Dion’s POV
It wasn’t the sight of blood that paralyzed me; it was the thought of whose blood it was that kept my feet glued to the doorway.
Seeing Thalia crying beside the body of Eric, a man I specifically warned her about, a man I knew for a fact wanted to get a piece of her, made every bone in my body go stiff.
For a second I thought I was too late.
I knew I should have followed them the moment I saw them leaving the pack square together, but I had forced myself to stay behind, trying to respect her boundaries.
Now looking at the nightmare before me, I growled under my breath.
Fuck her privacy.
I’m never taking my eyes off her again.
“What have you done?” I grabbed Eric and tossed his lifeless body to the ground.
“I didn’t… I didn’t know that I could do that… it just… I don’t know what happened…” she babbled, stuttering like a child learning how to speak.
“Shhh,” I hushed her.
“It’s okay.
It’s fine, Thalia.
You don’t have to explain yourself.
It wasn’t your fault.” I tried to grab her arm, but she flinched and pulled away.
I stared at her hands.
Her claws were still fully extended and still dripping with blood.
“How did…I thought you weren’t…?” I couldn’t even find the right words to express the confusion swarming in my head.
I tried to reach for her a second time, but she moved further away.
“NO…DON’T TOUCH ME!” she screamed in my face.
“Thalia, you need to calm down,” I urged, trying to keep my voice steady.
“You need to let me assess the damage.”
”He’s dead!” she screamed, her eyes wide with panic.
“I just killed a man, what else is there to check?!”
”I don’t give a damn about him,” I growled softly, grabbing her hands before she could pull away.
“I’m talking about you.
I don’t care that you killed him; I would have torn his throat out myself, but you beat me to it.” I searched her face, ensuring she was unhurt.
“We need to get you cleaned up.
Now.
Get up.”
She didn’t move.
She just sat paralyzed, staring blankly at Eric’s body on the floor.
“Thalia!” I used my Alpha’s voice on her, and her head snapped up.
“We need to get you cleaned up now before anyone walks in.”
”But what about his body…?” she whispered, pointing a shaky, bloody finger at Eric.
“Forget about him.
You’re the only one that matters right now.” I pulled her up and dragged her toward the back door of the cabin.
“Go to my chambers.
Follow the path behind the training grounds. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Hardly anyone knows about that path, so it’ll be easy for you to slip through.” She wasn’t even looking at me, so I forced her face up to meet my eyes.
“Thalia, you need to listen to me.
Under no circumstances should anyone see you like this.
You have to be alert.
Do you understand me?”
She didn’t answer, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
“Thalia…” I begged her.
“Can you please do this for me?
Just this once, please trust me.”
She finally tore her eyes away from the dead body and looked me in the eyes.
“Forget about it.
I’ll take care of everything, okay?” I assured her.
She nodded.
“Good.
Now go.” I pointed her in the direction of the hidden path, and she followed it.
I walked back into her cabin and stared at Eric’s dead body.
I wasn’t lying when I said I would have killed him myself if she hadn’t done it.
He was already on thin ice from the number of times he had gone against my orders.
This would have been the last straw.
I turned his body around to assess the claw marks.
“Oh, my Moon Goddess…” Not only were the claw marks long, but they were deep and thick.
Honestly, not even I would have survived this kind of damage.
As I dragged him out of the cabin and into the dark woods, a million questions started racing through my head.
Did Thalia lie about being wolfless?
No, that wasn’t even possible because anyone could sense her wolfless vessel from miles away.
Then how the hell was this possible?
How did she extend her claws?
How was she able to kill a trained guard so easily?
xxx”Have you sent word to the seers yet?” I asked, looking up as Devon, my Beta, stepped into my study.
Two days had passed since that nightmare, and I hadn’t slept a wink.
I desperately needed to get to the bottom of it.
“Yes, they said they’d send word back by nightfall,” Devon replied, watching me with a raised eyebrow.
“But what could be so important that you had to send such an urgent message to the seers?”
I hadn’t spoken a single word about what happened to anyone, and neither had Thalia.
In fact, she hadn’t stepped foot out of my chambers since that night.
She had even begged me to set her cabin on fire, which I did immediately to clear the evidence.
The entire time she had been staying in my room, I had been sleeping in the guest bedroom.
I wanted to give her space to process the trauma.
She needed as much time to herself to get back on her feet.
“Does this have anything to do with the mysterious wolves roaming around our borders?”
I looked up to face him, completely shocked by this new information.
“What wolves?”
Devon sighed, stepping closer to the desk.
“We were hesitant to bring it up until we confirmed their intent, but ever since Thalia arrived, unknown wolves have been circling the outer borderlands.
At first, we assumed they were strays seeking asylum, but their movement patterns are deliberate.
They’re searching for something.”
”How close are they to breaching the perimeter?”
”Dangerously close.
And we don’t know how long it’ll take before they find out about our camouflage…”
I let out a deep sigh.
I really couldn’t be dealing with this kind of shit right now; my mind was already too preoccupied.
But if we didn’t get to the bottom of this immediately, we might end up facing an invasion.
My thoughts went straight to Thalia.
There was no way I could put her through that.
“This is what’s going to happen…” I grabbed a map on the table and began pointing out ambush zones to him.
“Since they’re approaching from the front, we can ambush them right from the side.
This is our territory, so we have the advantage here.
How many men did you count?” I inquired.
“Over a dozen, but the numbers increase every time we check.”
”Take twenty of our elite guards,” I instructed.
“Station half a dozen on each side, and take the remaining ones around the back to corner them in case they try to escape.”
Devon studied the map for a moment before looking up, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
“You’re not coming with us?”
I shook my head almost immediately.
“Someone needs to keep charge back here.”
”Right…” He chuckled softly, a knowing glint in his eyes.
“What are you smirking at?” I growled, growing irritated.
“Nothing, Alpha,” he laughed, moving toward the door.
‘I’ll have the men ready by tonight.” He paused at the door, giving me a cheeky grin.
“Honestly, Dion…
you should just mark her already and get it over with.”
I rolled my eyes at his back.
There was honestly no difference between him and Natalie.
They were both infuriating.
I began moving the maps to the side when a loud knock sounded at my window; a pitch-black messenger crow was hitting its beak against the glass.
I opened the window and grabbed the sheet of parchment tied to its leg.
The bird immediately flew inside, snatching a slice of apple from my desk.
“Don’t your owners ever feed you?” I muttered, shooing the crow out the window.
The seers had sent back their response to the urgent question I had asked them.
Upon opening the parchment and reading through their response, my chest tightened, blood draining from my face.
I realized that every single assumption I’d made about Thalia was completely wrong.
Thalia was never wolfless to begin with.