Mira lay motionless on the Alpha’s quarters, listening to the mountain’s steady breath. The stone walls groaned softly in the night wind, and far below, water flowed through ancient tunnels. The pack slept, unaware that one of their greatest threats was awake, quietly counting each step.
She had already memorized the guards’ rotations. Two outside the Alpha wing, one at the stairwell, and one in the eastern corridor are replaced every hour. Ryker had not increased security not after she asked him not to.
That was his mistake, and hers.
The bond pulsed softly in her chest, warm yet held back, like a hand hovering just out of reach. She hated it for that—hated how it waited. How could she trust it?
Ryker had let her try.
If you need to go, he had said earlier that night, voice low, stea
