010: The Warpath

Kiera's POV

The Harley's engine purred beneath me as I moved from the dark mountain roads leading to Black Howl territory. Three in the morning, and the world was painted in shades of silver and shadow under the full moon. Perfect hunting weather, my wolf whispered, stirring restlessly in my chest after years of forced dormancy.

I'd left the Steel Vultures compound while everyone slept, leaving only a brief note for Sable explaining where I'd gone. Not why, I wasn't sure I understood that myself. Maybe it was the memory of Eli's claws extending for the first time, the way his eyes had glowed gold with inherited power or it was the knowledge that every day we delayed meant more danger for the people who'd become my family, or I was just tired of running.

The turnoff to the old Ironfang territory came up faster than I remembered, marked now by a new sign: "Black Howl MC - Private Property." The familiar scents hit me as soon as I cut the engine, leather, motor oil, and underneath it all, the wild musk that meant pack. Home, my wolf suggested hopefully. I crushed the thought before it could take root.

This hadn't been home for five years. This was enemy territory now.

I left my bike hidden in a grove of pines about a quarter-mile from the compound and made my way on foot, moving through the shadows with skills I'd forgotten I possessed. The layout had changed, new buildings, expanded garages, a larger clubhouse that spoke of prosperity and growth. Whatever else Darius had done with his life after I left, he'd been successful.

The perimeter guards were good, but they weren't expecting a lone wolf who knew every game trail and hidden path through these mountains. I slipped past them like smoke, my heart hammering with a mixture of fear and anticipation.

I was here to end this. To face Darius one-on-one and somehow negotiate a peace that would keep my son safe and my chosen family alive. It was probably suicide, but it was better than letting this war consume everyone I loved.

The main clubhouse sat in the center of the compound like a fortress, lights blazing in the windows despite the late hour. Wolves were night creatures by nature, the pack would be awake, alert, and dangerous. I could smell at least twenty different scents, far more than the Ironfang pack had numbered in my day.

I crept closer, using the parked motorcycles for cover, looking for some sign of where Darius might be. The presidential suite had always been on the second floor, overlooking the main compound. If he followed the same patterns…

A sound made me freeze. Laughter, high and clear and unmistakably feminine, floating from the direction of the residential quarters. But not just any laughter, it was a laughter I recognized, even after five years.

Sarah.

My blood turned to ice. She was supposed to be gone. Disposed of after her usefulness ended, paid off and sent far away to live her life. That's how these things worked, surrogates were temporary, expendable, forgotten once their purpose was served.

But the laughter came again, closer now, accompanied by the sound of footsteps on gravel. I pressed myself deeper into the shadows between two Harleys, hardly daring to breathe.

"...told you he'd be fine," Sarah's voice drifted across the compound. "Marcus is a strong boy. A few scraped knees won't kill him."

Marcus. She was talking about a child, her child. The son she'd carried for Darius five years ago.

My chest tightened as the implications hit me. Darius hadn't sent her away. He'd kept her here, in his territory, raising the child she'd borne him. The surrogate had become something more, a permanent fixture in his life, a mother to his heir.

The heir he'd chosen over me.

"He gets that from his father," another voice said, and my heart nearly stopped. Darius. Walking with Sarah through his compound like they belonged together, like they were a family.

I should have left then. I should have slipped back into the shadows and returned to the Steel Vultures with this new information. But I couldn't move, or look away as they came into view under the compound's floodlights.

Sarah looked older, harder than the soft girl I remembered. Her blonde hair was shorter now, pulled back in a practical ponytail, and she moved with the confident stride of someone who belonged here. But it was more than that, she carried herself like a wolf, despite being human. Like someone who'd earned her place through more than just biology.

And beside her walked Darius, looking every inch the alpha I remembered. He moved like a predator, like something designed for violence and control.

They looked comfortable together. Natural. Like a couple who'd spent years building a life, raising a child, making plans for the future.

The sight made me sick.

I'd held onto some foolish hope, buried so deep I'd barely acknowledged it existed. A hope that maybe Sarah had been a mistake, a moment of weakness that Darius regretted. That maybe, if I came here willing to talk, to negotiate, I might find some shadow of the man I'd once loved.

But seeing them together, seeing how easily they moved through space that had once been mine, I realized how naive that hope had been. Darius hadn't made a mistake five years ago. He'd made a choice. And judging by what I saw before me, he was still making the same choice every day.

"The perimeter guards reported movement about an hour ago," Sarah was saying as they walked past my hiding spot. "Probably just deer, but…"

She stopped mid-sentence, her head turning in my direction like she'd heard something. For a moment, we stared at each other across the darkness, the Luna who'd been replaced and the surrogate who'd taken her place.

Recognition flashed in her eyes, followed immediately by something that looked like triumph.

"Well, well," she said, her voice carrying clearly through the night air. "Look what the cat dragged in."

Darius spun around, his enhanced senses immediately locking onto my position. I could have run, should have run, but something in Sarah's smug expression made my wolf bare her teeth.

Instead, I stepped out of the shadows, hands raised to show I wasn't armed. "Hello, Darius."

His face went through a series of expressions, surprise, anger, hope, and something that might have been pain. But it was Sarah's reaction that caught my attention. She moved closer to Darius, not like someone seeking protection, but like someone marking territory.

"You're trespassing," she said, her voice cold as winter steel. "This is pack land."

"I'm here to talk," I said, keeping my eyes on Darius. "Just talk."

"You're here because you finally realized you can't run forever," Sarah said before Darius could respond. She stepped forward, and I caught a scent that made my blood freeze. Wolf. Somehow, impossibly, she smelled like pack.

Like she'd been turned.

"You kept her," I said, the words falling from my lips like stones. "All this time. You kept her and made her one of you."

"She earned it," Darius said quietly, his first words since I'd revealed myself. "She stayed, fought, and proved her loyalty."

The unspoken accusation hung in the air between us. Unlike you, his tone suggested. Unlike the Luna who ran in the night rather than fight for her place.

Sarah smiled, showing teeth that were just a little too sharp to be entirely human. "I became what you never could. A true partner and a true Luna."

The words hit me like physical blows. This woman, this human who'd been brought in to serve a purpose, had somehow claimed everything that should have been mine. The pack, the territory, the man I'd once planned to spend my life with.

And judging by the way Darius looked at her, she'd done it willingly. Gladly.

"How dare you walk into this territory?" Sarah continued, her voice rising with each word. The transformation might have been recent, but her dominance was absolute. She stood on this ground like she owned it, like she belonged here in ways I never had.

Like she was home.

The reality of my situation crashed down on me all at once. I'd come here hoping to negotiate from a position of strength, to demand terms that would protect my son and my chosen family. But I had no strength here, leverage, and claim to anything or anyone in this place.

I was exactly what Sarah said I was, a trespasser. An outsider looking in at the life I could have had if I'd stayed and fought instead of running.

The life that was now hers.

My wolf whimpered in my chest, finally understanding what I'd been too proud to accept. We weren't just displaced, we were replaced. Completely, utterly, irreversibly replaced.

And the woman who'd taken my place was making sure I knew it.