Moonlit Night Love Chapter 7

The primal fury in Caleb’s eyes was a terrifying, beautiful thing. It stole the air from my lungs. The controlled sheriff was gone, completely swallowed by the Alpha whose pack was under threat.

“Where?” he snarled into the phone, his voice a guttural vibration that resonated in my bones.

Liam’s voice crackled, tinny with panic and rage. “Blackwood Ridge, near the old logging road. They’ve got her pinned down. Sarah’s stream is still live—they’re taunting us, Caleb. They know we’re watching.”

Caleb’s gaze snapped to me, the gold in his irises seeming to bleed into the pupil. “Stay here. Lock the door. Do not leave this room.” It was an order, absolute and final, from a man used to being obeyed.

But the dossier on the screen—*Potential for recruitment or termination*—flashed in my mind. I wasn’t a piece to be moved;

I was a target in the open. Staying here made me a stationary one. And the raw fear in Sarah’s voice, which I could now faintly hear from the phone’s speaker, twisted something inside me.

“No,” I said, the word leaving my mouth before my rational mind could veto it.

He froze, halfway to the door, a silhouette of coiled power against the firelight. “Isabella, this is not a debate.”

“You said it yourself. The world is divided into those who protect and those who destroy. She’s a civilian, a kid caught in this. I’m a psychologist. If they’re using a livestream, this is a psychological play as much as a physical one. You need someone who understands that.” I grabbed my coat, my hands trembling but my voice steady. “I’m not staying behind to be ‘terminated’ at their convenience.”

The war behind his eyes returned, fiercer than before. Duty, fear for his pack, and something else—a flicker of reluctant respect. He gave a sharp, curt nod. “Stay close. Do exactly as I say. If I tell you to run, you run. Understood?”

“Understood.”

We moved The old truck he drove, a hulking Ford that smelled overwhelmingly of him—pine, leather, and that wild, metallic scent—roared to life. He drove not like a sheriff but like a predator unleashed, the vehicle tearing through the rain-slicked streets of Silver Crescent Bay and into the oppressive darkness of the forest.

“Genotech,” I said, clutching the dashboard as we skidded around a bend. “They’re moving too fast. This is sloppy. Why risk exposure now?”

“They’re not risk-averse businessmen,” he gritted out, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “They’re hunters who think they’ve cornered their prey. And they have a new director. A man named Victor. His brother was killed years ago… by a rogue wolf. This is personal for him. He wants a trophy.”

*Victor.* I filed the name away. A personal vendetta made the enemy exponentially more dangerous and unpredictable.

We abandoned the truck a mile from the ridge, continuing on foot. The forest was a dripping, black cavern. Caleb moved with an unnerving silence, a shadow among shadows. I did my best to follow, my city shoes slipping on the wet undergrowth. He never once looked back, but his hand would suddenly appear, steadying my arm before I fell, his touch a brand of heat through my coat.

We heard them before we saw them: the amplified voice of a man, artificially calm, and the frantic, tear-choked commentary of Sarah’s livestream.

“—just a few more minutes, folks. The wildlife in this area is truly remarkable. We’re hoping to get a glimpse of the rare *Canis lupus occidentalis* subspecies the locals talk about.”

Then Sarah’s voice, trembling. “Please, I just want to go home. My battery is dying…”

We crouched behind a thicket of ferns. Below, in a small clearing, a three-person Genotech team in tactical gear had Sarah cornered against a rock face. One man held a rifle with a bulky, specialized scope. Another held a tablet, monitoring the stream. The third, a, lean man with a headset, was the one speaking. Victor.

But it was what stood between them and us that made my blood run cold. Liam, in human form, was kneeling on the ground, hands clasped behind his head. A necklace of what looked like woven silver was tight around his neck, causing angry red welts to form on his skin. His face was a mask of pain and fury.

“Where is the Alpha, Beta?” Victor asked pleasantly. “He won’t let one of his own suffer for long. It’s not in his nature.”

“Go to hell,” Liam spat.

Victor sighed. “The old ways are so inefficient.” He nodded to the rifleman, who raised his weapon, aiming not at Liam, but at Sarah. “Let’s raise the stakes.”

Caleb tensed beside me, a low growl rumbling in his chest. I could feel the change coming off him in waves, a building pressure in the air. He was going to charge. It was a suicide mission.

“Wait,” I whispered, my mind racing, assembling a profile of the man below. Arrogant. Theatrical. He wanted an audience, both online and in the flesh. He wanted to prove his superiority. “He’s performing. He needs to be the smartest person in the clearing.”

