"Hello?" I shouted. The foyer of Blackwood Manor swallowed the word instantly.

The estate had no heartbeat. That was the first thing I noticed. The silence pressed down on my eardrums like deep water.

The second thing I noticed was the dead guy on the sofa.

I dropped my suitcase by the front door. "Hey. Did you hear me?"

He didn't twitch. He lay flat on the dark leather, his arms draped over his stomach. His skin carried a healthy, warm tan, but his chest remained entirely still. Not a single rise. Not a single fall.

"Hey," I repeated, stepping closer. "Are you breathing?"

No response.

I leaned over the edge of the sofa. Extended my right hand. Hovered two fingers an inch from his nose to check for air.

His fingers snapped around my wrist.

I gasped.

His eyelids flew open. I stared into eyes that didn't belong in a human skull. Bright gold. Vertical, slit pupils. The eyes of a predator waking up to find prey hovering over its mouth.

"Caught you," he whispered.

Before I could yank my arm back, he twisted his grip. The world spun. I crashed onto the leather cushions, and his weight slammed down on top of me. His heavy knee dug sharply into my hip bone, locking my lower body in place.

"Get the hell off me!" I yelled, shoving at his shoulders.

He didn't even flinch. He lowered his head, burying his nose into the curve of my neck. He inhaled loudly, a rough, scraping drag of air that vibrated against my skin.

"Vanilla and rain," he grumbled, his voice a low, vibrating growl. "Fuck, you're the one."

His jaw opened. Sharp teeth clamped down on my collarbone. A searing heat pierced my skin.

Instead of screaming, a bizarre, hysterical laugh bubbled out of my mouth. A completely wrong reaction. My brain short-circuited under the pain.

"She smells like debt, nothing more."

The voice drifted down from the staircase. It sounded like ice fracturing under heavy boots.

I twisted my head. A guy in a black sweater descended the steps. Kade. His whiskey-colored eyes evaluated the scene with absolute boredom while his fingers expertly flipped a silver letter opener.

"Get up, Jax," Kade ordered. "Don't embarrass us."

Jax emitted a pathetic, high-pitched whine, sounding exactly like a scolded dog. He rolled off the sofa, landing on his feet, but his golden gaze remained fixated on the burning bite mark he just left on my flesh.

"He bit me," I stated, pushing myself into a sitting position and wiping a smear of saliva from my neck.

"Consider it a greeting," Kade replied, reaching the bottom step. "You're Ava Sinclair."

"And you're the people my father owed."

"We are." Kade pointed the letter opener at my chest. "Stand up."

I got to my feet, keeping the leather sofa between Jax and myself. "Where is the person in charge?"

"You're looking at him," Kade said.

A shadow detached itself from the massive unlit fireplace to my left. "Actually, you're looking at all of us."

I spun around. Griffin stepped into the dim light. His steel-gray eyes locked onto mine. He wore crisp white gloves and carried a disassembled shotgun holstered at his waist.

Griffin extended a wooden clipboard toward me.

"Forty-seven clauses," Griffin said, his tone perfectly flat. "Blood signature required."

I stared at the thick stack of paper. "What exactly am I signing?"

"Pack Law blood contract." Griffin tapped a silver needle taped to the board. "You break it, the violation doesn't fall on us. The Council executes the penalty. And they aren't as polite as I am."

"Polite?" I scoffed, pointing a thumb at Jax. "Your friend just took a chunk out of my neck."

"Jax lacks manners," Griffin noted. "Sign the paper, Ava."

"Pack Law?" I asked, gripping the edges of the clipboard. "What does that even mean? Are you a gang?"

Jax let out a low rumble from his chest. "We're a pack, sweetheart."

"Shut up, Jax," Kade snapped. He turned his whiskey eyes back to me. "It means we operate outside the laws you're used to. Your father understood that perfectly when he borrowed from us."

"He borrowed money," I argued. "Not me."

"He pledged his bloodline as collateral," Griffin corrected, adjusting his white gloves. "You are his bloodline. The debt transfers. Clause seven on page two."

I flipped the pages. "Are you expecting me to read all of this right now?"

"I expect you to sign it," Griffin said. "The details are simple. You live here. You do not leave the grounds. You remain our collateral until the debt is settled."

"And how exactly does a debt like this get settled?"

