The Beta Who Betrayed Her Pack For the Enemy Alpha

Chapter 9 – Teeth in the Dark

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

The weight on my chest turned to stone. The wolf pinning me slid his gaze from me to Cassian, pupils narrowing.

“Darkwind,” he spat. “Didn’t know rogues had started policing Council business.”

Cassian’s lips curved, humorless. “This isn’t Council business,” he said. “This is four idiots from nowhere pissing on a border they don’t own.”

His eyes flicked to the pale stone that marked Mistveil’s line. Ten paces. His boots were planted just outside it.

He was careful.

My wolf, even half-suffocated, noticed.

“Walk away,” Cassian went on. “Leave the vial, leave the girl, and I might let you keep your legs.”

One of the other wolves snorted. “You don’t give orders here, Alpha. You’re outnumbered.”

The word hung in the air—Alpha—sharp and grudging.

So the stories were true.

“Math’s not really in your favor,” Cassian said mildly. “You’re on my hunting ground. With something that belongs to me.”

His gaze cut to the bulge at the bastard’s belt.

The vial.

Realization hit like a punch. He recognizes it.

The wolf above me pressed the knife harder against my throat. “Last warning, Darkwind. This doesn’t concern you. We’re contracted.”

“To do what?” Cassian asked. “Slip poison into a Beta’s veins? Stage an ‘accident’ on a patrol route? The High Priestess paying in coin now, or does she prefer favors?”

My blood went cold.

They were Council-tied. Serapha-tied.

“You talk too much,” one of them snarled, lunging.

He never touched him.

Cassian moved like a storm hitting the treeline—no warning, just impact. One heartbeat he was standing, the next he was inside the man’s guard, forearm slamming into his throat, knife hand twisted till bone cracked.

The pressure on my chest vanished as the wolf pinning me turned, but I was already rolling. I kicked up, heel connecting with his knee. He went down with a shout; I scrambled for my spear.

Steel flashed. A second attacker rushed Cassian from behind.

“Behind—” I started, but he was already twisting, using the choking wolf as a shield. The newcomer’s blade buried in his own ally’s side.

Two down.

The third scanned the trees, eyes wild. “Fall back!” he barked. “We’re not equipped for a full pack—”

“Newsflash,” I rasped, shoving to my feet. “You are.”

I drove my spear into his shoulder, hard enough to drop him to one knee. He howled, swinging wildly; pain lanced across my ribs as steel grazed me, hot and sharp. Cassian finished him with a precise, economical blow.

The last wolf—the one who’d held the knife to my throat—was already backing away, free hand diving for the vial at his belt.

Cassian’s voice went flat. “Drop it.”

The wolf’s mouth twisted. “She dies either way. Today or in a few months. That’s the job.”

He yanked the vial free and hurled it toward the border stone.

I didn’t think. I just moved.

My body remembered the taste of that pale green liquid. Remembered my father’s shaking hands.

I dove, fingers closing around cold glass an instant before it shattered on the rocks. My shoulder slammed into the ground; pain flared, but the vial stayed whole in my fist.

When I looked up, the last wolf was gone—vanished into the trees, bleeding trail and curses behind him.

Cassian stood a few steps away, chest rising and falling a little faster now, blade still loose in his hand. In the sudden quiet, I could hear my own breathing, rough and too loud.

He regarded me for a long moment. Then his gaze dropped to the vial clutched against my palm.

“Brave,” he said. “Stupid. But brave.”

I pushed myself to my knees, dirt and blood smeared down my dress. “That blend is in my father,” I managed. “You’ve seen it before.”

It wasn’t a question.

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You’re not the first Beta they’ve tried that on.”

The world tilted.

“Why help me?” I demanded. “This is Mistveil. We’re supposed to be your enemies.”

He stepped closer, just enough for me to feel the crackling edge of his presence, the raw power coiled under his skin.

“I don’t like the Council playing gods in my forest,” he said. “And I don’t like watching a wolf walk into a slaughter she doesn’t know she’s in.”

His eyes held mine, amber and unyielding.

“You want to live long enough to burn them?” Cassian murmured. “You’re going to need more than righteous anger, Beta.”

He extended a hand down to me, rough and steady.

“Come with me,” he said. “Or go back and die on schedule.”