IRIS POV
Iris's mind moves faster than her body.
The alarms are still screaming. Maya is standing in the doorway giving them two hours. Jayce is coming with Strikers. And Blake just got marked by the rebellion leader moments before the worst possible person in the world decided to show up.
This is either catastrophic or brilliant. Iris hasn't decided which yet.
"Get everyone to the secondary compound," Iris says to Maya. Her voice is completely calm. "Move quietly. No panic. They don't know how many we are or where we actually operate. We don't give them information."
Maya nods and leaves. Iris turns to Blake and the weight of what she's about to say sits heavy in her chest.
Blake is waiting for her to react. To be angry. To feel betrayed. But Iris just looks at him with clear eyes.
"Sit down," she says.
Blake sits. He looks like someone waiting for execution. His jaw is tight. His hands are shaking slightly. He's never seen him look uncertain before.
"You were sent here to kill me," Iris says. It's not a question.
Blake's entire body goes rigid.
"How did you know?" he asks.
"I knew the moment you arrived," Iris says. She pulls a chair closer and sits so they're face to face. "I could smell Granite Peak on your skin. I could see the mission in your eyes. Your body language screamed Striker. Everything about you said you were trained to destroy things."
Blake looks away. He looks like he's waiting for her to be angry.
Iris waits until he looks back at her.
"You were supposed to infiltrate my compound," Iris continues. "Gather evidence. Execute me and everyone standing with me. Report back that the threat is eliminated. Simple. Clean. Final."
Blake nods like he's confirming something he already knows.
"Why didn't you kill me?" he asks.
"Because I needed to know something," Iris says. "I needed to know if you were smart enough to realize the obvious."
She leans forward slightly.
"Your Alpha is weak," Iris says. "Not in body. In mind. Your pack is stuck in old ways because nobody's brave enough to question them. Your entire structure is designed to keep males like you trapped. To keep you as weapons instead of people. I could see it in how you moved. In how you watched my strategy like you were starving for something real."
Blake's expression shifts. Like something inside him is breaking open.
"I waited for you to make a choice," Iris finishes. "I waited to see if you would choose the cage you've always known or if you'd choose something harder. Something true."
Blake stands up. He walks to the wall and presses his forehead against it like he's trying to ground himself.
"You were testing me," he says.
"Yes," Iris confirms.
"And I failed by not killing you," Blake says.
"No," Iris says. She stands and walks to him. "You passed by realizing there was a better option than what you were told to do."
Blake turns to face her. There's something raw in his expression. Something that looks like relief mixed with fear.
"What do you want from me?" he asks. The question sounds like it costs him something.
Iris doesn't hesitate.
"I want you to stay," she says. "Not as a spy. Not as someone pretending to be on my side. As an actual partner. I want you to help me from the inside. I want you to use everything you know about Granite Peak and pack structure to help me destabilize Torin's territory so completely that our restructuring becomes the only option."
Blake stares at her.
"That's asking me to be a traitor," he says.
"Yes," Iris confirms.
"To my own pack. To my family. To everything I've been trained to protect," Blake continues.
"Yes," Iris says again.
Blake moves closer. He reaches out and touches her face like he's memorizing it. Like this moment is everything.
"If I do this, there's no going back," Blake says.
"I know," Iris says.
"My Alpha will order me dead," Blake says.
"Yes," Iris says.
"My brother will have to choose between me and the pack," Blake says.
"I know," Iris says.
Blake takes a breath and it sounds like surrender. But it also sounds like freedom.
"Then I want to do it," he says. "I want to choose this. I want to choose you. I want to build something new instead of serving something broken."
Iris feels something shift in her chest. This male just gave up everything he's ever known. Not because he was forced to. But because staying with her matters more.
She pulls him down and kisses him. It's not gentle. It's claiming. It's a statement that says he belongs to her now. That he's hers and she's his and they're choosing this together.
When she pulls away, Blake looks at her with an expression that's equal parts terrified and certain.
"What happens now?" he asks.
"Now we move faster," Iris says. She pulls back and her mind is already shifting into strategy mode. "Jayce coming here isn't a disaster. It's an opportunity. If Jayce finds Blake here with us, he reports back that you've completely turned. Your Alpha declares you a traitor. You become completely committed to the rebellion because your only way back is through victory."
Blake nods like he understands.
"We use Jayce to burn the bridge," Blake says.
"Exactly," Iris says. "And we use his arrival to test our security. To see where our weak points are before we get bigger."
She moves toward the door then stops and turns back to Blake.
"I need to know something," she says. "Are you sure about this?"
Blake meets her eyes completely. There's no hesitation in his expression anymore. Just certainty.
"I've never been more sure of anything," he says.
Iris nods. She reaches for her phone and starts sending messages to her network. The secondary compound is being prepared. Wolves are being moved. The rebellion is contracting before it expands.
Blake stands beside her watching her work and something shifts in him. He's no longer a Striker being given orders. He's a strategist choosing his own path. He's a male finally being treated like his intelligence matters.
He's finally free.
The first scout rushes in with an update.
"Jayce is thirty minutes out," the scout says. "He's moving faster than expected. And Blake, he's not trying to hide. He wants you to know he's coming."
Blake's face goes hard.
"He's giving me a chance to run," Blake says quietly. "Or to fight. He doesn't think I'll actually be here."
Iris understands immediately what this means. Jayce is treating this like a personal hunt. He's making it about his rivalry with Blake instead of about following orders. That changes everything.
She looks at Blake and makes a decision that will either win them the war or lose it completely.
"Then we don't run," Iris says. "And we don't hide. We let him find us. We let him see Blake standing beside me. We let him see that you chose us completely."
"That's insane," Blake says. "Jayce will attack."
"Yes," Iris says. "And when he does, you fight him. Here. In front of witnesses. You defeat him publicly. And suddenly the rebellion has proof that even Granite Peak's warriors are choosing us."
Blake realizes what she's doing. She's turning his betrayal into a victory. She's using Jayce's arrival as a recruitment tool.
"You're brilliant," Blake says.
"I know," Iris says. "Now go tell the fighters to prepare. We're about to show Jayce why attacking us is the worst decision his Alpha could have made."
Blake moves toward the door then stops and looks back at her.
"Thank you," he says. "For waiting. For seeing me. For choosing me."
Iris smiles at him and it's real and it's full of everything she feels.
"I didn't choose you," she says. "You chose yourself. I just gave you the option."
Blake leaves to prepare the fighters. Iris stands alone in the war room surrounded by maps and plans and the future she's building.
In thirty minutes, Jayce arrives.
In thirty minutes, everything changes.
And for the first time since she ran into the forest two years ago, Iris is ready.