Julius couldn't look away from the man on the stool across from him.
The story kept coming—too practiced, too confident, and Julius kept pouring drinks like his hands were the only part of him that could move.
Phoenix, Raphael, Alexander, and Ayla listened for the point, some clue that explained why this conversation felt like a trap closing.
Particularly Ayla.
Alexander, Ayla, and Julius missed the small shifts around them—the way bodies angled away, the way a laugh cut off mid-note.
The club pressed in close: sweat, perfume, and heat under strobing lights and slicing lasers.
The bass should've been shaking the bottles, yet Julius heard the man's voice more clearly than the music.
He kept his head down, served the next customer, then the next, praying the crowd stayed oblivious.
They didn't see the danger in the room.
They never did until it bit.
And it was close—too close.
Ayla was familiar with being in these situations.
Ayla knew danger.
She'd lived in it long enough to recognize the itch under her skin when something shifted.
Inside the club, every sense lied, lights too bright, shadows too deep, noise everywhere.
It made the warning harder to name.
She knew something was off with Dominic and his men at the bar.
That alone kept her nerves tight.
So when four more men slipped in through the entrance, her attention didn't snap to them, just a flicker, gone under the pulse of the room.
On the other side of the bar, however, was a different story.
Dominic, Raphael, and Phoenix weren't sure what hit them first.
After a moment, the scent hit, then the weight of a presence that didn't belong, stiffened so fast it was almost one motion.
Their wolves bristled before their minds caught up, tracking the familiar-not-familiar signature drifting closer.
It resembled an old fir tree dipped in sand, similar to them, but just a hair off.
Ayla caught the shift in the air, smells, tension, a prickling along her arms, but she had no language for it.
Only the certainty that something was closing in.
She just knew her body was reacting to something the way it always did before a fight: breath shallow, muscles tight, eyes searching.
She shifted closer to Julius without meaning to, now lying against his leg, her heart thudding hard enough to feel in her throat.
Julius kept wiping the bar, but his eyes flicked to the three men again.
One by one, they drew slow breaths through their noses, testing the air like hounds catching a trail
All he could see was their nostrils beginning to flare slightly.
Across the room, four other men were doing the same thing, quiet, synchronized, and watching, subtle enough that the crowd stayed oblivious.
Julius wasn't.
Whatever they were hunting, it was close enough to make instinct take over.
Packs had scents; individuals carried variations.
Right now, every one of them was trying to pinpoint the same signature.
Julius stared, unnerved, not because he didn't believe in danger, but because he didn't understand this kind.
The men ignored him.
All of them.
Their attention was locked on the invisible line of scent, and the urgency in the way they breathed said they had seconds, not minutes.
All of them had the feeling of urgency in discovering the danger that neared them.
Seconds, Dominic had a matter of seconds to help Julius and his friends.
It was necessary to know if they were about to face an imminent threat.
No one wanted the other to have an advantage.
After a few seconds, Dominic's gaze sharpened.
"Deep-Fang," he muttered, like the name tasted bad.
Wolves didn't travel this far without a reason.
Dominic didn't doubt what it was.
With a serious expression on his face, he looked Julius in the eyes.
He met Julius's eyes—serious, almost pleading.
"I won't follow. I won't start anything. But I need to know… is she here?"
Ayla's eyes went wide.
She shook her head hard—no, no, no.
Julius didn't know if Dominic was friend or foe.
It didn't matter.
Dominic had sensed something, and the room had turned sharp around the edges.
Ayla's nails dug into his shin under the bar, an impatient warning.
Julius winced and clamped his mouth shut.
He would clearly have marks there tomorrow.
From her seat, Ayla couldn't see Dominic's face or the monitor, only the sudden tension in Julius's shoulders.
Ayla hadn't seen the men enter, hadn't seen the predators' posture change.
If she had, she wouldn't have been so quick to protest.
In the span of a minute, the bar had filled with enemies, either theirs or hers.
Julius had seconds to decide: trust Dominic or play dumb and hope the lie kept them alive.
The slight hesitation in his answer told Dominic what he needed to know.
"Is he beside you now"?
Julius nodded without thinking.
That time, Ayla bit his leg.
Julius looked down at her, lips pressed tight.
Dominic had to think quickly.
Dominic leaned in, voice low, small enough to disappear under the bass.
"I'm not going to hurt you or chase you. I need you to get under the bar and out the back, there's a back door, right?"
Julius nodded, and Dominic continued.
"I don't know if they brought people outside," he added, "Be careful. And… I'm sorry for chasing you all these years. There was a lot I didn't understand. We will talk later."
