"Kael!"

I scrambled off the wet flagstones, ignoring the fire blazing in my raw palms. The headlights cut through the sheets of downpour, framing his broad shoulders as he stepped out of the sedan.

He was here. He would make them listen. He would take me away from this nightmare.

"Kael, thank God," I sobbed, rushing forward to throw my arms around his neck.

A heavy hand struck my chest, shoving me back with brutal force.

My boots slid on the slick gravel. I barely caught my balance before falling, staring up at him through wet strands of hair.

Kael wiped his palm against his dark slacks, his nose wrinkling. "Dirty."

The single word hit me harder than my father’s blows.

"What?" I choked out, shivering. "Kael, it’s me. Look at me. I was taken. I almost died in the woods—"

He didn't bother answering. Turning back toward the open car door, he reached into the rear seat and pulled out a massive bouquet of deep crimson roses. Fresh, perfect, wrapped in silver foil.

Relief fluttered weakly in my chest. He had brought them for me. He had been looking for me after all.

"You... you brought those for me?" I reached out a trembling hand toward the stems. "Kael, please, take me away from here."

"Don't touch them," he commanded, pulling the bouquet out of my reach.

I froze. "What?"

"Starting today, we're done." His voice was flat, colder than the rain running down my neck.

"Done?" The word made no sense. "What are you talking about? We've been together for two years!"

"Things change, Valerie."

"Why?" I grabbed his sleeve, desperate for an answer, but he yanked his arm away instantly. "What did I do? Tell me!"

"Look at you," he sneered, looking down his nose at my torn clothes and bleeding skin. "I am the future Alpha of this pack. I need a woman who can stand beside me at the summit. Someone who commands authority. Someone with strength."

"I loved you," I whispered, my voice breaking. "You said none of that mattered. You promised—"

"I was being polite," he snapped. "A future Alpha cannot be chained to a useless Omega who can't even awaken her wolf. You're a liability. You always have been."

"Kael..."

He didn't wait for another word. Turning on his heel, he carried the roses straight toward the house.

"Kael, stop!"

I chased after him, stumbling through the open French doors and back into the brightly lit living room.

My parents stood by the hearth alongside Kael’s parents, Alpha Marcus and his wife. Glasses of wine were raised in their hands. And right in the center of the room stood Serena, her lips painted red, wearing my birthday dress.

Kael walked straight past everyone and stopped right before my sister.

"Happy birthday, Serena," Kael said softly. He offered her the crimson roses with a gentle, attentive smile I had never seen on his face before.

Serena gasped softly, cradling the flowers to her chest. "They're gorgeous, Kael. You remembered."

"Of course I did," Kael replied, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek.

My breath trapped in my throat. The room spun.

"You two..." I stepped forward, water dripping from my ruined hem onto the hardwood. "How long?"

The room fell dead silent.

My mother rolled her eyes. "Are you still here? Get out before I have the guards drag you into the street."

I didn't look at her. My gaze remained locked on Kael. "How long have you been sleeping with my sister?"

Serena laughed, a light, mocking sound. "Does it matter, Valerie? You were gone. For weeks. Did you really expect an Alpha like Kael to sit around waiting for a ghost?"

"You stole him," I whispered.

"I didn't steal anything," Serena countered, linking her arm through Kael's. "He chose me. Because I have a wolf. Because I can actually give him strong heirs. What were you going to give him? Shame?"

I ignored her poison and looked directly into Kael's eyes. My vision blurred with burning tears, but I refused to let them fall.

"I was missing for three weeks," I said, my voice shaking with a quiet, terrible rage. "I was starving in the dark, bleeding, terrified. Did you look for me, Kael? Did you search for me even once?"

Kael held my stare for a fraction of a second. Then his eyes drifted toward the floor.

He didn't say a word.

The silence was the final knife through my heart.

He hadn't searched. He hadn't cared. The moment I vanished, he simply walked into my bedroom and took my sister instead.

A bitter, broken laugh escaped my throat.

"Valerie, stop making a fool of yourself," my father barked from across the room. "Leave now."

"I'm going," I said quietly.

I looked at Kael one last time. Every shred of love, every fragile memory of the past two years, crumbled into dust.

"Remember this, Kael," I said, my voice steadying, sharp enough to cut bone. "You're the one throwing me away today. Don't you ever forget it."

He flinched, just barely, but said nothing.

I turned my back on them all and stepped back out through the shattered patio doors into the pouring rain.

The cold hit me immediately, soaking straight to my bones. My knees trembled violently. The adrenaline was draining away, leaving only pure, crushing exhaustion. I stumbled across the lawn toward the driveway, my vision tunneling into black edges.

