The mate play shifted without warning.

One moment they were running, two wolves threading through moonlit trees. The next, Xeon cut her off at the edge of a clearing.

He was done chasing.

Aurelia turned to face him, sides heaving.

Xeon pressed his body along hers, his chest vibrating with a deep, possessive rumble. He dragged his muzzle along the length of her neck, slow, claiming every inch of her with his scent. His teeth grazed her scruff and closed, holding her in place with firm pressure.

Aurelia’s body went rigid, then softened by degrees, muscle by muscle, until she was pressed into him.

He mounted her, and his forepaws locked around her midsection. Then his teeth punched through the skin in her scruff, and his venom started to surge in her.

There was nothing tentative about it. He drove into her and a sound tore from his chest that was half growl, half something far more desperate. Every thrust was claiming. Every thrust said mine.

Aurelia’s claws dug into the earth. A whimper escaped her that carried through the forest.

Xeon’s pace was relentless, primal, driven by an instinct older than language. His jaws tightened on her scruff, holding her exactly where he wanted her, and Aurelia let him. Then the pleasure turned into something else, taking her over the edge.

Xeon followed. His entire body locked, a roar ripping through him, even with his mouth clamped down on her neck. He held her through it, refusing to release or let go, his hips still moving in shallow, possessive pulses as the last of it tore through them both.

He released her scruff at last, and his tongue dragged across the spot his teeth had held. He nuzzled into the curve of her neck, and the rumble in his chest was no longer possessive. It was reverent.

Aurelia turned her head and pressed her nose to his. Golden eyes met golden eyes.

She was trembling, but it was not from cold or exhaustion. She lay down, and Xeon curled around her immediately, his massive frame encircling hers, chin resting on her back.

Her tail wagged once. Twice. Her eyes closed slowly, venom already running its course.

Then she was still, and the forest settled around them.

✦✦✦

Xeon woke still curled around Aurelia, his muzzle resting in the soft hollow between her shoulder blades.

His ears twitched. Every soft, sleeping thing in him went sharp at the edges.

Paws. Multiple sets of them, moving fast through the underbrush a half mile out.

Fin’s awareness snapped into place beside the wolf’s.

Fin: Ten maybe eleven. Coming in from the northeast ridge.

Xeon’s gaze dropped to Aurelia who was still sleeping against him. Her fur glowed and would be a beacon from a mile out.

Xeon: We need her to change back. No white wolf.

Fin: Agreed. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Xeon: You are able to mindlink her now.

Fin: You mated with her wolf.

Xeon: Take notes. You’re welcome.

Fin’s silence had the specific weight of wanting to argue but unable to, because the result spoke for itself.

Fin: Serena?

Nothing answered him. The space where her thoughts should have brushed against his stayed quiet and far away.

Xeon nudged Aurelia gently with the cold tip of his nose, once along her jaw and then again at the soft fur behind her ear.

She didn’t stir.

Fin shifted to human form, and tried again.

"Serena, baby. Wake up."

The running paws in the distance were closer now, close enough that Xeon could pick out the wet, ragged breathing of wolves who had been pushed hard and fed poorly.

Xeon: Aurelia. Shift. Now.

White light flashed across the clearing.

He shifted back into the long, lean shape of his man between one breath and the next, dropping into a crouch beside Serena and gathering her up against his chest.

Her eyes opened slowly.

Fin: Since when can you do that?

Xeon: Since now. Mate needs rest. I didn’t realize she was this bad.

Fin: I didn’t either.

She opened her eyes slowly, and blinked a few times.

"Fin?"

"Hey beautiful girl. Do you trust me?"

She didn’t hesitate. "Yes."

"Get on my wolf’s back."

He didn’t wait for an answer, setting her down. Her knees buckled immediately, legs folding like they’d been cut. Fin shifted so fast, Xeon dove in front of her, catching her on his back when her knees were an inch from the ground.

Fin: Serena. Now.

She jolted, aware enough to know she’d just heard Fin’s voice in her mind.

A heat surged through her eyes flaring gold. Her wolf taking over. Xeon didn’t move until she was fully on, and had wrapped her arms around his neck.

