11. Chapter 11
Sage Cross arrived at the cabin door before sunrise.
One knock. Then quiet. The kind of small courtesy Nadia had logged but refused to trust on reflex.
They moved together through gray morning in silence.
The great hall felt too small despite its vaulted ceiling and stone walls that witnessed decades of pack gatherings.
Nadia pressed herself against the back wall, as far from the central table as she could manage while still being present. Something restless moved beneath her skin, caught between the instinct to flee and something else, something sharp and angry that she didn’t recognize.
Jace stood at the head of the table, his expression carved from granite.
Maren sat beside him, her human eyes tracking each speaker with sharp attention that missed nothing.
Around the table, Blackridge’s senior wolves gathered, warriors, scouts, the wolves who made decisions that affected everyone.
Nadia shouldn’t be here. This was pack business, and packs rarely invited omegas to the table. But Jace had asked for her, and that alone felt like a warning.
She came with her knife in place. She came with exits counted. She still came.
Rhys stood near the far window, his weight settled hard against the wall. He hadn’t looked at her since she’d entered. Hadn’t acknowledged her presence in any way she could see.
Every time he moved, the motion pulled his shirt taut across his shoulders, and she tracked it like prey.
Her skin prickled with borrowed warmth. His warmth, leaking into her.
And she caught herself breathing deeper just to pull his scent into her lungs.
She clenched her hands and made herself focus on the table.
“Thornwood sent a formal complaint to the regional council.” Declan’s voice landed before her spiraling thoughts could close in. His mouth pulled at one corner, the closest thing to a smile he ever offered.
He stood across from Jace, an official council notice in his hands.
“They’re accusing Blackridge of harboring stolen property and interfering with internal pack discipline.”
Stolen property.
The words hit like a fist to the throat. Heat rushed through her body. Her vision tunneled and her lungs forgot how to work.
She wasn’t property. She was a person. A wolf. A survivor who’d clawed her way across four states to escape the males who’d tried to break her.
But Thornwood didn’t see it that way.
They never had.
“They’re demanding we return her within seven days or face penalties.” Declan’s mouth went thin.
Jace’s knuckles whitened on the table edge. “Three packs back the complaint. Enough to force a hearing.”
Nadia’s nails dug into her palms. Blood welled where her claws pierced skin.
She had chosen death over going back.
And Thornwood thought they could demand her like a wayward possession.
“I am not property.” Her voice shook. Her wolf trembled beneath her skin, but she didn’t look away.
Rhys moved before he realized he had.
Two strides forward.
Rhys stopped.
Breath in. Breath out.
He returned to his post.
“Legally?” Sage didn’t laugh so much as bare her teeth. “They want a fight on paper because they’d lose one in the field.”
Nadia’s stomach lurched. Betrothal contract.
The words hit her like a physical blow, and for a heartbeat she was fourteen again, standing in her father’s office while he explained the terms without meeting her eyes.
The arrangement her birth pack had made with Thornwood’s alpha.
Before she’d even presented. Before she’d had a voice to refuse.
“She never agreed.” Rhys spoke low, eyes fixed on the council ledger. “No consent, no contract.”
Nadia kept her face still. Her hands shook under the table. She curled her fingers into fists until the shaking stopped.
Nadia pressed her palms open against her thighs. Her breathing came too fast. The walls pressed in despite the hall’s size.
This was her fault. All of it. She’d brought this threat to Blackridge’s door. Had painted a target on wolves who’d offered her shelter without asking anything in return.
“I’ll leave.”
The offer left her before she’d fully formed the thought. Every head turned toward her.
Nadia straightened her spine, forcing her voice steady despite the terror clawing at her throat. “I’ll leave before the seven days are up. Head west into unclaimed territory. Thornwood can’t accuse you of harboring me if I’m not here.”
Silence crashed through the hall.
Jace’s expression went blank. Maren’s eyes widened. Sage rose from her seat.
Something surged between them, sharp and painful. His eyes blazed with something that drew a whine from her wolf, not anger, but something worse. Something that looked like breaking.
“No.” Jace cut him off. “That’s not an option.”
“It’s the only option that doesn’t end in war.” Nadia’s throat burned. “I’m not buying my freedom with Blackridge graves.”
“You’re not the problem.” Maren stood. “This is Thornwood testing our boundaries. Surrender you and our sanctuary becomes conditional.”
“Neither did you.” Rhys moved off the wall, limp pronounced. “Thornwood was going to move on this territory eventually. You’re not why.”
“People will die.” Nadia’s voice cracked. “Your people. For me.”
“Our people.” Maren’s correction was gentle. “You’re Blackridge now, Nadia. Whether you feel it or not.” She said it the way she said everything that mattered, like it was already settled in some quieter room she'd been visiting for years.
“I can’t—” Her voice broke. “I can’t be the reason families lose fathers. Mates lose partners. I can’t, ”
“Stop.” Rhys’s hand moved, then curled into a fist at his side. “Thornwood’s corruption isn’t on you.”
“Then he’s going to learn something new.” Jace’s voice carried conviction. “That Blackridge doesn’t break. And we sure as hell don’t abandon our own.”
“Why?” She forced it past her throat. “Why fight for me? You don’t know me. It’s just—” She glanced at Rhys, her throat closing. “It’s just biology. Not obligation.”
“I’d fight for you even if the bond didn’t exist.” His voice dropped. “That’s what Blackridge is.”
Something opened in her chest. Everything in her reached for him, desperate and terrified by the intensity of it.
“I won’t.” Rhys’s certainty was absolute. “But I can’t prove that with words. Only time and action.”
Nadia’s tears finally spilled over.
But leaving meant proving Thornwood right. Meant accepting that she was property to be reclaimed. Meant surrendering the first real option she’d had in years.
“Seven days.” Jace held his composure. “The procedural floor holds. We use the window to shore up alliances and make clear that attacking Blackridge over a refugee claim will cost more than Thornwood’s willing to pay.”
He looked at Nadia directly, his alpha power controlled but present.
“You stay or go based on your own decision. Not fear. Not obligation. Not because we’re pressuring you.” His expression softened slightly. “But know that if you stay, we stand with you. All of us.”
Nadia’s wolf strained, desperate and terrified.
“I’ll stay.” She could barely hear herself. “For now. Until—” Her voice cracked. “Until I know what this means.”
Rhys’s expression shifted, relief flooding his features before he controlled it.
“Enough.” His tone scraped. “That’s more than enough.”
But Nadia barely heard it.
And gods help her, she hoped it wasn’t a mistake that would destroy them all.