"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.

"Tripwire goes here," a voice mumbled from the edge of the roof.

I froze, my hand hovering over the metal hatch. I had just retrieved my canvas backpack from the tar surface. Inside were my only lifelines in Blackwood Manor: a battered five-year-old laptop, three stale protein bars, and a faded Polaroid of my mother.

"No, a pressure plate is better," the voice continued, echoing off the brick. "She steps on it, the net drops. But I want her to walk in willingly."

"Who are you talking to?" I called out.

I crept to the ledge and peered over.

Leo crouched on the second-floor balcony directly below. He wore a faded gray hoodie, blending into the masonry like a ghost. He dragged a piece of red chalk across the stone floor, sketching an intricate maze.

"Are you building a trap for me?" I demanded.

Leo dropped the chalk. He grabbed the iron railing, swung his body upward, and vaulted onto the roof in one fluid motion.

"Stay back," I warned, stumbling away from the ledge.

He backed me right into the brick chimney. His gray eyes, flecked with bright gold, scanned my face. He studied me like a locked puzzle box he wanted to pry apart.

"You forgot your bag," Leo said.

"And you're drawing booby traps on the balcony," I shot back.

"I like puzzles," he murmured. "Jax claimed your shoulder."

"I didn't ask him to."

He reached out and tapped my collarbone. "Kade claimed your neck."

"He assaulted me."

His fingers trailed down to my right arm. "Griffin claimed your wrist."

I slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me."

"That leaves plenty of territory," he finished.

"I am not a map for you to divide up," I snapped. "I belong to myself."

"Not anymore."

Before I could dart past him, he grabbed my left arm. He yanked it upward.

"Let go of me!" I snapped, aiming a kick straight at his shin.

He ignored the blows. He lowered his face to my exposed left wrist.

"Stop!" I shrieked.

His jaws opened. His canines pierced my skin.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the tearing pain I felt with Kade. It didn't come. Leo didn't rip. He pressed. His teeth sank deep into the muscle and held firm. A cold, numbing sensation spread through my veins, leaving a dark, bruised ring of purple around the puncture wounds. A stamp of ownership.

He released my arm. A single drop of blood smeared across his lower lip. He flicked his tongue and licked it clean.

"Are you insane?" I gasped, clutching the fresh wound.

He didn't speak aloud. The words materialized directly inside my skull.

*Run, Ava. I love watching prey run.*

The mental whisper scratched against the inside of my brain.

"Get out of my head!" I screamed.

I shoved past him. I sprinted for the roof hatch, practically throwing myself down the ladder.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted at the empty stairwell.

I didn't stop until I burst through the back patio doors.

The garden was gone.

Yesterday, it was an open lawn of dead grass. Today, towering walls of black thorns twisted ten feet into the air. A living labyrinth.

"What did you do?" I whispered to the empty air.

*I made you a playground.* His voice echoed in my mind again.

I plunged into the narrow dirt path. Thorns tore at my jeans. I took a left. A dead end. I spun around, taking a right. The hedges shifted, closing the gap behind me with a sickening rustle of dry leaves.

"Open up!" I screamed at the briars.

The maze was herding me. Every wrong turn forced me deeper into the center.

The thorny walls parted, dumping me onto a patch of crushed gravel. A small stone chapel stood in the center of the clearing. Its iron doors hung half-open.

I rushed inside. I collapsed onto the cold stone floor, my knees hitting the gravelly surface near the altar. My lungs burned. My hands shook violently.

"Please, just stop," I prayed to the empty room.

The heavy iron doors groaned.

Leo strolled into the chapel.

The moment his sneakers touched the stone, the ground hissed. Plumes of white smoke curled around his ankles. The consecrated earth literally burned him.

He didn't stop. He smiled, his gray eyes shining in the dim light.

"You invited me in," Leo whispered, taking another agonizing step forward. "How polite."

"I didn't invite anyone!" I scrambled backward until my spine hit the wooden pews. "Get out!"

"The maze brought you right to me," he said.

"Because you forced the walls to move!"

"A good puzzle adapts to the player," Leo countered.

"I am not playing a game with you."

"You don't have a choice, Ava."

He lunged. His cold hands wrapped around my windpipe.

I clawed at his fingers. My vision blurred.

*CRACK.*

The sound of shattering timber and stone exploded through the chapel.

Leo released my throat instantly. He spun around.

Silas stood in the doorway.

The massive Alpha blocked the moonlight. His knuckles dripped with fresh, dark blood. Dust coated his shoulders, as if he had punched straight through the masonry to get here.

"Silas," Leo murmured, his voice tight.

Silas didn't utter a single syllable. The silence was heavier than a scream. His blood-red eyes locked onto Leo.

Leo's smile vanished. He raised both hands in the air, a silent surrender. He took a slow step backward, then another, retreating out of the chapel and into the maze.

I gasped for air, clutching my bruised throat. "Thank you."

Silas remained perfectly still. His red gaze dropped to my bleeding left arm. He examined the fresh bite on my wrist. He watched the vein pulse against the purple bruise.

Then, he looked down at his own bloody fists.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, my voice barely a croak.

He didn't offer a hand. He didn't answer my question.

He turned on his heel and melted into the shadows.

I knelt alone on the gravel. A violent shiver racked my spine.

The truth hit me like a physical blow.

Silas didn't track me down to save my life.

He came to see which of his brothers was playing with his favorite toy.