Caleb’s burning eyes fixed on me. “What’s your play, Doctor?”

“Give me two minutes. Create a diversion on the far side of the ridge. Something loud. Make them think you’re coming from there.”

“And what will you be doing?”

“Lowering the curtain on his show.”

He searched my face for a long, heart-stopping second. Then, he simply vanished into the shadows. A moment later, a thunderous crash echoed from the opposite ridge, followed by the unmistakable sound of a fully grown tree cracking and falling.

The Genotech team spun toward the noise, weapons raised. Victor’s cool demeanor cracked. “Eyes on the perimeter! It’s a trick!”

This was my chance. I stood up, stepping out of the foliage into the edge of the clearing, my hands raised.

“Victor!” I called out, my voice echoing with a confidence It feel.

All eyes turned to me. The tablet operator swung his device toward me. Sarah’s phone, still streaming, did the same. I was live.

Victor recovered quickly, a slow, intrigued smile spreading across his face. “Dr. Green. You’re a long way from your case files.”

“The stream is offline,” I announced, loudly and clearly. “Your feed has been hacked. Your audience is gone. There’s no one watching your performance now.”

It was a bluff, a desperate one. But I saw the flicker of doubt in the tablet operator’s eyes as he frantically tapped the screen. Victor’s smile wavered. Theatricality without an audience is just madness. I was attacking his narrative.

“You’re lying,” he hissed.

“Am I? Why do you think I’m here? The sheriff’s department has the entire area surrounded. You’ve moved from ‘acquisition’ to kidnapping and attempted murder on a live broadcast. Your company will disavow you before sunrise.”

The distraction was all Caleb needed.

He didn’t come from the ridge. He came from the darkness between the trees, a silver-blur of immense speed and power. It wasn’t the sheriff, and it wasn’t entirely a man. It was something in between, a nightmare of fang and claw clad in shredded clothing. He moved with a grace that was horrifying.

He hit the rifleman first, a brutal impact that sent the man flying into a tree. The silver necklace on Liam shattered under the force of Caleb’s swipe. Liam roared, surging to his feet, his own form shuddering, beginning to change.

Victor frantically drew a sidearm—a pistol with a magazine that gleamed silver. “Kill the Beta! Take the Alpha alive!”

But the plan was in tatters. The second operative was trying to get a clear shot at the chaotic melee of Caleb and Liam, now both fully transformed into monstrous, magnificent wolves—one silver, one tawny-gold.

I didn’t think. I ran toward Sarah, who was frozen in terror. I grabbed. “Run! Now!” I yelled, pulling her away from the rock face.

A shot rang out. Not the sharp crack of a normal bullet, but a heavier *thump*. I felt a searing pain graze my shoulder, spinning me around. It was Victor. He’d aimed for me.

The world slowed down. I saw Caleb—the great silver wolf—turn his massive head. He saw me stumble, saw the blood blooming on my coat. The sound that erupted from him was not of this earth. It was the end of the world, a promise of utter annihilation.

He abandoned his fight and charged Victor.

Victor’s eyes widened in pure, undiluted terror. He fired again, wild. The shot went wide. Then Caleb was on him. There was no finesse, no duel. It was pure, primal force. I looked away, the sound alone enough to haunt me forever.

The remaining operative, seeing his leader fall, dropped his weapon and fled into the forest. Liam, the golden wolf, gave a short, triumphant howl and bounded after him.

Silence descended, broken only by Sarah’s sobs and my own ragged breathing. The adrenaline drained from my body, and my knees buckled.

Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. They were human arms, but the heat and power thrumming through them were anything but. Caleb was back, his clothes torn, his face smeared with dirt and blood that wasn’t his. His eyes held that same ancient, wild light.

“You’re hit,” he said, his voice rough.

“It’sjust a graze,” I managed to say, my vision swimming. The pain was a distant, throbbing thing compared to the intensity of his gaze.

He didn’t ask if I was okay. He simply scooped me up as if I weighed nothing. Sarah stared at us, wide-eyed, the glow of her dead phone screen reflecting in her tears.

“Liam will take the girl home. He’ll make sure she… forgets the worst of it,” Caleb said, his tone leaving no room for argument. He looked down at me, and the war in his eyes was over replaced by a single, blazing emotion. “You… you could have been killed.”

“You told me to pick a side,” I whispered, exhaustion pulling me under. “I protect.”

I felt his arms tighten around me as he carried me into the deep, forgiving darkness of the trees. The last thing I remembered was the steady, powerful rhythm of his heart against my ear, a wild, loyal drumbeat in the silent night. The trial had begun, and we had both, irrevocably, passed.