Kade stopped flipping the letter opener. He pointed the blade at my chest again. "That's for us to decide. Right now, you just need to bleed on the dotted line."

"If I sign this, what stops him from attacking me again?" I gestured toward Jax, who was currently licking his lips.

"The contract protects you from unsanctioned harm," Griffin explained. "We cannot kill you. We cannot break you beyond repair. You are property, Ava. We take care of our property."

"Property." The word tasted like ash in my mouth. "I'm a human being."

"Not anymore," Kade said softly. "Now, you're currency. Sign it."

"What if I refuse?" I challenged.

"Your father is dead," Kade interjected, stepping closer. The silver blade flashed in his hand. "He left a massive blood debt. Refusal means the Council hunts you tonight. Signing means you survive until tomorrow."

"My father ruined my life," I muttered, snatching the clipboard from Griffin's gloved hands. "Now his ghost gets to finish the job."

"Family is a burden," Kade agreed. "Do it."

I unhooked the silver needle. "Just a prick on the finger?"

"Index finger. Press it to the line," Griffin instructed.

I jammed the sharp metal tip into my skin. A dark ruby drop welled up immediately. I pressed my bleeding finger against the dotted line on the parchment. The paper seemed to absorb the blood, turning the red mark black.

Griffin retrieved the clipboard. "Welcome to Blackwood Manor."

"Where is my room?" I demanded.

"Top floor. End of the hall," Kade answered. "Don't wander."

***

The bedroom door locked from the outside. I had checked the iron handle three times just to be sure.

Thick iron bars were welded across the window frames. I rattled them. Solid metal. No give. They were meant to keep me inside, or maybe to keep something else outside.

I retreated to the edge of the bare mattress. My fingers instinctively went to my neck, pressing against the hot, swollen teeth marks. The bite throbbed in time with my pulse. It wasn't just a bruise. It felt like a brand.

I pulled a small notebook and a pen from my jacket pocket. My father always told me to write things down when I felt overwhelmed. Ironically, he was the reason I was locked in a monster's house.

I clicked the pen. I needed rules. I needed a schedule.

*Survival Calendar.*

I wrote the heading in bold letters.

*Monday: Hide from Jax.*

The guy was clearly unhinged. The way he smelled me, the way his eyes looked... he wasn't normal. None of them were.

*Tuesday: Avoid everyone.*

Kade's cold stares and Griffin's clinical detachment were just as dangerous as Jax's aggression.

*Wednesday: Survive.*

Just make it through the middle of the week.

*Thursday: Plan escape.*

I needed to map the exits. Figure out their routines. Find a blind spot in their security.

*Friday: Buy a neck guard.*

I tapped the sore skin on my collarbone. Definitely a priority.

Before I could write down Saturday, a sound scraped through the silence.

*Scritch.*

I froze. My pen hovered above the paper.

*Scritch. Scraaaatch.*

Nails dragging slowly down the wooden boards of my door.

"Who is out there?" I called out.

No verbal answer. Just the heavy, rhythmic sound of exhales pushing through the gap under the door.

I slipped off the bed. My bare feet made no noise against the floorboards as I tiptoed toward the entrance. I knelt down, leaning my face close to the narrow crack between the heavy door and the frame.

A single golden beast eye stared back at me.

Vertical pupil. Completely unblinking.

He wasn't trying to break in. He was just quietly watching me.

"Two A.M.," I whispered to the empty foyer. "Perfect."

The grandfather clock ticked in the silence. The brothers had vanished into the treeline twenty minutes ago for their Full Moon Run.

I pushed the heavy oak front door. It swung open without a creak.

"Idiots," I muttered, slipping onto the porch. "You left it unlocked."

I sprinted down the gravel driveway. The sharp stones bit into my thin shoes, but I didn't stop. Ten minutes of blind, desperate running. My lungs burned. The streetlights of the main road glowed ahead, casting a yellow halo over the asphalt.

"Almost there," I panted. "Just a few more yards."

I lunged toward the light.

*Smack.*

An invisible wall slammed into my face. The air buzzed violently against my skin, sparking like a live wire, and threw me backward onto the dirt.

"What the hell?" I groaned. I rubbed my stinging forehead and sat up.

I crawled forward and punched the empty space. My knuckles bounced off solid energy. A territory boundary.

"Are you kidding me?" I yelled at the trees. "Open up!"

Silence answered. The buzzing hummed louder, mocking me.

