Chapter 15

Nadia

The trading post looked exactly as abandoned as Row's scouts had described — half-collapsed roof, broken windows, river running quiet behind it. I walked in alone at dawn, exactly as Draven's terms demanded, every nerve in my body aware of the warriors hidden in positions we'd spent days preparing.

Draven was already waiting, flanked by six rogues, arms crossed, confidence radiating off him despite the setback three weeks earlier.

"You actually came," he said. "Braver than I expected. Or more desperate."

"I want this to end," I said, keeping my voice steady. "Whatever that takes."

"How refreshing." He studied me carefully, circling closer. "No father hovering nearby. No mate posturing at your side. Just you, finally sensible enough to accept what's coming."

"I'm here to talk. That's all I agreed to."

"Talk." He smiled, cold and humorless. "There's nothing to discuss, Nadia. I claim you, the bond seals, and every pack watching finally understands I'm not some rogue scraping together scraps in the wilderness. I'm an Alpha with royal blood tied to my name."

"And if I refuse?"

"You won't have the option to refuse." He nodded once, and the six rogues shifted, closing in slowly, cutting off every visible exit.

This was it — the moment we'd planned for.

"Then I suppose," I said, backing a single deliberate step, "you should've asked why I walked in here so calmly."

Draven's confidence flickered.

I gave the signal.

Warriors erupted from every hidden position at once — from behind the collapsed roofline, from the tree line along the river, from beneath the floorboards of the old trading post itself. Draven's rogues barely had time to react before Row's and Ashford's fighters closed the trap completely, cutting off every escape route.

Draven's eyes snapped to me, fury replacing shock almost instantly. "You planned this."

"Did you really think I'd walk in unprotected?"

He shifted fully, snarling, lunging straight for me despite the chaos erupting around him, clearly deciding that seizing me directly mattered more now than escaping. I was ready, my wolf answering instantly, meeting his charge head-on instead of retreating.

We collided hard, and for a moment it was just the two of us, every warrior around us locked in their own separate fights, the sounds of snarling and impact filling the trading post.

Draven fought with the desperation of someone who'd spent ten years building toward this single moment, and it made him dangerous in ways training alone couldn't fully prepare for. He caught me hard across the shoulder, pain flaring bright, but I forced myself steady, remembering every lesson from the past weeks.

*Let your wolf lead. Trust the power you've spent your whole life hiding.*

I struck back, harder this time, driving him off balance. He recovered fast, circling, but I could see something shifting in his eyes now, the first real cracks of doubt in a plan he'd trusted completely.

"You're stronger than you should be," he snarled, shifting back to human just enough to spit the words. "A month of training doesn't make an Alpha."

"No," I agreed. "Eighteen years of hiding this power made it strong enough to survive one month of finally letting it out."

I struck again, and this time he didn't recover fast enough.

Kade broke through the fighting seconds later, exactly as promised, flanking Draven from the opposite side the moment my strike left him staggered. Caught between us, exhausted from the surprise ambush and his own miscalculation, Draven's resistance finally began to break.

"This isn't how it ends," he snarled, backing toward the river, blood staining his shoulder from my earlier strike. "I've survived worse than this."

"Not this time," Kade said, moving to cut off his retreat.

Draven's eyes darted between us, calculating one last desperate option, then turned and dove toward the river, clearly hoping to escape through the water where warriors couldn't easily follow.

I didn't let him.

My wolf moved faster than thought, closing the distance before he reached the bank, tackling him hard enough that we both went down in the shallow water at the river's edge. He fought hard, but the fight had already drained out of him, exhaustion and injury finally outweighing whatever desperate hope had kept him going.

I pinned him there, breathing hard, water soaking through my clothes, my Alpha power holding him firmly in place despite his weakened attempts to break free.

"It's over," I said. "You lost."

For a long moment, Draven simply stared up at me, fury and disbelief tangled together. Then, finally, something in him seemed to give way entirely, exhaustion overtaking whatever fight remained.

"Ten years," he said quietly, almost to himself. "Ten years, and a girl who spent her whole life hiding beats me in one fight."

"Maybe hiding taught me more than you realized," I said. "Patience. Control. Knowing exactly when to stop holding back."

Warriors closed in around us within moments, securing Draven properly while the remaining rogues, seeing their leader defeated, either fled into the wilderness or surrendered outright. My father reached me as I climbed out of the river, checking me over with barely restrained panic despite the plan working exactly as intended.

"You're hurt," he said, spotting the wound on my shoulder.

"I'm fine. It's shallow." I glanced back at Draven, now restrained and surrounded by warriors from all three packs. "It's over."

"For now," my father said carefully, though relief was clearly winning out over caution in his expression. "There will be questions to answer, terms to decide for his remaining followers, reports to file with allied packs. But yes. The immediate danger is over."

Kade reached me next, pulling me into a tight embrace despite the mud and river water soaking my clothes, relief shaking through him as clearly as it had through my father.

"You scared me half to death," he said quietly.

"I told you the plan would work."

"Knowing the plan and watching you actually fight him were two very different things." He pulled back slightly, studying my face, my shoulder, checking for himself that I really was okay. "You were incredible out there."

"We were incredible," I corrected. "All of us. Together."

He managed a tired, relieved smile, resting his forehead briefly against mine. "Together," he agreed. "Exactly like we planned."

Behind us, warriors began the work of securing prisoners, treating minor injuries, preparing to return to our territories with the threat that had shadowed us for weeks finally, truly, behind us.

For the first time since this all began, standing soaked and exhausted at the edge of that quiet river, I let myself believe the hardest part was finally over.