noun ~ the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur

PHOENIX 

The moment the patrol alert reached me, I knew something was wrong. It wasn't the usual type of wrong, such as a rogue wandering too close to territory, or a lost traveller pushing past the boundaries; this one was deliberate.

I could feel it ripple through the patrol link like a tightening wire.

'Alpha...' Josh called through the link. 'It's... Aldren Cyrus? What do you want us to do?'

Let them through. I'm on my way.

I straightened from my chair, scanning the treeline through my office window. Nova was still training, but I knew it wouldn't be long before she was on her way. Sean had already stiffened, and I took that as my cue to dart from my office and run towards the long dirt road that led towards the gates.

Around me, the pack had already begun to quiet, wolves pausing mid-exercise as instinct sharpened the air. It didn't take long for Nova and Sean to find me, both of them covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Despite the situation, I couldn't help but admire Nova in her exercise gear, my eyes lingering on the woman I called my soul.

Her presence brushed mine through the bond; alert and focused, before her attention shifted to something deeper moving beneath the surface of her expression. Sean stepped to my right, already shifting his attention toward strategy instead of drills. He caught my eye, picking up on Nova's odd expression too.

"Phoenix." She whispered. "One of them is Aldren. I can sense him."

I nodded. "Good. That's what the patrol said. What about the others?"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to reach the approaching wolves. It was good practice for her to use her gifts, especially considering the distance was too far for a wolf's nose to reach.

My wolf was already awake beneath my skin, restless as we waited for the three stragglers to reach us. Nova remained close to my side, her hand secure in my own. I tuned into my patrol, noticing the odd calm coming from the three intruders. It definitely looked like Aldren and dare I even say Cors.

Nova's breath hitched, and I quickly turned my attention to her. The bond was cracked open, a sliver of light through a door that let me inside her thoughts. Her worry and concern overpowered any fear, and my lips pursed with thought as she thought about the third stranger.

Kasper.

The man who teased my borders, the man who attacked Cors in Nova's vision.

I stiffened, pulling my mate to a stop as the three grew closer. The stale scent of blood caught in the air, dragging their scents closer. They smelled of earth and sweat, of hard work and tension, and I had to chew down the growl that bubbled in my throat when I recognised the herby hint of scent removers.

The three figures were approaching through the trees, slow and unhurried, unusually so. Anyone with half a brain knew you didn't stroll into another alpha's land like you owned the forest.

My gaze narrowed. Nova's other hand brushed my arm.

"This isn't what I expected." She muttered.

Aldren was no threat, but Cors was a wildcard. And Kasper, the new wolf, the rogue that stepped into my land with his head raised... He was a mystery.

Still, I didn't lower my guard.

They stopped before us, and my instincts sharpened, taking in the old and healing wounds. Cors, much like Nova, continued to bleed, his fresher cuts hardly scabbing over.

Nova was concentrating on the three of them, the silence passing through the small group of us, and my patrol guards who escorted them.

'I can feel him, but... There's something about him... he's waiting. Testing us? Or Aldren? I can't tell.'

Then we let him make the first move. Stay with me. I told her.

Aldren stepped forward first. He looked tired, dust coating his boots and the hem of his coat, but otherwise unharmed. His eyes lifted to meet mine calmly, not even phased that he had brought both Cors and a stranger to my land.

That wasn't the mission I asked of him, although I admit he did it swiftly.

I glanced at Cors, assessing him. Even after years of isolation, the man carried the same quiet intensity that had always made other wolves uneasy. He moved like a creature more comfortable with the forest than civilisation.

But it was the third man who drew my attention. Kasper. He walked slightly apart from the others, posture straight, expression carefully guarded. I didn't know him, but I knew enough. Enough to recognise danger when it stood ten metres away from my pack.

The patrol wolves growled softly around us.

I raised a hand. "We'll take them back to the pack house. We'll talk. But Kasper... we keep him restrained."

Nova gaped, everyone else falling silent under my orders. "Restrain him?"