I scrambled to my feet and ran along the invisible perimeter, searching for a gap. A rusted iron door sat half-buried in thick ivy against a stone embankment.

"The Forbidden Wing," I read the faded metal sign.

I tore the vines away, breaking my nails against the stone. "Maybe there's a tunnel. An old servant's exit."

I shoved the heavy metal inward. It scraped loudly against the rock.

"Anyone in here?" I called out, stepping into the pitch black.

The air turned freezing instantly. In the center of the stone chamber stood a massive skeleton. A giant wolf. The First Alpha.

Crushing pressure slammed onto my shoulders, heavy as a collapsed roof.

"No," I choked out. "Move. Just move."

My knees hit the stone floor. The oppressive weight squeezed my skull, dragging my consciousness straight into the dark.

***

"Wake up, Ava."

My eyes snapped open. A strange bedroom. High ceilings, dark velvet curtains. Not the attic they locked me in yesterday.

A sharp pain pulsed on my right wrist. I pulled my arm up. Fresh, bloody teeth marks circled my skin, perfectly mirroring the bite on my neck.

"You bit me!" I yelled. I scrambled against the headboard, pulling my knees to my chest.

Griffin sat in a velvet armchair near the fireplace. He calmly ran a cloth over a serrated hunting knife. "Rule twelve."

"You bit me while I was unconscious." I held up my wrist, the fresh marks still wet. "That's not a rule. That's just cruel."

"You were out for six minutes," Griffin said, not looking up. "I chose somewhere hidden. A lesson for you, not a spectacle for the pack. Be grateful I kept it off your face."

"That's not mercy. That's you deciding how much you're allowed to hurt me."

"Trespassing in the forbidden wing carries a penalty," Griffin finished, entirely ignoring my outburst.

"Are you all infected with rabies?" I demanded. I clutched my bleeding wrist to stop the throbbing. "Keep your teeth off me!"

Griffin didn't look up from his blade. "Kade wanted to lock you in the cellar. He thought starvation would correct your behavior. I suggested a more educational method."

"Biting me is educational?" I spat.

"Pain teaches faster than darkness."

"You're psychopaths. All of you."

"We are wolves," Griffin corrected. He slid the knife into his leather holster. "And you are late."

"Late for what?"

"The full moon ritual." Griffin stood up, brushing a speck of lint from his dark slacks. "Walk, or I carry you by your throat."

I swung my legs off the mattress. "I'm not participating in your weird cult."

"You don't have a choice." Griffin pointed toward the door. "Move."

"What if I refuse?" I challenged, gripping the bedsheets.

"Then I drag you by your hair. Choose."

I glared at him, but stepped toward the hallway. "Fine. But I'm filing a police report the second I find a phone."

"The police work for us," Griffin stated flatly. "Keep walking."

***

He marched me outside. The forest clearing bathed in blinding silver moonlight. The air smelled of wet earth and pine.

"Stay exactly here," Griffin ordered. He shoved me into the damp grass.

"Don't touch me," I snapped, stumbling to catch my balance.

Dozens of massive wolves prowled the perimeter. Bones cracked like dry branches. Flesh shifted. Men and women dropped to the dirt, transforming into beasts under the moon.

I backed away, my heart hammering. "I want to go back to my room."

"Watch," Griffin commanded.

He stepped forward. His body twisted and expanded until a towering steel-gray wolf stood in his place.

To his left, Kade morphed into a massive black wolf, his fur absorbing the moonlight.

Three more stepped out from the trees. Jax, his coat a fiery red. Beside him, two identical wolves in white and gray. Mason and Leo. The triplets.

Then, the shadows parted.

A beast twice their size stalked into the light. Black-silver fur. Silas. His eyes weren't gold like the others. They burned a violent, blood red.

"What is he?" I whispered, taking another step back.

Six pairs of beast eyes snapped toward me.

An invisible string yanked hard inside my chest. It wasn't the air. It was a physical tether snapping taut, connecting my ribs to theirs. My heart hammered against my chest cavity.

Jax threw his head back. He didn't howl for a hunt. It was a deep, chest-rattling sound of pure recognition.

"Stop it!" I yelled. I covered my ears to block out the noise.

The black wolf lunged forward. Mid-air, Kade shifted back. He landed on two feet, completely naked in the moonlight, his muscles flexing under the silver glow.

