Chapter 4

Vicky found me the next night as if she’d been searching.

I was in the library—one of the few rooms where the nobles didn’t lounge, because it smelled like old paper instead of blood and perfume.

She didn’t knock. She never did.

“Sofia,” she said, voice bright, as if we were friends. “Come with me.”

I looked up from the book I wasn’t reading. “No.”

Her smile didn’t falter. “It wasn’t a request.”

Behind her stood two guards—Morretti men, dressed in black, eyes empty. They wouldn’t meet mine.

My skin went cold. “Where?”

“Outside,” Vicky said, as if the word itself was daring. “I’m bored. And you’re useful.”

I stood slowly. “James didn’t tell me anything.”

Vicky’s eyes gleamed. “He doesn’t tell you much, does he?”

I hated that she was right.

We left through a side entrance, slipping into the estate’s outer grounds. The night was thick, the air damp. The trees beyond the iron fence swayed like they were listening.

Vicky walked as if she owned every shadow. Her guards kept pace, eyes scanning the darkness.

I kept my hands in my pockets. I didn’t ask questions. Questions made people remember you were there.

After a few minutes, she slowed near the outer gate—farther than I’d ever been allowed to wander without James or Michael hovering nearby.

“You’re tense,” she said.

“I don’t like being dragged around,” I replied.

She laughed softly. “Dragged? Sofia, you should be grateful. I’m letting you pretend you have a life.”

I didn’t answer.

Vicky tilted her head. “Do you know what people call you when you’re not in the room?”

I stared at her. “I don’t care.”

“You should,” she said, stepping closer. “Because names become reality in our world.”

She circled me like a cat. “They say you’re a blood accident. A half-breed stain. A warm place James keeps because he can’t bear to throw away something he bit.”

My jaw tightened.

Vicky leaned in, whispering. “And James thinks the title bedmate elevates you. Isn’t that funny?”

I clenched my teeth hard enough to hurt. “Why did you bring me here?”

Vicky’s gaze flicked toward the trees beyond the gate. “Because I wanted fresh air.”

“Then breathe it,” I said.

She smiled. “I want you to open the gate.”

My spine stiffened. “No.”

“I said it wasn’t a request.” Her voice turned colder. “Open it.”

The guards shifted.

My pulse spiked. “Why?”

Vicky’s eyes narrowed with irritation. “Because I said so.”

I took a slow breath.

A gate was a boundary. Boundaries mattered. Especially near wolf territory.

“You’re not supposed to be out here,” I said carefully. “Not this far.”

Vicky’s smile returned—too sharp. “And yet here we are.”

She stepped closer, her perfume suffocating. “Do it. Prove you’re good for something besides bleeding.”

My hands trembled.

I reached for the iron latch.

The moment the gate creaked open, the night changed.

It wasn’t a sound.

It was a pressure—like the forest exhaled and the air got heavier.

The guards stiffened.

Vicky’s eyes widened for a heartbeat, then she masked it.

A low growl rolled out of the trees.

Not human. Not animal.

Wolf.

My blood went ice-cold.

“Close it,” I hissed.

Vicky didn’t move.

Another growl, closer now. The shadows between the trees shifted, reshaping into something too large, too wrong.

One of the guards muttered a curse.

Then the first wolf lunged.

It wasn’t a wolf the way humans meant the word. It was a nightmare in fur and muscle, eyes glowing pale gold, mouth too wide, teeth too long.

The guard closest to the gate raised his weapon—

And the wolf tore through him like cloth.

Blood sprayed warm across my face.

I stumbled back, heart slamming.

Vicky shrieked—high and sharp—and grabbed my arm, nails digging in.

“Protect me,” she hissed.

“I—” My voice broke.

Another wolf burst forward.

The second guard swung. He managed to slice its shoulder, but the beast didn’t slow.

It barreled into me.

I felt claws rake my side. Pain flared white-hot.

I hit the ground hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs.

Vicky stumbled back, screaming, her dress dragging in the dirt.

The wolf’s muzzle dipped toward my throat.

