MasukMaddox POVThe shower water was too damn hot. Or was it me?Didn’t matter. I stood under it anyway, palms braced against the tile, head bowed, letting the steam beat against my shoulders like penance. Blood still streaked my forearms. Not all of it mine. Most of it not.My wolf prowled restlessly beneath my skin, hackles up, pacing tight circles.“She’s close,” he rumbled.“I know.”I could still feel her through the bond curled in the bed we’d put her in, scent soft but shifting, edges warming. Not pain now. Something else. Something that made my pulse thud low and heavy.Heat.Too soon. Moon help us, it was too soon.I dragged a hand down my face, water running into my eyes. My body reacted before my mind could stop it - hardening, tightening, responding to nothing more than the thought of her waking alone in that bed, skin warm, bond humming.“Control yourself.” I growled at myself.The wolf just laughed. Low. Dark. “She’s calling.”The bathroom door creaked. Not loud. Not abrupt.
Rafe’s POVThat was it.I stepped forward.“Enough.” I said flatly. “And she’s done for today. We all are.”Calder moved in sync with me, a wall at Evelynn’s back. Maddox shifted closer on her other side, Jaxon taking point like a silent threat.Four alphas. One message.Mireya arched a brow. “Protective.” she observed.“Possessive,” Maddox corrected.“Elara,” Calder said coolly, “you’ve helped us. We’re grateful. But Evelynn nearly bled out, nearly burned herself hollow, and nearly got dragged into something none of us fully understand.”I looked down at Evelynn, brushing my thumb over her knuckles. “She sleeps. She eats. She breathes. Tomorrow, we talk.”Elara studied us for a long moment. Then nodded once. “That’s fair.”Mireya’s smile faded just a fraction.“Tomorrow, then,” she said softly. “But know this, Thornborne.”Her eyes locked on Evelynn.“The past has already found you. Whether you answer it or not.”Silence fell. I didn’t let it linger.“We’re done,” I said.And that wa
Evelynn POVThe Ironfang courtyard was lit with torches by the time we rolled in - half pack on high alert, half pack staring at us like we’d crawled out of a damn war zone.Maybe because we had.My legs were jelly when Rafe helped me off the bike, his hands firm on my waist. Maddox and Jaxon swung off their bikes in one fluid motion, scanning the treeline like the shadow might peel itself out of the dark again. Calder stayed glued to my side, half shielding, half ready to shift.The boys tensed as riders spilled into the courtyard, weapons drawn, eyes wide.“What the hell happened out there?” someone asked.“You don’t want the answer,” Maddox growled, wiping blood off his jaw. “Trust me.”Rafe placed a hand on the small of my back. “Let’s get inside. Before anything else - before anyone else - comes.”We barely made it beneath the heavy archway leading into the main hall when the temperature shifted.The air thickened. Then stilled.Every rider fell silent. From the shadow-cloaked co
Rafe POVThe forest blurred past us in streaks of black and silver as we tore down the mountain trail on our bikes, engines roaring like wolves in pain.My knuckles were white on the handlebars.Evelynn’s arms were tight around my waist. She was still shaking, still half in the vision Elara dragged her out of, and half in the terror of whatever the hell that shadow-thing had been.Calder rode ahead with Elara pressed behind him on Evelynn’s old bike. Jaxon and Maddox flanked us, fangs bared, wolves fighting to take over.Behind us, the Thornborne lands hissed like something alive.Something angry.We didn’t slow down until the Ironfang border stone appeared. Elara slapped Calder’s shoulder.“Stop. Here.”We skidded into a halt, tires tearing into the dirt. Evelynn nearly sagged off the bike, and I caught her before she touched the ground.Her pulse thrashed under my hand. Elara stepped forward, placed both palms on the border stone, and whispered something in a language that made the
Branches whipped past in a blur, the wind tearing at my hair, my arms locked tight around Rafe’s torso as the bikes roared through the night. Elara kept close behind on my old bike, Calder on hers, Maddox and Jaxon flanking us like moving walls of muscle and steel.The red moon bled across the sky. The air changed first. A sudden, unnatural drop in temperature - like the whole forest inhaled.My wolf’s hackles shot up. “Behind us,” she hissed. “MOVE-”A shriek tore through the night. High, metallic, wrong.Before I could turn, a shapeless black mass erupted from the treeline, slamming into Elara’s bike like a collapsing shadow.“SHIT. ELARA!” Calder yelled.The impact hit us like a shockwave. Rafe swerved hard, the tires screaming against the dirt. My shoulder clipped a branch. Maddox’s bike fishtailed. Jaxon barely avoided crashing into us.Elara’s bike flipped.I watched her body lift off the seat, weightless for one horrible second before hitting the ground and rolling. Her bike sk
Rafe POVOne second we were moving toward the bikes, bootsteps crunching over gravel and ash. Calder had Eve tucked close, Elara at their side, muttering protection sigils under her breath like she was racing something we couldn’t see.The next second? The forest went silent. Too silent. Even the wind held its breath. My wolf’s hackles shot up so hard it hurt.“Rafe?” Eve whispered from where she leaned against me. Her hand tightened on my jacket. “Do you feel that?”Oh, I felt it.It hit like pressure, like something enormous exhaled across the treeline. The shadows bled together behind the tree line, crawling, pooling, forming something vaguely shaped like a woman but stretched wrong, twisted wrong.A whisper slid through the clearing like a blade scraping stone.“Thornborne…”Eve froze completely. Not fear. Recognition. Her wolf went dead-still inside her.Calder moved instantly shoved Eve behind him, fury pouring off him like burning oil.Jaxon and Maddox came flanking from both s







