Daemon's POV
The safe house was on fire when we arrived.
Isla skidded to a stop beside me, both of us still in wolf form, panting from the run across campus. Flames poured from every window of the abandoned warehouse. Black smoke billowed into the night sky.
"It's a trap," I said through our mental link—one of the few benefits of the mate bond, even corrupted. "They knew we'd come here."
"Then where do we go?" Isla's mental voice was tight with fear and anger. "Campus is under attack. The safe house is burning. We're being hunted by professional assassins with a twelve-hour head start on preparation."
She was right. We were cornered with nowhere to run.
An explosion rocked the warehouse. The roof collapsed inward, sending sparks and debris flying. Through the flames, I saw movement—figures emerging from the smoke. Not running away from the fire.
Walking through it.
"Shadow walkers," I breathed. "They can move through fire and smoke like it's air. The Council of Shadows' elite assassins."
"How many?"
I counted quickly. "Six. Maybe more in the smoke."
"Can we fight them?"
I wanted to say yes. Wanted to be the strong Alpha who could protect his mate from anything. But I'd seen shadow walkers fight before. They were nearly impossible to kill, trained since childhood in every form of combat, and completely loyal to the Council of Shadows.
Two young wolves—even powerful ones—wouldn't stand a chance.
"We run," I said. "My family has a cabin in the mountains. Two hours from here if we push hard. It's protected by old magic that even shadow walkers can't break."
"Two hours is a long time to stay alive."
"I know. But it's our only shot."
Isla's silver wolf looked at me, and even in animal form, I could see the distrust in her eyes. She didn't want to follow me. Didn't want to rely on me. Not after what I'd done.
But she also didn't want to die.
"Lead the way," she said finally. "But Daemon? If this is a trick, if you're leading me into another trap, I will rip your throat out myself."
"Fair enough."
We ran.
The forest at the edge of campus was dark and thick with undergrowth. Good for hiding, terrible for speed. But shadow walkers could track by scent, by sound, by the disturbance we left in our wake. We had maybe a five-minute head start before they'd be on us.
"Why are they doing this?" Isla asked as we leaped over a fallen log. "If the Council of Shadows wanted me dead, why not just kill me? Why force us into the Trials?"
"Because the Trials are public," I realized. "Broadcast to all Five Territories. If we die during the Trials, it looks like an accident. Like we weren't strong enough to complete them. But if assassins just murder the Silvermoon heir?" I dodged a low branch. "That starts a war. This way, the Council gets what they want without the political fallout."
"So they entered us in the Trials knowing we'd fail. Knowing the challenges would kill us."
"Or the assassins would finish us off before we even started." I pushed harder, my wolf's muscles burning. "Either way, you're dead and they can claim your territory."
"Our territory," Isla corrected. "I'm your mate, remember? Even rejected, our bloodlines are bound. If I die without an heir, everything goes to you."
The realization hit like a punch to the gut. "That's why they want us both dead. If just you died, I'd inherit the Silvermoon lands and your pack's power. But if we both die during the Trials—"
"The territory becomes unclaimed. Open for anyone strong enough to take it." Isla's mental voice was grim. "This isn't just about killing me. It's about erasing the Silvermoon bloodline completely."
A howl split the night behind us—close, too close. The shadow walkers had picked up our trail.
"Faster!" I urged.
We burst out of the forest onto a mountain road. My family's cabin was still an hour away, up the winding path that climbed into the peaks. But on the open road, we were exposed. Visible.
"There!" Isla spotted something ahead—a bridge spanning a deep ravine. Water rushed far below. "If we can cross it and collapse the bridge, it might buy us time."
"That's a sixty-foot drop to rapids that will smash us against rocks."
"You have a better idea?"
I didn't.
We raced across the wooden bridge. Behind us, six shadow walkers emerged from the forest, shifting to human form. They moved with terrifying synchronization, pulling weapons from nowhere—silver knives that would burn through our wolf forms like acid.
"Now!" Isla shouted.
I shifted to human form mid-run, my hands finding the support cables on my side of the bridge. Isla did the same on hers. Together, we pulled with every ounce of strength we had.
The old wood groaned. Cracked. Started to give way.
The shadow walkers ran faster, realizing what we were doing.
"It's not breaking fast enough!" Isla's arms shook with effort.
The lead shadow walker was ten feet from the bridge. Five feet. He leaped—
The cable snapped.
The bridge collapsed into the ravine, taking three shadow walkers with it. Their screams echoed as they fell into the churning water below.
But three had made it across.
They stood between us and the mountain path. Between us and safety. Silver weapons gleaming in the moonlight.
"Daemon Blackthorn," the lead assassin said calmly. "Alpha heir to the Blackthorn Pack. Your father sends his regards."
My blood froze. "What?"
