POV: Silas

Harrow ordered the woman to stop limping.

He had one arm across her chest and a gun beneath her ear. Her right shoe dragged through the dust as he backed toward the maintenance shed.

From behind the yard's concrete loading wall, I watched her try to put weight on a knee that would not hold.

“Nell,” Briar called. “We know you need help. Stay with us.”

Harrow jerked his head toward her voice.

“Nobody comes closer.”

The state lieutenant raised an open hand. “Then stand still. Let her rest.”

He didn't.

We had reached the yard minutes after the first hostage report. Four women from the van were already behind the outer fence with officers. Harrow had taken the fifth toward the shed when they tried to leave.

Nell had been nearest him.

That was the extent of her offense.

Evelyn remained at the medical staging area. Before I left, she had caught my arm and looked directly at me.

“Come back.”

No speech about bravery. No pretending she wasn't afraid.

I could still feel the pressure of her fingers.

Now she was too far away for the clear exchange we shared at close range. I had my promise, my phone, and the discipline to keep both useful.

Briar stood beside the lieutenant. Pell had arrived separately with copies of the dispatch instructions. His council insignia was visible beneath his open rain jacket.

Harrow saw it.

“Officer Pell. Clear these people out.”

Pell didn't move.

“That's an order.”

“Put down the gun, Commander.”

Harrow's mouth opened, then shut. He looked at the other uniforms as though one might remember the correct way to treat him.

The gun pressed harder beneath Nell's ear.

Her eyes closed.

My wolf strained against my skin. I held still behind the wall. Moving too early would make her pay for my anger, and I had watched enough men hand their anger to women already.

“You are obstructing a council transfer,” Harrow said.

“Those women asked to leave,” Briar answered. “You locked them inside.”

“They're unstable.”

Nell opened her eyes.

“My knee hurts,” she said.

He shook her. “Quiet.”

I hated him then with a simplicity that left no room for speech.

The lieutenant kept talking. Distance, surrender, medical attention. Harrow answered none of it directly. His gaze kept returning to a dark car beyond the shed.

He wanted an exit.

Nell looked at the car too. Then at the open strip of ground between her and the loading wall.

Briar saw her looking.

“We have a medic ready,” she said. “You're not going back in the van.”

“She goes where I say,” Harrow snapped.

Pell took one deliberate step into his view.

“Your team has stood down. No one is coming to take custody from you.”

“Then call another team.”

“No.”

The word carried across the yard.

Harrow stared at him. It was the longest he had looked away from Nell since we arrived.

She drove her elbow backward and let her weight drop.

Her bad knee folded. Harrow cursed as her coat slipped beneath his arm.

I moved.

There was no grand leap, no time to become a wolf. I reached them as he hauled at her collar, seized his gun arm, and forced it away from her.

The shot struck somewhere beyond the shed.

Sound cracked across the yard. Nell crawled toward Briar, who was already coming for her behind the officers' cover.

Harrow tried to turn the weapon back.

I drove him against the shed wall. He struck me across the ribs with his free arm, hard enough to tear a breath out of me. I kept hold until the gun fell.

An officer kicked it clear.

Harrow clawed at my face. I pushed him down onto the gravel, my knee holding him while the lieutenant closed in.

“It's over,” I said.

He spat blood against the dirt and tried to rise.

“You don't know who signed—”

“Hands behind you,” the lieutenant ordered.

Harrow fought the first cuff. He lost.

The second closed with a sound I could hear through the ringing in my ears.

I stood when the lieutenant told me to. My wolf wanted to stay on top of him. My hands wanted another kind of ending.

Then I saw Nell sitting with Briar beside the ambulance, alive and holding a blanket against her chest.

I walked toward her instead.

Briar was on the phone with Evelyn, reporting that everyone was clear. She handed it over when she saw me.

“I'm here,” I said.

Silence. Then a breath.

“Are you hurt?”