Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by His Ruthless Father

Blood in the Walls

The words hung in the dark passage like smoke that wouldn't clear.

"Your son," Lyra repeated. "You think Damian sent them?"

"I think someone who knows this house sent them." Kael's voice was flat, controlled, but she could feel the tension radiating off him like heat from a struck flint. "Whether that was Damian himself or someone he trusts enough to share his secrets with, I don't know yet. Right now it doesn't matter. Getting you out matters."

The footsteps above grew louder, boots and claws both, moving with the coordinated efficiency of wolves who'd hunted together before. Kael pulled Lyra further down the passage, deeper into the dark, until the stone beneath their feet sloped downward at a steep angle she had to brace herself against.

"There's a second exit," he said. "Half a mile out, near the old creek bed. If we can reach it before they find the panel, we'll have a head start."

"And if we can't?"

He didn't answer that one. He didn't need to.

They moved fast and low, Kael's hand wrapped firmly around her wrist, guiding her through turns she never would have found on her own. Her shoulder burned with every jolt of movement, but she bit down on the pain and kept pace, refusing to be the reason either of them got caught.

Behind them, a snarl echoed down the passage, close enough that Lyra felt the vibration of it in her teeth.

"They found the panel," Kael said.

"How far to the creek?"

"Not far enough."

He stopped abruptly, turning to face the direction they'd come from, and Lyra realized with a jolt of horror that he intended to hold this narrow stretch of tunnel alone while she ran ahead.

"No," she said. "I'm not leaving you."

"You don't have a choice." His eyes, when they met hers, held none of the coldness the rest of the pack always described. Instead there was something fierce and unexpectedly protective, something that made her chest ache in a way that had nothing to do with her injury. "Whatever you are, Lyra, whatever bloodline runs in you, it doesn't survive if you die in this tunnel tonight. Run. I'll catch up."

"You're lying."

"I'm an Alpha," he said. "I don't need to lie to win."

Before she could argue further, the first rogue burst around the bend behind them, teeth bared, eyes wild with the kind of hunger that came from being sent to do a job and not caring who got hurt completing it. Kael moved without hesitation, meeting the wolf head on with a brutal efficiency that told Lyra everything the rumors had ever claimed about him was true.

She didn't run.

She couldn't explain it later, not even to herself, but something in her refused to leave him there alone. Instead she grabbed a length of iron piping half rusted into the tunnel wall and wrenched it free, ignoring the way her shoulder screamed in protest.

The second rogue came at her from the shadows, faster than she expected, and she swung the pipe on pure instinct. It connected with a sickening crack, buying her half a second, which was all Kael needed to finish the first wolf and turn toward the second.

"I told you to run," he snarled, but there was no real anger in it, only something rawer, something that sounded almost like fear for her rather than at her.

"You're welcome," she shot back, breathless.

A third rogue appeared behind the second, and this one moved differently than the others, more controlled, more deliberate, like it had been trained rather than simply unleashed. Kael's expression shifted the moment he saw it.

"That's not a rogue," he said quietly. "That's pack trained."

The wolf shifted mid stride into its human form, and Lyra's stomach dropped as she recognized the face staring back at them in the dim tunnel light.

Selene.

Damian's girlfriend stood in the passage in shredded clothes from the shift, her expression twisted into something cold and satisfied.

"Kael Blackthorn," she said, almost purring the name. "I have to admit, I expected you to run faster."

"Selene." Kael's voice went dangerously quiet. "Does Damian know what you're doing right now?"

Her smile widened. "Damian doesn't know anything. That's rather the point."

Lyra's grip tightened on the iron pipe. "What do you want with me?"

Selene's eyes flicked toward her, assessing, almost bored. "Nothing personal, little orphan. You're simply worth more dead than alive to the people I answer to. Though," she added, tilting her head, "given the way the Alpha here is guarding you like something precious, I'm starting to wonder if I've been underestimating your value."

Kael stepped forward, putting himself fully between Lyra and Selene. "You're outmatched. Call off whoever's left and walk away now."

Selene laughed, low and unbothered. "Oh, Kael. I'm not the one you should be worried about tonight."

Somewhere above them, muffled through the stone, a new sound reached the tunnel. Heavy footsteps. A voice shouting orders. A voice Lyra recognized instantly, and judging by the way Kael's whole body went rigid, so did he.

Damian had arrived.