Maya’s evacuation route ended at a collapsed tunnel.

Someone had detonated the mountain from outside.

Eric set Leo down behind a stone support and examined the blockage. “Three minutes to clear it.”

“We have one,” Ian said.

Hunters were descending both stairwells. The silver wound beneath Ian’s ribs had begun to numb his left side. Eric felt every pulse through the collar and was losing control by degrees.

His claws no longer retracted.

“Take Leo through when it opens,” Eric said.

“You’re not staying.”

“I can hold both stairs.”

“You can barely hold your human shape.”

Eric’s eyes flared. “Do not command me.”

Ian stepped into him until their chests touched. “Then stop giving stupid orders.”

For one breath, the battle vanished. Eric looked at Ian’s mouth, then at the blood soaking his shirt.

“I should have told you,” he said.

“Yes.”

“I should have torn down the council the first night they kept you below.”

“Yes.”

“I should never have let you believe you were alone.”

Ian’s anger remained. So did the unbearable truth that Eric’s arms had been the first safe place he had known in years.

“Survive,” Ian said. “You can apologize properly later.”

Eric touched his forehead to Ian’s.

Permission asked without words.

Ian did not pull away.

Leo made a loud slurping noise through his straw. “Are you done?”

They separated.

The first hunters reached the landing.

Eric shifted.

His black wolf form filled the tunnel, massive enough that his shoulders brushed both walls. Ian climbed onto the broken support and fought above him, striking hands and weapons before they reached Eric’s eyes.

Leo crouched beneath them and shouted tactical advice.

“The ugly one has a knife!”

“They all have knives,” Ian answered.

“The extra ugly one!”

Eric slammed that man into the stairs.

The collapsed exit began to move. Maya, pale but conscious, operated a maintenance loader from the other side.

Cold air entered the tunnel.

“Leo first,” Ian ordered.

The child crawled through the gap. Maya pulled him clear.

A silver net launched from the upper stairs and wrapped around Eric’s wolf body. He crashed down, smoke rising from his fur.

Ian jumped onto the net. Silver burned his palms. He tore at the locking rings while hunters closed in.

“Go!” Eric forced through the bond.

“Shut up.”

Ian broke the first ring.

A spear pierced his shoulder.

He broke the second.

The hunter holding the spear twisted it. Ian screamed but did not release the net.

Leo crawled back through the opening.

“No!” Ian shouted.

The child placed both hands on the silver mesh.

His eyes became white.

Power erupted from him. The net exploded into molten fragments that froze before touching the floor.

The entire keep trembled.

Leo collapsed.

Eric changed back before hitting the ground and caught him. Ian covered them with his body as the ceiling cracked.

“Move!” Maya yelled.

They reached the outer gorge seconds before the tunnel folded inward.

Snow struck Ian’s face. Nightfall Keep burned above them, red light pouring from shattered windows.

Vehicles waited across the frozen river.

Then the hunters appeared on the ridge.

Dozens.

Silas stood at their center holding the black controller.

He activated the collar.

Ian’s throat closed. Eric dropped beside him, sharing the pain. Leo screamed and grabbed both men.

Silas descended the slope. “The Moonborn child belongs to the crown.”

Eric tried to rise.

Silas increased the current.

“You were never fit to rule, Eric. You mistook obsession for strength.”

Ian saw Maya reach for her weapon. A hunter aimed at her.

He saw Leo’s terrified face between himself and Eric.

He saw the king fighting the collar rather than submitting.

Ian took the current into his own mark.

“Give it to me,” he told Eric through the bond.

“It will kill you.”

“Trust me.”

Eric released his resistance.

For the first time, the two Alpha currents aligned instead of fighting. The Sovereign Collar blazed blue-white. The controller in Silas’s hand cracked.

Ian rose.

So did Eric.

Their wolves answered together.

Ian shifted into a dark gray war wolf. Eric became black shadow and silver teeth beside him.

They hit the line of hunters as one force.

Ian broke the center. Eric guarded his wounded side. They moved with the instinctive coordination of animals who had fought each other often enough to know every turn, feint, and strike.

Silas fled toward the shrine entrance.

Eric started after him, but Ian collapsed.

The king chose Ian.

He returned, shifted, and caught him in human arms as the gray wolf form failed.

“Stay awake.”

Ian opened his eyes with effort. Blood streaked Eric’s face.

For once, Ian did not turn away.

He lifted one shaking hand and wiped the blood from the corner of Eric’s eye.

Eric became utterly still.

“Leo?” Ian asked.

“Safe.”

“Then stop looking like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m your whole world.”

Eric bent over him, forehead touching his.

“You are half of it.”

Leo pushed between them and wrapped his small arms around Ian’s neck.

Eric’s wolf rumbled.

The sound was not relief.

It was the first note of a feral break.

Maya ordered the surviving guards to lower their weapons. She had seen feral Alphas before. They usually required silver restraints, tranquilizers, and losses no report could soften.

Ian refused the antidote offered by a medic until Leo had been examined first. The child had exhausted his royal power but suffered no lasting injury.

“Your turn,” Leo told Ian.

“I’m older. I can wait.”

“That means you’re easier to break.”

The medic made a choking sound that might have been laughter.

Ian accepted the injection. Eric watched the needle enter Ian’s arm, and the black wolf’s lip curled at the medic despite the man helping them.

“He is losing language,” Maya warned.

Ian saw it. Eric’s attention had narrowed to three things: Ian’s blood, Leo’s breathing, and every possible threat between them and the trees.

The mate bond magnified each sensation until Eric could no longer distinguish his wounds from Ian’s.

Ian reached for him.

The wolf backed away.

That frightened Ian more than an attack would have. Eric was retreating because some human fragment still knew he might cause harm.

“Eric,” Ian called.

The wolf turned toward the highway lights and began to run.

If he reached the nearby town in that state, Silas would not need to defeat him. Human authorities would do it for him.

Ian forced himself upright.

“Watch Leo,” he told Maya.

Then he followed the monster into the snow.

Each step left blood behind. Ian followed broken trees and claw marks until the sounds of traffic carried through the valley. The feral wolf had stopped on a ridge overlooking the human road, fighting himself hard enough to gouge trenches in the frozen ground.

Ian remembered their first duel. Eric had trapped him beneath the Moonwell and then released him when the temple collapsed. At the time, Ian had called it weakness. Now he understood that Eric’s most important victories had always been against his own instincts.

“You stopped once,” Ian called. “Do it again.”

The wolf looked back. No recognition entered his eyes.

Ian’s knees nearly failed. He pictured Leo waiting behind him, pretending not to cry. He pictured three years of drawings and a king sleeping on the floor beside a hidden child.

He continued forward.

“You don’t get to make me care and then disappear.”

The wolf descended from the ridge.

Ian pulled the knife, held it for one last second, and understood what Leo had meant. Steel would only confirm that Eric was surrounded by enemies.

Trust was the more dangerous weapon.

Ian dropped the blade into the snow.