Instinct screamed.

I kicked, twisting, trying to crawl—

A dark blur slammed into the creature.

James.

He moved like a blade, fast enough that my eyes struggled to follow. His coat flared behind him like wings, and his face wasn’t calm anymore.

It was feral.

He tore the wolf off me with brutal strength, drove it into the iron fence, and snapped its neck with a sound like breaking wood.

Another wolf lunged.

James spun—

And then Vicky screamed again, louder, more panicked.

A wolf had reached her.

Its jaws closed around her forearm.

She cried out, sobbing, struggling, pureblood skin splitting under teeth.

James’s head snapped toward her.

For one second, his eyes met mine.

And in that second, I knew exactly what would happen.

James leapt toward Vicky.

He ripped the wolf off her, flung it aside, and hauled her against his chest, shielding her with his body.

I lay on the ground, bleeding, while the forest kept moving.

A wolf snarled near my feet.

I tried to push myself up, but my arms shook.

James didn’t come back.

He turned, still holding Vicky, and barked an order to someone I couldn’t see. Shadows moved—more guards, arriving too late.

“Get her inside,” James snapped.

Vicky clung to him, face pressed into his shoulder, shaking.

And then he carried her away.

The wolves didn’t chase. Not immediately.

They circled.

One of them stared at me with unsettling intelligence, head tilted, as if it recognized something in my blood.

Then it lunged.

I screamed.

---

I woke under harsh fluorescent lights.

Human hospital.

The smell of antiseptic burned my nose. My side throbbed with every breath, wrapped tight in bandages that couldn’t hide the deeper damage.

A nurse was adjusting an IV when she noticed my eyes open.

“Oh, thank God,” she said softly. “You’re awake.”

My throat was dry. “Where—”

“You’re safe,” she said quickly. “Borderline trauma unit. You were brought in from Morretti property.”

“Morretti,” I repeated.

The nurse hesitated. “He’s been here.”

My heart twisted despite myself. “James?”

She nodded. “Yes. He… he’s been checking on the other woman constantly. He brought in a private physician for her. Security. Everything.”

The words landed like stones.

The door opened.

James walked in.

His face was composed again, as if he’d put his monster back in its cage. There was dried blood on his knuckles. His coat was gone. His shirt collar was open.

His gaze fell on my bandages.

For a heartbeat, something like relief flickered.

Then it hardened.

“What were you thinking?” he demanded.

I stared at him. “I was thinking I didn’t want to die.”

His eyes narrowed. “You opened the gate.”

“I didn’t—” My voice cracked. “She told me to.”

His jaw tightened. “You should have refused.”

I laughed—short, bitter, ugly. “I did. She didn’t care.”

James’s gaze flicked away, as if he didn’t want to look too long at what he’d allowed.

“You’re lucky,” he said. “If the wolves had taken you—”

“If they had taken me, you would’ve gone after Vicky first anyway,” I said quietly.

Silence.

His eyes snapped back to mine.

“That’s not—”

“It is,” I cut in, voice low and shaking. “It always is.”

His mouth opened, then closed.

He turned sharply, as if the room offended him. “Rest. You’ll be escorted back to the estate when the doctor clears you.”

He said it like a sentence.

He left without touching me.

Later, I heard voices outside my curtain—hospital staff speaking too loudly, forgetting I could hear.

“Did you see him?” someone whispered. “The noble? He dragged in Lady Rossi himself.”

“He wouldn’t let anyone else touch her,” another said. “Got a private physician, special blood stock, the whole package.”

“And the other girl?”

A pause.

“She’s… fine,” the voice said, bored. “Just a mixed one.”

I lay there staring at the ceiling.

Just a mixed one.

By the time my wounds stopped bleeding through the bandages, my decision was no longer fragile.

It was stone.

I signed my discharge papers with a hand that didn’t shake.

I walked out of the hospital alone.

And when the sun hit my face, warm and ordinary, I didn’t feel pain.

I felt nothing at all.

Except the quiet certainty that I would never go back.