Riley POV
The packing was the worst part.
Riley stood in her bedroom surrounded by her entire life, trying to fit it into a single bag. Books she'd read a hundred times. Clothes that smelled like home. A photograph of her father from when he was young and happy, before responsibility carved lines into his face. All of it had to fit into something small enough to carry.
She picked up the photo and stared at it for a long time. This version of her father didn't exist anymore. That man had disappeared years ago, replaced by someone tired and determined to do his duty. Riley wondered if she was about to become that version of herself. Someone unrecognizable. Someone hollowed out by sacrifice.
She threw the photograph into the bag.
The mirror on her bedroom wall reflected back a stranger. Riley didn't recognize the girl looking back at her. That girl had empty eyes. That girl had skin so pale it looked like paper. That girl looked like someone who'd already died and just hadn't figured it out yet.
She touched her own face like she was trying to confirm she was still real. Still alive. Still the same person who'd argued with her father just days ago about wanting love instead of politics.
Now she was about to get neither. Just duty. Just sacrifice. Just a life that wasn't hers anymore.
A knock on the door made her jump.
Sarah pushed the door open without waiting for an answer. Her older sister looked like she'd been crying for hours. Her eyes were swollen and red. Her whole body looked shattered. But when she saw Riley sitting on the bed with half-packed clothes scattered around her, something in Sarah's expression shifted into something harder. Something protective.
"It's true then," Sarah said quietly.
Riley nodded. She didn't trust her voice.
Sarah closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed. She looked at the bag. She looked at Riley's face. She looked at everything that needed to be said but couldn't be spoken out loud.
"Darius told you everything," Sarah said. It wasn't a question.
"The children are dying," Riley whispered. "Seventeen in two months. Starving. Getting sick. Losing their parents. And I could stop it. I could just... agree to marry him and stop it all."
Sarah sat down on the bed next to her sister. For a long moment, she didn't speak. She just sat there in the silence, understanding what Riley had just given up.
"I'm coming with you," Sarah said finally.
"You don't have to," Riley replied. "You could stay. You could fight. You're a warrior, Sarah. You're good at it."
"I'm better at protecting my sister," Sarah said, and there was no argument in her voice. Just absolute certainty. "I'm coming with you to Shadowpine. And I'm going to watch every single thing Magnus Crane does. I'm going to learn his territory. I'm going to make myself useful so they keep me around. And if he ever hurts you, I'm going to tear him apart with my bare hands."
The fierceness in Sarah's voice made Riley's chest hurt even more. Because Sarah meant it. Every word. Sarah would fight. Sarah would die if it came to that.
"Don't do that," Riley said. "Don't make this harder by promising to protect me from something we can't control."
Sarah grabbed Riley's face in her hands. She forced her sister to look directly into her eyes.
"Listen to me," Sarah said. "You just agreed to walk into enemy territory as a sacrifice. As a bargaining chip. As something that can be broken and discarded. You need to know that you have one person in that entire pack who will never stop seeing you as a human being. That's me. I'm that person."
Riley felt something inside her crumble. She pulled Sarah into a hug and held her tight. Sarah held her back just as fiercely. For a moment, they were just two sisters holding each other in a bedroom that felt smaller and darker than it had that morning.
"I'm scared," Riley whispered into Sarah's shoulder.
"I know," Sarah replied. "You should be."
They sat like that for a while. Time felt strange. Riley couldn't tell if minutes were passing or hours. The world outside the window was getting darker. The sun was setting on her last day as Riley Hayes, daughter of the Crescent Pack. Tomorrow morning, she would become someone else entirely.
Sarah pulled back and started helping her pack. They worked together in silence, folding clothes carefully. Sarah added things that Riley had forgotten. Extra warm layers for the mountains. Herbs that would help with sleep. A knife that had belonged to their father, small enough to hide but sharp enough to be useful.
"Take this," Sarah said, pressing the knife into Riley's hands. "Not to hurt anyone. Just so you know you have something that's yours. Something from home that won't leave you."
Riley's hands were shaking as she wrapped the knife in fabric and placed it in her bag.
When they finished packing, there wasn't much there. A bag that could've fit in a car trunk. A whole existence condensed into something so small Riley could almost pretend it wasn't real.
Sarah sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Riley down beside her.
"There's something you need to know," Sarah said, and her voice was different now. Careful. Like she was choosing each word like it was a weapon.
Riley waited.
"Magnus Crane," Sarah continued slowly. "He's not like other alphas. He's not arrogant or loud. He doesn't show off his power. He doesn't need to. Everyone already knows he has it."
Riley felt her stomach tighten.
"He came to visit once," Sarah said. "Years ago, before his father died. I was training with the warriors. I saw him watching the training yard. Just watching. Not saying anything. But every warrior in that yard felt his eyes on them. Everyone knew that if he decided he wanted them dead, they would be dead before they could take another breath."
"Sarah," Riley started, but her sister raised her hand.
"Let me finish," Sarah said. "After that one visit, people talked about him for months. Not about how strong he was or how fast he could shift. About how cold his eyes were. About how nothing seemed to touch him. How it looked like someone took out all the human parts of him and just left the predator behind."
Riley felt ice spreading through her veins.
"People fear him," Sarah said quietly. "Not respect. Fear. There's a difference. And I need you to understand that before you walk into his territory tomorrow. He's not going to be some romantic hero who falls in love with you. He's going to be dangerous. He's going to be cold. And you're going to have to figure out how to survive in the same space as something that was built to hurt people."
"Why are you telling me this?" Riley asked, her voice shaking. "If he's as dangerous as you're saying, why did you agree to come with me?"
"Because dangerous is better than dead," Sarah replied. "And because whatever happens in Shadowpine, at least you won't face it alone."
Sarah stood up and walked to the window. The night was falling fast. In the darkness outside, Riley could see the pack house where their father had attended meetings. She could see the training yard where warriors prepared for battles. She could see the entire life she was leaving behind being swallowed by shadow.
"We leave at dawn," Sarah said without turning around. "Get some sleep if you can. Tomorrow you stop being my baby sister and become the mate of an alpha who everyone says doesn't know how to love."
Riley wanted to ask what that meant. Wanted to ask how someone survives being mated to a predator who's forgotten how to be human. Wanted to ask if she would ever see her sister again as anything other than a bodyguard in enemy territory.
But she didn't ask any of those things.
Instead, she lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Sarah turned off the light and sat in a chair by the window, watching the night outside. Watching. Waiting. Ready to protect someone who was about to walk into the dark.
Riley closed her eyes and tried not to think about Magnus Crane's cold eyes. Tried not to imagine what it would feel like to be trapped in a pack with someone who was built for violence and nothing else.
Tried and failed.
Because Sarah's words were still echoing in her mind. Cold eyes. Predator. Dangerous.
And tomorrow morning, Riley was walking straight toward him.