CHAPTER NINE: THE BOND 

We arrived back at the compound near dawn.

I was exhausted, bruised, and shaking from adrenaline. Daren walked me straight to the medical building where Elena was waiting.

"Is she hurt?" Elena asked, her hands already reaching to examine me.

"Nothing serious. Cuts and bruises." Daren's voice was clipped. "Check her over and debrief her. I need to review the intelligence she gathered."

He left without another word.

Elena guided me to an examination table. "He's angry."

"I noticed."

"Not at you. At himself." She cleaned a cut on my arm. "He blames himself when his people get hurt. When you had to run early, he saw it as his failure for not planning better."

"It wasn't his fault. It was mine. I wasn't careful enough."

"Maybe. Or maybe Vanessa was going to be suspicious no matter what you did." Elena met my eyes. "Some people see threats everywhere because they're guilty themselves. Vanessa knows she betrayed you. Part of her probably expects you to want revenge."

"She was right."

"Was she?" Elena raised an eyebrow. "Is that really why you're doing this? Just revenge?"

I opened my mouth to say yes, but stopped. Was it just revenge anymore? Or had it become something more?

"I don't know," I admitted.

Elena smiled softly. "At least you're honest. That's more than most can say." She finished bandaging my cuts. "You're fine. Sore for a few days, but fine. Get some rest. Daren will want to meet with you this afternoon to go over everything you learned."

But I couldn't rest. My mind was racing, replaying the night. The dinner. The conversations. The weapon Kane had mentioned.

I went to my room and pulled out a notebook, writing down everything I could remember. Every word, every detail. By the time I finished, it was mid-morning and the sun was streaming through the window.

A knock on my door made me look up.

"Come in."

Daren entered, looking tired. He'd probably been up all night reviewing intelligence, planning the next move.

"You should be sleeping," he said.

"So should you." I held up the notebook. "I wrote down everything. The alliance with three packs, the planned cleansing of the dead lands, Marcus offering his daughter to Ryker, Kane's spy in Nightshade Pack. All of it."

He took the notebook and scanned the pages, his expression growing darker with each line.

"This is good. Better than I hoped." He looked up at me. "The weapon Kane mentioned. Do you know what he was referring to?"

"No. But he said it was something the Methlock wolves hid. Something that would give him enough power to unite all the packs."

Daren's jaw tightened. "The Relic."

"What?"

He sat down heavily on the edge of my bed. "There's something I haven't told you. About the night of the massacre. About what my clan was protecting."

"The thing Kane wanted?"

"Yes. The Methlock Relic. An ancient artifact with the power to transfer an Alpha's strength to another. It was passed down through my family for generations, kept secret, kept safe." His hands clenched into fists. "Kane attacked us to steal it. He wanted to take the power of every Alpha in our clan and make it his own."

"But he didn't get it."

"No. Because in the final moments, as everyone was dying, my clan did the ritual. They broke the Relic and bound its power to me. A baby. The last living Methlock." He looked at me, and I saw pain in his eyes. "That's why I have the strength of three hundred wolves. Not just their sacrifice—the Relic's power, merged with mine."

"So it's inside you?"

"In a way. The power is part of me now. Can't be removed, can't be transferred. Kane has been searching for twenty-five years for a Relic that doesn't exist anymore." He laughed bitterly. "If he knew the truth, he'd rip me apart trying to get it out."

"Does he suspect?"

"No. He thinks it's still hidden somewhere in the ruins of my clan's territory. He's had people digging there for decades." Daren stood and walked to the window. "But now, with the alliance forming, he might try a different approach. He might try to capture me instead."

"That's what you want, isn't it? You want him to come after you."

"I want him close enough to kill." He turned back to me. "Which is why we need to adjust the plan. Instead of me attacking Moontide, I need to make Kane think he can win. I need him confident. Overconfident."

"How?"

"By giving him you."

I stared at him. "What?"

"Not really. But we make it look like Moontide recaptured you. You feed them false information about my weaknesses, my location, my forces. You lure Kane into a trap."

"They know I'm a spy now. They won't trust me."

"They will if I 'rescue' you again and they 'recapture' you. If it happens enough times, they'll start to think you're genuine. That you're just an omega caught between two powerful forces."

"You want to use me as bait."

"I want to use you as the key to destroying Kane." His eyes were intense. "But only if you agree. After tonight, after how close you came to dying, I won't force this on you. If you want to walk away, I'll give you money and a new identity. You can disappear."

I should have taken the offer. Should have run as far as I could from this insane plan.

But when I thought about Kane's cruel smile, about Ryker's cold rejection, about Vanessa's betrayal—when I thought about how they'd tried to hunt me down and kill me just for being inconvenient—I felt that rage spark again.

"I'm in," I said. "Tell me the plan."

Relief flashed across his face. "We start tomorrow. But first, you need real training. If you're going to survive what's coming, you need to be stronger than you are now."

"I thought I couldn't fight too well or they'd be suspicious."

"They already know you're working with me. The weak omega act won't work anymore. Now you need to actually be dangerous." He moved toward the door. "Rest today. Tomorrow, we train for real."

"Daren?"

He paused, looking back.

"Thank you. For coming for me tonight. For not leaving me behind."

Something softened in his expression. "I don't leave my people behind, Shahira. Ever."

He left, and I was alone with my thoughts.

I lay back on the bed, my body aching, my mind spinning. Everything was escalating faster than I'd expected. Soon, I'd be back in Moontide territory, playing a dangerous game with my life as the stakes.

But for the first time since my rejection, I felt alive. Felt like I had purpose beyond just surviving.

I was going to bring down Moontide Pack.

And I was going to make them all pay.