Chapter 8 The Beta's Warning (Knox's POV)
The sky was bleeding from black to purple when Trey finally stumbled through the tree line. I'd been waiting at the edge of the forest for three hours, my wolf pacing restlessly beneath my skin.
He moved differently. Slower. Like he was carrying weight that hadn't been there before.
I pushed off the tree I'd been leaning against, meeting him halfway across the clearing. His clothes were rumpled, dirt-stained. Grass clung to his jeans. And his expression, Christ, his expression looked like he'd been to war and lost.
"Well?" The word came out harsher than I intended. "Have you done it?"
Trey stopped walking. His jaw worked like he was trying to form words, but nothing came out. He just stood there, staring at the ground between us.
My stomach dropped.
"Trey." I moved closer, lowering my voice even though we were alone. "Tell me you did what needed to be done."
Still nothing. Just that hollow look in his eyes, like someone had scooped out everything that made him Trey and left a shell behind.
"Goddammit, answer me!" I grabbed his shoulder, shaking him. "Did you kill the girl or not?"
He finally looked up, meeting my eyes. And I saw it... the guilt, the defiance, the something else I couldn't quite name.
"No," he said quietly. "I didn't."
The word hit me. I released his shoulder, stepping back. "What the fuck do you mean you didn't? That was a direct order from the Alpha. From your father."
"I know what it was."
"Then why is she still breathing?" My voice rose despite my attempts to control it. "Do you have any idea what you've done? What this means?"
Trey brushed past me, heading toward campus. "I need to shower. Change clothes. Then we'll talk."
"No. We talk now." I caught his arm, spinning him around. "The others are waiting for confirmation. They've been circling the forest all night trying to pick up her trail. What am I supposed to tell them?"
"Tell them whatever you want." He pulled free from my grip, but there was no strength behind it. Like he didn't really care anymore. "I'm done taking orders tonight."
I watched him walk away, my mind racing. This was bad. Worse than bad. The prophecy was explicit: when the Silver Wolf rises, Ravencrest falls. We'd had one chance to prevent that, one opportunity to eliminate the threat before she fully awakened.
And Trey had blown it.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. A message from Mark, one of our pack members who'd been hunting with me: Any word? Elders are getting antsy.
I looked at Trey's retreating back, then down at my phone. Family or pack. Cousin or survival.
There was no choice. Not really.
I pulled up the encrypted video call app, the one we used for emergency pack business. Three rings, then Elder Benedict's face filled the screen. His silver hair gleamed in whatever lamplight illuminated his study, and his eyes, still sharp despite his seventy years narrowed when he saw my expression.
"Knox. Report."
"Sir." I kept my voice level, professional. "There's been a complication."
Two more faces appeared on the screen as other elders joined the call. Elder Cross, whose family had served Ravencrest for four generations. Elder Taylor who'd been my father's mentor before he died.
"What kind of complication?" Elder Cross demanded. "Is the girl dead or not?"
"She's alive, sir."
The silence that followed was deafening. I watched their expressions shift from confusion to disbelief to cold fury.
"Explain." Elder Benedict's voice could have frozen hell. "Now."
"Trey was sent to complete the termination as ordered. He located the target in the forest approximately four hours ago." I swallowed hard, hating what I had to say next. "He chose not to follow through with the kill order."
"He chose?" Elder Taylor leaned forward, his face filling more of the screen. "A future Alpha doesn't get to choose whether or not to follow direct orders from his elders. Especially not orders that determine the pack's survival."
"I'm aware, sir."
"Where is he now?" Elder Benedict asked.
"Heading back to his dorm. I'm going to debrief him shortly and..."
"You will do more than debrief him." Elder Cross interrupted. "You will complete the mission he failed to execute. The girl dies tonight, Knox. That's not a request."
My wolf stirred uneasily. "Sir, with respect, Trey is the Alpha's son. Going against his direct orders could be seen as..."
"As doing what's necessary to protect this pack." Elder Benedict's expression was carved from stone. "We don't have the luxury of family politics right now, Knox. The prophecy is clear. Every day that girl lives is another day closer to our extinction."
"But if I kill her without Trey's approval..."
"Then you'll have done what your future Alpha was too weak to do himself." Elder Taylor cut in. "And when the time comes, perhaps the pack will remember who truly had their best interests at heart."
The implication hung heavy in the air. They were asking me to betray Trey. To undermine his authority before he even officially claimed it. And possibly to position myself as a better alternative.
"I need to understand why he didn't complete the mission," I said carefully. "There might be information that changes the tactical situation."
"The only thing that would change the situation is if the girl spontaneously combusted." Elder Cross's smile was cold. "Barring that miracle, she needs to die. You have until sunrise, Knox. Don't disappoint us the way Trey has."
The call ended, leaving me staring at a blank screen.
Sunrise. That gave me maybe two hours.
I pocketed my phone and headed after Trey, my mind churning through possibilities. Maybe he'd had a good reason. Maybe she'd said something, revealed something that proved she wasn't the threat we thought she was.
Maybe I was grasping at straws because I didn't want to believe my cousin, my brother in everything but blood had just condemned us all.
