Chapter 10 · Silver at the Tree Line

The gun barrel caught the moonlight first.

Then Marcus stepped through the doorway, and the whole room went cold.

Rena didn't move. Couldn't. The pendant lay heavy against her collarbone, and Marcus's eyes were locked on it like he'd seen a ghost.

"Take it off," he said.

His voice was flat. The kind of flat that meant someone was about to die.

Cain shifted half a step in front of her. Not obvious. Just enough that if Marcus pulled the trigger, he'd have to go through an Alpha first.

"You're on pack land," Cain said. "Without clearance."

"I'm on a kill mission." Marcus didn't look at him. "And you're harboring a target."

Rena's fingers went to the pendant. She'd worn it for twenty years. Twenty years of thinking it was just some cheap necklace her foster father let her keep because she wouldn't stop crying when they tried to take it away.

Liar.

He'd let her keep it because it was proof. Evidence. A leash.

"You knew," she said. Her voice came out steadier than she expected. "The whole time. You knew what I was."

Marcus finally met her eyes. "I knew what you could become.