Chapter 10 Ten
Sara’s POV
The courtyard fell into a heavy silence after Xenon spoke.
Not fear.
Not shock.
Something thicker.
Something that tasted like the beginning of a storm.
Warriors spread out to secure the perimeter. The winter wind cut through the open space, carrying the metallic scent of the blood message left outside the gates. It made my stomach twist.
Bring her outside or we come in.
The threat wasn’t subtle.
It wasn’t coded.
It was a promise.
Xenon stood in front of the message like a wall of stone. His shoulders squared. His jaw set. His eyes sharp enough to slice through the dark.
His wolf was close. I could feel it in the air. Heavy. Uncontrolled. Ready to break free.
Ryker approached him carefully. “Alpha. We need to move her.”
Xenon didn’t respond immediately. His hands flexed at his sides, the muscles in his forearms tightening under his shirt as if he was fighting the urge to tear into the forest himself.
Adrian was on the other side of him. “We should relocate her to the inner fortress.”
“No,” Xenon finally said.
Ryker frowned. “Alpha—”
“No,” Xenon repeated, his voice low. “If we move her deeper inside the pack grounds, we risk leading them toward the heart of our defenses. They are waiting for us to panic. We will not.”
Adrian nodded slowly. “Then what is the plan.”
Xenon turned his head slightly, his gaze landing on me.
The world seemed to tilt.
“She stays with me.”
My breath caught. “What.”
“You heard me,” Xenon said quietly. “They want you. They will not get near you while you are in my sight.”
Adrian and Ryker exchanged a look that held a hundred questions but no objections. Because none of them had seen Xenon like this. Not until now.
A tense silence settled before a guard approached, breath fogging in the cold night air.
“Alpha. Scouts found tracks near the northern border. They lead toward the valley cliffs but then disappear.”
Xenon nodded once. “Increase perimeter patrols. Keep all healers inside the pack house. And no one, under any condition, walks alone.”
“Yes Alpha.”
The guard ran off.
Xenon stepped closer to me. “We are going back inside.”
My pulse raced. “Xenon, I do not want people risking their lives because of me.”
His eyes darkened. “You are not the reason they are in danger. They are in danger because the Shadow Creed wants something they believe you carry. That is not your fault.”
I looked down. “If I had known—”
“You would have still come here,” he said quietly. “Because danger follows bloodlines, not borders.”
I lifted my eyes to him. The way he looked at me made my breath falter.
“Come,” he said softly. “We need to talk.”
Inside the pack house, the tension was worse. Wolves moved faster. Guards positioned themselves near every entrance. Even the air felt heavier.
Xenon walked beside me with Ryker trailing behind. Warriors bowed their heads when we passed, but I noticed their eyes shifting toward me with curiosity. Worry. Fear.
I kept my gaze forward, refusing to show how much it unsettled me.
When we reached Xenon’s private wing, he opened the door and stepped aside. “Inside.”
I hesitated, remembering the silence of the night before, the weight of his presence, the tension thick enough to choke on.
But I walked in.
He closed the door behind us and leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest. He watched me quietly for several seconds. Too quietly.
“What are you thinking,” I asked.
“That the Creed has been waiting for you to surface,” he said. “And now that they found you, they will not stop.”
“Until what,” I whispered. “Until they take me. Until they get whatever they think I have.”
His jaw tightened. “They will not take you.”
“You cannot guarantee that.”
“Yes,” he said. “I can.”
I stared at him. “Xenon, you rejected me. You told me you did not want a mate. You do not have to do this.”
He pushed off the door and walked toward me slowly. “This is not about the bond.”
“Then what is it about.”
He stopped in front of me, close enough to feel the heat of him. His eyes held something raw. Something heavy.
“This is about responsibility,” he said quietly. “About someone entering my territory with the intention to take someone under my protection.”
“You only put me under your protection today,” I said. “Before that, I was just another pack member.”
His voice lowered. “I felt the threat long before today.”
I froze. “What do you mean.”
Xenon looked away, jaw clenched. He moved to the window, staring out at the courtyard as if fighting a memory.
“The first night you arrived,” he said, “I felt something in the forest.”
I swallowed. “What did you feel.”
“A presence,” he said. “Familiar. Wrong. And then I saw you.”
His voice darkened.
“And everything inside me froze.”
My heart raced. “Xenon…”
“I did not want a mate,” he continued. “I did not want a bond. Not after everything that happened.”
I waited.
“But when I saw the fear in your eyes after the rejection,” he said softly, “something in me reacted that I could not control.”
My breath shook. “Then why reject me.”
His eyes met mine, regret flashing in them. “Because I thought the bond would make you a weakness the Creed could exploit.”
I stiffened. “And now.”
“Now I realize you were never the weakness,” he said. “I was.”
My heart twisted painfully. “Xenon…”
He stepped closer. Slowly. Carefully. So carefully it made my chest ache.
“Sara,” he said, his voice low. “The Creed wants you for a reason we do not yet understand. I do not care what they believe or what prophecy they follow. You are not leaving this pack. You are not leaving my protection. They are not taking you.”
Something warm and frightening spread through me.
Luna pushed against my mind, alive and alert.
“He cares,” she whispered.
I forced my breathing to steady. “What happens now.”
“Now,” Xenon said, “we prepare.”
“For what.”
“For the Creed to make their next move.”
The room seemed to tighten around us.
“And Sara,” he added, voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes,” I breathed.
He looked at me with a seriousness that stole my breath.
“You stay with me from now on.”
My heart raced. “Why.”
His next words cracked something open inside me.
“Because you are safer in my shadow than anywhere else.”
Before I could respond, someone pounded on the door.
Ryker’s voice came through, tense and urgent.
“Alpha. You need to see this.”
Xenon moved to open the door.
Ryker’s expression was grim. “The rogues left something else.”
Xenon’s posture stiffened. “Another message.”
Ryker shook his head slowly.
“No,” he said. “A person.”
My stomach dropped. “Who.”
Ryker stepped aside.
Two warriors carried someone into the hall.
Asher.
His face was pale. His breathing shallow. Blood soaked the front of his shirt.
I gasped. “Asher.”
Xenon’s wolf surged so hard the air shook around us.
Ryker swallowed. “He staggered in through the south gate. He said he has a message.”
Xenon crouched beside him.
“Asher,” he said. “What did they say.”
Asher’s eyes fluttered open. He struggled to breathe.
He looked at Xenon. Then at me.
His voice was weak.
“They said… she is running out of time.”
My blood turned to ice.
Xenon’s head snapped up. His voice dropped into something lethal.
“Get the healers,” he ordered. “Now.”
Asher grabbed my wrist before he was lifted away.
His grip was weak but desperate.
“Sara,” he whispered. “They are coming for you.”
My heart stopped.
Xenon rose slowly.
And the look in his eyes was not anger.
It was death.
“They want war,” he said quietly. “I will give them one.”