“Good.”
“Arthur—”
“Do it,” Arthur growled. “And Chase?”
“What?”
“Double patrols along our border. Three shifts, no gaps. No one crosses into Nordan land without my say-so. Especially not witches.”
Chase was silent for a long moment.
“He’s still our ally,” he said finally, voice quiet.
“Allies don’t invite witches into your home without asking,” Arthur replied.
He ended the call before Chase could answer.
The snow was falling thicker now, soft and relentless, muffling the world. Arthur lifted his face to it, letting the cold sting his skin. The hum of life surrounded him, the Nordan wolves that lived in town and the ones beyond, choosing to stay in the compound. All of them his responsibility.
He’d do whatever it took to keep them safe.
Even if it meant standing against Dominic. Even if it meant opening the door to old enemies just to prove a point.
“No witches,” he muttered to the empty street, breath fogging. “Not here. Not again.”
He’d once welcomed the idea of Dominic taking Layla as his mate. Atruemate, blessed by Lunarion himself.
It seemed his god had a sense of humor.
A memory surfaced, unbidden. A girl with red hair and laughing eyes, standing at the edge of the tree line, looking back at him like he’d hung the moon.
He shoved it down, buried it under snow and steel and duty.
Dani Taylor was ten years gone.
And he was here. With his pack. His people. He needed to protect them. Layla, mate or no, was a problem Dominic needed to handle. Witches were a plague best kept far away from his mountains.
And if fate had other ideas…
Well.
Fate would have to go through him first.
Chapter 3 - Dani
The mountains rose like old ghosts.
Dani pressed her forehead against the cold window as the coven’s van rattled around another bend, the road narrowing, the pines thickening, the distant ridgelines sharpening into jagged teeth. Frost webbed across the edges of the glass. The air tasted colder already, sharp enough that she swore she could feel it even through the sealed vehicle.
She swallowed hard.
Her stomach rolled for the tenth time in as many minutes.
Aurelia leaned over her lap, eyes bright as she peered out the window. “Mom…look! Real mountains! They’re huge! Are they bigger than the ones in the pictures? They look bigger. They look…alive.”
Dani’s breath hitched.
Alive.
