The Alpha's request reached Evelyn like a drop of ice sliding down the back of her neck.
For a moment, she did not move.
Beside her, Cassian had gone still as well, his expression sharpening into something guarded and unreadable. The guard who had delivered the message stood at the doorway with his hand still gripping the edge of the frame, his breathing slightly uneven from running through the manor at such a pace.
Evelyn looked from him to Cassian, then back again. "Now?"
The guard bowed quickly. "Yes, Madam."
Cassian's jaw tightened. "What happened?"
The man hesitated just long enough to make Evelyn's pulse jump.
"The Alpha will explain in the command hall."
That was not an answer.
It was a warning wrapped in politeness.
Evelyn could feel the tension spreading through the corridor even before she stepped out of the sitting room. The fire behind her crackled softly, the warmth fading as the hallway cold touched her skin. Cassian moved first, his pace brisk, the guard falling in behind them once they had left the room.
The manor felt different now.
Not simply quiet.
Alert.
Every servant they passed looked lowered and hurried, and more than one turned in the opposite direction the moment they saw the Alpha's son approaching. Evelyn noticed the subtle shift in posture whenever Cassian came into view, the way staff members bowed a little deeper, spoke a little softer, moved a little faster. They respected him. Perhaps feared him a little, too.
She wondered if he noticed.
He probably did.
The command hall was on the lower floor, near the central wing where the manor's administrative meetings were usually held. The doors stood open when they arrived, and through the wide passage Evelyn caught sight of several figures gathered around the long table inside.
Lucien stood at the far end.
He had not removed his coat yet, and snow still clung in a thin white line along one shoulder. His presence dominated the room immediately, even without him speaking. Several guards and attendants stood at the sides with their heads bowed. A physician was present too, along with two warriors Evelyn did not recognize.
Her gaze sharpened when she noticed the blood.
Not much.
Only a few dark drops on the polished floor near the Alpha's boots and a long stain along the cuff of one warrior's sleeve.
Evelyn's stomach tightened.
Lucien looked up when he sensed her arrival.
His eyes moved first to Cassian, then to her. "Close the doors."
The guard at the entrance obeyed immediately.
The room sealed behind them with a heavy finality that made the atmosphere feel even more pressurized than before.
Lucien's gaze swept over the two of them once more, calm but unreadable. "Come closer."
Cassian obeyed, though his shoulders remained rigid.
Evelyn followed a step behind him.
Up close, the signs of the night's incident became clearer. One of the warriors had a shallow gash across his neck, already bandaged. Another had blood seeping through the edge of his sleeve. The physician was speaking quietly to someone near the side table, but Lucien raised one hand and the man immediately fell silent.
Evelyn swallowed.
"Did something happen in the forest?" she asked carefully.
Lucien's eyes settled on her. "Yes."
Just that one word sent a chill through her body.
Cassian folded his arms. "What was it?"
Lucien did not answer right away. Instead he glanced toward the warrior with the bandaged neck. "Show them the report."
The injured man bowed and stepped forward. His face was pale, but his voice remained steady enough when he began speaking.
"The patrol reached the eastern ridge just before the second bell. We found signs of a struggle near the snow line. Two wolves had already been killed. Their bodies were mangled beyond ordinary attack patterns."
Cassian's expression darkened.
The warrior continued, quieter now. "We followed the tracks toward the north. There were signs of movement through the dead pines, but the scent was inconsistent. At one point it disappeared entirely."
That made no sense.
Evelyn frowned. "Disappeared?"
The man nodded once. "As though something had swallowed it."
Silence fell over the room.
Evelyn suddenly became very aware of the blood on the floor.
Lucien finally spoke. "My men found this near the ridge."
He reached down, picked something up from the table, and held it toward the light.
Evelyn saw a claw.
Not a wolf claw.
Longer. Curved strangely. Dark, almost black at the root, with a sharp pale tip that looked sharper than bone.
She stared at it.
Cassian's face hardened. "What is that?"
"That," Lucien said quietly, "is what tore through the patrol."
Evelyn's mouth went dry.
The claw looked unnatural enough to make her skin crawl. Not simply large, but wrong in shape. Too long at the base. Too narrow at the tip. Something about it felt mismatched to any creature she could imagine in the snowy forest outside.
The physician beside the wall cleared his throat nervously. "The tissue sample is being examined, Alpha."
Lucien handed the claw to him without looking away from Evelyn and Cassian.
The movement made her uneasy for reasons she could not explain.
"What kind of creature has claws like that?" Cassian asked.
Lucien's expression remained cold. "None native to Blackthorne territory."
That answer did not help her fear at all.
Evelyn held herself still, though her mind had already begun circling the implications. The forest had been described as unstable. Patrols had gone missing. Wolves had been behaving strangely. Now there were bodies, blood, and a claw that did not belong to any ordinary creature.
This was not just border trouble.
Something had entered the territory.
Lucien turned toward one of the guards. "Seal the eastern route until sunrise. No one enters the woods without direct authorization."
"Yes, Alpha."
"And alert the outer sentries to double patrol frequency."
"Yes, Alpha."
He issued the orders with the same calm tone someone else might use to request tea.
The control in his voice should have reassured her.
