Chapter 3 First Threat

Liana

POV

The attack came at dusk.

I was still on the training grounds when the first foreign scent hit me, sharp, wrong, and far too close to the estate. My wolf surged so hard my vision flashed gold. A second later Kael was already moving, shoving me behind him as three wolves broke from the tree line.

They weren't from any allied pack.

Kael shifted mid-stride. The massive black wolf slammed into the first attacker with bone-cracking force. I barely had time to process it before the second one came at me. Instinct took over. My wolf ripped free, and then something else ripped free with her.

Power exploded out of me in a violent, uncontrolled wave. It wasn't normal shifter strength. It felt older. Heavier. Like something buried in my blood had been waiting for an excuse to surface. The third attacker staggered mid-lunge, ears flattening, but the second one still reached me. Claws tore across my shoulder and down my arm. Pain detonated white-hot. I hit the ground hard, the dual power still pouring off me in unstable pulses that made my vision blur.

Kael's roar shook the clearing.

He finished the last hunter with brutal efficiency, jaws crushing its throat until the body went limp. When he shifted back, blood streaked his chest and throat, and his eyes were pure, burning gold. He turned to me, breathing hard.

"You're hurt."

"It's-" I looked down. Blood ran freely down my arm. The power was still crackling under my skin, refusing to settle. "I can't shut it off."

Kael's expression darkened. He dropped to his knees beside me, one hand gripping my uninjured shoulder, the other hovering over the wound like he didn't trust himself to touch it.

Blood still ran warm down my arm. The dual power under my skin refused to settle, it pulsed in uneven waves, gold bleeding through my vision every few seconds. Kael's hand stayed locked on my uninjured shoulder, grip hard enough to bruise, as if letting go would mean losing me to the next set of teeth.

"You're shaking," he said.

"I'm fine."

"You're not." His voice dropped. "That power came out uncontrolled. They felt it. Anyone within miles of this estate felt it. The next group won't send three. They'll send enough to take you alive."

I looked at the bodies at the edge of the clearing. My stomach turned. "I didn't mean to-"

"I know." He exhaled once, sharp. "That doesn't change what it means. Your bloodline is no longer a secret. It's a beacon."

The mate bond pulled tight between us, raw from the fight and the scent of my blood. For a second his control slipped, eyes pure gold, jaw locked, the urge to pull me closer written in every line of his body. Then he forced it down again.

"You're coming with me," he said. "We leave for Draven territory as soon as the wound is bound. Today. No argument."

I wanted to argue anyway. The words died when I saw the look on his face. It wasn't only protection. It was fear of what hunted me, and of what he felt while he did it.

---

"Look at me," he ordered.

I did. The bond surged hard between us, feeding off the leftover violence and the fear still pumping through my system. For a second his control visibly slipped, eyes flashing, jaw locked, the scent of his want cutting through the blood and dirt. Then he forced it down.

"You're leaving," he said. Not a suggestion.

Kael

POV

The moment I scented them I knew.

Hunters. Not random rogues. They had come specifically for her bloodline. The residual power from her awakening had already drawn attention, faster and more aggressively than I had prepared for. That meant someone with real resources was already moving.

Seeing her power surge out of control in the middle of the fight made it worse. It wasn't just rare. It was unstable. Visible. The kind of thing that would make every ambitious Alpha and bloodline collector in the region start sharpening their knives.

Elias met us at the edge of the grounds, face pale as he took in the bodies and the blood running down his daughter's arm. "What the hell was that?"

"People who want her," I said. My voice came out flat. "Her first shift wasn't quiet. Word is already moving through the wrong channels."

Elias looked at Liana. Gold still flickered in her eyes. Power still radiated off her in uneven waves. "We'll increase patrols-"

"No." I faced him fully. "Patrols won't be enough. Not for what's coming. She's not safe here."

Silence stretched, heavy with twenty years of friendship and the promise I had made his wife on her deathbed.

"You're taking her to Draven territory," Elias said slowly.

"Yes."

Liana wiped blood from her arm with a shaking hand. "You're deciding this without asking me?"

I met her eyes. "You felt their intent. They weren't here to test boundaries. They were here to take you. The next group won't be only three, and they won't hesitate the way these ones did when your power flared."

Her jaw tightened, but she didn't argue. The bond between us pulsed hard, feeding off the adrenaline and the fear neither of us wanted to name. I could still smell her blood. My wolf was losing his mind over it, over the injury, over the hunters, over the fact that she was standing too close while still radiating that rare, unstable power.

Elias looked like he wanted to refuse. Instead he nodded once, grim. "Keep her alive."

"I will."

I didn't tell him the greater danger.

The greater danger was what would happen once I had her under my roof, behind my walls, bleeding and powerful and looking at me like I was the only solid thing left. I had barely kept my hands off her when we were under her father's roof. In my own territory, with no one left to interrupt, I was no longer sure I could.

That was the part that scared me most.

Not the hunters.

Myself.