8. Chapter 8
The morning air carried something wrong.
Declan caught it on the eastern ridge. A scent too clean, too deliberate. He crouched and pressed his palm to frozen ground where something had passed hours before.
The trail ended twenty yards out. No continuation. No logical endpoint.
Just absence where presence should have been.
Three days since the gathering. Three days since Sage had stood beside him at the compound’s edge and not walked away. Three days of growing certainty that something was circling his territory.
The wrongness remained.
He pulled his phone and sent a text to Jace. Eastern border. Clean trails. Someone’s watching.
The response came fast. How many?
Unknown. They’re good.
Fall back to compound.
His jaw tightened. He typed. Sage is at the cabin.
A pause. Then. Bring her. Now.
He pocketed the phone and started back, moving fast through terrain he knew by heart. The mate bond drew taut with distance, an urgency that made him move faster.
The cabin came into view. Smoke from the chimney. She’d figured out the wood stove on her own, stubborn and determined not to ask for help. He caught her warmth before he reached the door.
Her attention shifted from the laptop to wariness in a heartbeat.
“We’re leaving.” He crossed to where she sat at the table. “Pack what you need. Five minutes.”
Her laptop closed with a soft click. “What happened?”
He went to the window, checking the tree line in two slow passes before he let himself stop. “Someone’s watching the territory. Professional, and interested in something here specifically.”
“Your pack has enemies.” She stood but didn’t move toward her bag. “That’s not new.”
“It’s new that they’re this close. And it’s new that they’re watching my cabin.”
Understanding crossed her face. “Because I’m here.”
“Because you’re here,” he confirmed. “And because they know what you mean to me.”
She went very still. “Declan—”
“Five minutes, Sage.” Harder than he intended. “This isn’t negotiable.”
For a moment he thought she’d argue. Then she moved to her duffel and started packing with efficient precision. She was steady despite the tension in her shoulders, and something in him eased.
She trusted him enough to follow his lead when it mattered.
That had to be enough.
He kept watch while she gathered her things. Laptop, files, the few clothes she’d brought. Everything fit in one bag.
“Ready.” She shouldered the duffel. “Where are we going?”
“Compound. Main house.” He opened the door and checked the perimeter before gesturing her through. “Stay close. Don’t stop moving unless I tell you.”
They moved through the woods in silence. Declan kept her on his left, his body between her and the eastern ridge. His senses stretched wide, catching every sound, every shift in the wind.
The wrongness intensified as they walked.
He caught something else on the wind. Different from the first but equally deliberate. This one came from the south, crossing their path at an angle that suggested coordination. Multiple watchers. Multiple positions.
A perimeter.
Every instinct fired at once. Declan’s hand shot out, catching Sage’s elbow and pulling her to a stop.
“What—”
“Quiet.” He angled his body to shield her, scanning the trees. “Someone just crossed ahead of us.”
She pressed closer without being told, her warmth against his back grounding him through the surge of instinct. Her pulse was elevated, steady but measured. Fear, kept in check.
It faded as quickly as it had appeared. Whoever had crossed their path was gone, vanished like smoke.
“They’re herding us.” Sage’s voice came soft near his ear. “Pushing us toward the compound.”
“I know. They want us contained. Predictable.”
“So we don’t go to the compound.”
“We go to the compound.” He started moving again, adjusting their route. “But not the way they expect.”
She followed without argument, matching his pace through terrain that grew rougher as he led them off the main path.
He took them through a creek bed, then up a rocky slope that would mask their scent and tracks.
The route added fifteen minutes, but it brought them to the compound’s western approach.
The one direction the watchers hadn’t covered.
Jace met them at the door, his expression grim.
Rhys stood behind him. A jagged scar ran from his left temple into his hairline. One shoulder sat lower than the other, and his right leg landed a fraction heavier when he shifted weight. He had the look of a man three steps ahead of the conversation.
“How many?”
“At least three positions. Professional surveillance.” Declan ushered Sage inside. “They’re not trying to hide anymore.”
“Because they want us to know.” Jace’s eyes moved to Sage, then back to Declan. “This is about her.”
“This is about the mate bond.” Declan kept his voice level despite the fury building in his chest. “Someone knows. And they’re using it.”
“Neutral brokers.” Rhys shifted his weight to his good leg. “Thornwood runs them clean until they trust you, then hands them something that matters. Nothing traces back.”
Sage moved away from both of them, her duffel hitting the floor. “Who?”
Jace named it, blunt and level. “Thornwood Pack.”
The name didn’t carry full weight until Jace pulled a photograph from the desk drawer and set it on the table.
A dead wolf in human form. Young, maybe nineteen. Sprawled across a creek bed with defensive wounds on both arms.
