deeper in the house, glass breaking, furniture falling. Then a voice, low and mocking, carried down the hall.

"Adrian Ashfeld. Come out and play, cripple."

Adrian's whole body went rigid. Mira felt the change in him before she saw it, a tightening of muscle, a stillness that felt like the moment before a storm broke.

"Stay here," he told her, voice barely above a whisper. "Do not move from this spot no matter what you hear."

"Adrian, wait." Mira said but he was already gone, moving down the hallway too fast for her eyes to follow properly.

Mira pressed herself against the wall, her heart was hammering, straining to hear anything through the sudden silence. Somewhere in the house, glass shattered again. A man's voice shouted something she couldn't make out. Then came a sound she would never forget, low, guttural, more growl than scream, filling the hallway like it had weight.

She should have stayed still. She knew that but her feet moved anyway, carrying her toward the sound before her mind caught up with her body.

The east study came into view, and what she saw there stopped her cold.

Adrian stood in the center of the room, but he was not entirely Adrian anymore. His shirt hung in shreds from his shoulders. His hands had changed, fingers longer, nails sharpened into something closer to claws. His eyes burned pure gold, no trace of brown left at all.

Across from him stood a man Mira did not recognize, tall, lean, with pale eyes and a cruel smile that made her skin crawl.

"There she is," the stranger said, looking past Adrian directly at Mira. "The little human bride. You did not tell me she was so pretty, Adrian. I almost feel bad for what happens next."

"Do not look at her," Adrian snarled, voice barely human anymore.

"Possessive already?" The stranger laughed, low and cold. "Mates make men weak, and weak men lose everything they love."

"She is not my mate," Adrian said, but something in his voice cracked slightly on the words, something Mira noticed even through her fear.

The stranger's smile widened. "Not yet, maybe but I have been watching you for weeks, Ashfeld. I know what that look in your eyes means, even if you have not admitted it to yourself."

Mira's breath caught, then she knew that whatever was happening between these two men was about far more than territory or money. It was old, personal, dangerous in a way she was only beginning to understand.

"Leave," Adrian said. "Now, while you still can."

"Or what? You will growl at me some more?" The stranger's pale eyes shined back to Mira, lingering in a way that made her want to disappear into the wall behind her. "I did not come here for a fight tonight, Adrian. I came to deliver a message. So, consider tonight a courtesy."

"What message?" Adrian demanded.

The stranger's smile turned razor sharp. "The Draven species no longer recognizes the Ashfeld claim over the eastern territories. We will be taking what is ours within the week and if your pretty little human wife happens to be standing in the way when we do, that is simply the cost of doing business."

Before Adrian could respond, the stranger moved faster than Mira's eyes could track, vanishing through the shattered window behind him and out into the dark gardens beyond.

Adrian stood frozen for a long moment, his chest heaving, gold slowly faded from his eyes as the tension in the room began to break. He finally turned to face Mira, his expression was somewhere between fury and fear, an expression she had not seen on him before.

"I told you to stay in the hallway," he said, voice rough.

"I heard what he said." Mira's voice shook, but she held his gaze. "He called me your mate."

Something shifted behind Adrian's eyes. "It does not matter what he called you."

"It matters to me." Mira stepped closer despite every instinct telling her to run. "Adrian, what exactly am I to you?"

For a moment, he said nothing at all. Then, quietly he said, "Something I never expected to find again."

Before Mira could ask what that meant, Helena's voice rang out from the hallway breathless.

"Sir! Elena is missing from the safe room. The Dravens took her while everyone was distracted upstairs." Adrian's entire body went cold.

"They used the message as a distraction," he said slowly, with a dark and heavy face. "They never wanted a fight tonight, they only wanted my sister.”