Chapter 4

I was halfway there when a wolf shape burst from the trees.

I swerved to avoid it, nearly went down, and barely kept my footing.

In the pause I took to recover, I caught the scent — a werewolf. Shadow Pack. Alpha Gabriel.

Relief loosened something in my chest. I shifted back. "Gabriel, you're exactly who I need—"

My words died as his hand closed around my arm.

Not a grip. A clamp. The kind of hold that locks someone in place and dares them to resist.

I went still.

Gabriel looked down at me. His mouth held a cold curve, and his eyes were thick with contempt — the look of a man staring at something he would happily crush underfoot.

"Been waiting for you," he said.

Something detonated in my mind.

"What does that mean?"

"Your Alpha," Gabriel said, biting each word clean and deliberate, "came to me early this morning. Told me you'd come down this trail to make contact with the vampires. Told me to wait here and intercept you."

I said nothing.

Because I suddenly remembered — in my first life, when Ethan discarded me, he had said the same thing. That I had lured the vampires. That I had conspired with them to get an innocent she-wolf killed.

*He had been reborn too.*

I should have seen it. I should have seen it from the beginning.

That was why, no matter how Sophia had begged, he hadn't come back — because he already knew what was going to happen. Because he had already decided how this would end and was simply waiting to pin it on me.

He had even moved to seal off my only avenue of rescue.

He was ruthless. Genuinely ruthless.

I swallowed every shred of my anger and let my posture drop into something quieter. There was no time for rage, no time for grief. I simply made my voice as level as I could, like a person recounting something obvious.

"Gabriel, I have no contact with the vampires. I came here because the Moonlight Pack's territory is under siege."

"They brought explosives. Our stone wall is nearly gone. Ethan took every one of our guards away. There are dozens of she-wolves and pups sheltering in the caverns right now."

"I need your warriors."

Gabriel was silent for a few seconds. He looked at me.

Then he laughed — a full, open laugh — and there was something in it that chilled me. Not cruelty. Genuine, unquestioning, absolute disbelief.

"Ella, you're quite the performer." He shook his head. "I almost bought it. But Ethan abandoning his post to take the guards out to watch a star show with a she-wolf? That's too far-fetched. I know the man. He's a veteran. He has more integrity than that."

"Gabriel," my voice began to fracture, "there's still time if we go now — if we wait much longer—"

"I won't let you go anywhere."

His hand tightened without warning.

My arm made a small, quiet, terrible sound.

The shoulder joint had been yanked from its socket.

The pain exploded from the joint and tore down my arm. I nearly cried out. I clenched my jaw until my teeth ached, felt my eyes go hot — not from pain, but from the helplessness flooding in from every side, drowning me.

Gabriel had already produced a length of rope.

He bound my wrists together, the knot pulled tight with no give at all. Then, gripping the loose end, he dragged me in the direction of his territory.

I fought him. The wrenched arm sent fire through my chest. I stumbled.

"Gabriel, let go—" My voice came out more desperate, more splintered than I intended. "I need to go back for them. There are pups in those caverns. She-wolves. They're waiting for me—"

"Save it." His back was to me; he didn't turn. His voice was perfectly calm in a way that made my blood run cold. "As long as I'm here, you're not going anywhere today."

I dug my heels in and glared at his retreating back.

"Do you know who's leading the vampires that attacked us?"