CHAPTER 5

Zeena’s POV

This definitely wasn’t the person I was expecting.

If anything, I would’ve preferred a goddamn bear right now–or even death itself.

Not Riven. Alpha Riven Thorne.

Not someone I thought I'd left behind.

“What the hell–?” the Ravenclaw Alpha snapped, turning toward the new voice. His wolves shifted uneasily, tension crackling like static before a storm.

“She’s not yours to handle.” Riven stepped out of the trees like sin dressed in leather, his dark hair falling over his brow, eyes gleaming like polished steel. “I’ve come for what’s mine.”

Oh Goddess, kill me now. Just end this please.

The alpha of Ravenclaw, like some old-world politician with too much ego–arched a brow, unimpressed. “Yours?” he drawled. “That half-broken trespasser?”

Excuse me. I’m right here. Dying, but still here.

Riven’s jaw ticked, and I saw it–that flash of pride, that annoying arrogance I once thought was charming. Idiot me. “Watch your mouth, Hillary,” he said, voice low, “She’s mine.”

Oh, Hillary was the name.

I was tired of this, I wasn't a possession to be owned. And yeah, if I wanted to be owned, it would definitely not be by this coward of an Alpha. I wasn't ready to go back to Stormclaw.

“She doesn’t smell like yours,” Alpha Hillary shot back, his tone sharpening. “She doesn’t smell like anyone’s. No wolf. No bond. No nothing. So don’t come here claiming what doesn’t belong to you.”

The two locked eyes, and the air around us thickened until it felt like trying to breathe through wet concrete. My heart thudded loud waiting for what was going to happen.

Oh great. They’re going to fight. Over me. Like I’m some prize cow at an auction.

“Hillary.” Riven’s voice dipped lower, silk over poison. “I’ll say this once. Hand her over.”

“And I’ll say this once,” Hillary snarled. “You’re on my land. You don’t make demands here.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Because what the hell was I supposed to say? Hey, guys, maybe don’t tear each other to shreds on my account? Yeah, that’d go over great.

“Take her in,” Alpha Hillary ordered, jerking his chin toward his men. Two wolves moved instantly, stepping toward me like shadows.

I flinched back, pain ripping through my arm. There was no point pretending to be unconscious anymore, but before they could touch me–

“Lay. A finger. On her. And lose it.”

The voice slid through the clearing like a blade. Deep. Cold. Final.

Every muscle in my body went still.

The wolves froze. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

And then he stepped out of the shadows too. What an entrance.

Alpha Ryder.

This wasn't the Alpha who’d cut my ropes and told me to run. Nor the Ryder with quiet eyes and that infuriating calm. Nor the one I only knew for like five minutes.

This Ryder looked like war given flesh. His eyes burned molten gold and silver?

His power rolling off him in waves so thick and so impressive at the same time. His wolf was there–just beneath the surface–snarling to be released.

“I was wondering when you’d show, nothing gets past you Ryder.” Alpha Hillary sneered, but I caught it–the flicker of something in his eyes. Annoyance. And maybe…hesitation?

Ryder didn’t look at him. Didn’t look at Riven. He looked at me. Just me. And something in my chest cracked open, a tiny bit of joy for been acknowledged?

“Step. Away,” he said again, his voice all Alpha command, the kind of command that makes lesser wolves fold without question.

Alpha Hillary’s men shifted nervously. One of the guards hesitated. The other took half a step forward.

Big mistake.

Ryder moved. One second he was five feet away, the next his clawed hand gripped the wolf’s wrist and snapped it like a twig. The sound echoed through the clearing. The wolf howled, collapsing to his knees. Before the second could blink, Ryder's hand was around his throat, slamming him into the dirt so hard the ground shook.

“Touch her again,” Ryder said softly, “and I’ll rip your spine out through your mouth.”

Oooohhhh

“Ryder.” Alpha Hillary’s voice was like frost now. “You’re in my territory.”

“And she’s mine,” Ryder said, calm as a goddamn glacier. “So I suggest you start praying I’m in a generous mood today.”

“You don’t get to claim what’s on my land,” Alpha Hillary shot back. His own power surged, colliding with Ryder’s like two storms meeting head-on. Trees shook. The ground vibrated under me. My stomach dropped.

No, I wasn't exaggerating, the ground literally vibrated and I felt it more because apparently, my whole body was on it.

“Then try and stop me,” Ryder said.

The air exploded. Wolves shifted halfway, claws and fangs glinting in the fading light. Growls rumbled low, primal, and dangerous. And right there, in the middle of it all, was me–bleeding, broken, and wondering why the hell my life had turned into an episode of Who Wants to be Claimed by a Murderous Alpha?

“Enough.” Riven’s voice sliced through the chaos. “You two want to kill each other, fine. But she leaves with me.”

“Who the fuck is this, and why is he here?,” Ryder asked.

“For the same reason you are, claims she's his.” Alpha Hillary generously explained like he couldn't wait for the drama that would unfold after.

Ryder chuckled, then turned to Riven coldly and amusingly, “What makes you think you're worthy of her?”

As much as I was tired of being spoken about like I wasn’t a person but a thing, I could hug Ryder right now.

“That question should be the other way round, what makes you think she's worthy of me?” Riven replied like what he just said made sense.

“If she isn't, why are you here?”

I wonder.

“She ran away, and I'm here for her.”

Let it go already. Let it go. You'd have still given me out.

“Then we have nothing to discuss, she left your pack, she's my mat–,

“She's your mate? how so?” Riven asked.

“Direct that question to the moon goddess. All I know is, she's leaving with me.”

Riven laughed–a harsh, brittle sound. “Over my dead body.”

“Oh, that can be arranged,” Ryder murmured.

“Stop,” I whispered, though my voice was swallowed by the tension. “Please–”

Neither moved. Their eyes were locked on each other, two predators circling in silence before the kill.

And before I could even say anything else, Riven lunged.