Chapter 4

"Ivy—" Rex grabs my arm.

"Don't touch her." Aiden's voice cuts sharp. "The seal's breaking. You trigger the mate bond now and she's done."

"I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah?" Aiden steps closer. "Five minutes ago you didn't even know I existed."

Rex's grip tightens. His eyes flash amber. "And five minutes from now I still won't care."

I shove them both back. My hands won't stop shaking. The wolf inside me isn't just raging anymore—she's recognizing something. That name. Lunaris. Like I've heard it before, whispered in a dream I can't pull back.

"Stop." My voice comes out wrong. Rough. Animal. "Just stop."

Aiden picks up the photo. His face goes pale.

"You don't remember, do you?" he says quietly. "What your mother told you."

"My mother's dead."

"I know." He looks at me. "Damian made sure of that."

The room tilts.

Rex goes still. "What did you just say?"

"My brother didn't curse Ivy because she rejected him." Aiden's jaw locks. "He cursed her because she was starting to remember. And he killed her mother to make sure no one else would tell her."

I can't breathe.

My mother died in a car accident. They told me that three years ago. I believed it. But my wolf's snarling now, and the memories are crashing back—my mother's face, pale and terrified, whispering something I couldn't hear. The smell of blood. Damian's smile at the funeral.

"You're lying," I whisper.

Aiden steps closer. "I'm not. And you know it."

I do.

God help me, I do.

Rex moves between us. "If that's true, why the hell didn't you do something? You're his brother."

"You think I didn't try?" Aiden's voice cracks. "I found out too late. By the time I knew what he'd done, he was Alpha and Ivy was already—" He stops. Looks at me. "I couldn't get near you. He made sure of that. Then he cursed you at the altar and I thought—" His hands curl into fists. "I thought you were safer away from all of us."

"Safer." Rex's laugh is ugly. "She's been running for three years with a death sentence in her blood."

"And she's alive. If I'd interfered—"

"Enough." My voice doesn't sound like mine. It's colder. Sharper. The wolf's too close to the surface now. "I don't care what you thought. I don't care what your brother did or why. Tell me what Lunaris means."

Silence.

Aiden and Rex look at each other. Just for a second they're not rivals—they're two Alphas who both know something I don't. And neither of them wants to say it.

"Tell me," I say.

Aiden exhales slow. "Lunaris isn't just a name. It's a bloodline. The oldest one. Before the packs split, before Alphas and rogues, there was one line that could—" He stops. Starts again. "They could command any wolf. Make them submit without a fight. Without a mark. Just their voice and their blood."

My stomach drops.

"They're extinct," Rex says quietly. "Hunted down two hundred years ago. Every Alpha family in North America made sure of it."

"Except one." Aiden's still watching me. "Your mother's line. She hid it. Changed her name, sealed her wolf, married into a weak pack where no one would look twice. And she sealed yours too, Ivy. So you'd never know what you were."

I'm gonna be sick.

"That's why Damian wanted you," Aiden says. "Not because you were pretty or sweet or any of the lies he told the pack. He figured it out. Found the old records, traced your mother's lineage, and he wanted that power. If he marked you, if he bound you as his mate, he'd control you. And through you—"

"He'd control every wolf in his territory," Rex finishes. His voice is flat. "Maybe more."

I lean against the counter. My legs won't hold me.

"But you rejected him," Aiden says. "And your mother must've told you something, because you started asking questions. So Damian killed her and cursed you to make sure no one else could mark you first."

"The curse," I whisper. "It was never about me rejecting him."

"No." Aiden's voice turns bitter. "It was about making sure you stayed useless. Sealed and alone and too dangerous for anyone to touch. He thought you'd die out here in the human world and the bloodline would end with you."

Rex moves closer. Not touching, but close enough I can feel the heat radiating off him. "Except you didn't die."

"No," I say. "I didn't."

And now three Alphas have found me.

Three fated mates.

I look up. "That's not a coincidence, is it? The mate bond doesn't just happen three times."

Aiden shakes his head. "Lunaris bloodlines don't have one fated mate. They have three. It's how the line stays strong. Three Alphas, three bonds, and the Lunaris wolf chooses which one—"

The mirror across the room shatters.

I spin.

My reflection's wrong.

The girl staring back has silver eyes. Not blue. Not human. Silver like moonlight on snow, and when her mouth moves my voice comes out doubled—mine and something older, colder, so much stronger my knees buckle.

"Not which one," my wolf says through the broken glass. "All three. That's the bond. That's what they're afraid of."

Rex swears.

Aiden goes white.

The wolf in the mirror smiles. "Seal's breaking. One moon left, boys. Better figure out who's dying first."

Then she's gone.

I'm on my knees. Blood drips from my nose, hot and metallic. The seal inside me's cracked wide open now and I can feel her—my wolf—pacing, snarling, ready to rip free.

"Ivy—" Rex crouches beside me.

"Don't." I shove him back. "Don't touch me. Don't—"

The window explodes.

Glass rains down. I throw my arms over my head, and when I look up there's a man standing in the wreckage.

Tall. Pale. Eyes like black ice.

Cain.

He's worse than I remember. The black veins have spread across his jaw, down his neck, crawling toward his chest. His hands are shaking. But he's smiling.

"Hello, Ivy," he says softly.

Rex is on his feet, teeth bared. Aiden moves in front of me.

Cain doesn't even look at them. His eyes lock on mine.

"I've been patient," he says. "Waited. Watched. Let you have your little reunion." He tilts his head. "But the moon's coming and I'm dying and I'm done waiting."

He takes a step forward.

Rex shifts—bones cracking, fur rippling—but Cain moves faster. His hand closes around Rex's throat, slams him into the wall hard enough to crack plaster.

"You're in my way," Cain says mildly.

Aiden lunges. Cain backhands him without looking. Aiden hits the floor and doesn't get up.

Then Cain's in front of me.

His hand cups my face. Gentle. Almost tender. The black veins pulse under his skin.

"I'm not like them," he whispers. "I'm not here to use you. I'm here because you're mine, Ivy. You were always mine. And when I mark you, when the bond snaps into place—"

His thumb brushes my lower lip.

"—you'll understand."

I should be terrified.

I should fight.

But the wolf inside me's rising, and she's not afraid.

She's hungry.

"Cain," I breathe.

He leans closer. His lips almost touch mine.

Then the door slams open.

Red flares bloom in the darkness outside—six, seven, eight of them, arcing through the air. They hit the pavement and explode into light, bathing the parking lot in crimson.

Cain goes rigid.

His hand drops. When he turns, his expression's blank. Empty.

"No," he says quietly.

Rex staggers upright, coughing. "What the hell—"

"Hunters," Cain says.

Aiden drags himself to his feet, blood streaming from his nose. "That's not possible. They don't move in packs. They don't—"

"They do now." Cain's voice is flat. Dead. "And they're not here for Ivy."

He looks back at me. For a second the madness clears from his eyes and there's something else there.

Something that looks like fear.

"They're here to kill us," he says. "All three Alphas. Before the bond completes."

Outside, the red flares burn brighter.

And through the shattered window I see them coming.

Twelve figures in black tactical gear. Silver weapons. Wolfsbane grenades on their belts.

They're not here to capture.

They're here to end this.

Cain's hand finds mine. His grip's crushing.

"Stay behind me," he says.

Rex moves to my other side. Aiden steps up front.

Three Alphas. Three fated mates. And an army of hunters who want us all dead.

The wolf inside me throws her head back and howls.

One moon left.

We're not gonna make it.