Return

The welcome sign for Nightfall territory appeared through my windshield like a warning.

My fingers dug into the steering wheel. Storm shifted inside me, restless.

Turn around. There's still time.

But there wasn't. Mom's Luna ceremony was tomorrow. Missing it wasn't an option.

Three years since I'd crossed this line. Three years since I'd run, humiliated, broken, from the only home I'd known. Three years since Kieran Blackwood stood in front of our entire pack and said the words that hollowed me out.

"I reject this bond."

My phone buzzed. Then again. Then a rapid-fire assault that meant the group chat had discovered my location.

---

KIRA SHE'S DOING IT THE CRAZY BITCH IS ACTUALLY GOING BACK

JADE Sera, you don't have to do this Your mom would understand

NADIA No she wouldn't lol Rosa has been planning this for months

KIRA Wait wait wait It's Heat Season SERA IT'S HEAT SEASON

JADE Oh no

NADIA Oh NO

KIRA You're going back to your fated mate's territory DURING HEAT SEASON As an unmated female

SERA I'm aware

KIRA ARE YOU THOUGH Do you remember what happened last time you were near him?

JADE She literally fled the territory

NADIA After he publicly rejected her Which was devastating btw Not the rejection obviously But like HIM He's so scary-gorgeous I wanted to combust

JADE Not helping Nadia

SERA I'll be fine It's two weeks I can handle two weeks

KIRA Famous last words

---

I tossed the phone onto the passenger seat and kept driving.

The trees grew thicker. Familiar. Ancient pines that had watched generations of wolves run beneath their branches.

Home, Storm whispered.

Not anymore. I had a life in Seattle now. An apartment. A photography studio. A carefully constructed existence that didn't involve pack politics or fated mates.

The road curved and the pack house appeared.

Massive. Stone and timber. Three stories of wolf territory carved into the Montana mountainside.

My gut clenched.

Memories cut through me. Running these halls as a child. Failing my first shift in the back gardens while the other pups watched. Standing on that porch while silver eyes looked through me like I was air.

I parked. Forced a breath. Checked my reflection in the rearview mirror.

My eyes flashed.

Not amber. Gold. Bright, molten gold, there and gone so fast I blinked and saw only my own familiar face staring back.

What the hell?

Trick of the light, Storm said. Let's go.

The car door opened. Mountain air, cool and sharp with pine.

And underneath it.

Underneath everything.

Him.

His scent hit me before I finished closing the car door. Pine. Smoke. Raw Alpha power. It bypassed every rational thought and sank straight into my spine.

Storm howled inside me. Every nerve fired at once.

No no no.

I braced against the car. My thighs pressed together. Heat pooled low and fierce in my belly. Sudden. Punishing.

This wasn't supposed to happen. The Heat wasn't due for another week. I'd checked with the pack doctor. I'd planned.

But my body had its own plans.

It only wanted one thing.

Him.

"Hello, Sera."

I spun.

He stood on the porch. Six feet four of Alpha male, corded muscle under a black shirt, every inch of him radiating the kind of authority that made lesser wolves look at the ground.

Black hair cropped short. Silver eyes that caught the fading light and threw it back sharper.

Kieran Blackwood.

The man who'd shattered me at twenty-one.

The man my body still wanted so badly my vision was blurring.

Mate, Storm purred. MATE.

My Heat surged. A wave of need so vicious my knees almost gave.

His nostrils flared. Those silver eyes went dark.

He'd scented me. He knew.

A slow curve of his mouth. Not a smile. A predator recognizing the scent of what he'd been hunting.

"Welcome home."