Someone was watching her.
Sienna could feel it.
Even when the halls were empty… even when she trained quietly with Sage in the back garden… a chill crept up her spine like shadowy fingers.
She tried to brush it off. Paranoia. Trauma. But the feeling wouldn't go away.
⸻
Victor, the Gamma, stood on the balcony above the training field.
He watched her with a blank face, arms crossed, dark eyes narrowed. He watched the way Daemon looked at her. The way the pack slowly began to stop whispering around her.
He didn't like it.
She was supposed to be cursed. Untouchable. Disposable.
Now she was training?
Being protected?
Victor tightened his fist.
He had spent years building his way to the top, whispering the right fears into Daemon's ears. "Your mate will be your doom."
He was the one who brought that prophecy to the Alpha's father.
And now it was unraveling.
Victor needed to act before it slipped further.
⸻
That night, Sienna returned to her room and found her door slightly open.
She paused.
Every instinct screamed danger.
Quietly, she stepped inside.
The room looked untouched — until she noticed the corner of a piece of paper sticking out beneath her pillow.
Heart pounding, she lifted it.
There was no note.
Instead, it was a torn piece of a map — an old map of the territory. A red "X" marked a location in the woods, just past the river.
No name. No explanation.
But she knew this wasn't from Sage.
This was something else.
Or someone else.
Across the compound, Victor watched from the shadows.
He smiled coldly.
"She's curious now," he murmured. "Good. Let her follow the trail. I'll be waiting."