KIERAN'S POV
I caught Hana as she fell, her body going limp in my arms.
"NO!" The roar tore from my throat. My wolf exploded forward, and I didn't fight it this time. Bones cracked. Fur erupted. In seconds, I was fully shifted—a massive silver wolf cradling my unconscious mate.
Daniel's men stumbled backward, fear finally replacing their greed.
"Shoot him!" Daniel screamed. "SHOOT THEM BOTH!"
Gunfire erupted. I curled around Hana, my body shielding hers. Bullets hit my fur and bounced off—alpha hide was nearly impenetrable. But the tranquilizer dart in Hana's neck was still there, pumping poison into her system.
I had to get her out. Now.
Marcus crashed through the warehouse wall in full bear form, roaring loud enough to shake the rafters. Behind him came my pack—twenty wolves, all shifted, all ready to kill.
The fight was brutal and swift. Daniel's hired guns didn't stand a chance against shifters.
I shifted back to human form, gathering Hana in my arms. The dart was still in her neck. I pulled it out carefully, sniffing it.
Wolfsbane mixed with something else. Something that smelled like burnt metal and death.
"Marcus!" I shouted over the chaos. "She's been poisoned!"
My beta was at my side instantly, back in human form. He sniffed the dart and went pale. "That's phoenix-killer serum. Black market stuff. Designed specifically to keep phoenixes dormant."
"Will it kill her?"
"I don't know. No one's seen it used on an awakened phoenix before." Marcus's face was grim. "We need to get her to a healer. Fast."
I looked around the burning warehouse. My pack had subdued most of Daniel's men, but Daniel himself was gone. Escaped in the chaos.
Coward.
"Fall back!" I ordered. "Everyone out! Now!"
We ran as the warehouse collapsed behind us, flames reaching toward the sky. I held Hana close, feeling her heartbeat growing slower. Weaker.
No. Not like this. She'd just awakened. She'd just transformed for the first time. I couldn't lose her now.
*Mate dying,* my wolf whimpered. *Save mate. Please.*
"I'm trying," I whispered.
We reached my car. Marcus drove while I sat in the back, Hana's head in my lap. Her skin was too hot, fever burning through her. But underneath the heat, I felt ice creeping through her veins from the poison.
Fire and ice, fighting inside her body. Tearing her apart.
"Drive faster," I growled.
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
My phone rang. Unknown number again. I answered, knowing who it would be.
"Enjoying watching her die?" Daniel's voice was smug. "That serum is quite special. It attacks the phoenix's fire from the inside. She'll burn herself out trying to fight it."
"I will rip you apart," I snarled.
"Probably. But not before she's dead." He paused. "Unless... you want the antidote?"
My blood went cold. "What antidote?"
"Oh, didn't I mention? There's a cure. I have it, actually. Safe in my office." Daniel laughed. "Here's my offer, Ashford: bring me the girl, alive, and I'll give you the antidote. You can watch her recover right before I take her away forever. Or refuse, and watch her die in your arms. Your choice."
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone, rage and despair warring inside me.
"He has an antidote," I told Marcus.
"It's a trap."
"I know." I looked down at Hana. Her lips were turning blue. "But what choice do I have?"
"We find another way. There has to be—"
Hana's body suddenly jerked. Her back arched. Golden flames erupted from her skin, so hot I had to drop her onto the seat.
"She's fighting it!" Marcus swerved the car. "Her phoenix is trying to burn out the poison!"
But she was burning too hot. The car's leather seats started smoking. The windows cracked from the heat.
"Hana!" I reached for her, ignoring the burns on my hands. "Hana, you have to stop! You're going to kill yourself!"
She didn't respond. Couldn't respond. The fire was consuming her from the inside out.
This was exactly what I'd feared. An awakening triggered by trauma instead of natural progression. Her phoenix was too strong, too wild, and she had no idea how to control it.
"Pull over!" I shouted.
Marcus slammed the brakes. We were on a deserted road outside the city. I yanked the car door open and carried Hana out, laying her on the ground away from anything flammable.
She was glowing now, bright as the sun. The heat was unbearable. Even standing ten feet away, my skin blistered.
"Kieran, we can't get close enough to help her!" Marcus yelled.
He was right. But I couldn't just stand here and watch her burn.
*Bond,* my wolf whispered. *Use the mate bond. Connect to her. Balance her fire with our ice.*
"The bond isn't complete," I said. "It's too weak—"
*TRY!*
I had no other choice.
I closed my eyes and reached for the thin thread connecting us. The bond we'd formed when she touched me, when her phoenix recognized my wolf. It was barely there, gossamer-thin, but it was real.
I grabbed onto it and pulled.
*Hana!* I screamed through the bond. *Hana, can you hear me?*
Silence. Just burning, endless fire.
*Please! You have to fight! You have to control it!*
Still nothing.
And then—
A flicker. A tiny spark of consciousness in all that fire.
*Kieran?* Her voice was distant, terrified. *I can't stop it. I can't—it's too much—*
*I know. I'm here. I'm with you.*
*I'm scared!*
*I know, love. But you're not alone.* I pushed all my alpha strength through the bond, letting her feel my presence. *Feel me. Feel my wolf. Let us balance you.*
*I don't know how!*
*Trust me. Please. Just... trust me.*
A pause that felt like forever.
Then: *Okay.*
I felt her grab onto the bond, holding tight like a lifeline. And I pulled her toward me, pulling her consciousness away from the fire, anchoring her to reality. To me.
