One slammed into Cade, knocking him off balance. The other barreled straight into Killian as he rose, sending him skidding backward through the snow.
Suddenly, they were all engaged.
Each of them locked in brutal struggles with their own attacker, grappling and striking, fighting to keep teeth away from throats.
Ryker raised his gun, tracking targets, but there was no clear shot.
Too much movement. Too close.
Then he lifted his rifle and fired into the treeline.
What was he firing at?
I called to my wolf, narrowing my eyes and letting my vision sharpen. Shadows moved from tree to tree, stalking forward. So many of them. Ryker fired again. The crack of the shot split the forest, and the shadows scattered. Fast, low shapes darted between the trunks, circling closer.
The wolves fighting Cade, Killian, and Talon broke off almost simultaneously and retreated, backing away with deliberate precision. They regrouped at the edge of the clearing, forming ranks with others emerging from the woods.
Suddenly, dozens of wolves surrounded us.
Teeth bared. Fur raised. Yellow eyes glowing with intent.
“Stay behind us,” Cade ordered.
The men closed ranks around me instantly, weapons raised, bodies angled outward to shield me on all sides.
“They’re shifters,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Ryker muttered. “And not the friendly kind.”
Cade raised his voice. “We don’t mean anyone harm! Our pack is seeking asylum in the northern shifter colonies. We’re former soldiers fleeing New Arca.”
The wolves answered with a chorus of growls.
A voice cut through the noise, stern and commanding.
“You’re Arca soldiers!”
The wolves parted.
A man stepped forward from between them. He was bare-chested despite the cold, tall and broad, older than my alphas, but far from weak. Gray threaded through his hair, and deep lines marked his face, the kind earned through years of leadership and violence.
Behind him stood three large copper wolves.
The same color as my coat.
I had convinced myself that I was different. Not just an omega, not just a shifter, but my red coat and blue eyes set apart even from the rarest of them. It was easier to believe I was alone than to wonder where I fit in. But as I looked at the copper wolves behind him, their coloring mirroring my own, that certainty wavered. Maybe I wasn’t an anomaly after all. Maybe I never had been.
“No, wewereArca soldiers,” Cade said evenly. “Not anymore! We have just as much reason to consider them enemies as you do.”
The man’s eyes darkened. “I doubt that. Besides, there's noway to prove you aren’t spies! Even if there were, our pack no longer takes in strays. We have suffered too many betrayals."
"We aren't spies."
"Am I supposed to just take your word for it, after you’ve trespassed on our lands?”
“We didn’t know these were your lands,” Cade replied. “We thought the pack was farther north.”
“This is Shifter Territory. All of the Northern Borderlands are ours now,” the man snapped. “Crossing the wallistrespassing!”
