Chapter 3

Kael couldn’t stop staring at her.

Even with her thrown over his shoulder threatening to stab half his pack, he couldn’t stop.

Rain poured through the broken streets above as the group moved through the underground tunnels toward the surface, but Kael barely noticed any of it. His wolf was pacing violently beneath his skin, restless and agitated in a way he hadn’t felt in years.

Mate.

Impossible.

Completely impossible.

Yet her scent wrapped around him with every breath. Wild rain. Smoke. Blood. Something achingly familiar buried beneath years of survival and ruin.

His grip tightened slightly against the back of her thighs before he forced himself to loosen it.

She was real.

After all this time… she was real.

And she had looked him straight in the face without recognition.

Kael’s jaw clenched.

The Lunar Plague had destroyed more than cities when it spread across the world. During the first year of infection, some humans suffered neurological damage before turning. Memory loss. Personality fractures. Entire pieces of their lives erased like they had never existed.

Most died before symptoms fully developed.

Others became Hollowfangs.

Very few survived intact.

But there had always been rumors about the rare survivors. Humans bitten during the Red Moon who somehow lived without fully turning.

Broken in ways no one understood.

Kael had spent years hunting those rumors.

Years searching mass graves, refugee camps, abandoned quarantine zones.

Searching for her.

And now she was here.

Alive.

Fighting him like a cornered animal.

But her eyes held nothing.

No recognition.

No memory.

It felt like someone had reached into his chest and twisted.

“You can put me down now,” Nova snapped from over his shoulder. “Seriously, this caveman act is getting old.”

Several wolves nearby tried very hard not to laugh.

Kael ignored them.

Nova shoved against his back again. “Did you not hear me?”

“I heard you.”

“Then put me down.”

“No.”

“You’re unbelievably annoying.”

“And you’re bleeding.”

Nova fell silent at that.

Kael glanced down briefly at the blood dripping from her injured leg. The Hollowfang claws had torn deeper than he liked. Infection from those creatures spread fast if untreated.

Too fast.

His wolf snarled at the thought alone.

The group finally emerged from the subway tunnels into the ruins of the city above.

Nova lifted her head slightly over his shoulder and froze.

Ahead of them stood a heavily barricaded stronghold built between the remains of several collapsed buildings. Massive steel walls surrounded the compound while floodlights cut through the storm above. Armed wolves patrolled the rooftops with rifles strapped across their backs.

The gates began opening before they even reached them.

Pack members immediately lowered their heads as Kael approached.

“Alpha.”

“Alpha.”

“Alpha.”

Nova went still against his shoulder.

Kael felt it instantly.

The realization finally sinking in.

Not just a wolf.

Their Alpha.

The strongest pack leader left on the East Coast.

The Grave Wolf.

The guards stared openly at the human female slung over his shoulder in stunned disbelief.

One nearly dropped his weapon.

Kael ignored them and kept walking.

The second he crossed into the compound, voices erupted around them.

“Is that a human?”

“Holy shit…”

“Where did he find her?”

“She’s alive?”

Nova twisted slightly to look around, her breathing quickening as hundreds of eyes followed her.

Fear.

Kael hated the scent of it on her.

“Move,” he barked coldly.

The crowd instantly scattered.

Kael headed straight toward the main tower in the center of the compound while his beta, the gray-eyed wolf from earlier, caught up beside him.

“You planning to explain this?” the beta asked carefully.

Kael’s expression darkened.

“I don’t know how.”

The beta glanced at Nova before lowering his voice.

“You better figure it out fast,” he muttered. “Because half the pack looks ready to take a bite out of her.”

Kael’s eyes turned lethal instantly.

A dangerous growl rumbled low in his chest.

The beta lifted both hands slightly. “Relax. I’m just telling you what everyone’s thinking.”

Nova stiffened over Kael’s shoulder at the words.

The fear she was trying to hide beneath the sarcasm and threats.

His wolf hated it.

“She’s under my protection,” Kael said coldly.

“That’ll stop most of them,” the beta replied carefully. “Most.”

Kael stopped walking.

The sudden silence around them was immediate.

Even the rain outside seemed to stop.

Slowly, Kael turned his head toward the wolves lingering nearby.

His silver eyes swept across the courtyard.

Every wolf froze.

“You touch her,” he said calmly, “you die.”

No one doubted him.

Not for a second.

Several wolves immediately lowered their gazes while others backed away entirely.

Nova stared at the side of his face, confusion flickering across her expression.

Like she couldn’t understand why someone this dangerous was protecting her at all.

He resumed walking toward the tower.

The beta fell into step beside him again, lowering his voice further. “This is going to spread through the compound in less than ten minutes.”

“It already has.”

“No,” the beta muttered grimly. “I mean the other part.”

Kael’s jaw tightened instantly.

Mate.

The word hung between them without being spoken aloud.

The beta rubbed a hand down his face. “The council’s going to lose their minds.”

“They don’t get a say.”

“They will if they think she’s a threat.”

Nova suddenly shoved against Kael’s shoulder again. “Can someone explain what the hell is happening?”

Neither wolf answered immediately.

“What threat?” she demanded sharply.

Kael finally glanced at her.

Rainwater still clung to her curls. Dirt streaked across her face. Blood soaked through the torn fabric around her leg.

And despite all of it…

His wolf still saw the same girl he lost years ago.

The same girl who once laughed too loud and climbed onto rooftops she wasn’t supposed to be on.

The same girl who disappeared during the first weeks of the outbreak.

Kael looked away before the memories could drag him under.

“You need treatment first,” he said.

Nova narrowed her eyes immediately. “That wasn’t an answer.”

“No,” Kael agreed quietly. “It wasn’t.”