Keira's POV
The sound of running feet echoed through the pack house like thunder.
"Security breach! Kitchen! NOW!" Cassandra's voice carried down the hallway, growing more distant as she ran.
My best friend. The girl I'd trusted with everything. She'd just sentenced me to death.
"We need to go." Theron grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the back door. "Right now."
But I couldn't move. Three years. Three years of hiding, gathering evidence, planning my revenge. All of it was in my room—letters, documents, recorded conversations. Everything I needed to prove Helena and Marcus were murderers and thieves.
"My evidence," I gasped. "I have to get my evidence—"
"Forget it!" Theron yanked harder. "You have maybe ninety seconds before this place is swarming with wolves who want you dead."
"You don't understand! Without that evidence, I have nothing! The Council won't believe—"
"The Council won't believe a corpse either!" His golden eyes blazed with frustration. "Choose, Keira. Your evidence or your life. You can't have both."
Heavy boots pounded on the stairs above us. Marcus's voice roared through the pack house: "SEAL ALL EXITS! FIND KEIRA ASHFORD AND BRING HER TO ME ALIVE!"
Alive. That was almost worse than dead. Helena would torture me for information before killing me.
"Please," I whispered, hating how desperate I sounded. "I can't leave with nothing. Those three years—"
"Were preparation for what comes next." Theron's grip gentled slightly. "You learned their patterns. Their weaknesses. Their secrets. That knowledge is worth more than any papers. But only if you're alive to use it."
Wolves burst into the hallway outside the kitchen. Seconds. We had seconds.
"I can't believe this is happening," I breathed. "Cassandra was my friend. My friend."
"Friends betray each other when the price is right." Theron's voice turned hard. "Trust me, I've learned that lesson too. Now MOVE!"
He dragged me toward the back exit just as the kitchen door exploded inward.
Six wolves in human form, armed with silver weapons. They spotted us immediately.
"There!" one shouted. "Don't let them escape!"
Theron moved like lightning. His fist connected with the first wolf's jaw, sending him crashing into two others. A female wolf lunged with a silver knife. Theron caught her wrist, twisted, and sent her flying through a table.
Four seconds. He'd taken down three wolves in four seconds.
"The window!" He pointed to a large window overlooking the gardens. "When I say jump, you jump. Don't think. Don't hesitate. Just trust me."
"Trust you? I barely know you!"
"Then trust the mate bond!" He grabbed a heavy pan and hurled it at another wolf. "Because it's the only thing keeping you alive right now!"
More wolves poured through the door. Ten. Fifteen. Too many to fight.
Marcus appeared in the doorway, his face twisted with rage. "Keira. So it really was you all along." He smiled, and it was nothing like the stepbrother who'd once pretended to care about me. "Helena will be so pleased. She's been hoping you'd show up eventually."
"Marcus, please—"
"Please?" He laughed. "You're begging me? That's perfect. That's exactly how it should be. You, on your knees, begging the real Alpha for mercy."
Fury burned through my fear. "You're not a real Alpha. You're a thief wearing a stolen crown."
His eyes flashed. "GRAB HER!"
The wolves surged forward. Theron threw me toward the window. "JUMP!"
"Are you insane?!"
"JUMP OR DIE!"
I jumped.
Glass shattered around me. Sharp pain sliced across my arms as I crashed through. For one terrifying moment, I was falling—
Then strong arms caught me. Theron had jumped right after me, somehow twisting in midair to take the worst of the landing. We hit the ground hard and rolled.
"Run!" He was up instantly, pulling me to my feet.
We ran through the gardens, glass in my hair, blood on my arms, wolves howling behind us. The border—we had to reach the Shadowcrest border. It was my only chance.
But it was at least two miles away, and I'd been weakened by three years of wolfsbane. My legs felt like lead. My lungs burned.
"I can't—I can't keep this pace—"
"Yes, you can." Theron's grip on my hand tightened. "You're a True Alpha. Act like it."
Something in those words sparked my wolf. She surged forward, breaking through the wolfsbane barrier, lending me strength I'd forgotten I had. My legs moved faster. My breathing steadied.
Behind us, wolves were shifting. I heard the distinctive crack of bones reforming, the snarls of predators giving chase.
"They're gaining!" I gasped.
"I know." Theron glanced back. "Dante! Aria! Where are you?!"
Two wolves burst from the tree line ahead—one massive black male, one sleek silver female. They positioned themselves between us and our pursuers.
"Go!" the black wolf—Dante—snarled. "We'll hold them off!"
"You can't fight them all—"
"We don't have to." Aria's wolf bared her teeth at the approaching pack. "We just have to slow them down. Now RUN!"
Theron didn't argue. We sprinted deeper into the forest while Dante and Aria engaged Marcus's wolves. The sounds of fighting echoed behind us—growls, yelps, the clash of bodies.
"They're going to get hurt because of me," I panted.
"They're warriors. They can handle it." Theron yanked me around a massive tree. "Almost there. Just a little further."
But my body was giving out. Three years of suppressed power, poor nutrition, and constant stress had taken their toll. My legs buckled.
Theron caught me before I fell. "No. You don't get to give up now."
"I'm not giving up. I'm just—"
"Tired? Scared? Overwhelmed?" He pulled me up, forcing me to look at him. "Good. Use it. Fear makes you faster. Rage makes you stronger. Channel everything you're feeling and MOVE."
