The walk back to the small house on the outskirts of the academy grounds felt like a death march. Each step sent a fresh wave of pain through my scraped arm, but it was nothing compared to the terror clawing at my chest. Carson's amber eyes haunted me—the way they'd tracked my every movement, the recognition I'd seen dawning in their depths.
I'd been so careful for so long. Years of hiding, years of pretending to be nothing more than a clumsy servant girl, and I'd blown it all in five minutes of panic.
The modest Beta house came into view, its weathered wooden siding and small windows a stark contrast to the grand dormitories where the Alpha and Gamma families lived. This had been my sanctuary for the past three years, the place where Marcus Thorne had taken me in when I had nowhere else to go.
I pushed through the front door, hoping to slip upstairs unnoticed, but the familiar creak of the hinges betrayed me.
"Lila." Marcus's voice carried from the kitchen, calm but edged with something that made my stomach drop. "Come here."
I found him sitting at the small wooden table, still wearing his academy instructor uniform. His graying hair was disheveled, as if he'd been running his hands through it, and the lines around his eyes seemed deeper than usual. A cup of coffee sat cooling in front of him, untouched.
"Sit," he said without looking up.
I took the chair across from him, my injured arm throbbing as I tried to keep it hidden beneath the table. But Marcus had always been observant—it came with being a Beta, with being responsible for the pack's security.
"Show me your arm."
My heart hammered against my ribs. "It's nothing, just a—"
"Lila." His voice carried the authority of someone used to being obeyed. "Your arm."
With trembling fingers, I rolled up my sleeve, revealing the three parallel scratches that had already begun to heal. They looked like ordinary scrapes now, the kind any student might get during training, but I could see Marcus's jaw tighten as he studied them.
"Carson Vale came to see me twenty minutes ago," he said quietly. "Interesting conversation we had."
The blood drained from my face. "Marcus, I can explain—"
"Can you?" He finally looked up, and I saw something in his brown eyes I'd never seen before—fear. Not of me, but for me. "Can you explain how a girl who's supposedly never had combat training moved like a seasoned warrior? Can you explain how wounds that should have required stitches are already healing?"
I opened my mouth, but no words came. What could I say? That I'd been secretly training at night? That I possessed healing abilities I didn't understand? That sometimes, when I was alone, I felt power stirring inside me that terrified and thrilled me in equal measure?
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Marcus's voice was barely above a whisper, but it cut through me like a blade. "Do you understand the position you've put us both in?"
"I didn't mean for it to happen," I whispered. "Carla was using a weapon with barbs, and I just... reacted."
"Reacted." He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You reacted like someone with years of intensive training. You moved like..." He trailed off, shaking his head.
"Like what?"
Marcus was quiet for a long moment, his fingers drumming against the table. When he spoke again, his voice was heavy with a weight I didn't understand.
"Like your mother."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Marcus had never spoken about my mother—about where I'd come from or why he'd taken me in. Whenever I'd asked, he'd deflected with vague answers about doing his duty to the pack.
"You knew her?" My voice came out as barely a breath.
"I knew her." His eyes grew distant, lost in memories I couldn't see. "And if Carson Vale suspects what I think he suspects, then we're both in more danger than you can possibly imagine."
He stood abruptly, pacing to the window that overlooked the academy grounds. In the distance, I could see students moving between buildings, their lives continuing normally while mine felt like it was crumbling.
"Three years," he muttered. "Three years I've kept you safe, kept you hidden. And now..."
"Hidden from what?" I demanded, standing as well. "Marcus, you have to tell me what's going on. What aren't you telling me about my mother? About why you really took me in?"
He spun to face me, and for a moment, I saw past the calm Beta facade to the man beneath—a man carrying secrets that were eating him alive.
"Your mother was special, Lila. More special than she should have been. And there are people—powerful people—who would kill to get their hands on someone with her abilities." His gaze dropped to my arm, where the scratches continued their impossible healing. "Abilities that you've apparently inherited."
The room seemed to spin around me. "What kind of abilities?"
"The kind that could change the balance of power between the packs," Marcus said grimly. "The kind that could start wars. Or end them."
Before I could process his words fully, he was moving toward the old wooden cabinet in the corner. He pulled out a small leather bag I'd never seen before, his movements urgent.
"Pack light," he said, tossing the bag to me. "Only what you absolutely need."
"What? Why?"
"Because Carson Vale isn't the only one who's going to be interested in what happened today." Marcus's eyes were hard, determined. "Word spreads fast in a place like this. By tomorrow, every Alpha family within a hundred miles will know there's someone at the academy with unusual abilities."
The bag felt heavy in my hands, weighted with implications I was only beginning to understand.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe. Somewhere they can't find you." He paused, his expression softening slightly. "I should have done this years ago. Should have taken you away the moment you started showing signs. But I thought... I hoped you might be able to live a normal life."
"And now?"
Marcus looked out the window again, his jaw set with grim determination.
"Now we run."
