Sophie's POV
The trap snaps shut around Sophie's leg and she screams.
Not from pain. Not yet. But from fury. She's been running these woods since she was seven years old and nobody sets traps here without her knowing. Someone's crossing territory that isn't theirs. Someone's hunting pack land like it belongs to them.
Sophie shifts faster than she ever has before, bones cracking and reforming until her human hands are gripping the metal. The trap is old, rusted at the edges but the mechanism is still strong. She twists her wrist and pulls and her body slides backward out of it in one sharp motion that sends a spike of pain through her calf.
She's bleeding. Not much, just enough to stain her skin dark red in the gray morning light.
For a moment she just breathes. In and out. Letting her heart slow down from the panicked racing it's doing. Nobody is around. The forest is quiet except for the sound of birds starting to wake up. Whoever set this trap isn't here to watch it. They must have done it at night and left it to work while they slept.
Sophie's wolf wants to hunt them down. She wants to find whoever did this and make them understand that pack territory belongs to the pack. Not to outsiders. Not to hunters. Not to anyone stupid enough to think they can hunt here without consequences.
But Sophie doesn't have time for hunting anyone. She has a job. She has a life. She has a schedule.
She shifts back into her wolf form and takes off running.
The pain in her calf fades into the background as her paws eat up the distance. This is what she's good at. This is what she lives for. Her wolf form moves faster than any female in the pack should be able to move. Faster than most males too. She's always been fast but in the last few months something has changed. She's getting faster. Getting stronger. Getting better.
The forest blurs around her. Trees pass in streaks of brown and green. Her breath comes easy even though she's pushing hard. This is freedom. Running through her territory with nothing to stop her and nothing to slow her down. No expectations. No one telling her what she should want or who she should be. Out here it's just Sophie and the wild and the feeling of her own power underneath her skin.
Her mother never had this.
That's the thought that hits her as she runs. Her mother spent her whole life waiting to be small. Waiting for someone else to decide what mattered. Sophie remembers being ten years old and watching her mother sit in the corner of the pack house while her father made decisions about everything. What time they woke up. What they ate. Who they talked to. Where they went.
Her mother had been a powerful wolf once. But the moment she bonded with Sophie's father, something switched off inside her. Like accepting the mate bond meant accepting a cage. Like loving someone meant disappearing.
When Sophie's father died in a territory fight five years ago, her mother just sat down and never really got back up. The grief was so heavy it pulled her under. She died three years later because half of her was gone and the other half couldn't figure out how to stay alive without it.
Sophie watched the whole thing happen. She watched her mother fade like a photograph left in the sun. And she made a promise to herself that day.
She would never let that happen. Never bond with anyone. Never need someone so badly that losing them would break her in half. Never become small.
She was going to stay fast and strong and free.
She was going to stay herself.
The pack house comes into view and Sophie slows down. She takes the path that runs behind the residential buildings where fewer people are awake. The sun is starting to come up now. The sky is turning from gray to pink. Soon the pack will be moving around. People will be heading to jobs and training and all the normal daily things.
Sophie shifts back into human form behind the main house. She grabs her jacket from where she hid it in the bushes before her run. The fabric is old and soft from being worn so many times. She pulls it on and tries to ignore the blood still dripping down her leg from the trap.
She's almost to the front entrance when Maya appears with two steaming cups of coffee.
Sophie's best friend since childhood is grinning so hard her eyes are almost closed. Maya always grins like that. Like she knows something funny that nobody else knows yet. It's one of the things Sophie loves about her. Life is an adventure to Maya. Everything is exciting and new.
"You're bleeding," Maya says, handing over the coffee anyway.
"Someone set a trap in the deep woods," Sophie says, taking the cup and letting the warmth seep into her fingers. "On pack territory. I'm going to have to report it."
"Later," Maya says, bouncing on her toes like she can't stand still. "First you have to hear about today."
Sophie takes a sip of coffee. It's perfect. Black and hot and exactly what she needs after running hard for over an hour. She looks at her best friend and tries to feel interested in whatever pack gossip is happening now. But honestly she doesn't care about pack drama. She never has.
"What about today," Sophie says, more of a statement than a question.
Maya leans in close and lowers her voice even though they're alone in the corridor. Her excitement is practically vibrating off her body.
"There's a council meeting happening," Maya whispers. "A big one. Supposedly a neighboring Alpha is visiting. Someone important. And nobody knows who or why or what they want."
Sophie shrugs and takes another sip of coffee. Neighboring Alphas visit all the time. Territory talks. Business meetings. Pack alliance discussions. It's all the same boring stuff that happens in that big formal council room that Sophie has never cared about. She's not part of the leadership. She's not interested in politics. She just wants to be left alone to do her own thing.
"That's nice," Sophie says, already thinking about whether she should go to the medical clinic to have her leg checked out or if she can just bandage it herself.
"That's nice?" Maya looks offended. "A strange Alpha is coming to the pack and you don't care?"
"Not even a little bit," Sophie says honestly.
Maya shakes her head like Sophie is hopeless and maybe she is. But this is who Sophie has always been. Focused on her own life. Careful about her own choices. Determined to build something that belongs completely to her and not to anyone else.
They stand in the quiet corridor for a moment, just drinking coffee and being comfortable in the way best friends are when they've known each other their whole lives. The pack house is starting to wake up around them. Voices echo from other rooms. Doors open and close.
"You should at least go to the meeting," Maya says finally. "You know. So you can tell me everything that happens."
"I don't go to council meetings," Sophie reminds her. "I'm not important enough to care what happens in council meetings."
"But what if something interesting happens," Maya pushes. "What if this visiting Alpha is actually interesting?"
Sophie finishes her coffee and hands the empty cup back to Maya. She leans down and kisses her best friend's forehead like they're still kids instead of adults. Like this is a promise that she'll be okay no matter what comes next.
"Nothing interesting ever happens," Sophie says.
But as she walks away toward her room to shower and change, she doesn't realize that something about today is different. She doesn't realize that her whole life is about to snap into a different shape. She doesn't realize that in a few hours she's going to walk into that council room and feel the mate bond slam into her like a physical force.
She doesn't realize that she's about to meet the one person she swore she would never bond with.
She doesn't realize that everything is about to change.
Maya calls after her just as Sophie turns the corner.
"Oh and Sophie. One more thing. The council room. Today. Don't be late if you change your mind."
Sophie doesn't answer because she's not going to change her mind.
She never changes her mind about anything.
But as she showers off the blood from the trap and gets dressed in clean clothes, something feels different in the air. Something feels charged. Like the whole world is holding its breath waiting for something to happen.
Sophie tells herself it's nothing.
She tells herself it's just another day.
She tells herself she's ready for whatever comes next.
But somewhere deep inside, in the part of her that's still connected to her wolf, she can feel something shifting.
Something big is coming.
And there's nothing in the world that's going to prepare her for it.