Chapter Three

Darius’ POV

The word I have never heard in all my existence courses through me as I bring the rim of my red cup to my lips.

Mate.

Luca, my beta, angles his head, watching me as I stare at nothing in particular. He has always been able to read me for as long as I can remember.

And right now, I feel him trying to do the same thing.

I hear her sharp whimper up the stairs, but I don’t look. Instead, I bring the cup to my lips again. I can’t afford to think about her. Not right now.

Still, those green eyes are nestled in my subconscious.

It makes no sense.

Nothing makes sense right now.

The door cracks open, and Nyra steps in. Her feet come to an abrupt halt when she takes in the space, her gaze narrowing. “What happened here?”

Luca crosses the space to join her, wrapping a hand around her waist and pulling her flush against him. I watch as she melts into his arms, as she turns her face to him, an easy smile lighting up her features immediately.

I have never wanted this, even if it is all Luca has been able to talk about since I became Alpha. Finding someone who becomes your weakness shouldn’t be something to look forward to, yet, in this moment, I find myself looking up again, towards the stairs.

My eyes land on the empty stairwell.

“There was a party,” Luca says, his second hand pushing a stray curl out of Nyra’s face. “Or to be specific, Isla thought it was fine to throw a party since we were out of town.”

Nyra seems torn between a gasp and a chuckle as her head jerks towards my kid sister. “Really? A party?”

“Are you about scolding me too?”

“No,” she laughs. “It’s just that you should have known your brother wouldn’t have agreed to this.”

Isla sighs. “Well, I’m going to bed. It’s been a long night.”

The air in the room cracks the moment she steps into the hallway, her footsteps retreating away until it fades into nothing. Nyra looks at me, pulling away from Luca. “I heard. Luca mind-linked me. What are we going to do?”

“Gather the warriors,” I murmur, downing the rest of the drink. “We should go see for ourselves.”

“But I don’t get it,” Nyra breathes, shaking her head. “The veil hasn’t been opened in years for a reason. If you are right, if hunters are behind this, it only means that someone betrayed us.”

Luca nods, folding his arms across his chest. “We all know the only way hunters would have made it through that veil is if access was granted to them. And…”

“One of us,” I sigh, feeling a migraine coming on. Luca and Nyra are right. Someone who has the power to scale through that veil unscathed must have helped them. And it cannot have been a regular pack member.

It’s someone much stronger.

“And how are we even sure they are hunters?” Nyra says, her hand reaching for a shirt on the floor before she decides against it, the look of disgust in her eyes. “I mean, it could be anything, right?”

I lean away from the wall. “I felt it, Nyra. There are hunters in Blood Ridge, and we have to fish them out. But first, we should go to the borders to check if we can recognize their scent.”

Luca nods and moves out to rally the warriors, while Nyra pushes closer to me, tilting her head. “Is there something else you want to tell me, Darius?”

“Why?” I say smoothly, giving nothing away. “Did Luca tell you anything?”

“No, actually,” she replies, shaking her head. “But that is the thing. I know my man. I can tell when there is something on his mind. He noticed too.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

I really do not want to think about my mate, who neither smells human nor wolf.

***

Nothing seems out of place here to the ordinary eye. But not me.

And I was wrong.

The veil wasn’t torn. It parted aside for whoever walked through it. Luca moves to the other side of the woods, crouched atop something, while Nyra stays out of the way, watching us from a fallen log.

“What do you think?” Luca questions, his hand covering something on the ground. “I can pick up no scents, but there is something else in the air.”

“They are hunters.” I crouch too, my eyes catching something glinting in the night. “They masked their scents, but I can tell. There is, however, something that doesn’t add up.”

“What?”

“We have agreed that someone must have led them through, but I am certain about that now because the veil isn’t torn.”

Luca narrows his eyes in my direction.

“It’s still in place.”

“That’s impossible,” he whispers, shaking his head. “Even if… I haven’t heard of that happening before, right?”

My brain nudges a memory in my direction, but it is too vague that I cannot clearly pick it out. My gaze falls on the shiny object again, and my hands close around it. A pendant, shaped like a half-moon.

 I try to make out the scent, but nothing comes to me.

It doesn’t smell human or wolf.

And that awareness tickles me. I know someone else who smells like that. The girl from earlier.

My mate.

“Now that I think about it,” Lucas starts, getting on his feet. “I have read something like this in the pack’s archives. About the history of the veil. The wolves who put it in place are the only exception to it being torn. I can’t remember…”

 Nyra sucks in a sharp breath suddenly from behind us.

“Nyra…”

“It’s a white wolf.”

Her skin suddenly turns pale, and she pushes away from the log. I get on my feet, too, the pendant in my hands. It is impossible.

Luca shakes his head, yet the pulse humming in the air cannot be avoided now. Because white wolves are supposed to be dead.