CHAPTER 10

"What the hell is this?"

The black envelope landed on the mahogany with a dry slap. It didn't have a stamp. No return address. Just a heavy, wax seal that looked like a drop of dried blood. Madison didn't touch it at first. She leaned back, her knuckles still swollen from the training mats, and stared at the void-dark paper.

She sliced the wax with a letter opener. A silver key tumbled out, clattering against a crystal paperweight. Underneath it, a single slip of vellum bore coordinates etched in ink that smelled faintly of sulfur and cold iron.

The Devil’s Hairpin.

The phone on the corner of the desk vibrated, skittering toward the edge. The caller ID was a name she’d scrubbed from her contacts but burned into her memory.

Austin.

She swiped the screen. "You’ve got ten seconds before I block this number again, Austin. Make 'em count."

"Madi? Oh thank god you picked up." His voice was a jagged mess. The arrogance from the packhouse was gone, replaced by a wet, desperate wheeze. "Look, I know things are... they're bad. Gregory is losing his mind. Victoria is gone. But I have it."

Madison gripped the edge of the desk. "Have what?"

"Your mother’s locket. The gold one with the blue stone. Gregory was going to melt it down for silver scrap. I took it, Madi. I have it right here."

The air in the room suddenly felt thin. That locket was the only thing left of a woman who had died to keep Madison’s secret.

"Give it to me," she said, her voice dropping into a low, predatory register.

"Come to the Hairpin tonight. Eleven PM. You win the race, and it’s yours. I swear on my life, Madi. Just win, and everything goes back to how it was."

"Nothing goes back, Austin," she snapped. "And if you’ve scratched that gold, I’ll peel your skin off myself."

She killed the call.

The Devil’s Hairpin wasn't a road. It was a scar through the northern ridge, a vertical nightmare of jagged slate and collapsing timber. Humans didn't go there. Even wolves avoided it unless they had a death wish.

Madison grabbed the silver key. It was cold. Too cold for normal metal.

She didn't take the car. She drove her bike to the base of the ridge, the engine screaming as she leaned into the turns, the wind whipping her hair into a tangled mess of blonde and silver. The scent of pine turned to the sharp, metallic tang of ozone as she climbed.

At the entrance to the pass, a dozen sets of eyes glowed in the dark. These weren't the Silver Moon guards. These were mercenaries. They stood around a starting line marked in white ash. Austin stood in the center, a silver box clutched in his shaking hands.

"Where's the car, Madison?" he asked, looking past her at the empty road.

"I don't need a car for a mountain pass, Austin. Stop stalling."

He let out a shaky, hysterical laugh. "You don't get it. This isn't a drag race. It's a Shift-Run. The forest is rigged. Silver wire, pressure plates, spring-loaded spikes. The first one to the summit gets the prize. The others... well, the crows need to eat."

Behind him, four massive wolves stepped into the moonlight. Their fur was matted, their eyes bloodshot with the use of enhancers. They weren't there to race. They were there to hunt.

"Win or die, right?" Madison kicked the kickstand of the bike. She stepped into the center of the circle, her gaze locked on the silver box in Austin's hands.

"Madi, wait—" Austin started, but the words died in his throat.

Madison’s spine arched. A sound like grinding stones echoed through the clearing as her bones lengthened and snapped, rebuilding themselves into something ancient and terrifying. Her skin didn't just grow fur; it erupted in a coat of pure, blinding white that seemed to suck the light out of the moon.

She stood on four paws, a beast the size of a grizzly but with the lean, lethal grace of a coursing hound. Her eyes weren't blue or brown anymore. They were pits of molten silver.

She looked at the four mercenaries. They whimpered, their ears flattening against their skulls as her scent hit them—not the smell of a weak omega, but the overpowering, suffocating musk of a Celestial Queen.

Madison didn't wait for the starting gun. She didn't wait for Austin to stop trembling.

She lunged.

Her claws tore into the frozen earth, launching her fifty feet in a single bound. She wasn't playing by their rules. She wasn't running the path. She was going straight up the cliffside.

Behind her, the forest erupted. A silver-tipped arrow whistled past her ear, thunking into a tree trunk. She didn't flinch. She hit the vertical slate, her claws finding purchase in cracks no normal wolf could see.

A silver wire snapped against her shoulder, burning a line through her white fur. She growled, a sound that shook the rocks loose. The sting only made the hunger in her gut grow sharper.

She reached the first plateau. The mercenary wolves were struggling below, caught in the very traps they’d set for her. One was screaming as a silver-jawed trap clamped onto his hind leg.

Madison didn't look back. She saw the summit. And she saw the figure waiting there.

Ethan Harper.

He wasn't in wolf form. He stood at the finish line, his hands in his pockets, his golden eyes watching her ascent with a terrifying intensity.

Madison surged over the final ridge, her massive paws hitting the summit with a force that cracked the stone. She shifted mid-air, her human body hitting the ground in a roll before she stood up, naked and steaming in the sub-zero air.

Ethan didn't look away. He didn't offer a coat. He walked toward her, his heavy boots crunching on the frost.

"You're late," he said, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that made her raw skin tingle.

"I had to deal with the trash at the bottom," Madison panted. She stepped into his space, her chest heaving, the silver blood from the wire cut dripping onto the snow. "Where's the locket?"

Ethan reached into his pocket. He didn't pull out a box. He pulled out a single, gold chain. The blue stone caught the moonlight, pulsing with a faint, internal glow.

"Austin didn't have it," Ethan said, his voice dropping an octave. "I took it from Gregory’s vault two hours ago. I just wanted to see if you’d actually show up for a coward’s bait."

Madison grabbed the locket, her fingers brushing his. The contact was an electric shock, a violent jolt that sent a wave of heat straight to her core. She didn't pull away.

"You played me," she hissed, her eyes still flashing silver.

"I tested you," he corrected. He leaned in, his scent of sandalwood and rain wrapping around her like a shroud. "And you passed. Now, let’s see if you can handle the prize."