Marked By My Enemy Alpha

Episode16

Chapter 16

Hunter

I sprang into action the moment Ava’s scream echoed off the stone walls.

Annalise was right behind me as we bolted away from the training grounds toward the pack house, my wolf thrumming beneath my skin, every instinct screaming that we couldn’t afford to waste another second tonight.

We found her in the servants’ corridor near the laundry yard, slumped against the wall. One hand pressed against a bleeding gash on her temple, while the other clutched her ribs. A shattered lantern lay nearby, oil pooling darkly on the stone floor.

“Ava.” Annalise dropped to her knees beside her without hesitation, her hands hovering uncertainly, unsure where it was safe to touch. “What happened? Who did this?”

Ava’s eyes were glassy and unfocused, blood trickling from a split lip as she struggled to form words.

“No. I can’t say anything,” she said shaking violently with fear.

“I command you to speak right now,” Hunter said looking at her with a piercing gaze.

“Tried to stop them,” she managed, her voice thin and trembling. “Tried to stop them from taking her.”

“Taking who?” I asked urgently, crouching down on her other side. “Wren?”

Ava’s gaze met mine, fear and pain battling in her eyes.

“They came through the servants’ passage,” she said. “Two of them. I don’t know who they were; they wore hoods, but I recognized one of the voices. I’ve heard it before, giving Camille orders instead of taking them.”

A chill ran through me. “Someone gives Camille orders?”

Ava nodded weakly, wincing as she did. “I always thought she was in charge. I was wrong. There’s someone above her in this. Someone she answers to.”

Annalise’s grip tightened around Ava’s shoulders, steadying her as her breathing hitched. “Did you see where they took her? Wren?”

“East gate,” Ava whispered. “There was a carriage waiting. Plain, no markings. I tried to follow, tried to slow them down, and the taller one—” Her voice broke. “He hit me. Told me to forget what I’d seen if I wanted to keep breathing.”

I shot up, a surge of anger tightening every muscle in my body. “The east gate. How long ago?”

“Just minutes,” Ava replied. “Maybe even less.”

I was already on the move, calling out for the nearest guards, my voice ringing with authority and urgency, enough to send half the corridor into a flurry behind me.

Annalise remained crouched next to Ava, whispering something soothing and steady, an unexpected comfort from someone who’d just spent the last hour chasing down conspiracies in shadowy cellars.

“Go,” Ava urged her, her voice stronger now despite the blood trickling down her temple. “Go with him. I’ll be fine, Rosalind can—”

“I’m not leaving you bleeding on the floor,” Annalise insisted, her tone unwavering.

“You have to.” Ava grasped her wrist, surprising strength in her grip despite her injuries. “This is bigger than me, bigger than Wren, even. If there’s someone above Camille pulling the strings, someone willing to silence people for good to keep this hidden, you need to uncover who it is before they completely erase their tracks.” Her eyes blazed with determination, even through the pain etched on her face. “I’ve spent two years protecting myself by staying silent. I’m done being quiet. Go.”

Annalise hesitated for just a moment longer before standing up, torn yet resolute, and I felt something shift in my chest at the sight, a fierce, unfamiliar pride weaving through the urgency of the moment.

We reached the east gate in no time, guards spreading out around the perimeter, torches casting restless, flickering pools of light in the darkness. But the gate stood empty, the road beyond stretching dark and silent toward the tree line, no carriage in sight, no fresh tracks to follow with any real confidence.

“They’re gone,” one of the guards reported grimly. “Clean getaway, Alpha. Whoever orchestrated this knew exactly how to dodge the patrol rotation.”

Which meant, once again, inside knowledge. Someone with access to Silver crest’s patrol schedules, someone trusted enough to move freely without raising suspicion.

“Search the surrounding roads,” I commanded. “Send riders out in every direction. I want eyes on every route leading away from this territory before dawn.”

The guards dispersed to follow my orders, and I stood at the empty gate next to Annalise, feeling the weight of the night’s failures pressing down on me. We had come so close—close enough to scare whoever was guarding this thirteen-year-old secret into a panicked, violent response. Yet somehow, they had managed to slip right through our fingers.

“We’re not going to find her tonight,” Annalise said softly, voicing the same grim certainty I felt.

“No,” I replied. “But we know more than we did an hour ago. There’s someone above Camille, someone with access to patrol schedules and the resources to orchestrate a clean getaway on short notice.” I clenched my jaw. “That narrows our suspects significantly.”

“Camille’s family,” Annalise pointed out. “Corwin mentioned we should look into where they came from.”

“I plan to,” I said. “First thing tomorrow, before she has a chance to spin any more lies.”

We turned back toward the pack house together, the night air cold and heavy around us. We walked in silence, both of us weighed down by exhaustion and unresolved tension. I caught myself glancing at her more than once, noticing the way she held herself with such poise despite everything the night had thrown at her, and the fierce loyalty she had shown to a girl who had once humiliated her in front of the entire pack.

She was nothing like what I had expected when I pulled her from the ruins of Crest haven thirteen days ago. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that realization anymore.

We reached the pack house just as the first light of dawn began to touch the eastern sky. I was ready to escort her back to the omega quarters when a guard rushed up to us at the entrance, breathless, his expression carefully composed in a way that instantly put me on high alert.

“Alpha,” he said, “a message came in for you about an hour ago. I would’ve brought it sooner, but you were busy at the east gate.”

He extended a folded parchment toward me, its wax seal unmistakable. The symbol of Crest haven has been pressed into the deep red wax.

Annalise froze beside me.

“That’s my brother’s seal,” she said, her voice tight with emotion.

I broke the seal and unfolded the parchment, my eyes racing over the hurried, slanted handwriting. My stomach plummeted.

Alpha Bane. Crest haven is starving. The humans have cut off our trade routes, and we can’t survive the season without help. I’d rather die than ask you for anything, but I have no choice. Send word if you’re willing to discuss terms. And tell my sister, if she’s still alive to hear it, that I regret everything I said.

Aiden, Alpha of Crest haven.

I passed the letter to Annalise in silence, watching her hands shake as she read, witnessing the cracks in her carefully maintained composure as her brother’s final line hit her.

“He needs help,” she whispered. “And after everything I said to him, after all the hurt, he still reached out.”

I studied her, weighing the night’s revelations against this new, unexpected twist…a starving pack, a desperate young Alpha, and a request that would force me back into Crest haven’s territory for the first time since the night I took Alpha and Luna’s lives.

“We’ll go,” I finally said. “Together. We’ll deliver aid in person, and while we’re there, I plan to ask your brother what he knows about the night your parents died and if he’s heard anything about Camille’s family that might shed light on what we uncovered tonight.”

Annalise looked up at me, her expression a mix of raw hope and fear.

“You’d really help them?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “After everything?”

“Fate brought us together for a reason,” I replied softly. “Maybe it's time I started trusting that reason instead of fighting it..

We heard footsteps coming up quickly behind us, and we both spun around to see Rosalind rushing toward us. Her face was ashen, and she still held a fresh linen in one hand, faintly marked with Ava’s blood.

“Alpha,” she gasped, clearly out of breath. “You have to come right now. Ava’s condition is worse than we realized. Just before she passed out, she said something that I think you both need to know.”