*Just keep moving,* I told myself. *Anywhere but here.*

The low rumble of a heavy engine vibrated through the mud under my boots.

Twin beams of brilliant white light sliced through the downpour, blinding me. A massive, matte-black off-road vehicle rumbled past the iron gates and braked hard at the curve of the drive.

The driver’s door swung open.

A man stepped out into the storm, unfurling a wide black umbrella.

He was enormous—tall, broad-shouldered, radiating an oppressive, suffocating aura of pure Alpha authority that made the air itself feel heavy.

Behind me, startled gasps echoed from the open patio doors.

"Damon?" Kael’s father, Marcus, stammered from the porch steps, his wine glass frozen mid-air. "What are you doing here?"

Damon.

The eldest son of the pack's ruling line. The rogue brother who had walked away from the family years ago after a bitter feud, the one they never spoke of.

Damon didn't spare Marcus a single glance.

His boots crunched over the gravel as he strode directly toward me. Through the rain, I caught the sharp line of his jaw and eyes that burned with lethal, silver intensity.

"Hey," his voice was deep, scraping like gravel over steel. "Can you stand?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but the ground tilted violently beneath me.

My legs gave out completely.

Darkness rushed in, and I plunged forward.

Before I hit the mud, a massive, warm arm locked around my waist, pulling me securely against a solid chest. The scent of cedarwood, rain, and fresh earth enveloped me, instantly driving back the cold.

"Brother, leave her alone!" Kael’s voice shouted from the porch steps. He was jogging down the path, his face tight with irritation.

Damon halted, his arm securely supporting my limp weight under the shelter of the umbrella. He cut his silver gaze toward Kael.

"She has nothing to do with you," Kael said coldly, stopping a few paces away. "She’s just a useless Omega who got kicked out by her own family. Let the guards handle the trash."

Damon looked down at my face, taking in the scratches along my cheeks and the torn, soaked rags clinging to my shivering frame.

Without a word of hesitation, he shifted the umbrella to one hand, shrugged out of his heavy woolen coat, and wrapped it securely around my body. The thick fabric trapped an immediate wave of heat against my freezing skin.

Then, he looked up at his younger brother.

"Works out then," Damon said, his tone entirely devoid of warmth. "I'm someone this family didn't want either."

He bent down, hooked his arm under my knees, and effortlessly lifted me against his chest.

Kael's expression instantly froze. His jaw tightened so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek, his fingers curling into fists at his sides. For the first time all night, an unsettling, bitter tightness flickered across Kael’s eyes as he stared at me in his brother's arms.

Damon turned his back on him and carried me straight toward the black vehicle.

The ceiling above me was dark wood, crossed by heavy timber beams.

A wool blanket covered me to my chin, completely dry and smelling faintly of pine.

"Awake?"

A low baritone broke the quiet.

I sat up fast, wincing as the pulled muscles in my ribs flared with sharp heat. Damon sat in a leather armchair near the unlit hearth, an open book resting flat on his knee. He wore a simple charcoal sweater, the sleeves pushed up over thick forearms lined with faint, silver scars.

My mind scrambled through the blank fog in my head. I knew his face from old pack portraits, but nothing more.

"You're Kael's brother," I rasped.

"Half-brother," he corrected quietly, shutting the book. "Drink."

He pointed to a steaming mug of tea on the bedside table.

"Why brought me here?" I pulled the blanket closer. "Where are we?"

"My estate. North boundary." Damon leaned back, watching me with steady gray eyes. "You collapsed in the mud. I don't leave people to freeze."

"I don't remember you," I admitted, my voice dropping. "I don't remember the last few weeks at all. I don't know who took me, or why."

"Then don't strain yourself trying to piece it together today." He stood up, towering over the furniture without making a sound. "No one enters this house without my permission. You stay until your head clears."

"Just like that?" I searched his expression for a trap. "You don't want anything from me?"

"What could you possibly give me?" Damon countered, walking toward the heavy oak door. "Rest, Valerie."

The nights, however, offered no peace.

Every time I shut my eyes, the black trees closed in around me. Mud coated my mouth. Heavy paws thudded against wet leaves, chasing me through the dark while claws raked across my shoulder blades.

I bolted upright, gasping for air, drenched in sweat.

"Valerie."

Damon stood in the doorway, framed by the amber hall sconces. He didn't cross the threshold. He stayed three paces back, leaning against the doorframe with folded arms.

"Another nightmare?" he asked calmly.

"They won't stop," I whispered, pressing shaking palms against my temples. "I keep hearing them behind me."

"Nothing is behind you," he said. "The perimeter wards are solid. Take three slow breaths."

