Chapter 3 A Stranger's Warning

The pack gathered at sundown, same as it always did for announcements that mattered, filling the clearing in front of the Alpha's lodge until there was barely room to stand. Wren stayed near the back, arms crossed, jaw set, telling herself she'd only come because Selene was right about one thing. People would notice if she didn't. She spotted the stranger from the training grounds almost immediately. He stood near the front, apart from the crowd in the way that mattered, not shoved to the edges but choosing the space between clusters of wolves who clearly didn't know what to do with him. No one stood close enough to touch him. No one looked at him directly for longer than a second. "Who is that," Wren asked the woman beside her, an older wolf named Ilsa who ran the healer's tent and had never once looked at Wren like she was something to laugh at. Ilsa had set her broken wrist once, years ago, without a single word about how she'd gotten it. Ilsa's eyes flicked toward the stranger and back, quick and wary. "Transferred in this morning. Says his name is Darius." She lowered her voice further. "Word is his father was a wolf and his mother wasn't. You understand what I'm telling you." Wren understood. The tightness in the air around him, the careful distance everyone kept, the way even the Beta's guards had positioned themselves closer to him than to anyone else in the crowd. Vampire blood didn't belong in a wolf pack. It never had. "And the Alpha's letting him stay?" "The Alpha doesn't have much choice." Ilsa's mouth thinned. "His pack's stronger than ours right now. Word came through that he wanted to observe us for a season. Nobody tells an Alpha like that no." A pair of Betas near the front kept glancing back at Darius every few seconds, hands never straying far from their sides. One of them said something low to the other, and they both laughed, too loud, the kind of laugh that came from nerves rather than humor. Before Wren could ask anything else, the crowd's noise dropped as Kade stepped out onto the lodge steps, Selene at his side in a deep green gown that made her look like she'd stepped out of a painting. The Alpha followed behind them, and the crowd fell into full silence. "Tonight," Kade said, voice carrying easily over the clearing, "I'm honored to announce my engagement." He reached for Selene's hand. She let him take it, chin lifted, eyes bright, playing the part like she'd been born for it, which maybe she had. "To Selene," Kade continued. "We'll be married at the next full moon." The clearing erupted into applause, into cheers, into the kind of noise that felt less like celebration and more like relief, like the whole pack had been holding its breath since last night and could finally let it go now that the story had a tidy ending. A few wolves near Wren clapped harder than necessary, throwing quick glances her way to see if she'd flinch. Wren clapped too, because not clapping would have drawn eyes, and she'd had enough eyes on her for one lifetime. Kade's gaze found her across the clearing. He held it a beat too long. Long enough that a few heads nearby turned to see what he was looking at, long enough that Wren felt her spine go rigid, long enough that Selene's smile flickered, just barely, before smoothing back into place. Then he looked away, and the moment was gone as if it had never happened at all. The crowd began to break apart into smaller clusters, congratulations and gossip weaving together into one steady hum. Wren turned to leave before anyone could corner her, and walked straight into Darius. She hadn't seen him move. One second he was standing near the front, and the next he was directly in her path, close enough that she had to tip her head back to hold his eyes. Up close he was younger than she'd expected, and colder, his eyes a shade of grey that didn't quite belong to any wolf she'd ever met. "You're the one they rejected," he said. Not a question. Wren's chin lifted a fraction. "Word travels fast." "It does when it's interesting." His gaze moved over her, unhurried, nothing like the way the pack had looked at her all day. Not searching for a flaw to laugh at. Just looking. "I watched the ceremony from the tree line last night. I wasn't going to say anything. Then I watched what happened at the training grounds this morning." Wren's stomach tightened. "You were spying on me." "I was standing in a clearing. You happened to be in it." A faint, humorless smile touched his mouth. "Your Alpha Prince rejected a mate bond in front of his entire pack and everyone clapped for him five minutes ago like he did something brave." "That's not your business," Wren said, taking a step back. "No," Darius agreed. "It isn't. Not yet." Something in the way he said it made the hair rise on her arms again, the same feeling she'd had at the tree line, low and electric and impossible to name. "What does that mean," Wren said. Darius didn't answer right away. His eyes moved past her shoulder, toward the lodge steps where Kade stood with his arm around Selene's waist, laughing at something one of his Betas had said. "It means I don't think this pack knows what it has," Darius said finally. Before Wren could ask what that meant, someone called his name from across the clearing, one of the Beta's guards, gesturing him toward the lodge. Darius held her gaze a second longer, unreadable, then inclined his head, just slightly, like he was filing something away for later. "We'll talk again," he said, and walked off toward the guard without waiting for her answer, unhurried, like he already knew she'd still be standing there when he looked back. Wren stood there, wrist still faintly warm where his eyes had lingered, and watched him go. Across the clearing, near the lodge steps, Kade was laughing at something Selene had said, his arm around her waist, not sparing Wren a single glance. Ilsa appeared at her elbow, following her line of sight toward the lodge. "Careful," she murmured. "That one's already had three mates before this pack. None of them lasted." Wren glanced at her sharply. "What happened to them?" Ilsa's eyes stayed fixed on Darius's retreating back. "Nobody knows for certain. And nobody's brave enough to ask him."