“Cooper Marsh. Found him at the river crossing six weeks ago.” Jace’s voice stayed level. “Thornwood claimed he crossed their territory without permission. His patrol log showed he was a mile inside our border.”
“They killed one of yours on your own land?” Sage’s stomach turned.
“And dared us to prove it.” Jace set the photograph aside. “They’ve wanted the river corridor for years. Control that land and every smaller pack on this border answers to them. This is escalation.”
Rhys’s attention moved to Sage’s laptop, still open on the table behind her. To the map on the screen with its six markers. He let the silence stand.
“The river corridor.” Rhys set the words like a stone on a table.
“That’s where five of your kills fall.”
Nobody answered. Sage’s attention went to the map. The isolated northern marker was Mason. The other five ran tight along the same ground Jace had just pointed to.
“Why does another pack care about me?”
Her expression moved from confusion to realization to something that felt like betrayal, and he took the hit without flinching.
“Because you’re investigating a death. And if you find proof that connects any wolf to Mason’s death, it becomes evidence humans could use against all of us.”
“You think I’d—” Her fingers curled tight at her sides. “I’m not trying to expose your entire species.”
“I know that.” He took a step toward her, then stopped when she backed away. “But Thornwood doesn’t. They see a human with evidence and a grudge, and they see a threat that needs to be eliminated.”
“Before she can share what she knows.” Jace’s voice carried no judgment, just clinical assessment. “They’re not wrong to be concerned. One human with the right proof could destroy the secrecy we’ve maintained for centuries.”
“I never wanted—”
Declan moved closer despite her retreat. “Intent doesn’t matter. They’ve been watching you since you crossed into our territory. And now that they know about the bond, they have leverage.”
“What kind of leverage?”
“The kind that makes me predictable.” He stopped an arm’s length away. “They know I’ll keep you safe. They know the bond makes you a weakness I can’t ignore. So they’ll use you to draw me out. Force mistakes.”
She stared at him. “This is because of the mate bond.”
“This is because someone wants to control the story around Mason’s death.” His eyes didn’t move from hers. “And they’re willing to go through you to do it.”
Jace turned to the window, giving them the illusion of privacy.
“I should leave.” Even. Measured. “Go back to wherever I came from. Take the target off your pack.”
“No.” It came out harder than he meant. “That’s exactly what they want. You alone and vulnerable, easy to eliminate without pack cover.”
“I’ve been alone for a long time.”
“You weren’t a known threat before.” He stepped closer. “You are now. And the only thing keeping you alive is that coming for you means going through me.”
Her chest locked. “Declan—”
“The bond makes you mine to cover.” Everything in him strained toward her. “Not mine to own. Not mine to claim. But mine to stand between you and whatever’s coming, whether you want that or not.”
“I don’t need—”
“I know you don’t need me.” Frustration bled through his words. “I know you’ve survived on your own, But this isn’t about what you need. This is about what I am. What the bond makes me?” He stopped himself. “I can’t watch them circle you and do nothing.”
She searched his face. “This isn’t duty.”
“No.” He steadied himself. “It stopped being duty the night I caught your scent in my cabin.”
The confession hung in the air. Jace cleared his throat from across the room, a subtle reminder they weren’t alone.
Sage’s fingers uncurled slowly. “How long have they been watching?”
“Since you arrived.” Declan made himself step back. “Maybe before. If you left a trail getting here, they found it.”
“Then they know why I came.” Barely above a whisper. “They know I’m hunting a killer.”
“They know you’re hunting someone.” Jace hadn’t moved from the window. “Whether they know the specifics depends on how careful you’ve been.”
Her eyes moved to Declan. A look that carried the weight of all the evidence she’d gathered.
“I’ve been careful.” Her chin lifted.
“Not careful enough.” His voice tightened. “They found you anyway.”
Outside, shadows moved through the trees. Watchers maintaining their perimeter. Waiting for the moment when Blackridge’s guard dropped.
Sage picked up her duffel. “Where do you want me?”
“Guest room. Second floor.” Jace moved toward the stairs. “You’ll stay in the main house until we handle this.”
“And handling this means?”
“Means we make it clear that touching you means war. And Thornwood isn’t ready for that fight.”
Then she followed Jace upstairs without another word.
Declan stayed at the window. The tree line held nothing. His wolf paced beneath his skin, restless and furious at the threat circling his mate. The bond rang with urgency that had no outlet.
But she’d walked away.
Again.
And he’d let her.
Because that was the cost of this. Distance. Restraint. Letting her process what she’d learned.
He pulled out his phone and started drafting the counter-surveillance grid with Theo. They needed to know every angle Thornwood was using before dawn.