The athletic complex was empty this early, the locker room silent except for the sound of running water. I followed the steam to the showers, where Trey stood under the spray with his head bowed, hands braced against the tile.
"We need to talk," I called out over the water's roar.
"Not now, Knox."
"Yes, now." I moved closer, close enough to be heard without shouting. "I just got off the phone with the elders. They want her dead by sunrise, and they want me to do it since you couldn't."
The water shut off. Trey grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his waist before stepping out. Water dripped from his hair, running in rivulets down his chest.
That's when I smelled it.
Female, arousal, sex. And underneath it all, that distinctive silvery note that could only belong to one person.
"Jesus Christ." The words came out strangled. "Trey, what did you do?"
He didn't answer, just walked past me toward his locker.
I grabbed his arm, spinning him around. "Your scent is saturated with hers. Not just 'I was standing near her' saturated. Fuck-saturated."
"Let go of me."
"You didn't just fail to kill her." My grip tightened as understanding crashed over me. "You fucked her."
Trey's eyes flashed gold, his wolf rising to meet mine. "I said let go."
I released him, but didn't step back. "Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you didn't actually sleep with the girl who's prophesied to destroy us all."
His silence was answer enough.
"You've lost your goddamn mind." I ran my hands through my hair, trying to process this. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Sleeping with her doesn't just compromise the mission... it compromises everything. Your judgment, your loyalty, your ability to lead."
"I know what I've done."
"Do you? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you let your dick make a decision that could end our entire bloodline." I moved closer, lowering my voice. "What happened out there, Trey? What could possibly make you think fucking the enemy was a good idea?"
He opened his locker, pulling out clean clothes. "The mate bond snapped."
"No." I shook my head, backing away. "No, that's not possible."
"It happened." He pulled on boxers, then jeans, his movements mechanical. "The second I saw her lying there in the moonlight, I felt it. The recognition. The pull. Everything the old stories describe."
"Then you should have killed her faster." The words came out cruel, but I didn't care. "Before the bond could fully form. Before it was too late."
"It was already too late." He turned to face me, and the look in his eyes made my blood run cold. "The moment I scented her, Knox. The moment I saw her. My wolf knew. And once that happens, there's no going back."
"There's always a choice." I moved between him and the door. "You can reject the bond. It'll hurt like hell, might even damage your wolf permanently, but it's possible. Our grandfather did it when his mate turned out to be from an enemy pack."
"And it killed him three years later."
"But it saved the pack." I stepped closer, desperate to make him understand. "That's what being Alpha means, Trey. Making the hard choices. Putting the pack before personal desires. Before even something as sacred as a mate bond."
He pulled a shirt over his head, his voice muffled. "I'm not rejecting her."
"Then you're signing all our death warrants." Frustration bled into my tone. "The prophecy is explicit: 'When silver eyes meet crimson moon, the wolf-born child shall rise too soon. In blood and bone and ancient stone, she'll claim the power, stand alone.' She's going to destroy us, Trey. That's her destiny."
"Or maybe the prophecy's been mistranslated." He sat on the bench to put on his shoes. "Maybe we've been wrong this whole time."
"And if we haven't? If three hundred years of our ancestors were right and you're wrong?" I crouched down to his level, forcing him to look at me. "How many lives are you willing to gamble on a maybe? How many families will you sacrifice because you can't control your wolf?"
"It's not about control." His jaw clenched. "You've never had a mate bond snap, Knox. You don't understand what it feels like. It's not a choice. It's not something you can logic your way out of. It just is."
"Fine. Then let me make this simple." I stood, crossing my arms. "The elders gave me until sunrise to kill her. But I'll give you until the next full moon... three weeks. You have that long to bring her to heel. Make her submit to pack authority. Make her swear loyalty to Ravencrest. Make her useful instead of dangerous."
"And if I can't?"
"Then I do this my way." I moved to the door, my hand on the handle. "The elders want her controlled or dead, Trey. There's no third option. So you either figure out how to make option one work, or I implement option two."
"You'd really kill my mate?" His voice was deadly quiet. "Your own cousin's destined partner?"
"I'd kill anyone who threatens this pack. Even you, if it came to that." I opened the door, pausing to look back at him. "That's what being Beta means. I'm the one who makes the hard choices when the Alpha can't. When he lets personal feelings compromise his judgment."
"Knox..."
"Three weeks, Trey. That's all you get." I stepped into the hallway, my heart heavy. "Use them wisely. Because after that, I'm coming for her. And nothing, not your mate bond, not our friendship, not even blood will stop me from doing what needs to be done."
I left him sitting there in the locker room, surrounded by the scent of his mate and the weight of impossible choices.
The walk back to my dorm felt longer than usual. Dawn was breaking properly now, painting the campus in shades of pink and gold. Students would be waking soon, heading to breakfast, completely oblivious to the war brewing beneath their everyday routines.
My phone buzzed. Another message from the elders: Report.
I stared at the screen, my thumb hovering over the reply button. I could tell them the truth, that Trey had bonded with the girl, that killing her would likely kill him too. That we needed time to find another solution.
But they wouldn't care. To them, one life, even the future Alpha's was acceptable collateral damage if it meant saving the pack.
I typed out a response: Complications arose. Requesting three-week extension to reassess situation and implement alternative solution.