The morning sunlight streamed through the window of Althea's room, but her gaze remained fixed on the folded piece of paper in her hands. The note from her mother weighed heavily on her, its cryptic words circling in her mind like a storm she couldn’t escape.
“I don’t know how much longer I can keep this secret. If Gideon ever finds out, it will destroy everything. I’ve already been warned once: threatened by the Alpha of Shadowridge. He said he would do whatever it takes to protect his pack, even if it means hurting mine. But I can’t let him take her. I won’t.”
Her chest tightened. The phrase looped endlessly in her thoughts, each repetition cutting deeper. What warning had Kaden's father given her mother? Why had he threaten her? And why had her mother thought protecting her had come a