Instead, it made the situation feel worse.
Cassian looked to his father again. "How many casualties?"
"Two dead. Three injured."
The young heir said nothing after that, but Evelyn noticed the slight tension in his hands. For the first time since meeting him, the boy looked truly shaken, though he hid it as well as he could.
Lucien's gaze shifted to him. "You stay out of this."
Cassian immediately stiffened. "I can help."
"No."
"I'm not a child."
"You are still the heir."
Cassian's voice sharpened. "That is exactly why I should know what's happening."
The tension between father and son flared in an instant.
Evelyn felt the temperature in the room drop a little.
Lucien's expression remained composed, but his eyes became harder. "Do not argue with me in front of the council staff."
This was not the time to let his son take risks.
That much was obvious.
And yet Cassian looked furious, not because he wanted to disobey, but because being excluded from danger felt almost as insulting as being treated like one.
Evelyn understood that feeling better than she liked.
Before the argument could escalate further, Lucien's attention moved to her unexpectedly.
"You look pale," he said.
Evelyn blinked.
What?
Of all the things he could have said, that was not the one she expected.
She instinctively touched her own cheek. "I'm fine."
"You are not."
The answer came with such immediate certainty that she nearly frowned. "How would you know?"
Lucien's gaze did not move from her face. "Because you are trying very hard not to react."
Evelyn fell silent.
That was unfairly accurate.
Cassian glanced between them, his expression unreadable.
Lucien's voice softened only by a fraction. "You should return to your room after this."
Evelyn almost protested out of habit, but something in his tone stopped her. There was no command in it this time. Only certainty.
And worry, perhaps.
Or maybe she was imagining that part.
The physician stepped forward at that moment, holding a thin vial of dark residue. "Alpha, the sample contains a trace of unfamiliar scent markers. It is not wolf blood."
That made Lucien's eyes narrow.
The physician swallowed. "It resembles something old. Rotten, almost."
Evelyn's chest tightened.
Rotten.
Not alive, then.
Or not fully.
Cassian looked visibly unsettled now. "What are we dealing with?"
Lucien did not answer immediately.
When he finally did, his voice was lower than before. "Something that does not belong here."
The words lingered in the room like frost.
Evelyn looked down briefly, trying to settle her breathing. Her mind was moving too quickly, connecting fragments she did not yet understand. A strange forest. Wrong scents. Unnatural claws. Malformed carcasses. A patrol that had disappeared too quickly and too cleanly.
Something was hunting near Blackthorne territory.
Maybe even watching the manor.
And for the first time since waking in this body, Evelyn felt the faintest sense that her presence here might not be as accidental as she had believed.
A small movement caught her attention.
One of the injured warriors, seated near the side wall, had glanced toward her before quickly looking away again. His expression was strange, almost hesitant.
Then he bowed his head and said nothing.
Evelyn frowned slightly.
Lucien noticed.
"Leave us," he told the staff at once.
The physician and the warriors immediately withdrew, taking the claw and the blood sample with them. The command hall fell quiet again, leaving only the three of them inside.
Lucien rested one hand lightly on the table. "Cassian."
The young heir responded with a sharp, guarded look.
"You will remain in the manor tonight."
"I already know that."
"You will also refrain from going near the northern walls."
Cassian's mouth tightened. "So I'm to sit still while you handle everything."
Lucien's eyes turned colder. "You are to live."
The answer cut through the room like a blade.
Cassian looked away first.
Evelyn felt something twist in her chest again. Their relationship was so strained, and yet underneath the friction there was an obvious thread of concern, one neither of them seemed able to loosen.
Lucien turned to Evelyn next.
"And you," he said quietly, "will remain within the eastern wing until morning."
Evelyn wanted to argue. She wanted to say she was not a fragile ornament to be tucked away whenever danger approached. But the look in his eyes made her pause.
He was not pushing her aside.
He was trying to keep her safe.
That realization was strangely disarming.
"…All right," she said at last.
Lucien studied her as if surprised by the immediate agreement, then gave a short nod.
"You should rest."
As the meeting began to dissolve, Evelyn felt Cassian's gaze flick briefly toward her. The boy seemed to want to say something, but whatever it was remained locked behind his usual restraint.
Instead, he merely said, "Good night."
It was quiet.
Careful.
Still not warm, but no longer cold.
Evelyn gave him a small smile. "Good night, Cassian."
When they left the command hall, the manor was even quieter than before. The storm outside had not lessened, and the windows trembled softly under the force of the wind. Guards had been reassigned at every turn of the corridor. The entire estate seemed to hold itself in strict silence, waiting.
Mina appeared again at the end of the hallway and escorted Evelyn back toward the eastern wing.
As they walked, Evelyn noticed that the maid kept glancing nervously toward the windows.
It made her skin prickle.
At last, she asked softly, "Do you fear the forest too?"
Mina went rigid for a moment before answering. "Everyone in the manor respects the forest, Madam."
"That's not the same thing."
The maid did not reply.
Evelyn looked out at the snow beyond the glass one last time before the eastern wing doors closed behind her.
Somewhere out there, beyond the frozen trees and the blackened pines, something had already crossed into Blackthorne territory.
And she had the sickening feeling that this was only the beginning.