Page 17

Lightning flickered outside, illuminating the hard lines of his face for a split second.

"You went through my things." Not a question. His voice had dropped an octave, vibrating with barely controlled anger.

"You kidnapped me." Maya stepped closer, heat flooding her cheeks. "I'd say we're even."

Kieran closed the distance between them in two long strides, his nostrils flaring as if scenting her defiance. "Those journals are private."

"Execution of human witnesses? Arranged matings? Isolation punishments?" Maya listed firmly, each offense making her voice rise. "Are you really upholding this medieval system?" She paused for a moment, feeling a twinge of fear pulsein her veins. "So what, if you don't figure something out soon, you're going to kill me to appease your kind's crazy thinking?"

Thunder cracked outside, as if punctuating her accusation.

"If I was going to follow my kind's thinking, you'd already be dead." The quiet certainty in his voice sent ice down her spine. "I'm the one keeping you alive."

"Then tell me the truth. All of it." Maya jabbed a finger against his chest, surprised by her own boldness. "Who are you really? The journals mentioned an Alpha heir. Is that really you?"

Kieran caught her wrist, his touch burning against her skin. "Yes."

The confirmation knocked the wind from her lungs. "So, you're not denying it anymore?"

"What would be the point?" His thumb traced unconscious circles against her pulse. "Yes, I'm a wolf shifter. Yes, I'm the heir to the Silvercrest pack. My father is the current Alpha."

"And J. Silvercrest?"

Something painful flickered across his face. "My uncle John. He died ten years ago in a territorial dispute, right when the Moonfire Rebellion began."

Maya pulled her hand away, needing distance to process this information. "That rebellion from the pamphlet—the civil rights movement."

Kieran nodded, running his large hands through his midnight hair. "This cabin sits on Granite Ridge territory, not Silvercrest land. There are four major packs in the Cascade Mountains region—Silvercrest, Granite Ridge, Tidewater, and Shadow Pack. Each has their own pack laws, but there are some universal shifter laws. The four packs of the Pacific Northwest's Cascade Territory are governed by the High Council."

"And your pack laws are..."

"The most traditional." His jaw clenched. "The most rigid."

Lightning flashed again, illuminating the struggle in his eyes. For a moment, Maya glimpsed the weight he carried—heir to a legacy he seemed to both honor and question.

"So, why didn't you kill me in the forest?" Maya asked, the question that had haunted her since she woke up in this cabin. "Your father recommended it, didn't he? And the High Council ordered it, right?"

The wind howled louder outside, tree branches scraping against the cabin's roof like skeletal fingers.

"Because it's wrong." Kieran's voice was quiet but firm. "Killing humans who discover us might have made sense centuries ago, but not now. Not you."

Something in the way he said "you" made Maya's spine tingle. "So what? You're some kind of wolf shifter reformer?"

"It's not that simple." Frustration edged his tone. "These traditions kept us alive for centuries. You can't just tear down a society's foundation without something to replace it."

"Oh please." Maya scoffed, anger bubbling up. "That's what every corrupt system says to avoid change. 'It's complicated.' 'It's for protection.' Meanwhile, you're executing innocent people and forcing arranged matings!"

Kieran surged forward, backing her against the wall, his arms caging her in. "You think I don't know that?" His voice was a growl now, his eyes flashing with inner light. "You think I want to be heir to a system that does those things? That I don't lie awake every night trying to figure out how to change it without starting a civil war?"

Maya's breath hitched as his face lowered toward hers, close enough she could count his eyelashes. The scent of pine and something wild filled her senses.

"Then why hide me away?" she whispered. "What am I exactly to you?"

Thunder boomed directly overhead, rattling the cabin window. The storm had arrived in full force, echoing the tension between them.

EIGHT

KIERAN