Dominic Silvermane's Arc

Chapter 5 of 9

The boy's words hung in the cold air. Scarlett was at the border, talking to the rival pack. Dominic knew what that meant. His old beta had run his defenses for years. She knew where his patrols thinned. She knew which trails his wolves left open at night. Every gap in his walls lived inside her head. If she gave those secrets to the rival pack, they would not strike the whole pack first. They would strike his luna. He crossed the cabin and took his mate's hand. "You stay inside these walls," he said. "I close the holes she knows before she can sell them." He did not wait for dawn. He moved his best wolves to the thin trails that night. He doubled the watch on the paths near his mate's cabin. Then he did the one thing Scarlett would never expect. He went to the border himself, alone, to meet her. Scarlett stood in the trees, red hair bright against the dark bark. She did not run. She smiled the way she had smiled at him for years, like she still owned a piece of him. "You came," she said. "You always did chase the wrong wolf." Behind her stood an older man in a fur-trimmed cloak. Gray ears rose from his gray hair. Dominic knew him. Fenrir Shadowpaw, alpha of the rival pack. The man Dominic had paid to free his mate's debt. "She offered me your weak points," Fenrir said. His voice was flat and calm. "Every open trail. Every thin watch. She wanted my wolves to take your luna." He looked at Scarlett without heat. "I do not take what is not freely given. And I do not war over borders when a wiser road exists." Scarlett's smile broke. "You said you wanted the land." "I want the dispute ended," Fenrir said. "Not your revenge." Dominic stepped closer to his old beta. "There's nothing left to sell, Scarlett. The trails are closed. The watch is doubled. I changed every gap you memorized tonight." He kept his voice low. "You knew my old house. That house is gone." Her hands shook. The rival pack she had bet on now stood beside her enemy. She had no wolves. She had no secrets worth trading. She looked at Dominic one last time, and the anger drained out of her face into something emptier. Then she turned and walked into the dark trees. No one followed. Fenrir pulled his cloak straight. "The border is yours to guard now," he said. "I hold to my side. See that your luna is worth what it cost." He turned and was gone. Dominic stood alone at the border. The gaps were closed. His mate was safe behind his walls. But Scarlett was loose in the woods, ruined and hunbound, with nothing left to lose. He had ended the threat he knew. He had not ended her.