A massive grey wolf burst through the bushes—Marcus, transformed and terrifying. His eyes locked on me with pure hatred.
"There's nowhere left to run, sister," he growled, his Alpha voice making the words clear even in wolf form. "You should have stayed hidden. Should have stayed weak. Now you die."
He lunged.
Theron shifted instantly—his clothes shredding as a huge black wolf with golden eyes took his place. He met Marcus mid-air, both of them crashing into the undergrowth in a fury of teeth and claws.
They were equally matched. Both Alphas. Both powerful.
But Theron was protecting his mate. And that made him fight like something possessed.
He tore into Marcus with vicious efficiency, driving him back, away from me. Blood sprayed across dead leaves. Marcus yelped in pain and rage.
"Keira!" A voice I recognized—Lyra from the kitchens, running toward me. "Please! You have to come back! Helena says if you return willingly, she'll be merciful!"
"Lyra, no—"
"She has the other servants!" Tears streamed down Lyra's face. "She says if you don't surrender, she'll execute everyone who ever helped you. Please! She'll kill us all!"
My heart shattered. Helena was using innocents as leverage. Using wolves who'd shown me kindness.
"Keira, don't listen to her!" Theron's voice was strained as he fought Marcus. "It's a trap!"
"But if I don't go back, she'll kill them—"
"She'll kill them anyway!" Theron slashed at Marcus's shoulder. "Helena doesn't leave witnesses! You surrender and everyone dies! Stay free and at least some of them have a chance!"
More wolves appeared through the trees. Helena's elite guard. At least twenty of them.
We were surrounded.
"Last chance, Theron Nightfang!" Helena's voice rang out from somewhere in the darkness. "Return my stepdaughter and leave our territory peacefully. Or die with her."
Theron shifted back to human form, standing between me and the circling wolves. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds, breathing hard, but his eyes blazed with defiance.
"Here's my counter-offer," he called out. "I claim Keira Ashford as my mate under the Old Laws. She's under my protection now. Anyone who touches her starts a war with Shadowcrest."
Shocked silence.
Then Helena stepped into view, her face twisted with fury. "You claim her? You claim a traitor? A murderer?"
"She's neither. But you are." Theron's voice cut through the night. "I know what you did, Helena. The poison. The forgeries. All of it. And when I'm done exposing you, you'll wish you'd let us walk away tonight."
Helena's laugh was cold. "Expose me? With what proof? All her evidence is in my hands now. We found her little hiding spot. Every letter, every document—burned. She has nothing."
No. No, please no—
"Besides," Helena continued, "who would believe you? The Alpha King who's been enemies with Silverpine for fourteen years suddenly claims our territory's traitor as his mate? How convenient."
She was right. Without evidence, it was just my word against hers.
"Kill them both," Helena ordered. "Make it look like they died fighting each other."
The wolves moved in.
Theron grabbed my hand. Through our mate bond, I felt his decision before he spoke it.
"Hold on," he said. "This is going to hurt."
"What—"
He shifted again, but this time, he did something impossible. His Alpha power exploded outward in a shockwave that knocked every nearby wolf backward. Trees bent. Leaves swirled. The air itself seemed to scream.
In that moment of chaos, he snatched me up in his massive jaws—gently, so gently—and ran.
He ran faster than anything I'd ever seen, crashing through the forest like a black storm. Wolves tried to follow but couldn't match his speed.
The Shadowcrest border appeared ahead—a shimmer in the air where two territories met. Cross it and Helena's wolves couldn't follow without violating the territorial laws.
But Marcus was right behind us. His grey wolf gaining ground. His jaws snapping at Theron's heels.
We weren't going to make it.
Then arrows whistled through the air. Marcus yelped and dodged. More arrows—dozens of them—raining down from the trees ahead.
Shadowcrest border guards. They'd been waiting.
Theron burst across the border with me still in his jaws. The moment we crossed, he set me down and shifted back to human form, collapsing from exhaustion and wounds.
I caught him, both of us falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
On the other side of the border, Marcus paced and snarled. Helena appeared beside him, her face a mask of cold rage.
"This isn't over, Keira!" she screamed. "You're dead! Do you hear me? DEAD!"
But we were safe. Barely, but safe.
Shadowcrest guards surrounded us, their weapons trained on Marcus and Helena.
"Welcome to Shadowcrest, Your Majesty," one said to Theron. "And welcome to you as well, Lady Keira."
Lady Keira. Not servant. Not traitor. But Lady.
I looked down at Theron, who was bleeding and exhausted but wearing a small, triumphant smile.
"Told you," he gasped. "Told you I'd get you out."
"You're insane," I whispered.
"Probably." He caught my hand. "But you're alive. And now the real work begins."
As guards helped us to our feet and led us deeper into Shadowcrest territory, I looked back one last time.
Marcus and Helena stood at the border, watching with cold fury.
And I realized with shocking clarity: my old life was over.
Whatever came next—as Theron's mate, as a refugee in enemy territory, as an Alpha without a pack—would be nothing like the three years I'd spent hiding.
It would be dangerous.
It would be difficult.
But for the first time in three years, I didn't have to pretend to be weak.
And that changed everything.