Chapter 104
Elowen's POV
The crimson smoke dissipated, leaving nothing but the scent of metal, incense, and blood.
I stared at the empty space where the man had stood moments ago. My heart hammered against my ribs. My skin crawled where his fingers had touched my chin, my throat. The phantom sensation of his breath on my neck made me want to claw my own skin off.
"He's gone," Juno whimpered in my mind. "But his scent... it's still here. All over us."
I couldn't breathe. The storage room felt too small, too suffocating. The walls pressed in, and the darkness seemed to pulse with malevolence.
"Elowen—" Drake's voice cracked. He stood frozen against the wall, his face sheet-white, his eyes wide with terror. His wolf, Ragnar, was silent. Completely silent. Like the encounter had shocked them both into submission.
I ignored him. Turned to my mother.
Jessica stood there, smoothing down her Beta jacket like nothing had happened. Like a demon hadn't just materialized in front of us. Like he hadn't touched me, threatened me, called me sweetheart in that bone-chilling voice.
"Who the hell was that?" My voice came out hoarse. Raw. "What was that thing?"
"Lower your voice." Her tone was ice. Controlled.
"Don't you dare—" Rage flooded through me, hot and wild. I lunged forward and grabbed her arm, my fingers digging into her flesh. "That thing touched me! He disappeared into red smoke! What the fuck is going on? What did he mean about the Alpha's death?"
She yanked her arm away, her amber eyes flashing with something dark. Dangerous. "We need to leave. Now. This conversation is over."
"Like hell it is!" I seized her wrist again, harder this time. My nails bit into her skin. "You were meeting with that... that monster. You knew he was coming. What have you done? What are you planning?"
Behind me, Drake made a strangled sound. When I glanced back, he was staring at my mother like he'd never seen her before. Like she'd become a stranger wearing a familiar face.
"Jessica," he whispered. "What was that? How did he just... vanish?"
"Stay out of this, Drake." My mother's voice could have cut glass. "This doesn't concern you anymore."
Something flickered across Drake's face. Fear. Betrayal. And underneath it all, realization. He was finally seeing what I'd always known—my mother was capable of things far darker than any of us had imagined.
"Good," Juno snarled. "Let him see what she really is. What kind of monster she's been hiding."
"We're leaving," I said through gritted teeth, yanking my mother toward the door. She resisted, her feet dragging against the floor. "And you're going to tell me everything. Who that thing was. What he meant. Why he could disappear like that—"
"I don't owe you any explanations," she hissed. "You're nobody. A disappointment. A weakling who—"
I shoved the door open.
The hallway beyond was chaos.
Pack members ran past, carrying supplies and bandages. Someone was shouting orders from the medical wing. The thick scent of blood and sweat hung heavy in the air, mixed with the acrid bite of fear. From somewhere upstairs came the sound of Cindy's anguished sobbing.
Ethan. God, Ethan was still dying.
And I was down here, dealing with my mother's dark secrets instead of helping my friend.
Guilt twisted in my gut.
"The wounded," I said, my grip tightening on my mother's wrist. "They need help. Ethan isn't healing. None of them are healing properly, and you—you were down here meeting with that thing instead of helping them."
"Let go of me." My mother tried to wrench free. "You have no authority here. You can't just—"
And then I felt them.
Three waves of power crashed through the hallway. Alpha power. So overwhelming it made my knees weak, made Juno whimper and press herself low in my mind.
They were coming down the corridor. Three massive figures. All dressed in dark suits despite the late hour. All wearing masks.
The visiting Alphas.
My breath caught. I forced myself to straighten, though I didn't release my mother's wrist. My whole body was still trembling from the encounter with the man. My skin still crawled with the memory of his touch.
Behind me, Drake pressed himself against the wall, as if the wood could swallow him whole and hide him from view.
The first Alpha stepped forward. Tall. Powerfully built. His black hair was cropped military-short. Amber eyes studied me from behind a simple black mask. He didn't speak. Just gave a single, sharp nod.
Kade, I remembered from the introductions. Alpha of Obsidian Ridge Pack.
His gaze swept over me—over my disheveled hair, my wide eyes, my white-knuckled grip on my mother's wrist—and something flickered in those amber depths. Concern, maybe. Or suspicion.
The second Alpha moved into the light. Silver-white hair fell to his shoulders in a way that should have looked feminine but somehow didn't. His eyes were pale blue—ice, almost—but when they landed on me, they warmed. He smiled. Small dimples appeared, and I caught the hint of fangs. Sharper than normal. Like little tiger teeth.
"Are you all right, sweetheart?" His voice was smooth. Gentle. "We heard shouting. And..."
He trailed off, his nose wrinkling. His smile faded.
Alaric.
"You smell wrong," he said quietly. His pale blue eyes had gone hard. Calculating. "Like blood. And something else. Something that doesn't belong here."
My heart stopped.
"We're fine," I said hoarsely. The lie tasted like ash on my tongue. "But there was someone here. A man. He was in the storage room with—" I gestured to my mother, unable to finish the sentence.
"There was no one in this corridor when we arrived," Kade said quietly. His eyes flicked to my mother, then back to me. Lingered on my neck, where I could still feel the phantom touch of Raven's fingers. "Just you. And your mother. And him."
He nodded toward Drake, who looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.
A chill ran down my spine. The man had vanished into thin air, like he'd never existed. Like the crimson smoke had swallowed him whole and transported him somewhere else.
Except he had existed. I'd seen him. Smelled him. Felt his touch on my skin.
The third Alpha pushed past the others, and I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. He was taller than Casper, broader through the shoulders. His suit jacket strained against muscles that looked carved from stone. Deep brown hair fell messily across his forehead, like he'd just shifted back from wolf form and hadn't bothered to comb it. His skin was bronze, sun-kissed in a way that made me think of warm beaches and open skies.
But his eyes...
God, his eyes.
Emerald green. Sharp as broken glass. Predatory. They locked onto me and didn't let go.
He stepped closer. So close I could feel the heat radiating off his body. Could smell earth and something wild underneath.
"Ronan," he said, holding out his hand.
I released my mother's wrist—she immediately stepped back, rubbing the red marks I'd left—and took his hand. His grip was firm. Warm. Callused in a way that spoke of physical labor, of fighting. His thumb brushed over my knuckles, and I felt a spark of something. Recognition, maybe. Or just the lingering adrenaline from the encounter with the stranger.
"Luna," he said. The word felt heavy. Important. Final.
"I'm not—" I started. Then stopped. Remembered what Ella had said. What Casper and Cassian had claimed in front of the entire pack. I was Luna now. Whether I felt ready or not. Whether I wanted to be or not.
"Just call me Elowen," I said quietly. "Please."
Ronan's mouth quirked up. Almost a smile. But his eyes remained serious. Concerned.
"Elowen." He said it slowly, like he was tasting my name on his tongue. "Pretty."