The wolves howled in unison; the sound rising and echoing through the trees.
My heart hammered in my chest.
This was it. There was nowhere left to run.
We couldn’t go back to New Arca. That path had burned behind us the moment we crossed the border. If the shifters turned us away now, there would be nowhere else to go. This was our only hope.
The man’s gaze swept over us one final time.
“And the penalty for trespassing,” he said coldly, “is death.”
“No!” I lunged forward, ducking between the alphas, before any of them could stop me. Dropping to my knees in the snow, I threw my hands out between us. “Please! We need your help! Would you really turn your back on two shifters of your own kind?”
Instinct told me to bow, head low, face against the ground. My submission was all I had left. A plea without words.
How could an alpha, a leader of shifters, order the deathof others like him, even if they did not belong to his pack? How could he turn away from his own kind so easily.
There were too many of them. Too many wolves. Even if we ran, even if my alphas fought, we would never escape.
So I stayed where I was, head bowed, breath unsteady, waiting to see whether he would choose law over mercy.
Cade caught me instantly, hauling me back and shoving me behind him as he raised his weapon. The others moved with him without hesitation, bodies closing ranks around me as the surrounding wolves snarled and stepped forward, muscles coiling, ready to strike.
“Stop!” the pack leader bellowed.
The wolves froze.
Their leader tried to see me through the shield of bodies.
“You have an omega with you,” he said, intrigued. “She is a shifter?”
“She is none of your business,” Cade snapped.
“If you are seeking asylum in our pack, she very much is,” the man countered. “Bring her forward.”
The surrounding circle tightened. Cade’s growl vibrated through his chest, low and dangerous.
I leaned in close, my voice barely a whisper meant only for him. “Please, Cade. It’s okay. Let him see me. Maybe if they see me, they’ll take us in.”
“No,” he said immediately. Final.
I grabbed his arm. “Trust me. I can help us.”
He didn't respond.
“You promised,” I whispered, desperation creeping into my voice.
This was the moment our agreement mattered most. Not in theory. Not in words. Here. Now.
Cade was afraid. I could feel it in the way he held himself, in the way his instincts pulled him toward shielding me instead of listening. He was terrified of me getting hurt, of losing me, and that fear threatened to cost us everything.
I had trusted him when every instinct screamed not to. I had followed his lead into uncertainty. Now I needed him to do the same for me.
I had proven I wasn’t just something to shield from harm. I could contribute and be arealmember of this pack. And if he couldn’t trust me when death stood right in front of us, then the agreement between us had never been real.
For a long moment, he stayed rigid, jaw clenched, eyes locked on the threat ahead of us. Then he exhaled slowly and shifted his stance just enough to open a space at his side, never lowering his weapon.
I stepped forward.
