"Fifteen years ago. I was nineteen. A challenge from a rival pack, one he should have won easily. But he was tired. Years of protecting the territory had worn him down, and he hesitated at the wrong moment." Stellan's jaw tightens. "I watched him die. Watched the light leave his eyes while the wolf who killed him howled victory to the sky. I challenged that wolf thirty seconds later and tore out his throat with my bare hands."
The violence of the image should horrify me. Instead, I feel understanding. Maybe even respect. "You've been alpha ever since."
"Since I was nineteen. Fifteen years of threats, challenges, wolves who wanted what I have." He finally turns to look at me,and I see weariness in his eyes. Not the physical kind that sleep can cure, but bone-deep. Soul-deep. "Do you know what the worst part is?"
I shake my head.
"An alpha cannot show weakness. Cannot lean on anyone. The moment you lean, someone decides you're vulnerable enough to challenge." He looks back at the view, his profile sharp against the sky. "I caught your scent years ago. Knew what you were. What you would become to me. I have been waiting for you ever since."
The confession hits harder than I expect. I think about Helena, about the years I spent training for a threat I didn't fully understand. About feeling like a weapon rather than a person, a tool designed for a purpose I never chose.
"My grandmother raised me to fight," I say quietly. "From the time I was old enough to hold a knife, she was teaching me to defend myself. Combat training. Survival skills. How to pick locks and escape restraints and identify exits in any building I entered. I thought she was paranoid. I thought she was preparing me for dangers that didn't exist."
"She was preparing you for me."
"She was preparing me for whoever or whatever might come. You, or someone worse. The blood pact meant I would always belong to someone, and she wanted me to have a chance." I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the warmth of the sun. "I spent my whole life feeling like a tool waiting to be used. Never quite human. Never quite free. Always training for a war I didn't understand."
Stellan turns to face me fully, and his hand lifts to cup my jaw. The touch is gentle, completely at odds with the man who broke bones in front of his pack last night.
"You are not a tool," he says. "You are mine. That has never been in question. But being mine doesn't mean being nothing."His thumb strokes across my cheekbone. "You have value beyond what you can do for me. I need you to understand that."
I don't know what to say to that. I don't know if I believe it. But the raw honesty in his voice, in the openness of his face, makes me want to.
"I don't know how to be what you need," I admit.
"You already are." His hand slides from my jaw to the back of my neck, holding me in place. Not threatening—just certain. The way he holds everything that belongs to him.
The moment shatters when Torben appears at the top of the path, his face grim and his breathing hard from the climb.
"Alpha. We have a problem."
Stellan's hand drops from my neck and he turns to face his beta. "Report."
Torben's eyes flick to me, a question in them.
Stellan growls, low and warning. "She stays. Report."
"Korren is massing forces at the northern border. More wolves arriving every hour. This isn't a probe. This is preparation for invasion."
The words settle into my stomach like stones. Gossip and rumor have run through the fortress like a fever. An army is gathering at the edge of Stellan's territory, led by a man who knows exactly what I am and wants to use me against the alpha who holds me.
Stellan's expression doesn't change, but I see his hands curl into fists at his sides. "How long?"
"Soon. They're waiting for something. More reinforcements, perhaps. Or a signal." Torben's eyes flick to me and then away. "There's more. Our source says Korren is telling his wolves that you've gone soft. That the human omega has made you weak, and a weak alpha is a danger to all the packs. He's framing this as doing what needs to be done."
"He's coming for Iris."
"He's coming for everything. But yes, she's part of it. An omega in his possession would legitimize his claim to this territory. It would prove his strength while demonstrating yours has failed."
I watch the two men discuss strategy, discuss my fate, and resolve hardens inside me. I am tired of being discussed. Tired of being the prize everyone fights over while I stand silent on the sidelines.
"Let me help."
Both men turn to look at me. Stellan's expression is unreadable. Torben's is openly skeptical.
"I know strategy," I continue, meeting Stellan's eyes without flinching. "Helena didn't just teach me to fight. She taught me to think. Terrain analysis. Force deployment. How to identify weaknesses in defensive positions and exploit them. I've studied military history since I was twelve years old." I lift my chin. "You said I have value. Let me prove it. Let me help plan the defense."
A long silence stretches between us. Torben moves uneasily, clearly expecting his alpha to dismiss the offer. To send the omega back to her room where she belongs.
