CLAIMED BY THE BLACK RIDGE ALPHAS

Chapter 4. The Night the Moon Turns

Damien’s call came just after sunset. “Bring the last bike to the clubhouse. Tonight. We need it before the run.”

I stared at the phone. “It’s late.”

“It’s necessary.”

“You always call when it’s necessary?”

“Yes.”

I loaded the bike and drove out. The address took me down a private road lined with trees that felt too still. The clubhouse sat at the end, bikes packed tight in the front lot. Music and voices leaked from the open doors.

I was halfway to the bay when the first howl cut the air. Not a dog. Not anything I knew. A second one answered closer.

A younger guy stumbled out a side door. Fur pushed through the skin on his arms. His eyes glowed wrong. His teeth were too long.

I stopped cold.

He saw me and snarled.

Damien was there before I moved, putting himself between us. Knox appeared on my other side like he had been waiting in the dark. Ryder came from the main doors, the usual grin gone.

Damien’s voice hit hard. “Inside. Now.”

They pulled me into a back room. The door shut. My back hit the wall. My heart hammered.

“What the hell was that?”

Damien stood in front of me, breathing steady but tight. “The truth.”

“Try again.”

Knox spoke from my left, voice low. “We’re not fully human. The club is a pack. Black Ridge Pack. Werewolves.”

I stared at them. “You’re serious.”

Ryder’s voice came quieter than usual. “Deadly. And you weren’t supposed to see that yet.”

Damien stepped closer. The heat off him pressed even without touch. “The moon pulls hard on the younger ones. Control slips. You were never meant to be here for it.”

My hands curled into fists. “Then why am I really here? Don’t tell me it’s just the bikes.”

Knox’s eyes locked on mine. “Your scent. From the first day. It settles things that haven’t been settled in years.”

“What does that mean?”

Damien’s jaw flexed. “It means you’re something the pack has been missing. Something rare.”

“Say it plain.”

Ryder’s hand settled lightly at my waist. Not forcing. Just there. “It means the three of us feel steadier when you’re close. And that makes the world out there more dangerous for you now that you know.”

I looked at his hand, then at his face. “You always touch people while dropping bombs like that?”

“Only when they’re about to run.”

“I’m not running. I’m asking.”

Damien’s voice stayed even. “We couldn’t tell you sooner. Most people don’t handle it.”

“I’m not most people. You said that yourself.”

Knox shifted his weight. “Your pulse is fast. You’re scared. But you’re still standing here asking questions. That matters.”

“Don’t compliment me while I’m trying to decide if you’re all insane.”

Ryder almost smiled. It didn’t land. “Fair.”

I pushed off the wall an inch. “Show me proof. Something. Because right now this sounds like a bad story.”

Damien glanced at Knox. Knox’s eyes flickered gold for a second, same as the night of the ride, then settled back.

My stomach dropped. “Do that again.”

Knox held my gaze. “You don’t want me to.”

“I want the truth.”

Damien cut in. “The truth is the moon is high and the younger ones are struggling. We brought you inside to keep you breathing. That’s the only priority right now.”

“You keep saying ‘we’ like I already signed something.”

Ryder’s fingers flexed once at my waist. “You didn’t sign. But the way the three of us react to you is already louder than any paper.”

I looked between them. “You’re talking like I’m a fix for something broken.”

Damien’s shoulders tightened. “You are. And that is not fair to you. I know it.”

Knox’s voice dropped lower. “My control has been thin for years. Your scent is the first thing that quieted it. I don’t like needing that. But I do.”

Ryder added, “I don’t stay in one place easy. Around you the urge to keep moving slows down. That scares me more than the fur and the teeth.”

I let out a short breath. “So I’m a sedative.”

Damien shook his head once. “You’re more than that. We just don’t have the full words yet.”

Another howl rose outside, closer. I flinched. Knox moved half a step nearer without thinking. Damien’s eyes tracked the sound, then came back to me.

“You can’t leave tonight,” Damien said.

“You don’t get to decide that.”

“I do when the alternative is you walking into something that will not let you walk back out.”

Ryder’s hand stayed at my waist. “Stay until morning. Let the moon drop. Then we talk clean. No more pieces.”

Knox watched my face. “You’re angry. You should be. But you’re also still here. That tells me something.”

“What does it tell you?”

“That part of you already feels the same pull we do. Even if you hate it.”

I hated that he was right. My pulse was still too fast. The heat that had been building since the garage was still there under the fear. I could feel all three of them in the small room like the walls had shrunk.

Damien’s voice softened a fraction. “We will not touch you. We will not force anything. But you stay inside these walls until the sun comes up. After that, you get every answer you want.”

I looked at each of them in turn. Damien controlled and strained. Knox quiet and barely holding the edge. Ryder protective without the usual grin. Three men who had walked into my garage for bikes and somehow turned into this.

Another howl rolled through the night.

I heard myself say, “Until morning. Then I get the full truth. No more careful versions.”

Damien nodded once. “You have my word.”

Knox’s shoulders dropped a fraction. Ryder’s hand finally left my waist, but the heat of it stayed.

Outside the howls kept rising under the full moon. Inside the small room the three of them stood around me like the only solid things left, and none of them looked ready to step back.

I had come here to drop off a bike.

I had the clear, sharp feeling I was the one who had just been claimed.