"Oh, did you think the Council of Shadows was acting alone?" The assassin smiled. "Your father is one of us, boy. Has been for years. He's the one who ordered us to kill the Silvermoon bloodline eight years ago. And he's the one who ordered us to finish the job tonight."
The words didn't make sense. Couldn't make sense. My father was Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack. A Council member. He wouldn't—
But even as I denied it, pieces clicked into place. His obsession with bloodline purity. His connections to rogues he shouldn't have known. The way he'd pushed me to reject Isla despite the mate bond. His strange satisfaction when I'd agreed.
"He used me," I whispered. "He made me reject her so she'd be vulnerable. So you could kill her and claim it was the corrupted bond or the Trials. I was part of his plan all along."
"Very good." The assassin took a step forward. "Now, you can make this easy and let us kill you both quickly. Or you can fight, and we'll make it hurt. Your choice."
Isla shifted beside me, her massive silver wolf snarling. Even outnumbered, even knowing we'd probably die, she was ready to fight.
And looking at her—at my brave, beautiful, rejected mate—something inside me finally broke free.
All my life, I'd done what my father told me. Been the perfect son. The perfect heir. I'd rejected my own happiness, my own mate, my own soul because he'd convinced me duty mattered more than love.
But he'd been lying. About everything. About honor, about leadership, about what it meant to be Alpha.
He'd turned me into a monster. Made me destroy the one person who could have saved me.
No more.
"Isla," I said quietly. "I need you to know something before we die."
"We're not dying tonight," she growled.
"But in case we do. I need you to know I'm sorry. For everything. And that I love you. I've loved you since the moment the bond snapped. I was just too broken to see it." I shifted to my wolf form, standing beside her. "But I see it now. And I'm going to spend whatever time we have left proving it."
The assassins attacked.
We fought like we'd been fighting together for years instead of hours. My fire-red wolf and her silver one, moving as one unit. When I went high, she went low. When she struck left, I covered right. The mate bond—even poisoned—connected us in ways words couldn't express.
We took down two assassins. But the third was better. Faster. He moved like liquid shadow, his silver blade slicing across my shoulder. I howled in pain, the silver burning deep.
"Daemon!" Isla lunged to protect me, but the assassin was already swinging for her throat—
A massive ice-blue wolf exploded from the forest, slamming into the assassin with the force of a truck. The shadow walker went flying, crashing into a tree hard enough to snap his spine.
More wolves emerged. Thorne Ashford's storm-gray form. Lyra Frost's ice-blue. Kael Nightshade's midnight-black. Even Professor Nightshade in her silver form—older but still deadly.
The Alpha heirs had followed us.
"You really thought we'd let you face assassins alone?" Thorne asked through the mental link. "We might be rivals, but we're not idiots. The Silvermoon heir is worth protecting."
"Besides," Lyra added, stalking toward the injured assassin. "We want answers. Like who in the High Council is working with the Council of Shadows."
The assassin laughed despite his broken body. "You're all too late. The Trials begin at dawn. No matter how many of you guard them, the challenges will kill them. The Trials of the Twin Moons have never been completed by rejected mates. Ever. They'll die together, and everyone will think it was destiny."
"What if they don't die?" Professor Nightshade asked quietly. "What if they survive?"
The assassin's smile faded. "Then the prophecy comes true. The Last Silvermoon unites the Five Territories and destroys the Council of Shadows forever." His eyes found mine. "That's why your father will do anything to stop it, Blackthorn. Because if she lives, if she claims her full power, his whole world burns."
He died before we could ask more questions.
We all shifted to human form. I was bleeding badly from the silver wound, but Isla was already at my side, her hands glowing with soft gold light. Healing magic. She was healing me with inherited power she didn't even know she had.
"Your father," she said softly as the wound closed. "Is it true?"
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." I looked at Professor Nightshade. "The Trials begin at dawn. What do we need to survive them?"
"Each other," she said simply. "The three challenges test the mate bond. Communication. Trust. Sacrifice. Rejected mates almost never pass because they can't work together. They're too full of hurt and anger and betrayal."
Her eyes moved between us. "Can you two put aside your pain long enough to survive? Or will the Trials destroy you like they've destroyed every rejected pair before?"
Isla and I looked at each other. The corrupted bond pulsed between us—painful, poisonous, dying.
But underneath the poison, I felt something else. Something that refused to die no matter how much damage we'd done.
Hope.
"We'll survive," I said.
"We don't have a choice," Isla added.
Professor Nightshade nodded. "Then you have six hours to prepare. The Trials begin at dawn in the Arena of the Twin Moons. And Daemon?" Her expression was grave. "If your father really is Council of Shadows, he'll be watching. He'll see you fighting to save the mate he made you reject. And he will send everything he has to make sure you fail."
My phone buzzed. Message from my father: I know where you are. Come home. Now. Or I'll kill everyone you care about, starting with your little Omega.
I showed the message to Isla. She read it and smiled—cold and dangerous.
"Good," she said. "Let him try."