He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the center of the clearing.

"Get your hands off me!" I yelled, wrenching against his grip.

Kade ignored my struggles. He faced the pack, his voice echoing off the trees. "She is not a Mate!"

The wolves growled, low and hungry.

"She is a Bond Servant!" Kade shouted over them. "Shared property. Human debt."

I kicked his shin hard. "I am not property! I am a person!"

Kade yanked me flush against his bare chest, knocking the breath from my lungs. "Anyone with an objection can challenge me right now."

No one moved. Silas simply watched, his red eyes narrowing in the dark.

"Good," Kade murmured. He tilted my head to the side, exposing my neck.

"Don't," I pleaded. I squirmed wildly, trying to break free. "Please, don't."

Kade lowered his face. "Hold still, collateral."

His jaws opened. He clamped his teeth directly over the old bite mark Jax had left yesterday.

"Ahhh!" I shrieked.

His canines sank deep to the bone, scraping against my collarbone. Fire exploded through my veins.

Deep inside my chest, something clicked. A heavy, metallic snap. It didn't lock around my neck. The sensation wrapped violently around his heart, tethering us together in a twisted, unbreakable knot.

Kade pulled back. His mouth stained red. He dragged his tongue across his lower lip, swallowing my blood.

"Monday, Wednesday, Friday," Kade whispered in my ear. His tone dangerously soft. "You're on my schedule now, Miss Sinclair."

I slumped against him. My legs turned to jelly, unable to support my weight.

"And I don't like sharing," he added. He tossed me aside.

I crashed into the mud. Cold wetness seeped through my clothes, chilling me to the bone.

The six wolves broke formation and circled me. Red, white, gray, steel, black, and silver. They stared down at my trembling body the way starving men eye the last plate at the table.

My vision darkened at the edges. The entire Pack lifted their snouts to the sky, their unified howl shattering the night.

Just before the darkness took me completely, Silas stepped out of the circle. His red eyes locked onto mine. A single, human word echoed directly in my mind.

*Mine.*

I slipped through the rusted iron door of The Vault. The stone chamber felt just as freezing as last night.

Earlier in the corridor, Mason had stepped out of his room. He took one sniff of my neck, sneered at the heavy stench of cedar and bourbon radiating from Kade's bite, and retreated behind his door. The mark acted as a shield.

I marched straight toward the massive skeleton in the center of the room. Right before I passed out yesterday, I saw it. A small, leather-bound book wedged between the First Alpha's massive skeletal jaws. My father's journal.

I yanked the book free. Dust coated my fingers. I flipped the cover open.

"Ava," I read my father's messy scrawl aloud, my voice echoing off the damp walls. "If you read this, they caught you. I'm sorry."

I ran my finger over the ink.

"They don't want my life," I continued reading. "They want yours. You aren't a normal human, you are—"

The letters twisted. The black ink curled inward, writhing like dying insects on the parchment.

"What?" I muttered, wiping at the page. "Stop."

The words erased themselves. The paper rejected my eyes. I frantically flipped to the next page. Blank. The next. Blank.

"No, no, no. Tell me!" I yelled at the book. "What am I?"

Sentences materialized and instantly dissolved into gray ash. I shook the binding. Only two words flared bright red against the final page before vanishing entirely.

*Anchor Bloodline.*

The leather crumbled. The entire journal turned to dust, slipping through my fingers to the stone floor.

"You smell like Kade."

I spun around. Jax leaned against the heavy iron door, blocking my exit. His fiery red hair caught the dim light.

"And lies," Jax added, stepping into the chamber. "Lots of lies."

"Get out of my way, Jax," I demanded.

He didn't move. His golden eyes locked onto the angry, bruised bite mark on my collarbone. His nostrils flared. "He overwrote me. My mark was there first."

"I'm not a whiteboard," I snapped. "Move."

"He thinks he owns you now," Jax growled, closing the distance between us in two long strides. He backed me against the cold stone wall. "I found you first. You're my toy."

"Don't touch me," I warned, pressing my palms flat against the rock.

"Or what?" Jax taunted. He reached for my throat.

I ducked under his arm, shoved his hip hard, and bolted past him.

"Ava!" he barked.

I sprinted out of The Vault, tearing down the main hallway. My bare feet slapped against the hardwood. I grabbed the first brass handle I saw, shoved the door inward, and threw myself inside.

