LYRA'S POV
I shifted back to human form behind a cluster of thick pine trees, my hands shaking as I pulled my clothes on. The fabric was damp with sweat and dirt, sticking to my skin uncomfortably, but I didn't care about comfort anymore.
Something was wrong.
I could feel it in my bones the way my wolf felt danger. Not with sight or sound but with something deeper. Something that made every nerve in my body stand on edge. My wolf was screaming warnings that made my teeth ache. She knew what those intruders meant. She knew they weren't random hunters or lost wolves.
They were predators with purpose.
The footsteps were getting closer. I could hear voices now. Deep growls that weren't friendly. The scent of them was all wrong. Silverwood Pack wolves carried a certain signature, a family scent that bonded us together. These wolves smelled like strangers and violence and something else I couldn't name.
Hired. They had to be hired.
I ran toward the compound instead of away from it, my bare feet pounding against the forest floor. Branches whipped at my face and drew blood but I barely felt it. My mind was racing through what I'd discovered.
Pack borders were being crossed. Security should be notified immediately. Marcus Stone should be called. The Alpha should be warned. This was the kind of thing that took emergency protocols and chain of command and people who actually mattered in the pack.
This was not the kind of thing an invisible assistant reported.
I burst out of the forest at the edge of pack territory, breathing hard. The compound was spread out before me, lights glowing in various buildings. Normal. Peaceful. Unaware that danger was creeping across its borders.
I could go to security. I could tell them what I'd heard. They would probably ignore me or dismiss me or act like I was crazy. An invisible girl running out of the forest with wild hair and a scared face wasn't exactly credible. They would ask questions I couldn't answer. They would wonder what I was doing out there in the first place.
Or I could go to Zev.
The thought made my wolf pause. Going to Zev meant acknowledging that I cared. It meant admitting that I'd been monitoring him, that I knew his schedule, that I knew exactly where he would be at any given moment. It meant breaking the careful distance I'd maintained for three years.
But something in my chest was pulling me toward his residence like a rope tied around my heart.
He needs you. Your mate needs you.
The thought came from my wolf, not my human brain. My human brain knew better. My human brain knew that Zev Reeves didn't need me for anything. But my wolf knew something different. My wolf knew that there was a connection between us that went deeper than what he could feel or what he understood.
My wolf knew I had to get to him.
I ran toward his private residence without stopping to think about it anymore. The building was set apart from the main compound, positioned on higher ground with a clear view of the territory. It was where the Alpha stayed when he needed privacy. It was where he spent most nights working instead of sleeping.
But tonight he was supposed to be at dinner with Rebecca.
The thought made my stomach twist. Maybe he wasn't home. Maybe he was still at the restaurant, laughing with Rebecca, making plans for a future that didn't include me. Maybe I was running toward his house for no reason at all.
But my wolf knew better.
I could feel something in the air. A wrongness. A disturbance in the normal rhythm of the pack's energy. Something dangerous was happening. Something was about to shatter everything.
I was fifty yards from his house when I heard it.
Glass breaking.
Not the sound of an accident. The sound of something deliberate. Something violent. The high pitched crash of a window shattering followed by the sound of something heavy falling inside the building.
My wolf screamed.
I stopped running for just a second, my entire body going rigid. That sound came from upstairs. That sound came from the bedroom. That sound came from where Zev would be if he'd skipped dinner and come home early.
My feet started moving again before my brain could catch up.
I reached his front door and pulled it open. It swung open easily, unlocked like always. The Alpha didn't need to lock doors. Nobody would dare enter his residence without permission.
Except someone just had.
The hallway was dark. I could hear sounds from upstairs. Heavy sounds. Fighting sounds. The unmistakable noise of bodies colliding with furniture. The sound of something crashing. The sound of an animal growling.
Zev was shifting. The Alpha was fighting in his wolf form.
I stood at the bottom of the stairs, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might break my ribs. Every instinct was screaming at me to run upstairs and find out what was happening. Every rational thought was telling me to run back out and get help from the real warriors, the real fighters, the people who actually mattered.
Another crash.
Louder this time. More violent. I heard a sound that might have been pain and my wolf went absolutely insane inside me.
He's dying. Your mate is dying.
I took the first step up the stairs.
Then another.
My bare feet were silent on the carpet as I moved toward the sounds of violence. The bedroom door was at the end of the hallway, and even from here I could see the darkness inside. I could smell blood. I could smell something sharp and metallic that made my wolf recoil.
Silver.
Someone was fighting the Alpha with silver weapons.
I reached the doorway and stopped.
What I saw in that bedroom would change everything.
An Alpha in his wolf form, bleeding heavily. A figure standing over him with claws extended, silver coating the tips. The Alpha was losing. The Alpha was dying. And nobody knew. Nobody was coming to help.
Except me.
The invisible girl who nobody listened to.
The one person in the entire pack who cared enough to run through the forest and break through the darkness to find him.
I looked around desperately for anything I could use as a weapon. My eyes landed on Zev's desk in the corner. There was a letter opener there. Silver. An ornamental thing that probably cost more money than I made in a month.
I grabbed it.
The weapon was small. It was barely anything. It would barely even break skin. But it was all I had and the assassin still hadn't noticed me yet. He was too focused on finishing the job. Too focused on making sure the Alpha didn't survive the night.
I took a breath.
I raised the letter opener.
And then I heard something that froze me completely.
A voice. From downstairs. Multiple voices. Pack warriors. Security. Someone had already called for help. The Alpha wasn't completely alone.
I looked from the letter opener to the assassin to the dying Alpha on the ground, my mind spinning through the possibilities. If I revealed myself now, the warriors would see me. They would know I was here. They would ask questions I couldn't answer.
But if I didn't move, if I stayed frozen in this doorway, Zev might not survive the next thirty seconds.
I moved toward him.