Chapter 160 CHAPTER 160
Liam’s body reacted before his mind fully caught up with what he was feeling.
The warmth of the grass beneath them, the quiet intimacy they had been wrapped in moments earlier, drained from his awareness as something cold and sharp pressed against his senses. It was not a sound, not a scent, not even the familiar pull of another wolf nearby. It was deeper than that, heavier, as if the air itself had grown eyes.
He pushed himself upright in one smooth motion, already scanning the trees, his muscles coiled tight with alertness.
“Lisa,” he said, his voice low but urgent. “We need to leave.”
She felt the shift in him instantly. The way his breathing steadied instead of quickened. The way his hand found hers with purpose rather than affection. She sat up, heart beginning to pound as she followed his gaze toward the silent tree line.
“What is it?” she asked softly.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, tightening his grip on her hand as he pulled her to her feet. “But something is wrong. I feel like we’re being watched.”
The words sent a chill through her. She opened her senses instinctively, but whatever it was lay just beyond her reach. The valley, which had felt so alive and welcoming moments before, now seemed to be holding its breath. The birds had gone quiet. Even the breeze had stilled.
Lisa stepped closer to him without thinking. “Can you tell what it is? I can’t sense anything.” she whispered.
“No,” Liam whispered back. “Doesn’t feel like anything I have ever encountered.”
They started walking, moving with purpose. Liam kept himself between her and the forest, his eyes never stopping, his mind racing through possibilities. He could chase whatever it was. He could hunt it down. But every instinct in him screamed the same truth - he would not leave Lisa alone, not even for a second, not when danger was this close. His sole mission at that moment was to make sure the woman he loved was safe – nothing more mattered.
Then it happened.
He felt the surge before he understood it, emotion spilling over into something ancient and instinctive. Fear for her. The need to protect. The certainty that she had to be safe.
His hand lifted without conscious command.
The air in front of them bent, folding inward like fabric caught in a sudden pull. Light gathered, rippling and twisting until a glowing seam tore open before them, widening into a stable, shimmering portal.
Lisa stopped short, her breath catching. “Liam… look.”
He froze, staring at it in disbelief. A portal lay right before their eyes.
It did not flicker or waver. It held, steady and solid, responding to him as if it had been waiting.
“I didn’t even try to use my powers,” he said, his voice edged with shock. “It just happened - I swear.”
Lisa looked from the portal to him, understanding dawning slowly. “You didn’t think about opening one,” she said carefully. “You thought about keeping us safe.”
He swallowed, realization settling heavily in his chest.
“Then it answered you,” she added.
He didn’t waste another second. “I’m glad the magic came through for me this one time. Come on, let’s see where it takes us.”
They stepped together into the portal, the world collapsing and reforming around them in a blink.
When they emerged, the familiar sounds of Red Valley rushed back all at once. Voices, movement, the low hum of people gathered near the pack house. Heads turned. Conversations faltered. The portal sealed itself behind them with a soft pulse of light that left the crowd staring.
Ethan had been mid-conversation with Alpha Reed when he noticed them. He broke into a grin and strode toward them. “Well, I’ll be damned. Looks like you finally….”
But the expression vanished the moment he saw Liam’s face.
“What happened?” Ethan asked, his tone shifting immediately.
Liam exhaled slowly, grounding himself before answering. “Someone – or something -was watching us. I just had this feeling that we weren’t safe. Then this happened...” He waved his hand towards where the portal had just disappeared.
The murmur around them quieted. Alpha Reed stepped closer, his expression sharpening. “Wolf? Rogues maybe?”
“No,” Liam confirmed. “More like magic. Lisa couldn’t sense it with her wolf. That means it was something supernatural.”
Isabel stood very still as she listened to Liam explain.
Her hands slowly curled into the sleeves of her jacket as the weight of his words settled in. Her stomach tightened with every sentence, images forming in her mind that she didn’t want to see but couldn’t stop imagining.
She glanced at Lisa, the thought of how easily that could have gone wrong made Isabel’s chest ache.
She crossed the short distance between them and wrapped her arms around Lisa, holding her tightly, as if letting go might make the danger real again. Her voice was soft when she spoke, pressed into Lisa’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?” she asked, the words trembling despite her effort to keep them steady. “You must have been so scared.”
Lisa’s arms came around her at once, grounding and familiar. “I’m fine,” she said gently. “Liam got me back before anything could happen.”
Isabel nodded against her, swallowing hard. “Thank the goddess.”
Isabel held her for another heartbeat before stepping back, wiping quickly at her eyes as if embarrassed by the rush of emotion. She stayed close to Lisa after that, her presence quieter but fiercely protective.
Ethan’s gaze flicked to the now-vanished portal and back to Liam. “How did you open that?”
“I didn’t even realize I had,” Liam said. “I just wanted her safe. We should go back. See if we can track them.”
Alpha Reed nodded once, already turning toward his guards. “Then we move. Now.”
Orders were given swiftly and quietly. Some guards remained behind, forming a protective perimeter around the pack house where Lisa, Isabel, and Celine stayed close together. Others followed Ethan, Reed, and Liam toward the woods, their expressions grim.
They shifted at the edge of the trees, the transformation smooth and practiced. The forest exploded into clarity as Liam’s wolf senses took over, and almost immediately, he caught it.
A trail.
Faint, strange, and unmistakably wrong.
They followed it through the woods, paws barely disturbing the earth as the scent grew clearer and colder. Broken branches. Disturbed soil. The path led upward, toward jagged stone and thinning air.
When they reached the ridge and shifted back, the mountains loomed before them, ancient and forbidding.
“The witch mountains,” Liam said quietly.
Reed’s jaw tightened. “So it was them.”
Ethan stared ahead, his expression dark. “After leaving the boy’s body, they came to watch what we would do.”
Liam reached out again, pushing his senses forward, but they hit an invisible wall. “There’s a barrier. I can’t feel beyond it.”
“That tells us everything,” Ethan replied. “They wanted to be seen. Just not caught.”
Silence settled between them, heavy with understanding.
“This isn’t over,” Liam said.
“No,” Ethan agreed. “It’s escalating.”
Reed nodded. “Then we regroup. Carefully. Whatever they’re planning, this was only the beginning.”
They turned back toward Red Valley, the forest no longer feeling like sanctuary. Somewhere beyond the barrier, unseen eyes watched them retreat, patient and calculating.
And waiting.