“What else happened last night?” Rune’s voice came out deadly quiet.
Forrest’s hands tightened on the wheel. “There was a skirmish on the perimeter. Some of Birch’s men clashing with our patrols, drew them away from Electra’s cabin.”
The truth settled like poison in Rune’s gut. It wasn’t chaos—it was choreography. Every piece falling into place with sickening precision. The motion sensors that should have detected Tyr’s approach. The masked scent that would have hidden him from wolf senses. The fact that he’d gotten inside Electra’s cabin without triggering a single alarm.
“Someone in our pack helped orchestrate this.” The words tasted like betrayal.
Forrest’s jaw clenched. “Rune?—“
“We’ll deal with the traitors later.” The realization was a secondary wound, sharp and personal, but there was no time to bleed from it yet. Electra’s fear spiked again through the bond, hotter now, more frantic. Whatever Tyr was doing, he was escalating.
I’m coming,Rune promised her silently, pushing every ounce of his determination through their connection.Hold on.
They crested the final ridge, and the location hit him like an arrow to the chest. Mountain Spring Road led directly into what had been Birch’s territory—symbolic, deliberate, a challenge layered inside another challenge. An ambush waiting to spring with military precision.
“Pull over,” Rune commanded, forcing his tactical mind to override the mate-maddened Alpha clawing at his control. “We go in smart, not stupid.”
Forrest complied without argument, parking the cruiser. As they stepped into the cool mountain air heavy with pine, Rune inhaled deeply and caught it—bright, panicked, unmistakably hers. Close. Too close.
“Charging in feral is exactly what Birch wants,” Forrest said, echoing Rune’s own thoughts. “He’s counting on you losing control.”
“I know.” Rune’s voice was granite-steady even as fury burned through his veins. “Silent approach. Wolf forms. Precision strikes.”
Forrest nodded, then hesitated. “I could draw their attention. Split the odds, give you a cleaner shot at getting to her first.”
The suggestion hit Rune like a slap. Risking his Beta—his oldest friend, his brother in everything but blood—went against every protective instinct he possessed. But leadership meant making impossible choices, accepting potential sacrifices for the greater good.
“Do it,” he said finally, the words scraping his throat raw. “But you stay alive long enough for me to help you. That’s an order.”
A ghost of Forrest’s usual grin flickered across his features. “Wouldn’t dream of disappointing you, Alpha.”
The transformation began in silence, their bodies surrendering to the ancient pull as sunlight filtered through the canopy above. Rune’s bones snapped and reformed with practiced precision, muscle and sinew reshaping into something larger and deadlier. The forest absorbed the sounds of their shifting—the wet crack of cartilage, the rustle of clothing falling away—as if the wilderness itself understood the gravity of what was coming.
Rune’s massive black wolf emerged from the transformation with predatory grace, his steel-gray eyes blazing with barely contained fury. Every fiber of his being screamed to charge forward, to tear through anything standing between him and his mate, but decades of Alpha discipline held him in check. Their mate bond pulsed with Electra’s terror, each wave of her fearhitting him like physical blows that threatened to shatter his control entirely.
Hold steady,he commanded himself, even as his wolf snarled for blood.Smart, not stupid.
Forrest’s dark brown wolf fell into step beside him, smaller but no less lethal, his blue eyes reflecting the same deadly resolve. They moved through the trees like shadows given form, paws silent against the forest floor, every sense attuned to the approaching confrontation.
The cabin soon materialized through the trees ahead, and Rune’s wolf froze. Birch stood in the clearing with three of his men, their postures alert and expectant, eyes trained on the treeline where they clearly anticipated Rune’s explosive arrival. The exiled Alpha paced with predatory confidence, his ice-blue eyes glancing down at his gold watch.
But Tyr was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Electra.
A low growl rumbled in Rune’s chest as another spike of terror crashed through the bond, this one edged with something that made his vision flash red. Revulsion. Violation. The kind of fear that came from being touched by hands that had no right to claim.
She’s inside,his wolf recognized with crystalline clarity.Alive. Terrified. And that bastard is?—
The thought cut off as rage threatened to override everything else. Rune forced himself to breathe, to think like an Alpha instead of a maddened mate.
Forrest caught his eye and nodded once—a silent communication perfected over decades of partnership. Without hesitation, his Beta broke cover deliberately, allowing his scent to carry on the wind.
The trap sprung instantly. Birch’s head whipped toward the distraction, a vicious smile splitting his features as he gestured to his men. “There,” he snarled, his voice carrying the authorityof command. “Take him down, but leave enough pieces for Rune to find.”
All four wolves surged toward where Forrest had revealed himself, exactly as planned. But Rune didn’t follow their charge. Instead, he melted deeper into shadow, circling with the patience of a predator who understood that the deadliest strikes came from unexpected angles.
The cabin’s back door yielded to his massive form without resistance—unlocked, arrogant, as if Tyr believed his alliance with Birch made him untouchable. Rune’s wolf slipped inside like death given form, every muscle coiled with lethal intent.
What he found in the bedroom detonated something primal in his chest that would never be whole again.
