Chapter 32 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ALORA
The east wing quarters are exactly what I expected—beautiful and suffocating. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the forest, but I know they're reinforced. Silver-lined, according to what I overheard. The bed is massive, the bathroom luxurious, and there's even a small sitting area with books and art supplies.
A gilded cage.
Sarah helps me unpack in silence, her movements careful. She keeps glancing at the door where two guards are posted outside.
"Are you okay?" she finally asks, her voice barely a whisper.
"I'm fine." The lie tastes bitter. Tomorrow is my birthday, and I can feel my control slipping with every passing hour. The fever hasn't broken. If anything, it's gotten worse.
"Alora—"
"I said I'm fine." I don't mean to snap, but the words come out sharp. Sarah flinches, and guilt twists in my chest. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired."
She nods, backing toward the door. "I'll come check on you in the morning. Before..." She trails off, not finishing the sentence.
Before whatever happens, happens.
After she leaves, I explore my new prison. The windows don't open. The door is solid oak with silver reinforcements. There's a connecting door that I assume leads to another room, but it's locked from the other side.
I press my hand against it, and my wolf stirs. His scent is stronger here—pine and smoke seeping through the wood. He's on the other side. Close enough to monitor me, far enough to maintain distance.
Smart.
I pull my hand back and move to the window, staring out at the darkening forest. The moon will be full tomorrow night. My eighteenth birthday under a full moon—the worst possible combination.
My reflection catches my eye, and I barely recognize myself. My eyes are brighter, holding more red than amber now. My skin has an ethereal glow that I can't suppress anymore. Even my scent has changed—sweeter, headier, impossible to mask.
The changes are accelerating faster than I expected.
I need to leave. Tonight. Before tomorrow comes and reveals everything.
I move to the door, pressing my ear against it. The guards are talking quietly, their voices carrying through the wood.
"Why are we babysitting a slave?"
"Orders from the Alpha. Something about her birthday tomorrow."
"What's so special about a wolfless slave's birthday?"
A pause. "Don't know. But the Alpha seemed pretty serious about keeping her contained."
Contained. Like I'm dangerous. Like I'm something that needs to be locked away.
I back away from the door, my mind racing. The windows are reinforced, the door is guarded. But there has to be a way out. There's always a way out.
I spend the next hour examining every inch of the room. The bathroom has a small ventilation window, but it's too narrow for me to fit through in human form. And if I shift...
No. I can't shift. Not here. Not with guards right outside who would hear everything.
As night falls, exhaustion pulls at me. The fever makes everything feel sluggish, dreamlike. I should sleep, conserve my strength, but my wolf is too restless.
I lie down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Through the connecting door, I hear movement. His footsteps. The rustle of papers. He's still awake, probably working.
Probably watching me somehow.
My eyes drift closed despite my best efforts. The fever pulls me under, and I slip into restless dreams filled with red fur and silver eyes and a bond I can never acknowledge.
I wake to absolute darkness and the knowledge that something has changed.
The fever has broken, leaving me clearheaded for the first time in days. But something else has taken its place—an urgency, a need to move, to run.
I check the clock. Three in the morning. My birthday is in less than three hours.
I have to leave. Now.
I move to the bathroom, examining the ventilation window again. Too small for my human form, but my wolf...
My wolf could fit.
The thought terrifies me. I haven't shifted since arriving at Silver Creek, haven't let her out at all. But I don't have a choice anymore.
I close the bathroom door quietly and strip off my nightgown. My hands shake as I call to my wolf, feeling her surge forward with relief.
The shift is painful after so long suppressing her. Bones crack and reshape, fur erupting across my skin. I bite down on a towel to muffle any sounds, tears streaming down my face as my body transforms.
When it's done, I'm standing on four legs, my vision sharper, my senses heightened.
And my fur is blood red. Unmistakable. Undeniable.
I stare at my reflection in the bathroom mirror and see what I really am. What I've been hiding.
A blood-wolf.
Beautiful and cursed and completely exposed.
I shake off the fear and move to the ventilation window. In wolf form, I can just barely squeeze through. It's tight, uncomfortable, but I manage to force myself out into the night air.
The drop to the ground is higher than I expected. I land hard, my paws hitting the grass with a thud that sounds too loud in the quiet night.
I freeze, listening. No alarms. No shouts. Just the normal sounds of the pack house settling for the night.
I did it. I'm out.
Now I just have to make it past the border patrols.
I take off running, staying low to the ground, using every shadow as cover. The forest beckons ahead, dark and full of places to hide. If I can just reach the tree line—
A howl splits the night air.
My blood turns to ice. That's not a patrol howl. That's a hunting howl.
He knows.
I push myself harder, my paws eating up the distance to the forest. Almost there. Just a little further—
Another howl, closer this time. And this one I recognize with absolute certainty.
Alpha Stone.
The Beast himself is hunting me.
Terror gives me speed I didn't know I possessed. I crash into the forest, dodging between trees, leaping over fallen logs. My red fur is too visible in the moonlight, but there's nothing I can do about that.
Behind me, I hear the thunder of paws. Just one wolf, but massive. Powerful.
Him.
I change direction, heading toward the river. If I can cross it, maybe I can lose him in the water, mask my scent.
The forest blurs around me as I run. Branches whip at my face, roots try to trip my paws, but I keep going. The river is close. I can hear it.
A massive black shape crashes through the trees to my right. I catch a glimpse of silver-tipped fur, mercury eyes glowing in the darkness.
He's not just hunting me. He's herding me.
I realize too late that I'm being driven exactly where he wants me to go. Every turn I make, every direction I choose, he's anticipated it. Controlled it.
The river appears ahead, but it's not the gentle crossing point I was hoping for. It's a cliff edge with rapids churning thirty feet below.
I skid to a stop, my paws scrambling for purchase at the cliff's edge.
Trapped.
I spin around to face him, my hackles raised, a snarl building in my throat even though every instinct screams at me to submit to his dominance.
Alpha Stone emerges from the trees, his wolf form massive and terrifying. He moves with lethal grace, circling me slowly, cutting off any escape route.
We're alone. He didn't bring the pack warriors. Didn't alert anyone else