Rikae didn't wait for an invitation. Using his status as the region's top strategist, he cleared a "Trade Consultation" with the Black-Ridge estate—Lisra's home pack. They were failing financially, and they couldn't afford to turn down the Silver-Claw Beta's expertise.
He found her in the estate's glass conservatory, surrounded by the scent of rain-dampened earth and jasmine. She looked smaller here, her shoulders hunched as she tended to a row of wilting white roses.
"The soil is too acidic," Rikae said, his voice cutting through the humid silence.
Lisra jumped, a thorn pricking her thumb. A single drop of crimson blood welled up. Before she could pull away, Rikae was there. He took her hand, his touch sending a jolt of lightning through both of them. He didn't let go.
"Rikae," she breathed, her eyes darting toward the heavy oak doors. "You shouldn't be here. Valerius has spies in every shadow."
"Let them watch," Rikae growled. He pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped her thumb. "I've spent all night in the archives, Lisra. I know about the Red Treaty. I know how he took you."
Lisra tried to wrench her hand back, but he held her firm—not with force, but with the steady weight of a man who wasn't leaving.
"I'm invoking the Right of Reclamation," he whispered, leaning close so his breath brushed her ear. "It's an ancient ritual. If I challenge him and the Moon recognizes our fated bond, his mark will burn away. You'll be free. You'll be mine."
Lisra's reaction wasn't joy. It was pure, unadulterated horror.
She shoved him back with surprising strength, her face pale. "No. Absolutely not. You will do no such thing, Rikae."
"Lisra, he's a tyrant. He's hurting you—"
"I am fine," she snapped, her voice rising in a desperate pitch. "Look at this place! My pack is fed because of that mark. My brothers are alive because I stayed. You come here with your 'Gold Standard' hero complex and think you can just flip a switch?"
"It's not a switch, it's the Moon's law!"
"The Moon doesn't live in the Iron-Fang territory," Lisra hissed, stepping into his space, her eyes flashing with tears. "Valerius does. If you start that ritual and fail—or even if you begin it—he will feel the tug on the bond. He will kill me before he lets you have me. He told me the day he bit me: If I can't own you, the earth will."
Rikae felt a cold fury settle in his gut. "I won't let him touch you."
"You can't promise that! You're a Beta, Rikae. A strong one, a smart one... but you are fighting a monster who has forgotten what it means to be human." She wiped a tear away angrily. "Go back to your perfect pack. Find a girl who isn't broken. I am not ready for your rituals. I am not ready to die for a 'fated' dream that came three years too late."
She turned her back on him, her spine stiff and trembling. "Leave, Rikae. And don't come back."
Rikae stood in the center of the conservatory, the smell of jasmine now tasting like ash. He was a man of logic, and logic told him she was terrified. But his wolf... his wolf was already building a cage for the monster she feared.