Maya's POV
The smell hit me like a punch to the gut.
I dropped the coffee mug, and it broke on the kitchen floor. My hands shook as the smell filled our tiny apartment - pine trees, mountain snow, and something else. Something that made my wolf claw at my chest after five years of quiet.
Alpha.
"Mama?" Ethan's sleepy voice came from behind me. "Why did you break your favorite cup?"
I spun around, trying to smile at my four-year-old son. His dark hair stuck up everywhere, and his green eyes - my eyes, thank God, not his father's golden ones - looked worried.
"Just clumsy, baby," I lied, picking up the pieces with shaking hands. The smell was getting stronger. Whoever was out there was getting closer to our building.
Five years. Five whole years of hiding in the human world, and now someone had found us.
"Mama, you're bleeding," Ethan said, pointing at my hand.
I looked down. A piece of the mug had cut my palm, but the wound was already closed. My healing skills always worked faster when I was scared. Another thing I had to hide from the human world.
"It's just a little cut," I said, rinsing my hand in the sink. "Go get dressed for school, okay?"
But Ethan didn't move. His little nose wrinkled, and he sniffed the air. "Someone's outside," he whispered. "Someone who smells like... like us."
My blood turned to ice. Ethan wasn't supposed to be able to smell other werewolves yet. He was too young. His dog shouldn't wake up for years.
"There's no one outside," I said quickly. "Just get ready for preschool."
I watched him walk to his bedroom, my heart racing. Ethan was changing faster than normal kids. Yesterday, he had lifted a desk at school that two adults couldn't move. Last week, he had growled at a dog, and it had rolled over and showed its belly.
I thought we had more time.
The scent got stronger, and I heard footsteps in the hallway outside our room. Heavy. Male. Definitely not human.
I grabbed my phone and texted my boss at the animal clinic: Emergency. Can't come in today. Will call later.
Then I crept to the window and peeked through the blinds. The parking lot looked normal. A few cars, some trees, nothing strange. But my nose didn't lie. There was a werewolf nearby, and he was hunting.
"Mama!" Ethan called from his room. "My eyes are doing the weird thing again!"
I ran to him and found him standing in front of his mirror. His green eyes flickered with tiny flashes of gold light. It happened when he got excited or scared, and it was happening more often.
"Look at me," I said, kneeling in front of him. "Take deep breaths. Think about quiet things. Like when we read stories together."
The gold faded from his eyes, but I could see it was getting harder for him to control.
"Mama, why am I different?" he asked for the hundredth time. "Why don't we have a pack like the wolves in my picture books?"
The question always broke my heart. How could I tell him that we used to have a pack? That his father was an Alpha who threw us away like garbage? That I ran away in the middle of the night because I was too ashamed to stay?
"We have each other," I said, the same answer I always gave. "That's our pack."
But Ethan was getting older. Soon, my easy answers wouldn't be enough.
I helped him get dressed and made him food, trying to act normal. But the smell outside was driving me crazy. My wolf wanted to shift and run, but I hadn't changed forms in five years. I wasn't sure I even remembered how.
"Mama, you keep sniffing," Ethan said, eating his cereal. "Do you smell the person outside too?"
"What person?" I asked, trying to sound calm.
"The one who's been walking around our building all morning," Ethan said. "He smells sad. And angry. And..." He paused, his little face scrunched up in concentration. "And like he's looking for something."
My hands clenched into fists. If Ethan could smell feelings, his wolf was way stronger than I thought. That was an Alpha trait. A strong Alpha trait.
Just like his father.
I looked at the clock. We needed to leave for preschool in ten minutes, but there was no way I was taking Ethan outside with a strange werewolf hanging around.
"How about we have a fun day at home instead of school?" I offered.
Ethan's eyes lit up, but then he got that serious look he sometimes had - too serious for a four-year-old.
"Mama, are we in trouble?" he asked softly.
Before I could answer, someone knocked on our door.
Three slow knocks. Then three more.
My wolf went completely still. That wasn't a human knock. That was pack contact. Someone was introducing themselves in the old way.
Ethan's eyes went wide. "Should we answer it?"
I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the back of the flat. "No, baby. We need to be very quiet."
The knocking came again. Louder this time.
Then a voice called through the door, deep and commanding: "Maya Sterling. I know you're in there. I can smell you both."
My legs went weak. After five years of hiding, someone had finally tracked us down. But who was it? One of Alpha Dominic's men? A reward hunter? Or worse - Dominic himself?
"I'm not here to hurt you," the voice continued. "But you're not safe here anymore. They're coming for the boy."
The boy. They knew about Ethan.
"Mama," Ethan whispered, his eyes starting to flash gold again. "I think we should run."
But as I reached for our emergency bag - the one I'd kept packed for five years - I heard something that made my blood freeze.
Howls. Multiple screams, coming from the woods behind our building.
The hunting party had arrived.
And we were stuck.