"Yes," I glanced at her. "Just in case, I am assigning a guard to him at all times. We can't take chances. Not with strange wolves that have been testing our borders for months."

She swallowed, but carefully nodded her head, deep in thought. It may seem barbaric, but the man was clearly on edge. As a rogue with no pack, we couldn't be certain how well an alpha command would work on him or what chaos he would cause. And if what Nova saw in her vision was true, he was out to maim.

The forest fell quiet again as a patrolman handed me the cuffs. Kasper glared at me, and something about it reminded me of something. It was like I had seen that glare before. It was...odd.

I secured the cuffs on him anyway, barely feeling the burn of silver. He did, though, and sucked in a sharp breath of discomfort, but otherwise didn't blink. Smugness settled on my face as I nudged him forward, knowing full well silver barely affected me now.

I was better than him, and I loved the satisfaction it gave me.

Our small group started the trek to the house. Nova drifted from my side, and I caught her trying to talk to Cors. The man, her very own uncle, glanced at Kasper nervously before looking at her. And whatever he said to her in their mind made her face drain of colour.

My jaw hardened, and I kept my attention on both of them and Kasper as we approached my pack house. Wolves inside glanced curiously but bowed their heads when I looked their way. They were curious, but not enough to be disrespectful.

Once inside my office, I told all but two patrols to leave, and the remaining two shut the door behind us and stood guard on the other side. The door closed behind Sean with a heavy finality, and the quiet that followed was thick enough to feel.

And now, it was just the six of us.

I remained where I stood at the head of the table, hands resting lightly against the wood. My posture was relaxed, intentionally so, but every instinct beneath the surface was alert. Leadership required stillness, not emotions.

Aldren approached, hand outstretched in greeting. I took it firmly, hoping the look in my eyes told him exactly what I was thinking.

"Phoenix," he greeted. "I'm sorry for intruding like this."

His voice carried calm, but there was tension beneath it.

"I didn't expect to see you walking into my territory unannounced." I said evenly.

Aldren gave a faint smile. "Circumstances required urgency."

My gaze shifted past him. "And them?"

Cors didn't react, but Kasper did. Just barely. A tightening in the jaw, a flicker of awareness in his eyes.

Interesting.

"Explain." I growled.

Aldren exhaled slowly. "We came because we didn't have any other choice."

My wolf stirred beneath my ribs because that wasn't the answer I was expecting.

"And why," I asked quietly. "Would that involve bringing a rogue onto my border?"

For a moment, no one spoke. I glanced at Sean, who remained at the other side of the room, his arms crossed as he glared at Kasper.

"It's more... complicated than a simple answer." Aldren muttered.

"Do I look like I'm looking for story time?" I glowered, and Nova sighed, nudging my side.

She had somehow woven her way back to me, leaning close enough I could smell her body heat.

Aldren cleared his throat, glancing at the brown-eyed man in the middle of him and Cors. My jaw hardened, my teeth tightly clenched as I fought back the canines that wanted to appear. I wasn't in the mood for games, not when I had a pack and a family in this very vicinity.

"Cors was under attack when I found him."

I hummed, not letting on that we knew. He glanced at Nova, his cousin, and scratched the back of his neck.

"He was trying to kill Cors when I arrived." He continued. "We fought for a while, but we managed to come to an agreement."

I didn't move; I simply watched Kasper. He didn't deny it or argue. He didn't reach for a weapon; he just... stood there. Waiting... And that told me more than any explanation could have.

Nova swallowed, her hands shaking slightly as she looked around. "Why, Kasper?"

The man's eyes snapped to hers, an intensity in them I didn't like. He stared at her, both of them caught in an uneasy tension that only angered my wolf.

'Just kill him now.' Ares grumbled.

Later. I murmured. We have to be calm.

His growl rumbled in my chest, but he backed down, allowing me to listen to the group again.

Across from me, Aldren rubbed a hand across his face, exhaustion pulling at the corners of his expression. Cors shifted his weight, wincing like a man who had spent too long surviving in the wild, shoulders tense despite the roof over his head.

