Prologue

The fluorescent lights of the human hospital buzzed with a clinical, unfeeling hum. Every breath I took felt like inhaling broken glass. I could feel my life force slipping away, the tether to my inner wolf fraying into nothingness. But as the nurse placed the tiny, warm bundle against my chest, the agony faded into sheer, paralyzing terror.

She was beautiful. A perfect little girl with a tuft of dark hair and a scent that already carried a faint, undeniable trace of a powerful Dern Pack Alpha.

He is going to kill her.

The thought screamed through my mind. If my husband,the ruthless Alpha of the Ash Pack,discovered I had vanished for months, cheated on him, and given birth to a bastard child in a human hospital, he would slaughter this innocent baby without a second thought.

The door burst open, and my twin brother, Ruben, rushed in, his face pale and eyes wide with panic. The moment our eyes met, the twin bond flared, carrying the heavy scent of my impending death.

"Ruby!" he choked out, rushing to my bedside and gripping my icy hand. "Oh gods, Ruby, what happened? I've been looking for you everywhere."

"Ruben... listen to me," I gasped, my voice barely a whisper as the monitors began to beep frantically. "You have to... protect her. Promise me."

"I promise, I promise, Ruby, but you're going to make it—"

"No! My husband... he can never find out," I wheezed, squeezing his hand with the last ounce of my strength. "Take her. Flee the Ash Pack. Find her father... he’s the Alpha in the Dern Pack..."

A coughing fit wracked my body, blood metallic on my tongue. Ruben's tears spilled onto my knuckles. "Which Alpha, Ruby? Who is he?!"

I opened my mouth to tell him. I wanted to give him the name, to make it easy for him. But the darkness rushed in too fast, pulling me under. My grip loosened, my eyes closed, and my final breath carried only the silent, desperate plea for my daughter's survival.

The sound didn't stop.

It was a flat, piercing, agonizing drone that vibrated straight through my skull and pierced what was left of my heart. The green line on the monitor was entirely straight. No peaks. No valleys. Just a mocking, endless horizon of death.

"Ruby," I whispered, my voice cracking under the weight of a grief so violent it felt physical.

My twin sister lay perfectly still on the sterile hospital bed, her face devoid of the vibrant, defiant life she had always carried. Her hand, which had been clutching mine with desperate, bone-crushing strength only seconds ago, was rapidly growing cold. The heavy, metallic smell of fresh blood hung thick in the air, competing with the clinical, artificial scent of hospital disinfectant.

But beneath it all, clinging to the blankets like a fragile lifeline, was a sweet, milky scent.

The baby.

I turned slowly, my eyes blurring with hot tears as I looked down at the tiny bassinet beside the bed. Wrapped in a simple hospital receiving blanket was a tiny, sleeping bundle. My niece. She was so small, her skin a soft, flushed pink, her chest rising and falling in shallow, perfect breaths. She was entirely oblivious to the fact that her mother had just traded her last breath to bring her into the world.

And she was oblivious to the monster who was already hunting her.

A cold wave of terror washed over me, instantly freezing the tears on my cheeks. The Ash Pack. My brother-in-law, Alpha Spencer of the Ash Pack, was a tyrant. A cruel, possessive beast who viewed my sister as nothing more than a prize to be controlled. When Ruby had vanished months ago, Spencer had nearly torn the territory apart looking for her. I had spent those months secretly terrified, praying she was safe. I never could have imagined she had fled to a human hospital in the neutral zone, pregnant with another man’s child.