Daphne's POV
The healing cottage door locks with a soft click. Daphne holds Liam against her chest and feels him shake like something is breaking inside him. His skin is still warm from the shift. His heart still beats too fast against hers.
"Breathe," she whispers into his hair. "Just breathe, baby. You're okay. You're safe."
He's not safe. She knows this. But she says it anyway because that's what mothers do. They lie when the truth is too heavy for their children to carry.
Liam's hands grip her shirt so tight his knuckles turn white. He's crying, not loud, but the kind of crying that comes from somewhere deep. The kind that shakes his whole body.
Daphne moves him to the couch and sits with him wrapped around her. She's known this day was coming for twelve years. She's prepared for it in a thousand small ways. She's trained him on control. She's taught him what it means to be a wolf in a world that hunts wolves. She's built walls around Moonvale Village meant to keep the outside world out.
Nothing prepared her for how fast those walls would crumble.
Within twenty minutes, there's a knock on her door. Soft but urgent.
"It's me," Quinn's voice comes through. "Let me in."
Daphne leaves Liam on the couch and opens the door just enough for Quinn to slip inside. Quinn is her oldest friend, the only other person who knows the full truth about Liam's father. She's also the person Daphne trusts with her life.
Quinn takes one look at Liam on the couch and her face darkens.
"The entire market saw it?" Quinn asks.
"Everyone," Daphne says quietly. "At least twenty people."
Quinn walks to the window and peers outside like she's checking for danger. Maybe she is. She swears under her breath and turns back.
"They're already talking," Quinn says. "I heard it from three different people on my way here. An Alpha heir. Hidden. Powerful. In Moonvale." She moves closer to Daphne. "How long do you think we have?"
Daphne doesn't answer because the answer terrifies her. She's already thinking about what to pack. Already thinking about where they could go. Already running in her mind.
"The packs will come," Quinn continues. "You know they will. The moment word gets out about an unregistered Alpha heir, they'll move."
"I know," Daphne says. Her voice sounds steady even though nothing inside her feels steady. "We're leaving tonight."
"Daphne." Quinn reaches for her arm. "You can't keep running. You can't keep hiding him forever. Eventually he's going to need to be who he is."
"I don't care," Daphne says. And she means it. She doesn't care about pack politics or registration or what the world thinks Liam should be. She cares about keeping her son alive. She cares about keeping him away from the people who want to use him. She cares about the fact that his father is probably the biggest threat of all.
She pushes past Quinn and goes to the bedroom. She pulls a bag from under the bed and starts throwing things into it. Clothes. Money she's been saving. Documents. Medical supplies. Everything they might need to disappear.
Quinn watches from the doorway without moving.
"You're going to need help," Quinn says finally.
"I can handle it," Daphne replies. But her hands are shaking and she knows Quinn can see it.
"I know you can. That's not the point." Quinn sits on the bed. "The point is you shouldn't have to. Not alone. Not again."
Daphne stops packing for a second. That kindness almost breaks her open. The kindness of someone who loves her enough to stay even when staying is dangerous.
"If you help me, they'll come after you too," Daphne says.
"Let them come," Quinn says simply.
By eight o'clock, the whispers have spread through half of Moonvale. By nine, they've reached the neighboring settlements. Daphne knows because people keep calling Quinn's phone. People asking if it's true. People saying they heard an Alpha heir was found. People wondering what it means for the village.
What it means is that her time is running out.
Liam is asleep now, curled up in a ball on the couch. Daphne covers him with a blanket and watches his face. He looks so young when he's sleeping. He looks like the baby she carried for nine months. He looks like the little boy she raised alone in this cottage while she pretended his father never existed.
Except he does exist. And somewhere out there, he's probably just found out that he has a son.
The thought makes her stomach turn.
"We need to move," Quinn says from the kitchen. Her voice is urgent. "I just heard from Marcus in the eastern settlement. Wolves are gathering at the forest edge. Not from any pack he recognizes. They're just appearing and staying quiet."
"How long until they make a move?" Daphne asks.
"Could be hours. Could be minutes. They're probably waiting for orders."
Daphne nods. She's been through this before. Not with Liam, but before Liam. When she was younger and more foolish and in love with someone who didn't love her back.
She's never been that foolish again. She's built her life so carefully. So safely. So far away from the people who could destroy it.
And now it's all falling apart.
She looks around her cottage. At the healing supplies she's spent seven years collecting. At the garden visible through the window. At the home she's created for a child who never asked to be hidden.
"Get Liam's bag," Daphne says. "Put anything that matters in it. We leave in five minutes."
Quinn nods and moves toward Liam's room.
That's when they hear it.
The sound starts outside. A howl that cuts through the night air like a knife. Then another. Then three more. The wolves at the forest edge are calling to something. Or calling to each other.
Daphne walks to the window and looks out into the darkness. She can see them now. Shapes moving between the trees. Massive, four-legged shapes with eyes that shine gold in the lamplight.
More than a dozen of them. Maybe two dozen.
And they're not attacking. They're just waiting. Just watching. Just circling like they know exactly where their target is and they have all the time in the world to take her.
Liam wakes up screaming.
Quinn runs back into the living room carrying two packed bags. She sees the window and the wolves and her face goes white.
"Daphne," she says.
"I know," Daphne says. But she doesn't know. She doesn't know what to do when the danger is already at her door. She doesn't know what to do when running isn't fast enough.
She grabs Liam off the couch and pulls him toward the back door.
"There's a trail through the forest," she tells Quinn. "We use it. We go deep into the woods where they can't follow."
"They're wolves, Daphne. They can follow anywhere."
"Then we run faster," Daphne says.
She opens the back door and the cold night air hits her face. She can smell them now. Strange wolves. Pack wolves. Dangerous wolves.
That's when her phone buzzes in her pocket.
She pulls it out with shaking hands. Unknown number. A text message.
Her blood goes cold when she reads it.
"An Alpha heir has been discovered. The child belongs to Theron Blackwood. If you have information about the child's location, contact the Silver Ridge Pack immediately. Reward offered for cooperation."
Daphne stares at the message.
Theron knows. The Alpha King himself knows. And he's mobilizing. And his people are spreading out across the region hunting for his son.
Because of course he would. Because power recognizes power. Because an Alpha heir is the most valuable thing in the supernatural world.
And Liam is his.
"We have to go now," Daphne says. But before she can move, before she can pull Liam into the forest and run like her life depends on it, something massive moves at the edge of the property.
A figure steps out of the darkness. A man. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Moving with the kind of power that makes the air around him seem smaller.
Even in the dark, even with seven years between them, Daphne recognizes him immediately.
Theron Blackwood stands at the edge of her property with at least twenty armed guards behind him. His eyes find hers through the window and lock on with an intensity that makes her knees weak.
He's found them. He's found his son. And there's nowhere left to run.