The flames started shrinking. Slowly. So slowly.
"It's working!" Marcus shouted. "Keep going!"
I pulled harder, wrapping my wolf's cold around her phoenix's heat. Ice and fire, finding balance. Finding harmony.
The flames died to embers. Then to nothing.
Hana lay on the ground, gasping, her skin red but no longer burning.
I ran to her, dropping to my knees beside her. "Hana? Can you hear me?"
Her eyes opened—golden now, no longer brown. Phoenix eyes.
"Kieran," she whispered. "What... what am I?"
"You're a phoenix. The rarest shifter in the world." I brushed her hair back from her face. "And you're my mate. My fated mate."
She stared at me. "Your... mate?"
"Yes. I've known since the day we met. I've been waiting for you to awaken, to become what you were meant to be." My voice broke. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I'm sorry I pushed you so hard. I was trying to make you strong enough to survive this."
"You knew?" Tears spilled down her cheeks. "All this time, you knew?"
"Yes."
"And you let me think you hated me?"
"I could never hate you. I was trying to protect you." I cupped her face. "Hana, there are people who want to hurt you. Use you. Daniel Cross is just the beginning. The entire shifter world will want to control you now that you've awakened."
She looked terrified. "I don't... I can't..."
"You can. You're stronger than you know." I helped her sit up. "But right now, we need to get you somewhere safe. The poison is still in your system. Your phoenix burned most of it away, but—"
Hana's eyes rolled back. She collapsed against me, unconscious again.
"No!" I checked her pulse. Still there, but weak. So weak.
Marcus appeared beside me. "We need that antidote."
"It's a trap."
"I know. But do we have a choice?"
I looked down at Hana, so small and fragile in my arms. Two years I'd protected her. Two years I'd kept her safe. And in one night, I'd lost her to Daniel Cross, watched her nearly die twice, and now she was poisoned with no cure except the one held by our enemy.
"No," I said quietly. "We don't have a choice."
I pulled out my phone and called Daniel.
He answered on the first ring. "Changed your mind?"
"Name the place."
"The old factory on Miller Street. One hour. You bring the girl, I bring the antidote." Daniel paused. "Oh, and Kieran? Come alone. If I see any of your pack, any backup at all, I'll destroy the antidote and let her die. Understood?"
"Understood."
I hung up.
Marcus was already shaking his head. "You can't go alone. He'll kill you both!"
"He wants her alive. She's worth too much dead." I stood, cradling Hana. "But he'll definitely try to kill me."
"Then let me come with you—"
"No. You need to protect the pack. If I don't come back, you're alpha. Promise me."
Marcus's jaw clenched. "Kieran—"
"Promise me!"
"I promise," he said finally.
We drove back to the city in silence. Every minute, Hana's breathing got shallower. The poison was winning.
When we reached Miller Street, Marcus pulled over.
"One hour," I told him. "If I'm not back in one hour, assume I'm dead and get the pack to safety."
"I'm not leaving you—"
"That's an order, beta."
Marcus looked like he wanted to argue. Instead, he clasped my shoulder. "Don't die, you idiot. She needs you."
"I know."
I got out of the car, carrying Hana toward the abandoned factory. It loomed ahead, dark and menacing.
This was definitely a trap. Daniel probably had fifty men waiting inside. He'd take Hana, maybe give me the antidote just to watch me try to save her before he killed us both.
But I had to try.
For her, I'd walk into any trap.
I pushed open the factory door.
The lights clicked on, blinding me. When my vision cleared, I saw Daniel standing in the center of the empty space.
Alone.
No guards. No guns. Just him, holding a small vial of silver liquid.
"The antidote," he said, showing it to me. "As promised."
Something was wrong. This was too easy.
"Give it to me," I demanded.
"First, put her down."
I hesitated.
"Kieran, we both know you can't fight while holding her. Put her down, and I'll give you the antidote. You have my word."
A shifter's word was binding. He literally couldn't break it without losing his power.
Slowly, carefully, I laid Hana on the ground.
Daniel tossed the vial. I caught it, checking the contents. It was the real antidote—I could smell it.
I uncapped it and poured it into Hana's mouth, tilting her head back so she'd swallow.
Seconds passed. Then her breathing deepened. Color returned to her cheeks.
The poison was gone.
Relief flooded through me so intensely I almost collapsed.
"There," Daniel said. "She's saved. Happy?"
"Why?" I stood, facing him. "Why give her the cure?"
"Because, Kieran, I don't need the girl anymore." His smile widened. "I have something much better."
The floor beneath me suddenly gave way.
I fell into darkness, hitting water. Cold, freezing water. I surfaced, gasping, and looked up.
The hole I'd fallen through was twenty feet above. Too high to jump. And the walls were smooth metal—no way to climb.
I was trapped.
Above me, Daniel looked down, still smiling.
"Did you really think I wanted one phoenix?" he called down. "No, Kieran. I wanted to study how the mate bond works. And now I know." He held up his phone, showing me a video. A video of me using the bond to calm Hana's fire. "With this information, I can force bonds. Control them. Imagine it—an army of bonded shifters, all under my control."
Horror flooded through me. "You can't—"
"Oh, but I can. Thanks to you." Daniel's smile was pure evil. "Enjoy drowning, Alpha Ashford. By the time anyone finds you, if they find you, I'll be long gone. And so will your precious phoenix."
He walked away.
I heard a door slam. Then water started pouring into the pit. Fast. So fast.
I was going to drown.
And Hana—unconscious, defenseless Hana—was alone with that monster.