CHAPTER THREE

Silver turned, her white-blonde hair matted with dirt, her hands still streaked with her father’s blood. Forms moved between the trees, their eyes glistening in what little light there was, as the day was already breaking. Rogues, she could tell. Their movements were slow, deliberate, and sharp. They were predatory. 

Her stomach dropped, she didn’t realise that she had crossed the boundary, and was currently standing in their territory.

“An intruder”, one of them snarled, his voice was raspy in a way that carried stillness.

They soon stepped closer, and she could make them out. Another one of them bared his teeth at her and took a couple of steps closer to her, his claws trailing the trees that were near him. “She doesn’t belong here,” he hissed. “What do we do with her?”

 The circle around her formed as the others circled her, hemming her in as the forest itself felt like a trap closing in. 

One of them gave a low, humorless chuckle, his eyes glinting. “She wandered in on her own. Maybe she’s offering herself up.”

Her breathing became quick and shallow; her mind was screaming at her to run, but her legs were refusing to move. And it hit her, she was not only lost, but now she was also prey.

“She looks weak,” another one sneered, his nostrils flaring as he caught her scent. “Barefoot. Half-dressed. She wouldn’t last an hour out here.”

One of them tilted his head, studying her like a prey pinned beneath a hunter’s gaze. “We should finish her now, before she becomes trouble.” His lips curled back, baring teeth.

“No,” a deeper voice cut through, silencing the others. The largest of them stepped forward; his form was commanding. His posture was straighter, his movements measured; he seemed to be the leader of the guard. His eyes raked over her, sharp and calculating.

“She has crossed the boundary,” he said flatly. “That makes her our business.”

One of the others growled low in his throat, restless. “Then what do we do with her?”

The leader’s gaze lingered on Silver, who looked like she had seen a ghost, frozen, heart pounding so hard she believed they could hear it. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, at last, his voice dropped, heavy with authority.

Silver lifted her chin, though her voice trembled. “I seek your Alpha.”

The wolves looked amused by her, but their leader just looked at her, intrigued.

“Take her to the Alpha.”

The words sounded definitive, like a death sentence. Claws scraped against the dirt as two of them came on either side of her; their grip was like iron. Their circle broke only to reform behind her, forcing her deeper into the dark heart of rogue territory.

Silver’s breath hitched. Whatever fate awaited her at the hands of the Rogue Alpha, she knew one thing for certain: her life wasn’t about to remain the same.

She was dragged through the forest, deeper than she would have ever dared to go. The trees became denser, and there were more shrubs, forcing her to stumble barefoot over the jagged ground. Every step bit into her bare feet, but the guards gave her no mind and jerked her forward anytime she faltered and slowed down.

After a while, the woods opened up into a hollow land. There, carved into the side of a jagged rock face, stood what could only be assumed to be the den. There were torches at the entrance, their flames were dying down and casting little to no shadow against the stone. The air carried a thick scent of smoke and the wolves, dozens of them, and the damp ground.

The guards shoved her inside. 

He stood in the mist, broad-shouldered, black-haired, scarred from throat to jaw. His steel-gray eyes raked over them like a blade, cold and cutting. Power radiated from him, not the noble weight of an Alpha, but the dangerous chill of a wolf who had nothing left to lose.

Silver’s chest tightened. The stories hadn’t prepared her. He looked less like a man and more like the embodiment of winter itself, untamed, unyielding, lethal. His eyes met Silver’s.

And the world broke.

The mate bond slammed into her like fire and moonlight, a force so raw it stole the breath from her lungs. Her knees nearly buckled. Her wolf, weak, muted all her life, howled inside her for the first time, clawing at her chest, desperate to reach him.

Arthur froze. For a heartbeat, something flickered in those storm-gray eyes, recognition, heat, shock. His jaw clenched, his body rigid as if every instinct screamed the same truth, mate.

Silver whispered it before she could stop herself. “You… you’re…”

Arthur snarled, cutting her off. His voice was a lash, dragging a hand through his dark hair as though the very idea offended him. “Of all the fates…” His gaze was straight at her, sharp and accusing. “You? My mate? A fragile little thing that can barely stand?” He spat.

Her heart pounded, breaking against the reality she couldn’t deny. His words hurt, but beneath them, she knew the same undeniable truth; the same pull was suffocating her.

He let out a breath through his nose, annoyance flaring as he turned away for a second, only to turn back toward her, as though the bond itself wouldn’t let him stay distant.

“This changes nothing,” he spat out, though his tone betrayed the storm that was brewing beneath. 

Silver’s breath hitched, the bond snapping tight around her heart only to shred in his rejection. Her skin burned with humiliation. 

“You don’t understand,” Silver said, her voice breaking but steady. “My father is dying. My pack is in ruins. If you don’t help us...”

And for this first time since she had been in his presence, his gaze softened,  surprise flickering beneath his masked expression, just for a second before it hardened again, and his mouth twisted.

“ You are the daughter of the Alpha of the Hollow pack?” he questioned

“Yes, yes, he’s my father,” she responded hopefully.

Arthur’s eyes never left Silver’s, but now there was something darker in them. Something like a storm brewing.