AYLA

They always warned us about monsters in the woods.

No one said they’d smell like home.

Cassian is at my side before I can blink, hand outstretched, fangs bared. His Alpha energy floods the space so fast, it knocks the breath out of me.

But I don’t move. I’m frozen.

Because Leif’s eyes are still silver.

Silver. Not gold like mine. Not black like Cassian’s when the wolf rises.

Silver like moonfire. Like prophecy.

Like danger.

“Inside,” Cassian growls. “Now.”

I clutch Leif tighter and retreat into the house. Cassian follows, slamming the door shut behind him, then pulls the curtains in one smooth, efficient motion. Every part of him is alert. Controlled.

Too calm.

“I need to know what I’m protecting,” he says.

I meet his eyes. “No, you need to protect him because he’s a child. You don’t get to interrogate me while blood’s in the air.”

He exhales once, slow. But even under his restraint, I can see it — his wolf pacing just beneath the surface. Not for me. For Leif.

He felt It too.

The shift in him.

I kneel, cradling Leif’s face. “Sweetheart, look at me.”

He does. The silver glows brighter in the dim light.

“Are you okay?” I whisper.

He nods. “They’re not here to hurt me. They’re here to take me.”

My stomach drops.

Cassian’s growl is instant. “Over my dead body.”

Leif doesn’t flinch.

I rise slowly, heart racing. “What do you mean, take you? Who told you that?”

Leif shrugs like it’s obvious. “The lady in white. She comes in my dreams. She said my time’s almost up.”

Cassian’s face pales. “Moon above…”

“No.” I cut in sharply. “No prophecies. No visions. He’s just a kid. He’s just—”

But the words die on my tongue.

Because deep down, I always knew.

My son wasn’t normal.

The night he was born, the skies split open. No stars. Just lightning and thunder that shook the den. He didn’t cry when he came out — just looked at me with eyes too wise for something so new. I told myself it was exhaustion. Trauma. A trick of light.

But now…

Now there’s no more pretending.

Cassian steps closer, lowering his voice. “What exactly did she say?”

Leif pauses. Then murmurs: “That I’m the key.”

Cassian swears under his breath and runs a hand through his hair. “They’ve been searching for him.”

My throat tightens. “Who?”

“The ones who hunt gifted bloodlines. The ones who trade in children touched by the moon.”

My vision spins. “You told me they were wiped out years ago.”

“I told you we thought they were.”

I press my hand to Leif’s chest, grounding myself in the rise and fall of his breath.

“He’s not going anywhere,” I say, voice steeled.

“No,” Cassian agrees. “Because the only way they’ll take him…”

He steps forward, eyes black with the full force of his wolf.

“…is over both our dead bodies.”

The porch groans outside.

We both freeze.

Then—glass shatters.

Something crashes through the back window. Not a wolf. Not a man.

Something in between.

Cassian lunges, claws out.

I grab Leif and run, heart pounding like a war drum.

And all I can think is—

The monsters are real.

And they’ve come for my son.

Cassian slams the creature into the floorboards, claws buried deep, a snarl ripping through his chest.

“Go!” he roars.

I don’t need to be told twice.

Leif’s arms wrap around my neck, tight. I race down the hall, every instinct screaming. Another window shatters behind us. I hear growls. Glass. Cassian’s war cry. But I don’t look back.

Not until we’re outside. Under the moon.

He bursts through seconds later, blood streaked down his forearm. His chest heaves as he takes us in—me clutching Leif, both of us barefoot, breathless, and wide-eyed.

“It’s done,” he says.

“What was that?” I shout.

His eyes darken. “A warning.”

“No, that was a declaration. They know where we are. We won’t last the night if more come.”

“Then we move now,” Cassian says.

“To where?” I snap.

He holds my gaze. “Home.”

I bark a laugh. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m stepping foot back in Moonfang.”

“You want to keep running?” he growls. “You want to spend the rest of your life dragging our son through backwoods towns, praying no one finds you?”

“I’ve been doing just fine without you—”

“Clearly!” He gestures toward the wrecked house behind us. “You think this was a one-time attack? You think they’ll stop now that they’ve seen him?”

“I don't trust you, Cassian.”

“I don’t care,” he bites out. “This isn’t about us anymore. It’s about him.”

I open my mouth. Close it. My hands tremble.

Cassian steps closer. His voice lowers. “I have guards. Territory. A pack trained to kill threats like this. You have a boy who glows and a go-bag with baby socks in it. You’re out of options, Ayla.”

I hate that he’s right.

I hate it more that Leif looks up at me and says, softly, “Mama… I think I need him.”

I freeze.

“What?” I ask, barely a whisper.

Leif shrinks into my arms, shy. “He smells like me. Like… the part I can’t control.”

Cassian stares at him like he’s seeing a ghost.

I look at my son, then the wreckage behind us, then the man who destroyed me—who now might be the only one who can help me save what’s left.

“You get one chance,” I say finally. “I go for him. Not you. Not the pack. And if I sense even a whiff of betrayal—”

“I’ll let you kill me yourself,” he says.

Good.

Because I just might.

---

We move fast.

Cassian shifts, massive and black, and I climb onto his back with Leif clutched tight. His wolf is fire and iron beneath me—pure rage contained in muscle and fur.

We run.

And as the trees blur past, as the wind tears through my hair, I can’t help but think—

This isn’t the end of the nightmare.

It’s just the beginning.

As Cassian runs beneath me—fur damp with sweat and blood, heart thundering steady beneath my palms—I wonder, not for the first time, if the bond we buried is still there…

and what might happen if we ever dare to dig it back up.