Page 23 of The Reluctant Alpha

"Underground!" Phoenix roared, his alpha voice carrying across the clearing. "All non-combatants to the bunker!"

I grabbed Danny's arm, pulling him toward the packhouse. "You need to go with Emery."

"I'm not hiding in some bunker while you—"

"Danny!" I growled, my bear rising close to the surface. "This isn't a discussion. You're human. You can't fight silver-skins."

His jaw set stubbornly, but Emery was already there, clutching Tia. "Come on," Emery urged. "Esther and Estrelle are already headed down. We need to move."

I released Danny's arm, letting Emery pull him away. "Go. Please."

Something in my voice must have reached him because he stopped struggling, though his eyes remained locked on mine. But then he snatched his arm from Emery and practically threw himself at me. I caught him out of instinct, and before I could form even a thought, his lips crashed against mine. The kiss was fierce, desperate, tasting of cookie dough and fear and something indefinably Danny. For a heartbeat, I froze, shocked by the suddenness of it, before my bear roared in triumph, and I kissed him back with everything I had.

"Bayer!" Phoenix's voice cut through my daze. "We need you!"

I shook myself, forcing my mind back to the present threat. Whatever was happening between Danny and me would have to wait. Right now, I had a pack to protect. Danny unhooked his legs, which he’d wrapped around me, and slid down.

"Don't you dare die," he said fiercely.

"I'll do my best," I promised, and this time I meant it.

As soon as they disappeared inside, I joined Phoenix and the others who were organizing defensive positions. Isla was there, her expression grim as she ordered the gammas into patrol groups. Rhys stood beside her, tension radiating from every line of his body.

"Where?" I asked, scanning the tree line.

Simeon pointed north. "Perimeter sensors went off at the northern border. One breach."

“One?” That was unusual. "I'll take the bears," I said, already moving toward my small contingent who were looking to me for direction. "We'll circle around from the east."

Phoenix nodded sharply. "Wolves will take the north and head west. Rhys, stay with Isla and Matthew's group. If this is what we think it is..."

"I'll know," Rhys finished grimly just as Ben ran over to join them.

We moved quickly, the ones I considered warriors falling in behind me without question. There were only nineteen warriors left—all that remained of my father's once-proud pack. But they were strong, loyal. Better than we deserved.

"Stay tight," I ordered as we loped through the forest. "If we meet anything, don't engage. Turn back and go report immediately to Phoenix."

I smelled Kaylan and turned. He approached me soundlessly. “And what will you do while they’re going back to report to Phoenix?”

I didn’t bother answering because he knew.

The forest was eerily silent as we approached the northern border. No bird calls, no rustling underbrush. Just the sound of our breathing and the soft pad of paws on pine needles. Three of my bears had shifted, their massive forms moving through the trees with surprising grace for creatures their size. The rest of us remained human, ready to shift at a moment's notice.

The scent hit me first—wrong, somehow. Not the usual metallic tang of blood even, but something fouler. Decayed. Rotting.

"Stop," I whispered, holding up a hand. The bears froze, noses lifting to sample the air.

"You smell that?" Kaylan murmured beside me.

I nodded grimly. I didn’t say the word because my bears could hear, but I guessed it was a revenant.

We crept forward cautiously, approaching the perimeter where the sensors had been triggered. The barrier itself—a sophisticated blend of technology and magic that Esther had created—showed no signs of a physical breach. But something had definitely crossed it.

"There." One of my bears, Tomas, pointed to a disturbed patch of earth. Footprints—human-shaped but wrong somehow, as if the feet that made them were twisted.

I crouched down, examining them. "These aren't normal silver-skin tracks. They’re much heavier." Most silver-skins almost glided and they barely left any tracks.

"They stop here," Kaylan observed, following the trail. "It's like whatever made them just...vanished."