Chapter 466: stranger.

Noah.

The sudden silence inside the carriage was heavier than the darkness pressing in from all sides.

I stood backed into the far corner of the cabin, my boots braced against the wooden floorboards, my body trembling from the sickening weight of the wolfsbane running through my blood. My head throbbed in agonizing, rhythmic pulses, but every instinct screaming inside me was locked entirely on that brass door handle.

Outside, the crunch of heavy boots on loose gravel came to a halt right beside the carriage door.

Click.

The brass handle turned, and cold, damp night air rushed into the stale cabin as the heavy wooden door swung slowly outward.

I raised my bruised fists, setting my stance as best I could in my battered state, my weak eyes squinting through the dim, shadowy moonlight. I was ready for Daniel’s arrogant smirk. I was ready for Damien, Davian, or any of the four quadruplets to be standing there with their weapons drawn, ready to throw me into a dungeon or finish the job they started.

Instead, a complete stranger stepped into the frame.

He was a broad, hulking man dressed in dark, unbranded leather armor. He didn’t bear the crest of the quadruplets’ pack, nor did he carry the polished, formal weapons of their elite household guards. His face was weathered, scarred across the jaw, and his cold gray eyes looked down at me with absolute indifference. He looked like a mercenary, a paid third-party enforcer who had seen a thousand prisoners just like me.

"Step out," the guard commanded, his voice a low, gravelly rasp that carried zero emotion.

I didn’t move. I kept my back pressed against the wood, my jaw locked tight as I glared at him through the haze of my concussion.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, my raspy voice breaking slightly. "Where did you take me? Who ordered you to put me on this carriage?!"

The guard didn’t flinch. He didn’t look angry, surprised, or even remotely interested in my questions. He simply rested one large, calloused hand on the pommel of a heavy iron sword strapped to his hip.

"I’m not going to repeat myself," the guard said flatly. "Step out of the carriage, Alpha."

"I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me what’s going on!" I barked, trying to force a surge of Alpha authority into my tone, but without my wolf, it came out sounding like nothing more than a desperate, hollow yell. "Where are the quadruplets?! Where is Maria?!"

The guard blinked slowly, a slight, weary frown touching his lips. "I don’t know who or what you’re talking about, pal, and I don’t know any quadruplets, and I don’t know any female named Maria. I don’t care about your pack politics, your rivalries, or your personal drama."

I stared at him, genuine confusion cutting straight through my terror. "You don’t know who they are...? Then why am I here?! Who paid you to haul me out of that estate in the middle of the night?!"

"My job is transport and containment," the guard replied coldly, taking a small step back to give me room to exit. "I was hired to take a battered, poisoned Alpha from point A to point B, keep him alive, and make sure he stays put until the boss comes to deal with him. That’s all I know, and that’s all I care about."

My heart slammed furiously against my ribs. ’He really doesn’t know.’

This wasn’t an official pack execution nor were the quadruplets throwing me into their own dungeons. Someone else had intercepted me—someone operating completely in the dark, using third-party mercenaries to move me off the grid while the estate was in total chaos.

’Daniel,’ I thought instantly, the image of his mocking face burning into my mind. ’It had to be Daniel. He set this whole thing up.’

I looked past the guard’s broad shoulders, trying to scan the terrain outside. It was pitch black, surrounded by dense, towering pine trees and dense fog. The air was cold, crisp, and completely foreign. We were miles away from the territory—completely off any map I recognized.

I tensed my muscles, calculating the distance between the guard’s chest and the open doorway. If I slammed my shoulder into him, I could knock him off balance into the gravel. I could break into a sprint, disappear into the thick fog of the forest, and hide until the wolfsbane wore off—

"Don’t even think about it," the guard cut in, his flat voice instantly shattering my thoughts.

I snapped my gaze back to him.

He hadn’t drawn his sword, but his cold gray eyes were locked onto my feet, watching the subtle shift in my weight. He shook his head, a dry, pitying sigh escaping his nose.

"You’re thinking about running," the guard stated plain as day. "You’re calculating the odds of bolting into those trees right now."

"Get out of my way," I growled, taking a subtle step forward.

"Listen to me very carefully, kid," the guard said, his voice dropping into a dark, dead-serious tone that made the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up. "You shouldn’t think of escaping. Because if you do, you won’t make it."

I gritted my teeth, clutching my bruised ribs as a fresh wave of nausea hit me. "You think you can stop me in a vast forest?"

"Look around you," the guard reasoned, gesturing lazily with his chin toward the dense woods behind him. "First of all, you’re poisoned, and you can barely stand on your own two feet without shaking like a leaf." He paused. "Second, these woods aren’t empty. I have six armed men stationed in a perimeter around this clearing, every single one of them holding cross-bows loaded with heavy wolfsbane tips. The moment your boots hit that gravel in a sprint, you’ll have three bolts in your back before you make it ten feet."

My breath hitched in my throat, my eyes darting toward the dark tree line. Now that he pointed it out, I could faintly hear it—the soft rustle of heavy boots in the brush, the faint, subtle metallic clicking of weapons being primed in the shadows.

"Even if by some miracle you dodge the bolts," the guard continued relentlessly, stepping right up to the edge of the carriage, looking me dead in the eye, "you don’t even know where you are. You’re miles away from any friendly territory." He smiled darkly. "You’d wander around in the freezing cold, bleeding out and paralyzed by poison, until the local wild beasts or my men hunt you down like a dog... you run, and you die tonight. Simple as that."

The harsh reality of his words crashed over me like a bucket of ice water.

Every single word he said was true. I was completely defenseless. My wolf was suppressed, my body was broken from the fights, and I had no idea where in the world I had been taken. Trying to smash past him right now wasn’t brave—it was suicide.

My knuckles turned stark white as I slowly unclenched my fists, dropping my arms to my sides.

The guard watched me carefully, noticing the subtle surrender in my posture. He stepped back again, pointing a thick finger toward the dark dirt path leading away from the carriage.

"Smart choice," the guard grunted softly. "Now, get out of the carriage. Quietly."

I swallowed the bitter taste of blood and poison lingering in my mouth, taking a heavy, painful step out of the wooden cab. My boots hit the cold gravel, my knees buckling slightly under my own weight, but I forced myself to stay upright.

I looked around at the towering, unfamiliar trees shrouded in thick fog, listening to the quiet, rhythmic footsteps of the unseen mercenaries watching me from the dark.

Where was I?

Who was controlling these men?

And how was I ever going to get back to Maria now?

She really needs me!