Nova remained locked in her stalemate, waiting for the strange wolf to speak. Even without looking at her, I could feel the restless hum of her power brushing against mine through our bond. She was processing everything around her, putting together pieces of a story from shattered fragments.

"It's true." Kasper stated bluntly.

I knew the look in her eyes. The soft disappointment that what she had thought was true. If I allowed it, she would carry the weight of this war on her shoulders before it had even begun. But not tonight, not ever.

"Start from the beginning." I snapped.

Aldren exchanged a brief glance with Cors before speaking.

"I found Cors two days ago." Aldren explained. "Deep in the woods, north of here."

Cors' jaw tightened, and Aldren glanced at him. But the stranger, Kasper, continued to stare at my mate.

"He was being tracked," Aldren continued. "By him."

I watched Cors carefully; his body language told more than his words ever would. The man was tense, but not frightened. Wary, yes. Angry, certainly. But the fear that usually accompanied assassination attempts was absent.

Which meant that something about this situation had changed. Or something about his desire for survival had.

Kasper glanced at Aldren when he spoke, before his brown eyes shifted to mine. I held his gaze, lifting my chin to stare down at him.

"Walk me through it," I declared. "Who sent you? Why Cors?"

Nova suddenly stiffened, and I glanced at her warily. She was staring at Cors now, her eyes wide as his narrowed.

"He came for him in the night." She translated.. "Didn't hide it. Didn't sneak. Just stepped out of the trees like he'd been invited."

My brow lifted slightly. "That's unusual behaviour for an assassin."

Cors gave a humourless smile.

"That's what he thought, too." Nova shifted faintly beside me. "He... Kasper told him he was sent to kill him."

I could feel her attention sharpen.

"And?" I prompted.

"They fought." She muttered. "Cors managed to escape by breaking Kasper's... Your knee is broken?"

Kasper shrugged despite the concern in her voice. "Had worse."

Naturally.

Aldren nodded. "When I arrived, Cors was trying to escape him."

I turned my gaze to him. "You just happened to arrive at the exact moment an assassin confronted him?"

Aldren met my stare calmly. "My sight led me there."

Of course it did. The perfect timing. Always inconveniently vague until the moment they were absolutely necessary.

Cors drummed his fingers against his own arm, frowning down at the fresh cuts. I should probably offer him medical care, but we had better things to take care of.

"And then what? You stopped the fight all on your own?" Sean scoffed from the back.

Aldren gave a short laugh. "Hard not to when there's two beasts at war."

That was interesting.

Nova shifted again, and this time I glanced down at her. Her brows were drawn together slightly, the expression she wore when her mind was chasing too many threads at once.

I reached out through the bond, brushing against her thoughts gently. Easy.

She exhaled slowly, and Aldren continued speaking.

"He refused to tell us who sent him or why he wanted to kill Cors," Aldren stated. "We were ready to kill him; we had him immobilised against a tree. But he must've heard me talking to Cors about coming here. He agreed not to hurt us if we brought him along."

"And you agreed to that?" I hissed. "That's irresponsibly reckless!"

Aldren barely flinched, but Kasper dipped his head. Damn these lycans and their stubbornness.

"I know." He shrugged.

"Why?" Nova whispered.

For a moment, the room was silent. But then Kasper spoke the words that shifted the ground beneath everything.

"Because I'm not the real problem."

The air stilled, and I waited. Kasper's eyes flicked briefly toward Nova before returning to me. Ares stirred, pacing restlessly within me to the point I could feel my claws scrape against my palms.

"I'm here for her."

The wire inside me snapped, and in a rush of breath, I had my hand firmly around his throat, his back pressed into the solid wall. He blinked, staring up at me with angry eyes, his arms pinned behind him, still cuffed.

"You have a death wish." I snarled.

"I don't want to hurt her." His jaw tightened. "If I tell you what I know, you cannot kill me."

"Why should I do that?" I snapped.

"Because I know a lot more than you realise." He gulped, his pulse heavy beneath my palm. "I know... I know where Pollux is."

*********

next chapter - saturday.