Marked By My Enemy Alpha

Episode14

Hunter

The moment I shifted, the footsteps came to a halt.

Without a second thought, I took off down the narrow cellar passage, chasing the fading sound of retreating steps. My wolf was restless, clawing at the surface, desperate for answers that had been overdue for thirteen long years. I could hear Annalise behind me, her breath coming in sharp gasps, but I didn’t slow down to check on her.

Moving down the passage, I spotted movement ahead, a shadow darting around a corner. I pushed myself harder, closing the gap in no time. As I rounded the corner, I skidded to a stop.

A young guard was pressed against the wall, hands raised, eyes wide with fear. He wasn’t an enemy or a conspirator trying to warn someone. Just a low-ranking sentry who had clearly heard the ruckus and panicked. It was the kind of coincidence that made me want to smash my fist into the stone wall beside him.

“Alpha,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean to, I was just doing my rounds, I swear.”

“Did you see anyone come through here?” I shot back. “A young woman. Pale hair, moving quickly, possibly not alone.”

The guard’s expression shifted, confusion giving way to something more helpful. “There was someone. A few minutes ago. I didn’t get a good look they were moving too fast and kept low, hugging the wall. I thought it was just a servant taking a shortcut.”

“Which way?”

He pointed toward the passage leading up to the pack house’s western stairwell, the one that eventually opened near the training grounds and, beyond that, the outer wall.

I was already moving again before he finished his sentence, Annalise managing to keep pace with me as we bounded up the narrow stairwell two steps at a time. My mind raced with possibilities, each one worse than the last. If Wren had been taken beyond the pack walls, tracking her would become a nightmare.

And if Camille had help, someone willing to whisk a captive away right under my nose without leaving a trace, then whatever conspiracy had ensnared my parents thirteen years ago was still very much alive, still shielded, and still powerful enough to operate right under my nose.

We burst into the open air of the training grounds, which was deserted at this hour, the moonlight casting a pale silver glow over the packed dirt. There was no movement. No sign of anyone.

“They’re gone,” Annalise said, breathless beside me, her eyes scanning the tree line beyond the outer wall. “Whoever it was, they’ve already slipped past the wall.”

I forced myself to take a deep breath, to think instead of just rushing blindly into the darkness. Whoever had taken Wren knew this territory like the back of their hand, able to navigate it without a trace.

They were aware of the cellar’s existence, knew exactly when Camille had stepped away from us, and how quickly they needed to act. This wasn’t just panic. It was a well-coordinated plan.

“This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision,” I said slowly. “Camille didn’t just whip up a rescue in the last ten minutes. This was all premeditated, a backup plan ready to roll the moment anyone got too close.”

“Which means she’s been protecting Wren, or hiding her, for quite a while,” Annalise replied. “Long enough to devise a whole escape plan around it.”

“Or she’s been safeguarding whatever Wren knows,” I added, “by keeping her quiet and under control. Not out of kindness, but out of necessity.”

Annalise wrapped her arms around herself, the cool night air brushing against her exposed skin, and I found myself instinctively stepping closer, responding to the small, involuntary shiver that ran through her.

“There’s something else,” she said softly. “Something I haven’t shared with you.”

I turned to face her fully. “You need to tell me now.”

“The strand of hair,” she said. “The one that was left with the note on my floor. It wasn’t just a signature or a clue. I think it might actually belong to Wren.” She swallowed hard. “Which means she’s the one who’s been leaving those notes. Not someone trying to protect her from the outside. It’s her, reaching out in any way she could, whenever her captors weren’t keeping a close eye on her."

The weight of the implication hung heavily between us. A prisoner, so resourceful and desperate that she was willing to risk everything just to send a few scraps of warning to a stranger.

Someone he had every reason to believe might actually listen, might actually help, unlike the pack that had let her down for years.

“If that’s the case,” I said slowly, “then tonight, the one time she might have had a real shot at rescue, we lost her.”

“We didn’t lose her,” Annalise replied, a fierce determination creeping into her voice despite the exhaustion etched on her face. “We got close enough to scare Camille into moving her. That means we’re a threat now. It means whoever’s keeping this secret knows we’re not going to stop searching.”

I studied her in the moonlight, dirt-streaked and weary, yet still standing here, fighting for a stranger’s freedom with the same stubborn defiance she’d shown me since the night I took her parents’ lives. Something shifted in my chest, a feeling I didn’t have the luxury to explore right now, not with everything falling apart around us.

“We need Elias,” I said, forcing my mind back to what was important. “He’s been piecing this together for years. If Camille has allies within this pack, people willing to help her move a prisoner without being seen, he’ll know better than anyone who might be compromised.”

We had barely taken three steps toward the pack house when a new voice sliced through the darkness behind us…cold, familiar, and completely unwelcome.

“Looking for something?”

I turned to see Elder Corwin standing at the edge of the training grounds, the moonlight casting harsh shadows across his weathered face, his expression unreadable in a way that sent a chill down my spine.

“Corwin,” I said cautiously. “You’re out late.”

“As are you,” he replied, his gaze deliberately flicking toward Annalise before returning to me. “Chasing shadows through cellars and training grounds instead…of resting, Alpha. One might wonder what’s stirred such urgency.”

“You know,” I said slowly, sensing something in his calm demeanor that felt too composed for a man who had just stumbled upon his Alpha in the dead of night. “You know about Wren.”

Corwin’s face remained unchanged, not a flicker of emotion, and that lack of response spoke volumes more than any words could.

“I know a great many things, Hunter,” he replied softly. “Things I’ve kept hidden from this pack for thirteen years, because the truth is one none of us were ready to face.” His gaze turned steely. “You should have left this buried. For your own good, and hers.”

He tilted his head slightly toward Annalise, and that small movement sent a chill through me.

“What do you mean,” I asked, each word carefully chosen, “for her sake?”

Corwin’s lips twisted into a semblance of a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Before you press an old man for answers, ask her what her mother wrote in that diary,” he advised. “You might discover the truth is closer to home than you think.”