Then he took off.

Fin barked commands through the pack mindlink. Confirmations rolled back.

Just as Fin began to mindlink commands to his patrol, human figures poured from the treeline in a staggered V-formation. They were wearing black, with masks.

The second they saw Fin, they shifted.

Three cleared the ridge at full sprint, fanning out to block escape routes. Four closed from behind.

Textbook ambush geometry. Someone had studied Shadowclaw patrol patterns. Which meant someone inside the network had talked, or someone outside had watched long enough to learn. Both options made Fin’s blood run cold, and both options had an expiration date he was about to set.

A wolf lunged from the treeline aimed directly at Serena.

Xeon snarled. The sound tore through the clearing and three of the closest wolves stuttered mid-stride.

The lead wolf lunged for Xeon’s flank, but not to kill. To separate. Fin recognized the tactic before Xeon did. They were herding him west, away from the patrol line.

A wolf snapped at Serena’s ankle. Xeon pivoted so hard the ground split under his back paw and his jaws closed around the wolf’s throat before the bite could land. He didn’t slow down. He carried the body three strides before releasing it.

They kept coming. Two replaced every one that fell.

The first Shadowclaw wolf hit the clearing like a wrecking ball. Griffin, his Beta, moving at a speed that meant he’d been running before the order landed.

More Shadowclaw wolves burst through the northern tree line in a wedge formation, moving with the silent coordination of men who had trained together so long they didn’t need the mindlink to know where the others would be.

The mages arrived thirty seconds behind the wolves. And within ninety seconds, Fin’s wolves outnumbered the strike team three to one.

Aeron dropped to his knees with two mages. He yelled an incantation that would have absolutely shocked Serena if she’d been conscious.

All three mages slammed their palms into the earth in unison. Gold light ripped outward in concentric circles, wards snapping into place like a net closing.

The light pulsed once, twice, and the forest inside the barrier went quiet. Everything outside it did not.

Aeron kept going after the other two stopped, creating a second barrier behind that sealed everyone in. The mercenaries were now inside a cage made of Shadowclaw wolves, Shadowclaw mages, and Shadowclaw fury.

His nose was bleeding when he stood up. He wiped it on his sleeve without looking at it, already walking the perimeter, checking the wards with the focus of a Master Mage who took failure personally.

Fin: Grid pattern. Quarter-mile radius expanding to one mile. Anything that isn’t pack dies tonight.

Griffin: Consider it done, Alpha.

Fin: I want scent trails tracked to origin. And I want whoever funded this strike team’s name in my hand by morning.

The grid spread outward in a precise, expanding net. Pairs of wolves working in tandem, covering ground in overlapping arcs, driving anything still moving toward the center where Shadowclaw’s heaviest fighters waited.

Confirmations came through the mindlink in efficient fragments.

Griffin: Two runners surrendered, said they are willing to cooperate. Do you want us to go ahead with the kill order, Alpha?

Fin: Kill one. Let the other watch. Then take him to Maximus West, five guards, one mage, portal only, silver cuffs immediately

Griffin: Copy.

Fin shifted mid-stride. One step wolf, next step man. His arms were already reaching back before the shift finished, catching Serena as she slid off Xeon’s back.

He didn’t break stride, taking her to his quarters.

Knox and Griffin flanked him the second he broke the tree line. His Beta and Gamma, already in human form, already armed, already reading his face.

Elias was waiting.

"First shift," Fin said. His voice was level. His hands were not. "Heavy silver poisoning. Over a year of it."

His Beta and Gamma exchanged a glance.

Elias winced. "I’m sure that was painful. I’ll take her, and get her stable, Alpha."

Fin did not let go, moving through his castle. Knox, Griffin, and Elias followed him to his chambers. He put her on his bed.

"Alpha, I need room to put her I.V. in. And by the looks of her, she needs one."

"She doesn’t leave my chambers."

"Copy."

Fin stepped back one foot. It was the hardest thing he had done all night, and the night had included a combat ambush, a forced shift, and carrying his unconscious mate through a forest on his wolf’s back.