I woke to white walls and pain.
The pain wasn't sharp anymore. It had dulled into something constant, a low burn that pulsed through my chest with every breath. Like something inside me had been cauterized but never properly healed. My wolf was silent. Not gone—I could still feel her, a distant presence curled tight and small somewhere deep inside—but silent in a way that felt wrong.
The room was clean. Unfamiliar. Sunlight came through a window I didn't recognize, falling across a bed I'd never slept in before. The sheets smelled like cedar and something faintly medicinal. Not home. Not Silvercrest.
I sat up slowly. My body felt heavy, like I'd been running for days without stopping. My hands were steady, though. That surprised me. I pressed my thumb into my opposite palm—an old habit—and the small sting helped ground me.
A chair scraped against the floor. I turned my head.
Kara sat beside the bed, her arms crossed, her expression somewhere between fury and careful control. She'd been watching me. Waiting.
"You're at the inter-pack training academy," she said before I could ask. Her voice was flat. Controlled. "Neutral ground. Maximus arranged it."
Maximus. The name brought back the scent—moonflower and frost—and the memory of being carried out of that hall. I looked down at my hands.
"How long?"
"Two days."
Two days. I'd lost two days.
Kara leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "Hadlee, I need you to listen to me. What Amora did—it wasn't just a prank. It was months. She studied his mental signature. She learned how he thinks, how he phrases things. She fed you messages that felt real because she made them real. Every late-night link. Every word you thought was his wolf reaching toward yours. It was her."
I already knew that. I'd heard it in front of three packs. But hearing Kara say it—hearing the scope of it laid out plainly—made something twist in my chest.
"She hunted you," Kara continued, her voice going sharp. "Systematically. For months. And Corey let her. He stood there and watched you break and he didn't stop it."
I didn't respond. I couldn't. The rejection pain pulsed again, a reminder that the bond I'd guarded for ten years was gone. Formally destroyed. Spoken aloud before witnesses.
Kara's jaw tightened. She looked like she wanted to hit something. Instead, she took a breath and spoke more carefully.
"Maximus isn't just my cousin," she said quietly. "He's more than that. Powerful. Beyond pack ranking. And he recognized you as his mate."
I blinked. My wolf stirred faintly, responding to something in those words.
"He's been near you longer than you know," Kara added. "He's known. And he's been waiting."
The scent memory came back stronger. Moonflower and frost. The way my wolf had gone silent mid-scream when it hit me. The way every Alpha in that hall had lowered their eyes when he released his aura.
"Why didn't he say anything?" My voice came out hoarse.
Kara hesitated. "Because you weren't ready. And because he wanted you to find yourself first."
I looked at her. She held my gaze, steady and serious, but there was something she wasn't saying. I could feel it in the careful way she chose her words, the deliberate gaps in what she told me.
"What aren't you telling me?"
"Things I'm not permitted to say yet," Kara said simply. "But everything I've told you is true."
I wanted to push. I wanted to demand the full truth. But I was so tired. The rejection pain throbbed again, and I pressed my hand to my chest without thinking.
Kara's expression softened slightly. "Do you want me to stay?"
I shook my head. "I need to be alone."
She stood, hesitated, then nodded. "If you need anything, link me. I'm two doors down."
She left quietly, closing the door behind her.
I sat in the silence for a long time. The training-partner mind-link I shared with Maximus was still open—I could feel it, a faint thread in the back of my mind. I didn't close it. I didn't reach for it either. I just let it sit there, present and waiting.
---
The next few days passed in a haze.
I went to training. I showed up on time, dressed in academy gear, and moved through drills like I was supposed to. My body remembered the motions even when my mind felt distant. Block. Dodge. Strike. Repeat.
Maximus was there.
He didn't announce himself. He just appeared at the edge of the training field, watching. Then he stepped in as my partner, correcting my stance without condescension, adjusting my grip on the practice staff with hands that were steady and sure.
He never mentioned the banquet. He never asked if I was okay. He just trained with me, patient and quiet, like we'd been doing this for years.
Maybe we had. I didn't know anymore.
On the third day, someone knocked on my door.
I opened it expecting Kara. Instead, I found a man I didn't recognize—tall, broad-shouldered, with the controlled posture of a high-ranking wolf. He wore Ironridge colors.
"Hadlee Bennett?" he said formally.
"Yes."
"I'm Fletcher Lawson, Beta to Corey Lawson. I have a message from—"
He didn't finish.
Another man appeared behind him—taller, more imposing, with an aura that made Fletcher's wolf visibly cower. The newcomer's eyes were cold and gray.
"She's not receiving messages from Ironridge," the man said quietly.
Fletcher turned, his confidence draining. "I'm acting on behalf of the future Alpha—"
"I don't care." The man's voice didn't rise. It didn't need to. "Leave."
Fletcher hesitated, looked at me once more, then left without another word.
The man who'd dismissed him turned to me. "Dorian Voss. Maximus's Beta. You won't be disturbed again."
He inclined his head slightly, then walked away.
I closed the door and leaned against it. My hands were shaking.
Corey had sent someone. He'd tried to reach me. And Maximus's Beta had intercepted him before the message ever landed.
I pressed my thumb into my palm. The sting helped.
But it didn't stop the question forming in my mind: What exactly had I walked into?
