Chapter 4

The Alpha Next Door.

The trees thinned out. Land opened up ahead, marked by scent lines I did not know. Marcus walked a few steps in front of me, shoulders loose, feet sure on ground that clearly belonged to him.

I kept my arms crossed over my chest. Cold had nothing to do with it.

“You know who I am.”

“I know what your mate accused you of.” He looked back at me. “Not the same thing.”

I stopped. “So you think I’m guilty.”

“Didn’t say that.” He turned around fully. There was something in his face that was not calculation, not exactly. “I’ve spent the last hour going over what your mate accused you of. None of it adds up.”

Nobody had asked those kinds of questions in two days. Not the pack members who used to call me their Luna. Not the elders who watched me grow into that title year after year. Not the man who threw me out in front of everyone I had ever loved.

“What doesn’t add up?”

“The documents. Dated three days before the celebration.” He crossed his arms. “I’ve dealt with rival territories before, more than once. Intelligence like that doesn’t show up overnight. It leaves a trail somewhere, contact over weeks or months, not a stack of papers that surfaces all at once out of nowhere.”

I hadn’t thought about any of that. Too busy drowning in the humiliation of it to examine how the whole thing had actually been built.

“You’re saying somebody made it up.”

“I’m saying it’s possible.” His jaw tightened. “Not ready to call you innocent off a theory. Not ready to call you guilty either. Not until I know what actually happened.”

Wind cut between us. Somewhere past the tree line, unfamiliar wolf scent drifted in on it. I pulled my arms in tighter.

“Why do you even care?” I said. “You don’t know me. Owe me nothing.”

“Because I know your former mate.” Something dark crossed behind his eyes, gone almost before I caught it. “Never trusted him. Not once.”

That admission didn’t surprise me much. Alphas rarely trust each other, treaties or no treaties, shared celebrations or not.

“There’s history there,” I said. Not a question.

“There’s history everywhere in this region if you dig deep enough.” He started walking again, slower this time, like he wanted me beside him instead of trailing behind. “Your mate and I share a border. Shared a few disputes over hunting grounds a couple years back. Nothing that should matter to you.”

“Everything about him matters to me right now.”

He didn’t answer that. Just kept walking.

“I can offer you protection here. Temporary. Until we know what’s actually going on. Shelter, food, safety from anybody hunting a bounty.”

The offer landed on me like weight instead of relief. Six years I spent shaping myself into whatever a Luna was supposed to be for one man’s approval. The idea of walking into another Alpha’s territory, owing him before I’d even cleared my name, made something in my chest pull back hard.

“No.”

He raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“I get what you’re offering me.” My voice wasn’t steady, no matter how hard I tried. “But I just spent six years depending on a man who used that dependence to destroy me the second it worked in his favor. Not doing that again.”

“This isn’t the same thing.”

“You don’t know that. I don’t either.” I stepped back, put space between us I needed even with the cold cutting through my clothes. “I’d rather face what’s coming on my own than hand my safety to some other Alpha who might change his mind whenever it suits him.”

He looked at me a long moment. I braced for anger, for the kind of dismissal I’d gotten used to.

Instead something like respect showed up on his face.

“Your choice,” he said. “Won’t force help on somebody who doesn’t want it.”

Relief and dread, both at once.

“But know what you’re choosing.” His voice dropped. “Your mate’s already called you a traitor across every territory within three days of here. Bounty hunters will be looking for you before the week’s out. Rogues who don’t answer to any pack won’t think twice about using you for whatever reward’s on your head. Out here alone, you’re exposed in ways you can’t even account for yet.”

I thought about the strangers who’d cornered me an hour before this, sizing up what I was worth. Without him I’d already be in chains. Or dead.

“There’s also this,” he added. “Word travels fast between territories. My scouts already caught wind of the bounty your mate posted. Whoever brings you back gets land rights near the eastern border. That’s not a small offer. People will come looking, and they won’t be gentle about it.”

My stomach turned over. I hadn’t known about a bounty at all, hadn’t let myself imagine my former mate going that far.

“Not asking you to trust me.” Quieter now. “Asking you to be smart about it. Get your strength back behind walls that can protect you. Leave the second you don’t need them anymore.”

I looked past him toward the edge of his territory. Buildings, dark shapes against a sky going darker by the minute. Strangers behind those walls who’d hear what my mate accused me of and believe every word.

But past my own borders, hunters. Hunters who only cared what I was worth turned in.

“Temporary,” I said.

“Temporary.”

“And I work. For whatever you give me. Not walking around here as somebody’s charity case.”

Something flickered across his face. Gone fast. “Fine. There’s plenty that needs doing around here anyway.”

“What kind of work?”

“Haven’t decided yet.” A faint, dry note crept into his voice. “Wasn’t exactly planning on picking up strays tonight.”

I wanted to snap something back at that, but the exhaustion in my legs won out. I said nothing.

We covered the rest of the distance without talking much after that. My own decision sat heavy in my chest with every step I took. Hours ago, standing in the wreckage of everything I used to have, I told myself I’d never put my safety in another Alpha’s hands again.

Here I was anyway.

The gates came into view first, tall against the last light of the day. Wolves patrolled along the fence line, watching everything, watching me the moment I came into view. The second we crossed through, something shifted in the air. It moved through the gathered pack fast, faster than I could track it.

Talk stopped. Heads turned. A low sound started building through the crowd, spreading before I could figure out what it meant. Somewhere near the back, a woman grabbed another wolf’s arm and pointed straight at me.

Marcus’s face went hard. He’d noticed his own pack’s reaction too, and something about that made my stomach drop.

A young wolf near the gate whispered something to the man beside him. I caught only a few words. Enough to know they weren’t talking about a stranger.

They already knew who I was.