I slammed the heavy bolt shut.

My shoulders hit the wood. I sucked in a massive gulp of air. Safe.

Soft piano music drifted through the room. Classical. Debussy.

I turned my head.

A waterproof record player sat on the edge of a massive, claw-foot bathtub.

Kade lay submerged in the water. Fully clothed. A crisp white dress shirt clung to his chest, and black trousers darkened in the bath. He didn't even open his eyes.

But that wasn't the craziest part.

A massive, soaking wet black wolf tail hung over the porcelain edge, dripping onto the tile.

"What in the world are you doing?" I whispered.

"Listening to music," Kade replied, his voice entirely flat.

"You're fully clothed in a bathtub. With a tail."

"The water is calming."

Fists pounded against the door behind me. The wood rattled.

"Open the door, Ava!" Jax shouted from the hallway. "You can't hide in there forever!"

I pressed my hands against the panels, bracing my weight. "Leave me alone!"

"I'm breaking it down!" Jax yelled.

I looked at Kade. "Are you going to let him break the door?"

"He won't," Kade said.

"He sounds pretty determined."

Kade finally opened his eyes. Whiskey-colored irises fixed on the ceiling. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't even sit up.

"This is my territory," Kade stated.

The words carried a bizarre, low-frequency vibration. An infrasonic wave rolled through the air, rattling the mirror and vibrating against my teeth. The pressure pushed outward, slicing right through the solid wood door.

Outside, the pounding stopped instantly. A sharp gasp echoed in the hall. Footsteps scrambled backward, turning into a frantic, panicked sprint away from the bathroom.

Silence returned. Just the piano music and the sound of water lapping against porcelain.

Kade gripped the edges of the tub and pulled himself up. Water poured off his clothes in sheets. His black tail twitched, sending droplets flying across the room.

He stepped out, his wet shoes squelching on the tile. He grabbed a white hand towel from the rack and walked toward me.

"You're making a mess," I said, eyeing the puddle forming around his feet.

"You're bleeding," he countered.

He crouched down until we were eye-level. He pressed the soft towel against my collarbone. The fabric stung the fresh wound he had given me the night before.

"Jax broke the scab," I accused, wincing.

"Jax lacks discipline." Kade tossed the bloody towel into the sink.

"He lacks a muzzle. Keep him away from me."

He pressed his bare thumb directly against the pulse point on my neck. His skin felt like ice.

"Your heart is erratic," Kade noted.

"I just ran for my life. What's your excuse for the tail?"

"A side effect of the moon," he answered simply. "Hold still."

"Don't you dare bite me again," I ordered, putting my hands on his wet chest to push him away.

He didn't budge. "I'm not claiming you this time."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Fixing your panic."

He lowered his head. His lips brushed my skin, sending a violent shiver down my spine. Then, his teeth sank in.

It wasn't a sharp, brutal attack like the clearing. It was agonizingly slow. A deep, grinding pressure that bypassed my skin and dug straight into my nervous system.

I gasped, my fingers curling into his soaked shirt.

The metallic tether in my chest snapped tight. My heartbeat stuttered. Then, it shifted rhythm. *Thump-thump.* A pause. *Thump-thump.*

It wasn't my rhythm. It was his. He was forcing my heart to sync with his own.

A tidal wave of emotion crashed into my brain. It didn't belong to me. Starving hunger. Violent possessiveness. A dark, suffocating paranoia that demanded control over every living thing in the house.

"Stop," I choked out, tears stinging my eyes. "It's too much."

Kade pulled back.

His whiskey eyes were gone. I had never seen them do that before — no whiskey, no gold, nothing. Just solid, terrifying black filling his sclera from edge to edge.

He stared at me for a long, silent moment. The heavy emotion radiating from him slowly dialed back, retreating behind his usual cold mask.

"Sleep in the tub," Kade instructed, his voice entirely devoid of inflection.

"Why would I sleep in a wet tub?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"Because it's safer than your room."

He turned around and opened the bathroom door.

He walked out into the hallway, leaving a trail of water behind him. He didn't even try to hide the massive black tail dragging across the floorboards.

I stared at the empty doorway, my forced heartbeat hammering against my ribs.

My knees finally gave out. I sank onto the closed toilet lid, staring at the wet footprints fading on the tile.

I need a bigger spreadsheet.