Ayla had no intention of talking to him at a later time.
As he finished, he turned in his chair to face the crowd with his drink.
Still dazed, Ayla and Alexander slid down the length of the bar, keeping low as they moved into the hallway toward the back
They stopped short of the exit.
Obeying Dominic felt wrong, but ignoring him could get them caught between two packs.
That man had hunted her for years.
Now he was offering help as if it cost him something.
For the first time all night, her fear sharpened into something useful: focus.
Trust him, and she might walk into a trap.
Refuse, and she might walk into worse.
Her thoughts tangled.
She backed into the wall, forcing air into her lungs like she could breathe her way into a decision.
Alexander was right there as he embraced her and wrapped his arms around her, steadying her without blocking the hallway.
"What do we do?" she whispered.
Alexander kept his voice at her ear.
"Honestly. I don't know what to do. But someone walked in, and those three went rigid. I saw four big guys enter on the camera. If that hadn't happened, I would've pulled you back from following Dominic's advice."
Ayla swallowed hard.
"We're really doing this," she whispered.
"That doesn't help," she breathed. "I still don't know what to do."
He paused, then tried for steadier ground.
"Do you still think coming tonight was a good idea?"
His intent was to distract her a bit.
Alexander eased his grip just enough for her to breathe.
"Hey. Look at me."
Maybe it would bring some of her fiery spirit out.
"Don't tease me," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.
"Not when we're one wrong move from getting caught."
His mouth twitched.
It helped, just a little.
"Was tonight a mistake?" he asked.
Ayla hesitated, then shook her head.
"No."
His eyebrows rose.
"How is this not a mistake?"
Her stubborn attitude was trying to rear its head.
"Not funny. You could at least wait until we make it safely back to the apartment before teasing me about coming out," she frowned.
He smirked, knowing it worked, just a bit.
"Again, how was this not a mistake?" he asked.
He'd meant it as a distraction, something small to keep her from spiraling.
Whatever had happened between them earlier had nothing to do with the choice in front of them now.
Right now, survival came first, but he was curious.
"Because we learned something," she said.
"Dominic hesitated. We heard enough to know why they're after me, and that matters."
"And those four men who came in?" she continued.
"They weren't random. They were looking for me, same as Dominic. That means there are more like them here, and they're getting closer."
Alexander exhaled through his nose, half admiration and half frustration.
"Okay. So you're not wrong. You're just… fearless at the worst times."
Alexander looked at her, surprised.
He was trying his best not to completely lose his cool while waiting for her to answer.
She gave him the smallest smile, "Call it luck."
He was shaking his head in disbelief again.
"Two options, Lady Luck," Alexander said,
"We wait and hope they leave… or we go out the back now and pray nobody's posted outside."
He didn't like either option; he just wanted her safe.
Seconds bled away while the club roared on the other side of the wall.
Ayla's jaw set.
"We go."
Alexander waited for the rest, because there was always a rest.
"We take the hidden paths," she said.
"I'll lead. You just need to keep up."
Ayla knew that she could navigate this town as if she designed it.
It was his turn to trust her.
Alexander knew that at the waterfall, his life would change.
The night he followed her, he just hadn't expected it to change this fast.
This felt like a bad movie, except the fear was real.
He kept waiting for the moment everything went wrong.
It always came.
She took his hand and pulled him to the back door.
They slipped outside into colder air and sharper darkness, pausing just long enough to listen, no footsteps, no voices, then moving fast.
Ayla ducked them beneath a low tangle of scrap and boards that hid a narrow cut-through.
Under the cover, they finally stopped and checked the street behind them.
They turned to each other at the same time, relief, then immediate confusion.
"Your eyes," they both said.
Ayla blinked, "What about my eyes?"
The glow was already fading—like someone dimming a light behind their irises.
"They changed?" Ayla asked.
"Yours did too. It was fast, but I saw it again."
Alexander nodded slowly.
"I noticed it the first night we met. In the woods, I thought your eyes were that color until I saw you in daylight."
"So, what was it?" Ayla asked.
"Amber," he said. "Almost golden—like it was lit from inside, with a streak of red."
Ayla touched the corner of her eye as if she could catch the change.
"That's what I saw," she said, "On both of us."
Alexander forced his attention back to the street.
"Later," he said, "Right now, we get home."
Actually, he thought that he had lost his mind while they were in the cave, but he didn't want to admit that then or in their current situation.
Now that he saw her eyes essentially glowing again, one of two things had to be occurring.
He was crazy, or she was special, but that didn't explain her seeing it in his eyes.
She nodded again.
