Riley POV
The shower was too hot.
Riley stood under the spray trying to calm her breathing but it wasn't working. Her heart wouldn't slow down. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. In four hours, she had to walk into a room full of wolves who saw her as an invader. Wolves who might be waiting for any excuse to prove she didn't belong.
She turned the water hotter.
The gown Sarah had packed was midnight blue. Formal. The kind of thing you wore when you wanted to be taken seriously. Riley pulled it on with wet fingers that fumbled with the zipper. The fabric clung to her in all the right places. She looked older in the dress. Harder. Like someone who could survive this.
That was a lie, but it was a useful one.
The mirror showed her a stranger.
Her hair was still wet so she braided it back, leaving a few pieces loose the way her mother used to do. It made her look younger. More vulnerable. She pulled it down and let her hair fall around her shoulders instead. Better. More confident. More like the mate of an Alpha and less like prey being led to slaughter.
But the face looking back was still terrified.
Eleanor came to get her exactly four hours after Magnus had dismissed her. The woman's expression didn't change when she looked at Riley.
"You look adequate," Eleanor said, which might've been a compliment or might've been an insult. "Come. The pack is waiting."
Walking down the hallway felt like walking toward execution. Riley's legs moved but didn't belong to her. Her mind kept screaming at her to run. To find Sarah. To get back to the cars and drive away from this place. But she kept walking because the alternative was letting seventeen children die.
The hallway opened into a massive stone room.
The pack hall was incredible and terrifying in equal measure. Stone walls stretched up so far Riley couldn't see the ceiling. A fireplace the size of her bedroom roared with flames so intense the heat hit her face from across the room. Long wooden tables filled the entire space. Hundreds of wolves sat at those tables. Maybe more. It was hard to count when they were all staring at her.
Everything stopped when she entered.
Conversations died mid-sentence. Forks paused halfway to mouths. Heads turned in complete unison. Riley felt the weight of their attention like a physical thing pressing down on her. These weren't gentle looks. These were assessing looks. Predatory looks. Looks that said they were deciding whether she was worth keeping or worth discarding.
Magnus appeared at her side like he'd materialized from shadow.
His hand found the small of her back. The touch was ice cold even through the fabric of her dress. Not gentle. Possessive. A statement to every wolf in that hall. This is mine. This is claimed. Do not challenge me.
She wanted to pull away. Instead, she leaned into him like they'd rehearsed. Like they were partners instead of strangers bound by contract.
The pack parted as they walked to the head table. Magnus led her to a chair next to his own. Not across from him. Not at a distance. Right beside him. Close enough that their shoulders would almost touch when they sat down.
Riley could feel the shock radiating from the warriors.
A female from Crescent territory. The pack that Magnus had attacked. The pack that was supposed to be their enemy. Sitting here like she belonged. Sitting beside the Alpha like she was his mate instead of his prisoner.
She heard whispers start immediately. Confused whispers. Angry whispers. Whispers that said this didn't make sense and something was wrong.
Riley sat and picked up her fork.
The food was roasted meat and bread and vegetables prepared in ways that made her mouth water. But it all tasted like ashes. Like she was eating the physical manifestation of her own death. She put the food in her mouth and chewed and swallowed because not eating would draw more attention.
Magnus spoke to the pack about territory matters. About the northern border. About hunting schedules. About warrior training. He didn't look at Riley. Didn't acknowledge her except for one moment when he reached over and adjusted her hair back from her face. The gesture was casual but deliberate. Marking her. Reminding everyone that she was his.
Riley didn't know whether to be grateful for the attention or terrified by it.
The dinner went on for what felt like hours. Warriors approached the head table to speak with Magnus about pack business. Most of them didn't look at Riley. A few did. Those ones had expressions that made her skin crawl. They were trying to figure her out. Trying to understand if she was a threat or a tool or something else entirely.
She was none of those things. She was just a girl trying to survive.
When the meal finally ended, Magnus stood and offered his hand to help her up. Riley took it and his fingers closed around hers. Cold. Strong. Inescapable.
He led her out of the hall.
Warriors watched them go. Some looked thoughtful. Some looked angry. Some just looked hungry. Riley felt their eyes on her back all the way to the stairs.
Magnus walked her through hallways she hadn't seen before. They twisted and turned. She was hopelessly lost within seconds. That was probably the point. He wanted her to understand that this territory belonged to him. That she would never know it the way he did. That she would always be dependent on him to navigate it.
Finally, they stopped at a door.
"Your room," Magnus said simply. He opened it and gestured for her to enter.
The room was beautiful. Impossibly beautiful. The bed was massive with soft blankets. The windows were large and showed the mountain landscape bathed in moonlight. There was a bathroom attached with hot water and soap and everything she could want. A closet filled with clothes that somehow fit her perfectly. Books on the shelves. A writing desk. A chair by the window.
It was a prison disguised as paradise.
"There's a lock on the door," Magnus said, and he was standing in the doorway behind her. "Use it whenever you want. I won't come to you without permission. Your boundaries will be respected. You're safe here."
The words were kind. They should've been reassuring. But they landed like a rejection. Like he was telling her he didn't want her. Like she wasn't attractive enough or interesting enough to even consider approaching. Like she was something he'd accepted as part of a contract but didn't actually want in any real way.
"Thank you," Riley whispered because she didn't know what else to say.
"Sleep well," Magnus replied. He stepped back into the hallway. "I'll see you in the morning."
He closed the door.
Riley stood completely still for a long moment. Then she walked to the door and locked it. The click of the lock sounded so final. So absolute. She was locked in. Safe from Magnus. Safe from the pack. Safe from everything except herself.
She walked to the window and looked out at the Shadowpine territory bathed in moonlight. Mountains towering like giants. Forest stretching endlessly. A landscape that was beautiful and dangerous and completely indifferent to her suffering.
Her father was in the ground hundreds of miles away.
Sarah was sleeping in a warrior's quarters surrounded by people who might decide to hurt her at any moment.
And Riley was alone in a beautiful room that was also a beautiful cage.
The sobs came without warning. Deep, painful sounds that she couldn't control. She wrapped her arms around herself and sank to the floor and let the fear and grief and desperation pour out of her. She cried for her father. For her lost life. For the seventeen children who were alive because she'd made this choice.
And she cried because the Alpha who was supposed to be her mate had rejected her so completely that it felt like another death.
She locked the door and cried herself to sleep on the cold stone floor.
And in the darkness beyond the windows, the wolves of Shadowpine howled into the night like they were celebrating the new bride who'd just learned that survival sometimes meant dying alone.