Chapter 3

We might be too late.

The words echo in my head as Kieran pushes the SUV to ninety. A hundred. The engine screams. Trees blur into black streaks.

My phone buzzes. I grab it.

Caspian: "Engaged. Four hostiles. They have the target."

Target. Mom's a target now.

"Caspian's fighting," I say. My voice sounds distant. "Four of them."

"He can handle four." Kieran's jaw is set. "He's Elite Guard. Best fighter I've got besides—"

He stops.

"Besides you," I finish. Because I know. I was the one who trained in secret, who took on jobs no one else would. The invisible Omega who killed for him.

He doesn't answer. Just drives faster.

We hit the industrial district twenty minutes later. Abandoned warehouses line both sides of the street. Broken windows. Graffiti. The kind of place pack wolves don't go after dark.

The kind of place you take someone you want disappeared.

Kieran kills the headlights and parks two blocks away. "Stay in the car."

"Like hell." I'm already out, hitting the ground running.

"Iris—"

I don't wait. My wolf surges forward, pushing against my skin. I let her. The shift tears through me—bones cracking, reshaping, silver fur rippling across my body. Four legs hit the pavement. My senses explode.

Blood. Sweat. Fear. Mom's scent, faint but there.

I run.

Behind me, Kieran curses. Then I hear his own shift—the deeper growl of a black wolf, bigger, stronger, built to lead.

I don't care. I'm faster.

The warehouse door's been kicked open. Inside, it's chaos. Caspian Reed—tall, blonde, built like a brick wall—is fighting three wolves in human form. His shirt's torn. Blood streaks his face. But he's holding them back from a van parked in the corner.

The fourth hostile is at the van. Dragging someone out.

Mom.

My vision goes red.

I hit the hostile like a silver bullet. We go down hard. He shifts mid-fall, becomes a brown wolf, snaps at my throat. I twist, sink my teeth into his shoulder. He screams. I taste blood.

Someone grabs my scruff, yanks me off. I snarl, spin—

Kieran's black wolf throws the brown wolf into a wall. Bone crunches. The wolf doesn't get up.

I don't wait. I shift back to human, run to the van.

Mom's slumped on the floor. Unconscious. There's a needle mark on her arm. Her face is pale. Too pale.

"Mom!" I shake her. "Mom, wake up!"

Her eyes flutter. "...baby? My baby? Iris...?"

Relief floods through me so hard I almost collapse. "Yeah. Yeah, it's me. You're safe now. I got you."

Behind me, the fight's ending. Caspian's got one hostile in a chokehold. Kieran—back in human form, pulling on his jeans—has another pinned to the ground. The other two aren't moving.

I lift Mom. She's lighter than I remember. Too light. Drugged and weak but alive. Alive.

I take three steps toward the door.

Pain explodes across my side.

I gasp, stumble. Look down. Blood's soaking through my shirt. A knife wound. Long. Deep. When did—

The brown wolf. The one Kieran threw. He's not dead. He's right behind me, blade in hand, grinning through broken teeth.

"Omega bitch," he snarls.

Kieran moves. One second he's across the room, the next he's there, and the hostile's neck is in his hands. There's a wet crack. The man drops.

"Iris." Kieran's hands are on me. Checking the wound. "Fuck. Caspian, get the woman to the car. Now."

"I'm fine." I try to push him away. My hands are shaking. "It's not that bad."

"You're bleeding everywhere."

"I said I'm fine."

Caspian lifts Mom like she weighs nothing, carries her out. I follow, pressing my hand to my side. Blood seeps through my fingers. Okay. Maybe it's worse than I thought.

When I finally tracked Mom down in the last life, I was too late. She was in some facility, locked in a cell that smelled like piss and despair. She didn't recognize me. Looked at me like I was a stranger. "Do I know you?" she asked. I tried to explain. Showed her pictures. She just stared, confused. They'd broken her mind. Erased her memories. I held her skeletal body and sobbed. She died three days later, calling for a daughter she couldn't remember.

Not this time. This time I got her back.

We reach the SUV. Caspian lays Mom in the back seat. She's breathing. Steady. She's going to be okay.

"Let me see." Kieran reaches for my shirt.

I step back. "Don't touch me."

"You're bleeding out."

"I'll heal."

"Not fast enough." His eyes are dark. Hard. "You're Omega. You heal slower. That wound needs Alpha healing."

"I don't need your help." My voice shakes. Dammit. "I don't need anything from you."

"Tough." He moves fast, grabs my wrist, pulls me toward him. His other hand presses against my wound.

I gasp. The touch sends lightning through my whole body. The mate bond flares, and I feel him. Really feel him. His guilt. His fear. His desperate need to fix this.

"Stop fighting me," he growls. "You're bleeding out."

"Don't touch me." I'm shaking now. Can't stop. "Your hands—they chose her over me. They held her. Protected her. They were never mine."

"They're yours now." His voice is raw. Broken. "They've always been yours. I was just too stupid to know it."

Heat spreads from his palm. Alpha healing. It burns. The wound knits together, skin closing, pain fading. But the bond—god, the bond won't stop screaming. My wolf's whining, pressing against him, wanting more.

I hate her for it. Hate him. Hate this.

When it's done, he lets go. I stumble back, wrapping my arms around myself.

"Get in the car," he says quietly. "I'm taking you both somewhere safe."

I don't argue. I'm too tired. Too overwhelmed. I climb into the back seat, pull Mom's head into my lap. She's still out. Still breathing.

Kieran gets in the driver's seat. Caspian takes shotgun. The SUV pulls away from the warehouse, leaving the bodies behind.

Nobody speaks.

I stroke Mom's hair. She's here. She's alive. That's all that matters.

My phone buzzes. I ignore it. Buzzes again.

I pull it out. Unknown number. A text.

"Enjoy your little reunion. Tomorrow's Luna Ceremony will be memorable."

My blood turns cold.

Seraphina.

I look up, meet Kieran's eyes in the rearview mirror. He's watching me. Waiting.

"She knows," I say quietly. "Seraphina knows we got Mom."

His hands tighten on the steering wheel.

"Then tomorrow just got a lot more complicated."