Chapter 5

Elana POV

The first sensation was warmth. Not the searing, burning heat of pain that had been my last memory, but the gentle, rhythmic radiating heat of a hearth fire.

My eyelids felt heavy as lead as I forced them open. Rough-hewn wooden beams stretched across the ceiling above me. The air was thick with the scent of drying herbs, pine tea, and the unmistakable musk of woodsmoke.

"She's awake, Dad!" a young female voice called out, sharp with relief.

A rugged man with a graying beard and weather-beaten skin appeared in my periphery. He wore a Park Ranger uniform, but the scent hit me instantly-earth, rain, and predator. Wolf.

"Easy now," he said, his voice rough but laced with kindness. "You washed up three miles downstream. You've been out for two days."

I tried to shift my weight, but a jagged line of fire seared through my abdomen, stealing the breath from my lungs.

"Don't," the girl said, stepping into view. She looked about sixteen, her hands clutching a ceramic bowl of broth. "You lost a lot of blood. And... well, the miscarriage took a toll."

The word hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. I stared into the dancing flames of the fireplace, my hand drifting instinctively to my stomach. It was flat. Silent. The tiny, fluttering spark of life I had carried was gone, leaving behind only a hollow, aching void.

"I know," I whispered, the admission scraping my throat.

"I'm Silas," the man said, pulling up a stool. "This is my daughter, Mara. We're solitary. We watch the borders."

"I'm Elana," I croaked.

"We know," Silas said grimly. "The Obsidian Pack has been... active."

He walked to a sturdy oak table and picked up a waterlogged leather satchel. My drafting bag. "Found this snagged on a branch near you."

I reached out, clutching the bag to my chest like a lifeline. It was the only piece of my old life that hadn't betrayed me.

"Two days?" I asked, my voice gaining a fraction of strength. "Does Emilio know I'm alive?"

"He thinks you're dead," Silas said, his expression hardening. "He announced it yesterday. 'Tragic accident at the cliffs.' He's holding a memorial service tomorrow."

A bitter, fractured laugh escaped my lips. "A memorial. How touching."

"There's more," Mara said gently. She pointed to a stack of sleek, black boxes piled in the corner, looking utterly out of place in the rustic cabin. "Gamma Marcus dropped those at the border marker today. Said they were 'offerings for the spirit of the departed.' It's guilt money."

I looked at the boxes. Velvet cases. Designer logos. The price of a life.

"Open them," I said.

Mara hesitated, glancing at her father, then opened the top box. It was a diamond necklace, the stones glittering cruelly in the firelight. It looked heavy. Cold. Like a shackle.

"Trash," I said, the word tasting like bile. "Burn it."

"But-"

"Burn it all," I commanded. My voice held a strange resonance I had never heard before-a low, vibrating thrum that seemed to rattle the very floorboards. Not a standard Alpha's Command, but something... older. Something ancient.

Mara looked at me, her eyes widening in surprise. Without a word, she threw the necklace into the fire. The metal didn't melt immediately, but the velvet box flared up, consumed by cleansing heat.

"I don't want his money," I said, watching the flames lick at the diamonds. "I want the truth exposed."

Suddenly, Silas stiffened. He spun toward the door, his nostrils flaring as he sampled the air.

"Rogues," he growled, his posture shifting from caretaker to warrior.

"Here?" Mara gasped, dropping the poker.

"Not random," Silas said, already moving to grab a pump-action shotgun from the wall mount. "They're tracking something. Or someone."

Me.

Hayden hadn't been satisfied with the river. She wanted to make sure the job was finished.

"How many?" I asked, pushing myself up. The pain was there, sharp and biting, but beneath it, something else was waking up. A hum in my blood. Like liquid moonlight trapped in my veins, overriding the weakness.

"Four," Silas said, checking the chamber. "Too many for me and Mara to hold off alone."

I looked around the cabin. I didn't see a home anymore. I saw angles. Stress points. Trajectories. It was sturdy. Built of logs. Defensible.

"I'm an architect," I said, my mind racing through blueprints and structural loads. I looked at the heavy iron chandelier hanging by a questionable chain above the door. The loose floorboards near the entrance. The jar of lantern oil on the shelf.

"Silas," I said, my eyes locking onto his with sudden intensity. "Give me ten minutes. I can turn this cabin into a deathtrap."

"You can barely stand," he argued, though he didn't lower the gun.

"I built the Obsidian Pack's defenses," I snarled, power surging through me. For a split second, Mara gasped, stumbling back.

"Dad," she whispered, pointing a trembling finger. "Her eyes... they turned white."

I didn't have time to question the supernatural shift. "Ten minutes, Silas. Or we all die."

Silas held my gaze for a heartbeat, seeing something that made the wolf inside him submit. He nodded. "You got it."

I grabbed a spool of fishing wire and the lantern oil, ignoring the screaming protest of my muscles.

Hayden wanted me dead? She was about to learn a fatal lesson: never hunt the architect within her own creation.