I did, watching him through the shadows. He stayed right there until my chest stopped heaving, never stepping closer, never prying into the dark details I couldn't explain.

"Damon?"

"Hm?"

"Why aren't you disgusted by me?"

He tilted his head slightly. "Explain."

"Everyone knows," I said bitterly. "My parents threw me out because I'm an Omega who never awakened a wolf. Kael left me for Serena because I'm useless to a future Alpha. Yet you brought me to your home."

Damon looked at me for a long beat.

"Whether you have a wolf or not," he said, his voice flat and unbothered, "what does that have to do with me?"

I blinked, stunned into silence.

No one had ever said that to me. Not my father. Not my mother. Not the boy who swore he loved me. To everyone else, my worth was measured purely by the beast sleeping inside my veins.

"Drink your water and sleep," Damon added, turning away into the hallway. "Morning comes early."

Two days later, the rain finally broke into crisp autumn wind.

Damon took me down to the lower gate to collect fresh medical supplies from a courier. The mountain air bit at my skin, so Damon had tossed his heavy black wool coat over my shoulders before we walked out. The hem brushed my ankles, swaddling me in his scent of cedar and clean frost.

We turned up the cobblestone path toward the front courtyard—and stopped.

A sleek gray sports car blocked the turnaround circle. Leaning against the hood was Kael.

His leather jacket was unzipped, his hair wind-blown, and his face twisted into an ugly, impatient scowl. The moment his gaze found me, his jaw hardened until the muscle jumped.

"What the hell is this?" Kael snapped, marching straight toward us.

Damon didn't flinch. He stayed half a step ahead of me, his hands buried casually in his pockets.

Kael ignored his brother completely and grabbed my wrist, his grip digging into my bruised skin. "What are you doing here, Valerie?"

I ripped my arm out of his grasp with all my strength. "Don't touch me."

Kael looked startled by the venom in my voice, but his anger flared right back up. His eyes dragged down the oversized black coat wrapped around my frame.

"You've been staying with him?" Kael demanded, his teeth grinding audibly. "In his house? Wearing his clothes?"

"Why do you care?" I asked, staring at him like he was an absolute stranger. "Didn't you tell me to get lost three nights ago?"

Kael flinched, his throat working as if choked on his own words.

"That was—" He cut himself off, his cheeks flushing with dark color. "That was family business! You don't run straight to my exiled brother to play house!"

"You handed my sister roses and told me I was garbage," I said coldly. "We're done. You said those exact words. Remember?"

"Valerie, shut your mouth," Kael hissed, stepping closer.

Damon shifted his frame, planting himself like a granite wall directly between us.

"Back off, Kael," Damon murmured. The words were quiet, but the air turned freezing cold with raw dominance.

Kael's chest heaved. He glared up at his older brother, his fists trembling at his sides. "Stay out of this, Damon. Don't touch my woman."

Damon looked down at him with pure disdain.

"Your woman?" Damon tilted his chin, his silver eyes flashing with mockery. "Didn't you already throw her away?"

The courtyard went dead silent.

Kael’s face drained of color, then flushed a furious, humiliated crimson. "You think you can just take whatever I leave behind?"

"You left trash on the curb," Damon replied coolly. "I brought a guest inside. The only person making a scene here is you."

"You bastard—" Kael lunged forward, his claws threatening to erupt through his knuckles.

"Stop it! Both of you!" I snapped, my patience snapping entirely.

I didn't want to hear Kael's pathetic excuses, and I didn't want to be an excuse for their ancient sibling war.

"I'm going inside," I said, turning my back on both of them to head up the stone steps.

Then, the world seemed to slow down.

A faint sound—barely louder than the flutter of an insect wing—hissed through the cold wind from the dense tree line fifty yards away.

*Ssshk.*

It was high, sharp, and cutting straight toward the back of my neck.

My mind didn't process what it was. But my muscles moved on their own.

Without turning, I dropped my shoulder, twisting my torso to the left with fluid, effortless precision.

*THWACK.*

A jagged iron throwing dart whistled past my ear, shearing through a strand of my hair before burying itself three inches deep into the heavy oak pillar beside the porch.

The wood splintered with a violent crack.

I froze, staring at the quivering metal tail. My heart hammered against my ribs, but my body felt completely balanced, braced on the balls of my feet like a coiled spring.

Silence blanketed the courtyard.

Kael stood frozen near the drive, his mouth slightly open, completely baffled by what had just occurred.

Behind me, Damon hadn't moved to check the treeline.

His eyes were locked squarely on me. The calm, detached indifference on his face had shattered into sharp, calculating shock.

A normal, wolfless Omega couldn't hear an iron projectile slicing through the wind fifty yards out.

And she certainly couldn't dodge it without looking.