Neither of them understood it yet, and that scared them more than either wanted to admit.
Something wild and restless paced inside both of them, urging them to run, together, and not stop until they were safe.
There was no time to slow down.
They moved fast and quietly, scanning the dark as they pushed toward the apartment.
Meanwhile, back inside the club, Dominic watched the room settle and watched the newcomers just as closely.
Julius kept his head down and his hands busy, cleaning, pouring, smiling on cue.
If they realized he'd clocked them, the night would turn ugly fast.
For the moment, he just kept acting like a regular bartender.
Actually, bartending helped him keep a better eye on the crowd than standing at a door or a random spot.
For once, it was paying off more than usual as the four men walked over.
"Mason," Dominic said evenly, "what brings you all the way out here?"
Julius kept washing glasses, listening without looking like he was listening.
Only stealing short glances at the largest of the four men.
It was hard for Julius to resist the urge to lift his head to be nosy.
Mason's voice was deep and smooth, with an edge that made it sound like an insult even when it wasn't.
"You know I can't talk about that, especially not here."
He tipped his chin toward Julius, the reminder that they weren't alone.
When Julius didn't react, Mason pushed on.
"How about you?" Mason asked, "Any progress on the… things we can't discuss?"
Julius slid the books aside and kept polishing glasses, close enough to watch in the reflection.
Dominic didn't bother hiding his disdain.
"If you can't talk about it, neither can I," Dominic said. "And if you won't tell me why you're here, I'm done guessing. Drink or move on."
He lifted his empty glass into Julius's line of sight, wordless: another.
Mason started shaking his head and clicked his tongue a few times before he responded.
"Always so straight to the point with you, Silver Mo..." and he was stopped with a glare from Dominic.
Mason's smile didn't reach his eyes.
"...haired foxed. You know what's coming."
He looked up, "And I hear you're staying nearby. Maybe we'll be neighbors. Roommates even?"
Julius could tell Mason was baiting him.
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"No," Dominic said. "I already have the company I want. If we end up in the same place, it won't be by choice, and you won't be getting anything out of me."
Mason looked offended as he responded.
Mason's smile faltered.
"Come on, Dom. You've never slipped, except that one time you almost said who your…"
Dominic's look turned it into a threat.
Mason stopped talking.
"That's my point. I will never tell you anything, so don't bother trying. I know how to keep my mouth shut. You, on the other hand, ooze secrets without realizing it".
"What does that mean?" Mason asked angrily.
Phoenix and Raphael snickered from behind Dominic.
Dominic didn't play games.
"You're here for the girl," he said.
Mason's eyes narrowed.
Dominic continued, calm and cruel.
"You don't know who she is, and you don't know where she is. You came here hoping I'd slip. I won't. Tonight I'm on vacation—with my two commanders—so take your questions and leave."
Mason shook his head in disappointment.
Mason tried again, soft voice, hard eyes.
"So blunt. Like I said. Even so, we could be friends."
"No," Dominic said, "And you know why."
Mason's expression hardened.
"I do," he responded as he gestured to his men to leave with him.
Once the four men exited the club, Dominic turned back to face Julius.
Julius had only pretended to ignore them, but Dominic knew better, as he kept busy cleaning up the cups and trash around his working station.
Dominic watched him a moment too long, like he was measuring what Julius had overheard.
Now, he just needed to decide whether to trust or not to trust the information enough to even pass it along to the group.
"I know you could hear everything between us," Dominic said quietly.
Julius snapped his head up.
"Was any of that true? And how did you know I could hear you over the music?"
Dominic gave a half smile.
Dominic's mouth curved, humorless.
"Because I notice things. Not all of it was true. I do know who the girl is. The rest, men coming for her, that part is." He paused, "And you… You're why I'm thinking twice."
He wasn't sure if he should continue or not.
Julius's face told him that he needed more information.
"They won't stop," Dominic said.
"More will come. I'm not leaving yet, either. So keep your eyes open."
Dominic started to stand.
Julius wasn't finished talking yet, though.
He leaned forward, curious.
"You chased her for years. You terrified her. Don't tell me you 'need a break' unless you can give us one reason I should believe you've stopped."
Julius realized he said 'us', but he hoped that Dominic just assumed it meant Ayla and himself.
If he picked up on the words, Dominic didn't say anything.
He just went still for a second.
Then, very softly: "Because you're my son."
"No." Julius's voice cracked. "You don't get to say that and walk away. Sit down. Explain."
Phoenix and Raphael sat back down immediately.
It wasn't just the resemblance.
They recognized the same posture, the same temper, even the mannerisms.
That was their leader's son, alright.