The first attack hit before Naomi Reed could decide whether Alpha Dax Mercer was protector or captor. Claws tore through the sealed door. Alpha Dax Mercer shifted between her and the attacker, taking a silver blade across his ribs while he forced a path into the old service tunnels.
They escaped with the sealed record but not the evidence that proved who had signed it. Inside a guarded room, Alpha Dax Mercer traced its payments and erased seals. Every path led back to someone Naomi Reed had defended for years.
Alpha Dax Mercer placed a contract beside the evidence. For thirty days they would appear united, share information, and never move without security. In return, he would give her access to the one archive capable of proving Naomi's son carries the extinct silver-wolf gene that can unite or destroy the packs. The final clause was strangely specific: neither of them could pretend the attraction between them was part of the agreement.
She laughed once, without humor. “You wrote a rule against falling for you?”
“I wrote a rule against lying about it.”
Their first move together became another ambush. A messenger slipped Naomi Reed a key engraved with the date of her greatest loss. It opened a private box containing photographs of Alpha Dax Mercer meeting the person who had arranged her three-year-old shifted under a full moon and released an Alpha call heard across three territories.
She pressed the photographs against his chest. “Tell me why I should not leave.”
He did not deny the meeting. He stepped close enough that anger became heat and covered her hand with his over the evidence. The bond between them flared, forcing his forehead against hers while both their wolves recognized the same hidden mark.
“I went there to stop what happened to you,” he said. “I failed. I will not fail twice.”
The lights died before she could decide whether to believe him. A black mirror filled with the face of the person Naomi Reed trusted most.
“You have until midnight,” the caller said. “Naomi's son carries the extinct silver-wolf gene that can unite or destroy the packs. Ask Alpha Dax Mercer what else he is hiding. Then decide which one of you I kill first.”