Chapter 29 · The Wolf Inside the Baby

The baby's eyes are gold.

Not the warm honey color Wren was born with. Not even close. These are Derek's eyes. Sharp. Cold. Old.

I can't breathe.

Cole's staring down at her, his arms locked tight around the bundle. His face has gone white. I watch his nostrils flare. Once. Twice. He smells it too.

Derek's wolf. Inside my daughter.

"No." The word scrapes out of me. My ribs scream. I'm still on the ground where I fell after I crushed the pact core. Blood's soaking through my shirt. Everything hurts. "No, no, no—"

"Ivy." Derek's voice cuts through the noise in my head. He's standing over the silver wolf's corpse, wiping blood off his hands like he just finished paperwork. "You need to listen."

"Get away from her."

He doesn't move. "The pact's gone. You made sure of that. Which means every pack, every rogue, every hunter with half a brain is going to smell what just happened here."

"I said get away—"

"They'll come for her." His voice is flat. Matter-of-fact. "Not for you. Not for me. For her. Because she's carrying my wolf now. And that makes her the most valuable thing in this territory.