CHAPTER SEVEN- THE LINE

The trucks didn’t stop at the bottom of the hill.

I heard them from the porch before I saw the headlights. Two of them. One was Harlan’s black Ford that never got washed. The other was Kaden’s blue one, the one he polished every Sunday.

My mother grabbed my wrist.

“Amelia. Inside. Now.”

My bare feet stayed frozen to the cold wood. The tea in my hands was shaking.

Jax was already moving. He didn’t run. He walked down the steps of his cabin like a man going to check his fence.

He was in a t shirt. The cold didn’t touch him. The four white scars on the side of his neck glowed faintly in the dark, just like before.

He stopped at his property line. There is a line there, an old barbed wire fence and a wooden post that reads PRIVATE. STONE. NO TRESPASS. In Wolf Creek, that line means something. No Alpha can cross another Alpha’s line without permission. Not even Harlan. Eliza had told me once, back when I still thought it was just a story for children, that the Council itself couldn’t override a sanctuary line without three Alphas voting to break it first. I hadn’t understood why she was telling me that. I understood now.

The trucks slid to a stop in the mud, right before the wire. Doors slammed.

Harlan Stone got out first. He was still in his ceremony suit from the barn. His face was red from the cold and from rage.

Kaden got out second. He wasn’t in his suit anymore. He was in sweats. His eyes were wild. He hadn’t slept.

Harlan looked at the cabin, at my mother in the doorway, then at me on the porch. His lip curled.

“Eliza. You should have told me what you were hiding.”

My mother didn’t answer. She pulled her collar higher to cover her scar.

Harlan looked at Jax.

“Brother. Move.”

Jax didn’t move. He put his hands in his pockets.

“No.”

That word sat in the air between them, plain and final.

Harlan’s jaw tightened. “That girl belongs to Wolf Creek. She is underage. She is a pack member. You have no right to keep her.”

“She is eighteen,” Jax said calmly. “She walked out on her own. She asked for protection. I gave it. Under old law, anyone who asks for sanctuary on North Ridge gets it. You know that. You wrote that law with Dad.”

“Old law doesn’t cover stolen Lunas,” Harlan snapped.

Kaden stepped forward then. He ignored his father. He looked past Jax, straight at me.

“Amelia.”

His voice broke. He looked terrible. His eyes were red.

“Amelia, please. Come home. We can talk. I didn’t mean what I said in the barn. My wolf is going crazy. I can’t shift. Please.”

The rejection mark on my neck, a dull ache since the barn, throbbed at the sound of my name. I felt the pull of it, the old habit of loving him, tug once, hard, toward the wire. My feet actually moved an inch before I caught myself and planted them again. That was the truth of it. Not that I wanted to run to him and also wanted to scream at him. I wanted to go to him out of habit, and I hated myself a little for how strong that habit still was.

Jax shifted his stance slightly, just enough that his shoulder blocked Kaden’s view of me.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you, kid.”

Kaden’s eyes snapped to Jax. For the first time, I saw real anger in him, not only guilt.

“She is my mate. You can’t keep her here like some pet. You are thirty years old. She is eighteen.”

It was a fair thing to say. I watched Jax’s face to see if it would land.

Jax didn’t smile this time.

“I know exactly how that sounds,” he said. “I’ve known her since she was six. I watched her grow up from the other side of that fence and never once crossed it, because Mara marked me as her Guardian, not her mate, and I meant to keep it that way until she was old enough to choose for herself. She’s eighteen now. She chose to walk down that hill to my porch. Nobody carried her here. If you want to call that something ugly, you’re welcome to, but you’ll be wrong, and some part of you already knows it.”

Kaden flinched, but he didn’t have an answer, and for a second something like shame crossed his face instead of anger.

“I know how old she is,” Jax added, quieter. “I knew her when she was six and you were seven and you pushed her into the creek because her dress was second hand. I remember that too.”

Kaden’s jaw worked. He said nothing.

Harlan had had enough. He stepped right up to the wire, so close his boots were almost over the line.

“Jax. Last warning. Give us the girl. The Northern Alphas have already heard a White woke up. Do you want them coming here? You think you can protect her from them? Give her to me and I will handle it. I will sell her to a pack that can protect her.”

Sell her.

My mother made a small sound behind me.

Something in my chest, that new white thing that had woken an hour ago, did not like that word. My vision went white at the edges. I dropped the tea. The mug shattered against the porch boards.

The two Alphas at the wire looked up.

My eyes were white. Completely white, glowing. My claws pushed against my nail beds, trying to break through.

Kaden took a step back. His face went pale.

“Her eyes.”

Harlan stared, but not with fear. With hunger.

“So it’s true,” he whispered. “Mara’s blood. She’s a First Wolf.”

Jax didn’t turn to look at me. He kept his eyes on his brother, but he spoke to me.

“Amelia. Breathe. Control it. Don’t give him what he wants to see.”

I tried. I dug my claws into the porch railing. Wood splintered under them.

Jax reached back with one hand, not looking, and found my ankle. His warm hand closed around it. The moment his skin touched mine, the glow on his neck flared bright enough that Harlan had to look away.

The connection ran through me like current. The rage settled.

My eyes faded back to brown.

Silence.

Harlan looked at Jax’s hand on my ankle, at the glowing marks, at my eyes that had just been white. Understanding settled over his face, and then disgust.

“You,” he said to Jax, voice low. “Mara marked you. All these years. You waited for her daughter’s daughter.”

“I did,” Jax said. “And I’ll wait longer if I have to.”

Harlan stepped back from the wire. He knew he couldn’t cross it. If he crossed it, Jax could legally fight him to the death under old law.

“We’re taking this to the Council,” Harlan said. “You can’t keep an unregistered White Wolf on private land without reporting it. You have forty eight hours, Jax. Forty eight hours to bring her in, or they’ll come and get her themselves.”

He turned and walked back to his truck.

Kaden didn’t move. He was still staring at me, at Jax’s hand on my ankle.

“Amelia. The mark. Does it still hurt?”

Before I could answer, my mother spoke, her voice shaking but loud enough to carry.

“She said she doesn’t want to talk to you. Take your father’s truck and go, Kaden. You made your choice in the barn.”

Kaden looked struck. He got back in his truck.

The trucks reversed down the muddy hill, headlights cutting through the rain.

Only when the taillights disappeared did Jax let go of my ankle and turn around.

His eyes were yellow now. His wolf close to the surface.

“Forty eight hours,” he said quietly. “We have to get you ready.”

Ready for what, I wanted to ask.

But my mother was already pulling me inside, and Jax was still watching the hill where the trucks had gone, like he already knew they’d be back with more than two trucks next time.