Chapter Four: Something to Hide

Noah’s POV

He’d been watching Ethan long enough to know the signs.

Tight shoulders. Delayed orders. That vacant stare, too long, too still always when the stray was nearby.

The infirmary door had stayed shut too long. Ethan had gone in tense. He’d come out quiet.

And Noah… Noah had felt something he hadn’t in years.

Fear.

He stormed into Ethan’s quarters without knocking.

The Alpha stood at the window, hands behind his back, bathed in moonlight. The scent of Silas clung to him like smoke.

“You’re making a mistake,” Noah said.

Ethan didn’t turn. “Be specific.”

“That rogue. You’re getting soft over him.”

Silence.

Noah stepped closer, voice sharpening.

“Whatever he is he's not what he says. I know it. And so do you.”

Ethan’s voice was calm. Too calm.

“And yet, you’re not asking why he bleeds and I can’t breathe. Why do I smell him everywhere? Why does my wolf react like it already knows him?”

Noah’s breath caught.

“Don’t say it,” he whispered.

Ethan finally turned. Eyes burning red.

“I don’t have to.”

The words hung like ash between them.

Noah’s jaw clenched. He took a breath.

“Then you’ll lose everything. The pack. The power. Me.”

Ethan stared at him.

And said,

Silas’ POV

The cot creaked as he sat up, ribs aching with every breath. But it wasn’t the bruises that hurt most.

It was the way Ethan had looked at him.

Not like prey.

Like fate.

He rubbed the leather cuff on his wrist. Beneath it the crescent mark. The symbol of the pack Ethan wanted wiped off the map.

He should’ve told him.

But what would it change?

The door opened.

It wasn’t Ethan.

It was Arden.

He stepped in without expression, closing the door behind him like he was sealing a vault.

“Silas, is it?”

Silas nodded, wary.

Arden stood still for a moment, then moved to the side table, pouring water into a glass. His movements were sharp. Controlled.

“You fight well,” he said. “But you don’t flinch like a wolf with no past.”

Silas took the glass. “Thanks?”

Arden sat across from him. Too close. His eyes searched Silas’s face, reading lines like runes.

“I know spies. I’ve hunted them. You’re better than most.”

Arden said .

“But you made one mistake,” Arden added, voice low. “You made the Alpha care.”

Silas looked away. “I didn’t make him do anything.”

Arden leaned in. “That’s the worst kind of danger. The kind that doesn’t try but still ruins everything.”

He stood. “You’re being reassigned. Solo patrol on the southern border. No backup.”

Silas blinked. “Is that a punishment or a promotion?”

“Neither,” Arden said, walking away. “It’s a test.”

Flashback Three weeks earlier, Crescent Moon Pack

The war room smelled like iron and dust. Marcus stood by the map, jaw clenched, hand hovering over the Crescent-Red Moon border.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said.

Silas, in full gear, gripped his brother’s shoulder.

“I do. No one else can get in.”

Marcus looked away. “And if you die?”

“Then you’ll have what you need to burn them down.”

Marcus’s hands curled into fists. “Just come back.”

Silas nodded once. “I will.”

But as he turned, something in his chest cracked.

Because he’d already started to wonder…

What if he didn’t want to?

Back in the present…

That night, Silas stood at the edge of Red Moon’s southern line, mist curling around his boots.

The woods were dead quiet.

Too quiet.

He glanced behind him.

No one.

Then he turned

And saw eyes in the dark.

Gold. Familiar.

And furious.

Because some instincts come from love…

And others come from betrayal.