Claimed By Alpha Damian

Chapter Five

Ivy POV

The perimeter horn was still ringing faintly in my ears as Damian's hand closed around mine before I even realized he'd reached for it.

"You're not going out there," he said.

"He's my Alpha," I said, the old habit of obedience clawing up my throat even now, even after everything. "If he's come himself, he'll cross the line whether you let me out or not."

"He crosses my border without permission, he dies on my land," Damian said simply, like it was the easiest fact in the world. "That's not a threat. That's law."

We reached the courtyard just as the front gates opened. Victor Blackthorn stood exactly where his scouts had stood before, flanked by four guards, his silver hair catching the torchlight. Caleb stood half a step behind him.

The torches in Damian's courtyard burned brighter than I remembered, or maybe it was just that everything felt sharper now, every sound too loud, every shadow too deep. Damian's warriors had already formed a loose half circle behind their Alpha, silent and ready, though none of them made a single aggressive move. They did not need to. Their stillness said everything Damian's words would say a moment later.

Seeing Caleb's face made something in my chest twist, but it wasn't the ache I expected. It was smaller than I thought it would be. Quieter. I searched myself for the girl who had cried the whole walk to the border stone and found she had mostly gone quiet, replaced by something steadier standing in her place.

"Ivy." Victor's voice was warm, almost gentle, the same tone he used at pack gatherings when he wanted something. "Thank the moon you're alive. We feared the worst when we found that poor girl in the woods."

"You mean the girl you murdered to fake my death," I said. My voice did not shake this time.

A ripple went through his guards. Victor's smile did not slip, but his eyes went cold. "A wild accusation from a traumatized young woman."

"Or the truth from a Duskborn wolf you've been terrified of since the day my mother brought me into your pack," I said, and I felt Damian go very still beside me, watching Victor's reaction to that name like it would confirm everything.

I watched it land on Victor like a physical blow, his careful composure slipping just enough for me to see the truth underneath it.

It did. For one unguarded second, real fear crossed Victor Blackthorn's face before he smoothed it away.

"I don't know what lies this border rat has fed you," Victor said, "but you belong to Blackthorn Pack, Ivy. Come home. We'll fix this misunderstanding quietly, as a family."

"You threw me into the wild lands to die," I said. "You called me a curse in front of everyone I've ever known. And the second I actually survive, you send scouts and fake bodies and now you show up yourself, begging for family. Which is it, Victor? Am I a curse, or am I something you need?"

For a moment nobody spoke. I could feel every eye in the courtyard on me, waiting to see which way I would break. I thought about the girl who had stood in a white dress two nights ago, begging her mate to look at her. That girl would have gone with them. That girl would have believed an apology dressed up as concern.

I was not that girl anymore.

Caleb finally spoke, quiet, almost pleading. "Ivy, please. Just come talk to us. Away from him."

"Him has a name," Damian said, low and dangerous. "And she's not going anywhere with either of you."

Victor's eyes flicked to our joined hands, then to Damian's face, and understanding dawned there, cold and calculating. "The moon truly does have a cruel sense of humor. My son rejects her, and the Border Alpha catches her on the rebound." He looked back at me. "Do you understand what you are, girl? What blood runs in you? The Duskborn line does not simply shift into a wolf. It shifts into a weapon. My father hunted the last of your kind for good reason."

"Then why not kill me outright, if I'm so dangerous?" I asked. "Why banish me instead? Why fake a death and come crawling back?"

Victor's silence answered the question louder than words could.

"Because you can't," Damian said slowly, working it out in real time, his grip tightening on my hand. "The old laws. A Duskborn wolf can't be killed by the pack that sheltered her bloodline, or the whole territory falls under blood-debt to every neighboring Alpha who ever lost land to a Duskborn line. You didn't banish her to punish her, Victor. You banished her because you were never allowed to spill her blood yourself."

Victor's jaw clenched, and in that single motion, I knew Damian was right.

"She is not safe with you," Victor said instead, ignoring the accusation entirely. "The shift, when it fully comes, kills the wolves too weak to survive their own power. I am trying to save her life."

"You had eight years to save her life," Damian said. "You chose banishment instead. Leave my land, Victor, before I decide the old laws don't cover what happens to a trespassing Alpha."

For a long moment nobody moved. Then Victor's gaze slid to me one last time, and something almost like a warning flickered there.

"The shift is coming, Ivy," he said quietly. "Sooner than you think. And when it does, you'll wish you'd come home to people who understood what you are, instead of a stranger who only wants you for the power sleeping in your blood."

He turned and walked back across the Hollow Line without waiting for a response, his guards falling in behind him. Caleb lingered half a second longer, his eyes on mine, some old apology dying unspoken on his lips, before he too turned and disappeared into the trees.

I was still staring after them when the ground tilted violently under my feet, and a fire I had never felt before ripped through every vein in my body at once.

"Damian," I gasped, my knees buckling, my vision splitting into strands of white and silver light. "Something's wrong"

His arms caught me before I hit the stone, and above me, through a haze of white-hot pain, I heard him shout for Rhea, his voice cracking with something that sounded, impossibly, like fear.

"It's starting," he said. "The shift is starting right now, and I don't know if she's strong enough to survive it."