Sienna Frost entered the enemy Alpha's bedroom through a window no guard was supposed to know existed. Her pack had trained her for this moment since childhood: one silver blade, one sleeping target, one death that would end a twenty-year war.
Darius Kane was awake.
He caught her wrist before the blade touched his throat and rolled them across the bed. Sienna struck twice, but he moved with brutal precision, pinning her beneath him without breaking her arm. Moonlight found his face. He was younger than the stories claimed—and wearing the iron crest that had belonged to Sienna's dead father.
“Where did you get that?” she demanded.
Darius glanced at the pendant. “From the man who saved my life.”
Her wolf surged at his scent. The reaction was not fear. A mate bond snapped into place so violently that both of them froze. Heat raced from Sienna's palm to the old scar over Darius's heart. The enemy Alpha released her at once, horror replacing anger.
“No,” Sienna whispered. Her commander had warned her that Kane sorcerers could imitate bonds. She reached for the blade again.
Darius let her take it. “If you believe killing me will protect your pack, do it. But first look beneath the mattress.”
She found a bundle of letters tied with blue thread. The handwriting belonged to her father. Each message described secret peace negotiations and named the wolf who had sabotaged them: Garrick Frost, Sienna's uncle and current Alpha.
Footsteps thundered in the hall. Darius's guards had discovered the open window.
“Choose quickly,” he said. “My people will execute an assassin. Yours will execute a witness.”
The door burst inward. Sienna pressed the blade to Darius's throat and ordered everyone back, pretending she still controlled the room. He played along, one hand settling around her waist as though she were dangerous enough to hold him.
Then a familiar voice sounded from the corridor.
Uncle Garrick stepped between the guards, smiling. He had crossed enemy territory without an army, which meant someone inside Darius's pack had invited him.
“Well done, Sienna,” he said. “Now finish what your father was too weak to do.”