Chapter 6 — The Attempt

POV: Lena

The night air smelled of metal and smoke, thick with tension. Lena’s boots scraped over the wet concrete of the compound’s perimeter as she moved, senses screaming. Every shadow seemed alive, every whisper of wind a warning. Her wolf coiled beneath her skin, restless, ready.

She had barely caught her breath from the fight earlier. Her muscles ached, pulse still hammering, adrenaline cutting through every nerve. But she didn’t stop. She never stopped. Not for fear, not for exhaustion. Not even for the memory of her brother burning behind her eyes.

Then movement.

At first, she thought it was a trick of the light a shadow shifting too fast, too deliberate. Her hand went to the blade strapped to her thigh, every muscle tensing.

Not fast enough.

A figure lunged from the dark, knife aimed straight for her ribs.

Instinct tore her forward. She pivoted, slamming the attacker’s wrist aside, twisting the arm until the metal sang and the man hissed. Pain shot through her hands, but she didn’t falter. Her wolf surged, coiling at the edge of her consciousness. Fury, survival, raw, unfiltered it pulsed through her veins like fire.

She lashed out with brutal efficiency, elbows striking bone, knees hitting where it hurt most. The man stumbled back, growling, and she twisted his wrist again, snapping the weapon from his grasp.

Her eyes were wild, hair plastered to her face with sweat. Every strike was precise, but there was chaos beneath it the human part of her, exhausted, terrified, hungry to survive.

And then she felt it a second presence behind her.

Rafe.

Before she could shift fully, before she could let the wolf surge and take over, he was there. One motion, controlled, impossibly fast. His hand caught hers mid-strike, redirecting her energy, disarming the man with a twist and a single blow.

Lena staggered back, chest heaving, eyes wide. Shock cut through her fury. She hadn’t realized she needed him hadn’t allowed herself to admit it and yet, there he was, moving with the precision of a predator who had hunted wolves and men alike.

“You” she started, rage and disbelief tangling in her throat.

“You’re lucky I’m here,” he said, voice low, controlled, a tether to reality she hadn’t known she wanted.

The attacker lay groaning at her feet, and her hands shook, trembling with the raw aftershock of violence, fear, and adrenaline. Her wolf pressed, still restless, still wanting, but she forced it down, forced herself back into control.

“You were trying to kill me,” she spat, voice raw, trembling. Rage edged the words, but beneath it something else flickered disbelief, and a grudging awareness she hated herself for.

“They would have,” Rafe said calmly, scanning the shadows around them. “And they would have succeeded if I wasn’t here. You’re not invincible, Lena. Not alone.”

Her chest tightened. She had always relied on no one, never needed anyone. The thought that someone wanted her dead that someone powerful had decided to end her life pressed at her like stone.

“Why?” she demanded, voice cracking. “Why me? I’m not part of this…”

Rafe’s eyes didn’t waver. His wolf surged in his gaze, steady and controlled, warning without moving. “Because of your brother. And because you’re dangerous. To them, that makes you a target.”

Her stomach dropped. The weight of his words hit her like a blow to the ribs. She had been hunting shadows, fighting traffickers, surviving alone… and now she realized how close she had been to dying without a second thought.

The realization coiled inside her, twisting with raw fear and anger. Survival had always been hers alone, and the thought of needing him needing anyone burned through her pride like acid.

“I… I can handle myself,” she said, voice shaking despite her words.

Rafe stepped closer, his presence cutting through the night air like steel. “You can handle yourself,” he said, voice low, deliberate, “but not against what’s coming. Not alone. You are safer working with me than against me.”

Her wolf roared beneath her skin, desperate to lash out, to reject him, to fight the truth she hated. But her body betrayed her. Her chest heaved, every breath a reminder of the fragility she had never let herself feel.

She wanted to turn, to run into the shadows and disappear. But the fire in the distance, the memory of the warehouse, the echo of her brother’s symbol it anchored her. Survival wasn’t just instinct anymore. It was strategy. And strategy meant aligning with someone she had refused to trust.

Her amber eyes met his, and for the first time since the docks, her wolf stilled wary, restless, but listening.

Rage and suspicion wrestled with reluctant understanding. She wanted to deny it. Wanted to spit the truth from her mouth. But the truth clawed at her anyway: she couldn’t survive this alone. Not here. Not tonight.

And if she wanted answers about her brother, about the wolves, about the shadowed underworld twisting the city into chaos she had no choice but to follow him.

Her hands relaxed slightly, still trembling. Her wolf hummed low, warning, but no longer demanding control.

Rafe’s voice broke the tense silence. “We move fast, we move smart. You stay close. You survive.”

Her heart slammed, furious, stubborn, defiant. But she nodded, just slightly.

The city stretched before them, dark, dangerous, alive. And someone had just tried to end her life.

She clenched her teeth. Her wolf pressed, ready, waiting.

And she realized she wasn’t alone anymore.