Chapter 4: Rules Written in Blood

They didn’t ask her if she wanted to come.

That was the first rule Ari learned about their world.

The city blurred past the car windows as Dante drove, one hand loose on the wheel, the other resting casually like he hadn’t just revealed monsters were real. Kai sat in the passenger seat, silent and rigid. Lennox followed behind them on foot—on foot—keeping pace with traffic like physics didn’t apply to him.

Ari’s heart hadn’t slowed since the alley.

“Where are we going?” she asked, breaking the suffocating silence.

“Somewhere safe,” Dante replied.

“That’s not an answer.”

He glanced at her in the rearview mirror. His eyes weren’t glowing now, but they were still too sharp. Too knowing. “It’s the only one you’re getting.”

The car veered into an abandoned industrial district, warehouses stacked like bones against the skyline. They stopped beside a building marked with faded graffiti and boarded-up windows.

“This place is condemned,” Ari said.

“Good,” Kai muttered. “No humans.”

That word landed wrong.

Inside, the warehouse opened into something impossible—lights strung overhead, generators humming, people moving through the space. Not people. Wolves. She could feel it now, like static in her blood. Every single one of them turned when she entered.

Judgment hit her like a wave.

“She’s human,” someone said.

“For now,” another voice answered.

Dante stepped forward, command radiating off him. “Enough.”

The room quieted instantly.

Ari swallowed. “So… what? This is a pack meeting?”

Lennox came up behind her. Not touching. Never touching. “This is territory,” he said. “You crossed into it tonight.”

“I didn’t know—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kai cut in. “The city doesn’t care what you know.”

Ari crossed her arms, anger flaring through fear. “You don’t get to drag me here and talk like I’m already guilty.”

Dante smiled faintly. “You’re learning fast.”

They led her deeper into the building, away from the others, into a quieter room lined with concrete and steel. The air was thick. Charged.

“Rule one,” Dante said, leaning against the wall. “You don’t tell anyone what you saw.”

“Rule two,” Kai added, eyes locked on her, “you don’t wander the city alone at night anymore.”

She scoffed. “You can’t control where I go.”

Lennox stepped closer. This time, too close. “We can. Because now they can smell you.”

Her breath hitched. “Who’s they?”

“All of them,” he said softly. “Rival packs. Rogues. Predators who would tear you apart just to see what happens when a human bleeds under a full moon.”

Her mouth went dry.

Dante straightened. “Rule three is the most important.”

The room seemed to shrink.

“You don’t tempt wolves,” he said. “Especially not bonded ones.”

Ari laughed once, sharp. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“No,” Kai said quietly. “But your body did.”

Silence fell like a blade.

Her cheeks burned. “That’s not—”

“I can hear your heart,” Lennox interrupted. “I can smell what you feel.”

Her legs felt weak.

Dante’s voice dropped, velvet-dark. “Desire is dangerous in our world. It doesn’t fade. It claims.”

Ari looked between them, panic tangling with something far worse. Want.

“So what,” she whispered, “you’re saying I’m just supposed to pretend none of this affects me?”

Kai took a step forward, fists clenched. “I’m saying if you let it affect you, you won’t survive.”

The generator lights flickered.

Outside, a howl tore through the night—close.

Every wolf in the building went still.

Dante’s jaw tightened. “Rogue,” he said. “Bold.”

Lennox’s eyes flashed gold again. “They’re testing boundaries.”

Ari hugged herself. “Because of me?”

“Yes,” all three said at once.

The weight of it crushed her.

Dante reached out—then stopped himself inches from her cheek. His restraint was worse than any touch. “You’re a liability,” he said quietly. “And a temptation.”

Her pulse betrayed her, fluttering wildly.

Kai turned away, breathing hard. “This is why humans stay out of pack business.”

“And yet,” Lennox murmured, gaze burning into her, “she’s standing in the center of ours.”

Another howl echoed—closer this time.

Dante straightened, all Alpha now. “We move her.”

“What?” Ari snapped. “No. I’m not some object you pass around.”

Lennox met her eyes. “You are protected. Whether you like it or not.”

Kai’s voice was rough. “Because if another pack claims you first…”

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t have to.

Ari’s chest tightened, fear and heat coiling together. “What does ‘claim’ mean?”

The three men exchanged a look she wasn’t supposed to see.

Dante answered anyway. “It means you stop being human in the ways that matter.”

Her breath shook. “And if I don’t want that?”

Lennox stepped closer, so close she could feel his heat. “The city doesn’t care what you want.”

The moonlight poured through a cracked window, silver and unforgiving.

Ari realized something then—something terrifying.

They weren’t just protecting her.

They were fighting themselves.

And the rules they’d just laid out?

They were already breaking them.

Because desire wasn’t fading.

It was growing teeth.