Morning light filtered through the cabin’s east-facing windows in thin, dusty bars.
Allison woke alone in the wide bed, the flannel shirt she wore twisted around her hips, the sheets still carrying Derek’s scent.
For a moment she lay still, listening.
No howls.
No footsteps on the porch.
Only the soft crackle of a fire that had been rebuilt at some point in the night and the distant, ordinary sound of birds beginning their day.
She rose, found a clean pair of drawstring pants in the same drawer that had held the shirt, and padded barefoot into the main room.
Derek stood at the kitchen counter with his back to her, pouring coffee into two heavy mugs.
He was already dressed in dark jeans, a black long-sleeved shirt pushed up to the elbows, boots laced.
The gold was gone from his eyes.
In the ordinary light of morning, he looked almost human.
Almost.
“You’re awake,” he said without turning.
“Coffee’s hot.”
Allison took the mug he slid toward her.
Their fingers brushed.
The contact sent a low current through her that had nothing to do with caffeine.
“Did you sleep at all?”
“Enough.” He leaned against the counter, studying her over the rim of his own cup.
“The pack will be here within the hour.
I called them after you went to bed.
They need to see you.
Need to understand the situation.”
“The situation being that their alpha brought a journalist home and told her everything.”
A faint, humorless curve touched his mouth.
“The situation being that the Wraith-Beast has marked you as interesting, and I have marked you as mine.
Those two facts are about to collide in my living room.”
Allison wrapped both hands around the mug.
“How many?”
“Six who matter.
The rest of the territory will take their cue from these.
Mara will be the hardest.
She’s been my second for nine years, and she does not like surprises.
Elias will watch more than he speaks.
The twins Cal and Rian will test boundaries because that is what they do.
The others will follow once the hierarchy is clear.”
She nodded slowly.
“And what am I supposed to do while they decide whether I’m a problem?”
Derek set his mug down and crossed to her.
He braced one hand on the counter beside her hip, close enough that she had to tip her head back to meet his eyes.
“You stay exactly where I put you.
You answer direct questions.
You do not apologize for existing.
And if anyone steps too close without my leave, you let me handle it.” The source of this chapter is g.com.
The possessive edge in his voice settled low in her stomach.
“Understood.”
He held her gaze a moment longer, then stepped back as the sound of vehicles reached them tires on gravel, doors closing, low voices.
Derek moved to the front door and opened it before anyone knocked.
They entered in a loose group, bringing the cold morning air with them and the unmistakable scent of wild things that had only recently worn human skin.
Mara came first: tall, silver-streaked blonde hair cropped close to her skull, pale eyes that missed nothing.
She looked Allison up and down once, then turned to Derek.
“You could have warned us the human was still here.”
“She’s not leaving,” Derek said flatly.
“Sit.”
Elias followed, mid-thirties, dark-skinned, quiet, with a scar that ran from the corner of his left eye into his hairline.
He nodded once to Allison and took a place against the far wall, arms folded.
The twins entered together, nearly identical in build and the restless energy that rolled off them.
Cal had a quick, sharp grin; Rian’s expression was cooler.
Both looked at Allison with open curiosity and something hungrier underneath.
Two more completed the group: a broad-shouldered woman named Sable with ink running up both forearms, and a lean, older man called Thorn who moved with the careful economy of someone who had survived more fights than he cared to count.
Derek closed the door.
The cabin suddenly felt smaller.
“This is Allison Reyes,” he said.
“She knows what we are.
She knows what is hunting in our territory.
The Wraith has already tried to isolate her.
She stays under my protection until the full moon has passed and the threat is ended.
Questions.”
Mara’s voice was the first to cut the silence.
“How much does she actually know?”
“Enough,” Derek answered.
“I told her about the pack, the treaty, and the thing that has been taking hikers.
She will not write about it.
She will not speak of it in town.
That is already settled between us.”
Cal tilted his head, studying Allison with bright, interested eyes.
“She smells like you.”
Derek’s gaze snapped to him.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Cal lifted both hands, grin still in place but smaller.
“Observation only, Alpha.”
Elias spoke from his place against the wall, voice quiet and even.
“The Wraith has never focused on a single human before.
Derek’s jaw tightened.
“Because she kept looking.
Because she found the pattern.
And because I allowed her close enough for it to notice the claim.”
Sable crossed her arms.
“So we protect the journalist until the moon wanes.
Then what?
She walks back into town with everything she knows?”
“Then we decide,” Derek said.
“As a pack.
But that decision is not today’s decision.
Today we prepare.
The full moon is two nights away.
The Wraith will move before then.
I want rotating watches on the northern boundary, pairs only, no one alone.
Elias, you coordinate.
Mara, you take the first rotation with Thorn.
Cal, Rian, you stay near the cabin today.
I want eyes on every approach.”
One by one they nodded.
The hierarchy held.
Allison watched the subtle shifts of posture, the way eyes flicked to Derek for confirmation, the underlying current of tension that had nothing to do with her and everything to do with the thing that had howled in the dark.
When the others filed out to begin their assignments, Mara lingered.
“You’re sure about this?” she asked Derek, voice low enough that it was almost private.
“I’m sure.”
Mara glanced at Allison once more, then inclined her head the barest degree.
“Then the pack will hold the line.” She left, closing the door softly behind her.
Silence settled again.
Derek exhaled and rubbed a hand over his face.
“That went better than it could have,” he said.
Allison set her empty mug down.
“Mara doesn’t trust me.”
“Mara doesn’t trust easily.
She’ll come around or she won’t.
Either way, she will follow the order.” He moved closer, one hand settling at her waist as if he could not quite stop touching her.
“You did well.
You didn’t flinch.”
“I’ve had worse interviews.”
A real smile touched his mouth this time, brief and startling.
“Come on.
I’ll show you the rest of the place.
And then we eat.
You’re going to need the strength.