Riley Hayes POV
The smell hits first.
Blood. Wet earth. Wolf fur that doesn't belong to her pack.
Riley freezes between rows of apples and organic vegetables. Her shopping bag swings from her wrist, full of human food she'll probably never eat now. The market around her feels too bright, too normal. Other shoppers are picking through tomatoes and chatting about weekend plans. They have no idea what's about to happen.
She does.
The pull in her gut is unmistakable. Something is wrong. That feeling every wolf gets when danger is close. Every instinct in her body screams at her to shift, to run, to call out to her pack through their mental link. But she stays frozen by the produce section because she's learned to ignore that voice in her head.
She always ignores it.
The apple in her hand drops to the ground.
Three shadows cross the storefront windows at the exact same moment. Too coordinated. Too fast. The hairs on Riley's arms stand up as she watches them separate, moving toward different exits like they've rehearsed this. Like they know exactly where she is.
She doesn't recognize their scents.
That's the second wrong thing. The first was the blood. The second is that three wolves are moving through a human town without following pack protocol. That shouldn't be possible. Pack law is clear. Never expose the supernatural world to humans. Never hunt in neutral territory. Never attack without an alpha's direct command.
Riley's hand shakes as she reaches for her phone. She needs to warn someone. She needs to call Erik, her mate, the Alpha of Silvermoon Pack. He'll know what to do. He'll protect her.
The man in the blue jacket near the juice aisle shifts.
His skin ripples. His face changes. Within seconds he's not human anymore. He's a massive grey wolf with silver-tipped fur. The other two don't bother hiding. They drop their human forms right there in the middle of the store, growling and lunging toward her.
Screams erupt around her.
Shoppers scramble for the exits. A child bumps into Riley, crying. A woman drops her basket. The fluorescent lights flicker like they're nervous too. Riley doesn't move. She just stares at the three wolves blocking her path to the door.
One of them opens his mouth and snarls.
Riley tries to use the pack link. She throws her consciousness out toward Silvermoon territory, searching for other wolves, searching for any connection back home. She finds nothing but silence. The link is dead. It's like someone cut it. It's like she's been erased.
No. That's not possible.
The biggest wolf lunges.
Riley doesn't think anymore. Her body shifts before her mind catches up. Bones crack and reform. Fur explodes across her skin, silver-white and thick. She's beautiful in her wolf form in a way she's never quite been human. That's what Erik told her anyway. That she was born to be a wolf. That her wolf form was her truest self.
She doesn't feel true right now. She feels hunted.
The three wolves attack together. They're coordinated, brutal, and they want her dead. She knows this with absolute certainty. She's fought before. She's trained. But three against one in a crowded market with humans screaming isn't training. This is execution.
Riley's wolf snaps and dodges. Her teeth find flesh on the closest attacker's shoulder. She tastes blood. Her blood? His blood? The pain hits her a second later and she understands she's been hit with something. Something that burns.
Silver.
They're using silver bullets.
Riley breaks toward the parking lot at the back of the store, crashing through the emergency exit. The alarm blares but she doesn't care. The three wolves follow, close enough that she can feel their breath. The pain in her shoulder spreads like poison through her body. Silver doesn't just hurt werewolves. It kills them. It burns from the inside out. It's a slow, agonizing death.
She can't let them catch her.
The forest edge is only a half mile away. The market sits on the edge of the neutral zone, where human town borders the wilderness that Silvermoon Pack claims. If she can reach the trees, she might have a chance. The forest is her home. She knows every trail, every cave, every hidden place where a wolf can vanish.
Her legs pump beneath her. Her paws hit the cracked parking lot pavement. Behind her, the three wolves gain ground.
Another shot rings out. The bullet hits her back leg and her howl tears the sky open. She stumbles. Her hind leg won't work right anymore. The silver is already burning its way through her muscle and bone.
This can't be happening.
Riley forces herself forward on three legs. The forest is getting closer. Fifty yards. Forty. The trees look like freedom. They look like home. She just needs to reach them and she can lose these wolves in the thick undergrowth. She can find a place to hide. She can figure out why her own pack is trying to kill her.
Because that's what this is. These wolves wear Silvermoon scent underneath the unfamiliar smell. They're from her pack. They were sent by someone in her pack. They were sent to murder her in broad daylight in front of humans.
The realization hits harder than the bullets.
Twenty yards to the tree line.
Riley's chest heaves. Her shoulder throbs. Her leg is barely functional. The silver is spreading through her bloodstream now, making everything burn and ache and feel wrong. She won't last long. She knows what happens to wolves poisoned with silver. They get slower. Weaker. They die in agony.
Unless she can stop the bleeding. Unless she can reach somewhere safe. Unless she can find out why.
Ten yards.
The closest wolf jumps, his jaws snapping where her neck was a second ago. Riley veers left and suddenly the forest is everywhere. Trees surround her. The familiar smell of Silvermoon territory wraps around her like a blanket. She's home. She's safe.
She's not safe.
Another shot cracks through the trees behind her. The bullet doesn't hit her but it's close. Too close. They're not even trying to hide anymore. They're not hunting. They're executing. And there's only one reason an alpha orders an execution of their own Luna.
They think she's a traitor.
Or she knows something she shouldn't.
Or someone decided she was inconvenient.
Riley pushes deeper into the forest, her vision starting to blur. The silver is doing its work now. Her whole body feels like it's on fire. She's going to collapse soon. She can feel it coming. She just needs to find somewhere hidden. Somewhere safe. Somewhere they can't finish the job.
The trees blur past her.
Everything is becoming harder to see. Her breath comes in short gasps. Her wolf is whimpering, afraid in a way she's never been afraid before. This isn't enemy wolves. This is pack. This is home turning against her. This is the worst kind of betrayal.
Behind her, she can hear them. Still coming. Still hunting.
Riley doesn't know where she's running anymore. She just knows she has to keep moving. Keep breathing. Keep existing long enough to understand why the people she trusted more than anyone just tried to murder her.
She rounds a thick oak tree and her vision swims. The forest tilts. Her legs give out and suddenly she's human again, skin exposed and bleeding on the cold earth. She can't shift back to her wolf. The silver won't let her. It's paralyzing her, burning her, killing her slowly.
She needs to run. She needs to hide. She needs to scream.
The wolves are getting closer. She can hear their paws on the forest floor. Can hear their breathing. Can hear them coordinating, talking to each other in the way only pack members can. They're so close now that she should be able to feel the pack link reconnecting.
But there's still nothing. Still silence. Still emptiness where her pack should be.
Riley manages to crawl behind a fallen log. Her breath comes in shallow gasps. Blood pools beneath her shoulder. She's going to die here. Alone. In her own territory. Hunted by her own people.
She wants to cry. She wants to scream for Erik. She wants to understand what she did wrong.
But there's no time for any of that.
The wolves burst through the trees. Three massive shapes moving toward her hiding spot. Three wolves that were sent to finish her.
Riley closes her eyes and braces for impact.
Then everything goes white.
Not from pain. Not from death.
From fire. From light. From a gunshot that comes from a direction none of them expected.
A fourth shot rings out.
Everything goes black.