The docks never truly slept.
Even at 2:17 a.m., Lagos Harbor breathed like a living thing — engines rumbling low, ropes creaking, cargo containers groaning against metal frames. The air smelled of salt, diesel, and secrets.
Lena moved like she belonged to none of it.
Dark hoodie. Combat boots. Fingers steady despite the cold.
She didn't come here for ships.
She came for answers.
A warehouse light flickered ahead, casting pale stripes over stacked crates. She crouched behind a rusted forklift, scanning the entrance. Two guards. One smoking. One restless. Both armed.
She'd been watching this shipment for three nights.
Rumor said the rival wolf mafia — The Vargos Pack — was smuggling something valuable tonight.
Weapons? Trafficked shifters? Or worse.
Lena adjusted the blade strapped to her thigh.
She wasn't pack.
She wasn't protected.
She survived alone.
And surviving meant taking risks.
Her brother used to say that.
Don't wait for protection. Be the danger instead.
Her jaw tightened at the thought of him.
Kian.
Missing for eight months.
Taken during a deal that went wrong — a deal involving the same pack that controlled these docks.
Rafe's pack.
She didn't know if Rafe De Luca had ordered it.
But she knew his wolves were there that night.
And wolves didn't forget.
A truck engine growled in the distance.
Lena's gaze snapped up.
Headlights cut across the dockyard, slow and deliberate. The truck rolled toward the warehouse and stopped.
The guards straightened.
A door opened.
And he stepped out.
Even from across the dock, Lena felt it — that strange, heavy shift in the air.
Power.
Rafe De Luca didn't move like other men. He moved like gravity bent around him. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Black coat catching the wind. His presence alone seemed to silence the harbor.
Alpha.
His wolves emerged from the shadows behind him.
Four of them.
All lethal.
All loyal.
Lena swallowed.
She hadn't expected him to come personally.
This wasn't just cargo.
This mattered.
Rafe spoke briefly to one of his men. His voice didn't carry, but the authority did. They obeyed instantly.
Lena's pulse quickened.
If she could get close enough to see what was inside that truck—
A scream shattered the night.
Not human.
A wolf's scream.
It came from inside the warehouse.
Rafe's head snapped toward the doors.
Then everything exploded into motion.
Gunfire tore through the air.
The warehouse doors burst open as masked wolves stormed out — Vargos Pack.
It was an ambush.
Lena cursed under her breath.
She hadn't known the Vargos were bold enough to strike Rafe directly.
The dock became chaos — wolves shifting mid-run, bones snapping into monstrous forms, fur ripping through clothes. Massive gray bodies lunged under floodlights. The sound of claws scraping concrete sent chills up Lena's spine.
She should leave.
Now.
This wasn't her war.
But then she heard it.
A voice inside the warehouse.
Weak.
Human.
"Help—!"
Her body moved before her brain did.
Lena sprinted low across the dock, keeping to the shadows while wolves tore into each other twenty feet away. Blood splattered the concrete. A body hit a shipping container with a sickening crack.
She slipped inside the warehouse through a side entrance.
The smell hit her first.
Iron.
Fear.
She found him chained to a steel support beam.
Young. Barely twenty. Bruised. Wolf mark burned into his shoulder.
A captive.
Not Vargos.
Not De Luca.
Independent.
Like her.
"Don't," he rasped when he saw her. "They'll kill you."
"Story of my life," she muttered.
She sliced the chain with bolt cutters she'd stolen from the dock earlier.
Another scream echoed outside.
Closer.
The building shook as something massive slammed into the wall.
"Can you run?" she asked.
He nodded weakly.
She hauled him up.
And then the warehouse doors caved inward.
A massive black wolf burst through.
Silver eyes.
Not Vargos.
De Luca.
Even in wolf form, Rafe was unmistakable — larger than the rest, fur black as oil, eyes gleaming metallic in the fluorescent light.
He froze when he saw her.
Not because she was armed.
Not because she was trespassing.
But because she was standing protectively in front of a prisoner.
Defiant.
Unclaimed.
