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Maya stared out the top of the cabin's patched-up window at the dense forest beyond, thinking about the enormity of what Kieran was doing by protecting her. He was defying his Alpha, his own father, and everything he'd been taught. The weight of that rebellion seemed suddenly staggering.

"I shouldn't have judged him so harshly in the beginning," Maya admitted quietly, more to herself than to Lena. "Breaking away from lifelong indoctrination isn't simple. And he's risking everything—his position, his family, maybe even his life—by keeping me alive."

She remembered his fierce protectiveness, the way his powerful body had shifted into his wolf form and shielded herduring the attack, and the tenderness in his touch afterward. For a man raised to be ruthless, he'd shown her nothing but care.

"He can't keep protecting me forever though, can he?" Maya asked, turning back to Lena. "We can't just stay on the run indefinitely."

Lena's violet eyes studied Maya's face with uncomfortable intensity. "No," she agreed. "But there may be another way forward—one that neither of you has fully considered yet."

Maya caught the meaningful look in Lena's eyes, the way they lingered on her neck, and she knew the healer suspected much more than she was saying. About the mark. About what Maya had found in those ancient archives. About the dormant wolf genes that might be stirring within her own blood.

The conversation hung in the air between them, poised on the edge of revelation.

"You know," Maya said, tracing the grain of the wooden table with her fingertip, "in evolutionary biology, we have a principle—change isn't just good, it's necessary." Her scientific mind always found comfort in facts when emotions became too tumultuous. "Species that don't adapt become extinct. That's just nature."

Lena's lips curved into a small smile. "The rebellion has been saying that for years. The old ways served their purpose, but times change. We must change with them."

Maya nodded, emboldened. "Kieran took me to the Silvercrest archives yesterday," she confessed, watching Lena's face carefully. "We found records showing humans and shifters lived together, even formed relationships, until about three centuries ago."

Something flickered in Lena's eyes—recognition, surprise that Maya knew, perhaps even relief. "The Severance," she murmured. "When the High Council made the decree that separated our worlds forever."

Maya leaned forward. "But why? What could possibly?—"

"Maya," Lena interrupted, her voice suddenly urgent. "This is actually why I came with Malcolm today." She glanced toward the door nervously. "The High Council knows about your dormant shifter genes."

Cold dread pooled in Maya's stomach. "What? How could they possibly?—"

"I don't know," Lena whispered. "Maybe they picked up your scent at the archives. Or Kieran's. But something alerted them." Her small hands gripped Maya's across the table. "This is serious. If they find you?—"

Three sharp knocks on the cabin door made both women jump.

"Kieran," Maya breathed, strangely picking up his scent with crystal clarity. She rushed to slide the heavy wooden beam aside, her heart pounding.

Kieran and Malcolm burst through the door, tension radiating from their powerful frames. Kieran immediately moved to Maya's side, his hand spanning her lower back possessively as his eyes swept over her, checking for any harm that might have befallen her in his absence.

"We need to move," he said, his voice deep and commanding. "Now. It's not safe here anymore."

The authority in his tone sent an involuntary shiver down Maya's spine. Despite everything rational in her mind that rebelled against submitting to anyone's orders, her body responded to him instinctively.

"What did you find out there?" she asked, already reaching for her backpack.

Malcolm's expression was grim. "Signs of scouts. Not just Granite Ridge this time."

"Silvercrest?" Lena asked, her voice barely audible.

Malcolm's tight nod confirmed her fears.

"I know a cave system to the south," Kieran said decisively. "Maya and I will head there. Malcolm, take Lena back to territory—make it look like everything's normal."

Malcolm nodded. "I'll find you after. You're going to need backup, brother." The undercurrent of worry in his voice made Maya's pulse quicken.

Within minutes, Lena and Malcolm were gone, and Maya found herself trudging through dense forest behind Kieran's broad back. He moved with predatory grace over fallen logs and through thick underbrush, occasionally reaching back to steady her when the terrain grew treacherous.

"Lena told me something," Maya said when they'd put sufficient distance between themselves and the cabin. "The High Council knows somehow about my dormant shifter genes."

Kieran stopped so abruptly that Maya collided with his solid back. He turned, his eyes blazing with a piercing intensity that stole her breath.

"What did you say?" His voice was dangerously soft.