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Chapter 3

Zara POV,

"Zara..." Emily breathed, her voice cracking with a sudden, wild excitement. "Zara, look at it. Do you see that? Do you see how it’s catching the dashboard light?"

She looked up at me, her eyes shimmering with tears that hadn't been there a second ago.

"You’re in there," she whispered, a fierce, triumphant smile breaking across her face. "You aren't a smudge, Zara you’re a wolf. You’re a real, living wolf, and you’re gold. A legend."

She reached out, her fingers trembling as she hovered just above the fur, as if she was afraid touching it would make it vanish.

"Look at this! You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen."

"Gold?" I whispered, my voice sounding thin and brittle in the small space of the car. "Emily, I’m an Omega. I’m the girl who couldn't even hold her own reflection, let alone a wolf like that."

I pulled my sleeve down, hiding the furs as if it were a crime I’d committed. The heat of it was still pulsing against my wrist.

"Legends are for heroes," I rasped, leaning my head back against the seat. "I’m just the girl Lir threw away because I wasn't worth the air I breathed. If this is a wolf, she’s late. She’s too late to save anything."

Emily didn’t argue. She just reached over and squeezed my hand, her face hardening as she shifted the car into gear. We rolled out of the shadows of the forest and into the open air of the settlement.

The warmth of the car was gone instantly, replaced by a biting, mountain chill that smelled of ancient pine and predator.

The car slowed to a crawl. I looked out the window and my heart stopped.

They were everywhere.

Wolves in human form stood on porches and between stone buildings, their movements freezing as we passed with a wall of sharp, calculating eyes tracking the car. To them, I was a scent they didn't recognize.

A broad-shouldered man descended the stairs of the nearest building. His gaze flicked from Emily to me, and his expression didn't just harden, it locked.

“What are you doing with an outcast?” he demanded, his nostrils flaring as he caught the scent of the car.

“I need to speak with the Alpha,” Emily replied, her voice cool, but I could feel the tension radiating off her.

“You know the rules, Emily. We don't meddle with other packs' affairs.” He stepped closer, his shadow swallowing the car door. “She crossed the border without permission. That makes her a problem.”

“Jeremy, she is with me,” Emily snapped, pushing past him. “And unless you've been promoted to Alpha since this morning, you don't get to decide her fate.”

We hurried toward the Great Hall, my head down, but I could feel the wall of eyes behind my back.

The heavy timber door of the Alpha’s study clicked shut behind us, reminding me of the silence I felt when my father died, it was sharper than any blade.

The room smelled of old parchment, leather, and the cold, ozone scent of Alpha Silas’s fury. He stood behind his desk, his large hands planted firmly on the dark wood, his shoulders blocking out the light from the hearth.

“You left the perimeter, Emily,” Silas said. His voice was low, a dangerous rumble that felt like a tectonic plate shifting. “Without a scout. Without a radio. Without permission.”

“Silas, I had to—”

“You had to what?” He snapped, finally looking up. His eyes weren't just dark; they were burning with a protective rage. “You crossed into Silvercrest territory—a pack that is currently looking for any excuse to claim we’ve violated the treaty. You risked your life, and more importantly, you risked the peace of this pack for a girl who is a walking target.”

He rounded the desk, his movements fluid and predatory. He stopped inches from Emily, his height casting a long, intimidating shadow over her.

“I am your Alpha before I am your brother,” he growled, “When I give an order to hold the border, it isn't a suggestion. If Lir’s patrollers had caught you, I wouldn't have been able to save you without starting a war.”

Emily didn’t flinch, but her voice was smaller now. “She was in pain, Silas. They were going to turn her into a slave.”

Silas turned his gaze toward the door, as if he could see through the wood to where I was standing. His anger didn't fade, but it shifted. It went from a wildfire to a banked coal.

“Then you should have come to me,” he said, his voice dropping to a jagged whisper. “You brought her here under a shroud of secrecy, making her look like a spy instead of a guest. You’ve handed the pack a reason to hate her before they’ve even met her.”

He exhaled, a long, heavy sound that seemed to drain the tension from his frame, replaced by a weary, iron-clad resolve.

“You think you saved her? You’ve just traded one cage for another. Tomorrow, when the pack demands her head for the laws you broke to get her here, I won’t be able to shield her. She will have to stand alone.”

He looked back at Emily, his eyes softening just a fraction. “Get out. And Emily? If you ever go rogue on my borders again, I’ll strip your rank myself. I won't lose my sister to a Silvercrest executioner.”

Emily stumbled out of the room, her face pale. She didn't even see me as she hurried down the hall, her footsteps echoing like a frantic heartbeat.

I stood frozen in the shadows, my hand pressed against the cold stone wall. I had heard every word. A walking target. A spy. A guest who had already failed.

The door to the study creaked open wider.

Silas didn't call for me. He didn't have to. The sheer gravity of his presence pulled me forward until I was standing in the doorway. He was leaning against his desk, the banked coal of his eyes catching the orange flicker of the hearth.

"You heard," he said. It wasn't a question.

"I'm not a spy," I whispered, my voice sounding paper-thin in the heavy room.

Silas walked toward me. He didn't stop until he was in my space, the scent of cedar and rain-drenched earth wrapping around me like a shroud. He reached out, his thumb catching my chin and tilting my face upward so I had no choice but to see the raw, terrifying honesty in his gaze.

"I know you aren't a spy, Zara Fen," he breathed, his voice dropping into that low, magnetic register that made my blood hum. "Spies are easy to kill. You? You're something much worse."

He leaned down, his lips inches from mine, his breath warm against my skin.

"You're a reason to start a war. And I’m still trying to decide if you're worth the blood of my pack." he let go. "Go to your room. Lock the door. And pray the sun takes its time coming up."