Chapter 10

Nadia

The attack came eleven days after the three-pack alliance was signed.

I was in training hour when the alarm horn sounded, three short blasts that meant border breach, not drill. The whole gym went still, then erupted into motion — teachers pulling students toward the shelter halls, phones buzzing with emergency alerts.

Kade found me in the chaos, gripping my arm. "That's coming from the north. Row's line."

"We need to go."

"Nadia, you can't just run toward a breach—"

"My father will be there. Yours too, probably." I pulled free, already moving. "I'm not hiding in a shelter hall while our packs fight without us."

He didn't argue further, just fell into step beside me, pulling out his phone to call his father as we ran.

By the time we reached the northern ridge, the fighting had mostly stopped, though the air still smelled sharp with tension and the acidic edge of shifted wolves. My father stood near the tree line, alive, unhurt, but grim-faced, surveying a scene that made my stomach drop.

Six unfamiliar wolves lay unconscious or restrained on the ground, guarded by a mix of Ashford and Royal Pack warriors. Elder Row stood off to the side, arguing sharply with one of his own advisors.

"Nadia." My father's voice was tight when he spotted me. "You shouldn't be here."

"I needed to know you were safe."

He studied me a moment, then softened slightly, too tired to argue. "I'm safe. Row's border held, barely. We caught six scouts trying to breach deeper than usual this time. Not just testing. This was reconnaissance for something bigger."

Kade moved closer, scanning the restrained wolves. "Any idea who sent them?"

"They won't shift back to speak," my father said. "Whoever they answer to trained them well. No collars, no markings, nothing to trace them by."

Alpha Ashford approached from further down the ridge, expression hard. "One of them broke, barely. Said one word before he passed out from his injuries." He glanced at me, hesitant. "Alpha."

The word hung heavy in the cold air.

"They mentioned an Alpha," Kade said slowly. "Whose?"

"Unclear," Alpha Ashford admitted. "Could mean their own leader. Could mean something else entirely."

My father's eyes moved to me, and I understood the unspoken fear immediately. "You think they were sent for me."

"I think," my father said carefully, "that six trained scouts pushing deeper than any previous incident, right after our alliance became public, is not a coincidence I'm comfortable ignoring."

We regrouped that night at the Royal territory, all three pack leaders crowded into my father's study alongside their most trusted advisors. I sat near the back, technically not invited but refusing to be sent away again.

"If they're after Nadia specifically," Row said, "then the alliance didn't protect her. It painted a target directly on her back."

"Or it slowed them down," Alpha Ashford countered. "One scouting attempt in eleven days, immediately repelled. If they wanted her badly enough to move recklessly, they'd have tried something bolder than six scouts testing a defended line."

"Bold enough to breach one of the strongest borders in the north," Row snapped. "Don't underestimate what almost happened tonight."

My father raised a hand, quieting them both. "Arguing won't tell us who sent them. We need answers, not blame." He turned to me. "Nadia, I want you to stay within Royal territory until we understand more. No school, no unnecessary travel."

"That's not realistic," I said. "If they wanted to isolate me, keeping me locked inside our borders does exactly that. It also tells everyone watching that hiding still works, when we just spent weeks proving it doesn't."

"This isn't about proving a point," my father said sharply. "It's about keeping you safe."

"I understand that. But running back into hiding isn't the answer either." I glanced at Kade, who gave me the smallest nod of support. "Let me help figure out who's behind this instead of locking me away from it."

My father studied me for a long, tense moment, old instincts to protect warring with the reality that I was no longer a secret to keep hidden, but an Alpha heir who needed to learn how to stand in the middle of danger, not away from it.

"Compromise," he finally said. "You continue school, under guard. No unnecessary risks. And you tell me immediately if anything, anything at all, feels wrong."

"Agreed."

Alpha Ashford cleared his throat. "For what it's worth, my son will be with her most of that time regardless. Another set of eyes, another wolf who'd notice trouble before it got close."

Kade nodded firmly. "I'm not leaving her exposed. Not after tonight."

My father's gaze moved between the two of us, something unreadable passing behind his tired eyes. "Then it's settled." He looked back at the map spread across his desk, the six red circles now joined by a seventh, darker mark near tonight's breach. "Whoever is testing us, they've shown their hand slightly. Now we find out exactly whose hand it is."