Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Breach

The alarm shattered the silence, and chaos followed a half-second behind it.

"Move," Damon barked, already pulling Aurora behind him as the study door burst open and Kieran shoved past to check the hallway, weapon drawn from somewhere Aurora hadn't even seen him reach for.

"Perimeter's been breached on the north side," Kieran called back. "Multiple intruders. They came in fast."

"How fast?" Noah demanded, already moving.

"Fast enough that the wards didn't catch them until they were already past the tree line."

Aurora's pulse pounded in her ears as Damon pressed the pendant back beneath his shirt and grabbed her arm, pulling her toward the hallway. "Stay behind me. Whatever happens, you do not leave my side."

"What about the stone?" Luca asked, already scooping it back into its box.

"Bring it," Damon said. "We are not leaving it behind for whoever's out there."

The house had gone fully dark, emergency lighting flickering weakly along the baseboards as the group moved through the corridors toward the reinforced safe room Noah had insisted on installing years ago, back when nobody thought they'd actually need it.

They didn't make it that far.

The first intruder dropped from the ceiling access panel directly into their path, moving with a speed that told Aurora immediately this wasn't ordinary pack security they were dealing with. Kieran reacted before she could even process what she was seeing, closing the distance in an instant, the sound of impact echoing down the hallway as the two bodies collided.

"Go," Kieran snarled, already locked in combat. "I've got this one."

Damon didn't hesitate, pulling Aurora forward, Ryder falling into step beside them while Luca brought up the rear with the box clutched tight against his chest. Noah split off toward the east wing, shouting orders into his comm to whatever remained of the pack's security team.

They rounded a corner and nearly collided with a second intruder, this one wearing a mask that covered everything except a pair of pale eyes that locked onto Aurora with unmistakable intent.

"There she is," the intruder said, voice muffled but clear enough. "Just like they said."

Ryder moved first, tackling the man before he could take a single step closer, the two of them crashing through a side table that shattered beneath the impact. Aurora flinched, but Damon's grip on her arm never loosened, pulling her past the struggle and further down the corridor.

"How many people know about that stone?" Aurora asked breathlessly as they ran.

"Not enough for this," Damon said. "Which means someone talked. Recently."

The safe room door came into view at the end of the hall, reinforced steel gleaming faintly in the emergency lighting. Damon punched in the access code with one hand, still gripping Aurora with the other, and the door hissed open just as a third figure emerged from the shadows behind them, moving with terrifying precision.

"Damon—" Aurora started, but he'd already turned, shoving her through the doorway toward Luca.

"Get her inside," he ordered. "Now."

"What about you?" Aurora shouted, fighting against Luca's hold as he pulled her fully into the room.

Damon didn't answer. He turned to face the intruder head-on, and the last thing Aurora saw before the heavy door swung shut between them was Damon's eyes flashing gold, fully shifted in an instant, teeth bared, prepared to fight whoever had come for her.

The door sealed with a heavy, final clang.

"No," Aurora said, pounding against the steel. "Open it. Open it now."

"We can't," Luca said, pulling her back gently despite her struggling. "The seal's on a timer once it's engaged. Ten minutes minimum, for exactly this kind of situation."

"He's out there alone."

"He's not alone," Luca said, though his voice betrayed his own worry. "Kieran, Ryder, Noah, they're all still out there too."

Ten minutes had never felt so long in her entire life. Aurora sat against the cold steel wall, straining to hear anything beyond it, every distant crash and muffled shout sending her heart into her throat. Luca stayed close, the box with the stone held tightly in his lap, occasionally glancing toward the door himself with an expression far less composed than usual.

"Luca," Aurora said quietly, somewhere around minute seven. "If something happens to them—"

"It won't," he said, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as her.

The timer finally clicked over, the seal releasing with a heavy hiss. Aurora was on her feet and through the door before Luca could stop her, running back down the corridor toward the last place she'd seen Damon.

She found him kneeling on the floor near the shattered remains of the side table, breathing hard, blood running from a gash along his forearm, but alive. Ryder leaned against the wall a few feet away, favoring one leg but upright. Kieran emerged from a side hallway a moment later, dragging an unconscious intruder behind him.

"Where's the third one?" Aurora asked, relief and panic tangled together in her chest.

Damon looked up at her, something dark and unreadable in his expression.

"Gone," he said. "He got away. With something."

"With what?" Aurora asked, though the sinking feeling in her stomach already told her she wasn't going to like the answer.

Damon held up his hand, revealing the broken chain still clutched in his fingers, the pendant that had hung around his neck for nine years now gone entirely.

"He took the key," Damon said grimly. "Which means whatever the stone is meant to unlock, someone out there now has the only thing capable of opening it."