Unafraid.
The air shifted again.
Recognition flickered in those silver eyes.
Something ancient.
Something territorial.
Lena's breath caught.
She didn't believe in fate.
But something inside her reacted.
The black wolf stepped forward slowly.
Not attacking.
Assessing.
Behind him, two more wolves burst into the warehouse, blood dripping from their jaws.
The rescued captive trembled.
Lena lifted her blade.
"I'm not your enemy," she said, voice steady.
The wolf's gaze dropped briefly to her throat.
Her pulse thundered there.
He shifted.
The transformation was violent and fluid at once — bones folding, fur retreating, massive wolf shrinking into man. Rafe stood before her, shirt torn, blood streaked across his chest — some his, some not.
Up close, he was worse.
Stronger.
Intense in a way that pressed against her lungs.
"What are you doing in my warehouse?" he asked quietly.
That quiet was more dangerous than shouting.
"Saving someone you clearly weren't," she shot back.
His eyes flicked to the freed captive.
Then back to her.
"You shouldn't be here."
"You shouldn't keep prisoners."
Silence.
Outside, the fighting was dying down.
That meant one side was winning.
Rafe stepped closer.
Too close.
"You don't belong to any pack," he said. It wasn't a question.
"No."
"Yet you walk into wolf territory like you're invincible."
She held his gaze.
"I don't need a pack to survive."
A faint smile ghosted his mouth.
"Everyone needs a pack."
"Not me."
Something in his expression hardened.
"You're wrong."
One of his wolves rushed inside. "Alpha — Vargos retreating. But they took the north shipment."
Rafe didn't look away from Lena.
"Secure the docks," he ordered.
The wolf hesitated. His eyes lingered on Lena.
Territorial.
Suspicious.
"She comes with us."
Lena stiffened.
"No, I don't."
Rafe's silver gaze pinned her.
"You trespassed. You interfered in a pack war. And you freed someone under my protection."
"He wasn't yours."
"He was leverage."
Her stomach twisted.
"You're worse than them."
He stepped closer until she could feel his body heat.
"Careful."
The air between them crackled.
She refused to back down.
"You don't scare me."
His hand lifted slowly.
For a split second she thought he'd grab her.
Instead, he brushed his knuckles lightly against her jaw.
Electricity shot through her skin.
Her breath hitched involuntarily.
His eyes darkened at the reaction.
"Good," he murmured. "You should be."
Behind him, sirens wailed faintly in the distance — authorities responding too late, as usual.
Rafe's expression shifted — decision made.
"Bring her."
Two wolves moved toward her.
Lena stepped back, blade raised.
"If you try to force me—"
Rafe's voice cut through the tension.
"No one touches her."
The command rolled through the warehouse like thunder.
His wolves froze instantly.
His gaze never left hers.
"You can walk," he said softly.
"Or you can be carried."
Rage burned in her chest.
But she calculated quickly.
She needed information.
About the shipment.
About Kian.
About what really happened eight months ago.
And this alpha?
He had answers.
Fine.
She lowered her blade.
"I walk."
Rafe's lips curved slightly.
"Smart choice."
As they stepped out into the dock's aftermath, Lena noticed something chilling.
The wolves weren't looking at her with hostility anymore.
They were looking at her with recognition.
Whispers rippled quietly between them.
Mate.
She caught the word once.
Then twice.
Her pulse pounded.
Impossible.
She didn't believe in that ancient bond nonsense.
She didn't belong to any alpha.
Especially not him.
Rafe opened the passenger door of a black SUV.
She paused before getting in.
"Why me?" she demanded.
He leaned closer, voice low enough that only she could hear.
"Because," he said softly, silver eyes gleaming under the dock lights, "you walked into a war zone without fear… and my wolf hasn't stopped watching you since."
Her stomach dropped.
Not watching.
Claiming.
The SUV door shut behind her.
And as the vehicle pulled away from the blood-soaked docks, Lena realized something far more dangerous than a pack war had just begun.
She had just stepped into the alpha's world.
And alphas did not let go of what they marked as theirs.