Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Caden

The armory smelled like steel, wolfsbane oil, and the low hum of magic that had lived in these walls longer than I’d been alive.

1 paced across the stone floor, grabbing weapons I hoped we wouldn’t have to use. My hands wouldn’t stay still. My pulse wouldn’t settle. And everything inside me crawled with the urge to go upstairs, pull Maya against me, and keep her there until the world stopped threatening her.

Instead, I strapped a silver-forged blade to my thigh.

Leo leaned against the workbench, watching me with those calm, too-knowing eyes of his while he sharpened a dagger. His movements were smooth, controlled, almost gentle. But the muscle ticking in his jaw gave him

away.

He was worried too.

“We should leave as soon as the sun drops,” he said quietly.

I nodded, jaw tightening. “Earlier, if we can.”

“She isn’t ready earlier.”

“She wasn’t ready those days,” I muttered. “That didn’t stop the rogues.”

Leo didn’t argue because he knew I was right.

The rogues were changing. Or maybe they weren’t the rogues we knew of. Who knew if they were rogues at all.

Tylon entered without warning, the door thudding shut behind him. He carried no weapons. Apparently he didn’t need any. His glare alone usually could paralyze half the campus.

He stopped beside us, arms folded over his chest.

“I just checked with the pack border patrol. We’re not the only ones with plans tonight. The rogues have been moving in, but they’re closer.”

I stiffened. “How close.”

“Close enough to attack before we get to where she needs to be.” His voice had a dangerous edge to it. “Close enough to ambush before we go though with the plan.”

A growl tore out of me before I could contain it. “No wolf will get to her.”

Leo exhaled slowly. “That’s not how it works with this. We have to be realistic.”

“Then we’re moving faster,” I said.

Tylon’s eyes flicked up. “Good”

His agreement surprised me, but the tension under it wasn’t.

Maya might not know what she was, but we did.

Or at least… we were starting to.

And so were the wrong people.

Leo placed the dagger down, the metallic click echoing across the room. Leo has always been distant, but something about him nowadays was off. Like he was purposely withdrawing himself from us.

I haven’t gotten the time to talk to him about it yet.

“I was out today too doing some rounds,” he said. “And I found the scent again. The rogues were circling the south side of the property this morning.”

1 froze mid-breath.

“How many?” I asked.

“Three,” Leo said. “But that’s not the part that’s worrying.”

My stomach knotted. “Then what is?”

Leo’s eyes flicked toward the window, as if checking whether whatever he smelled was still out there. “There was another scent layered beneath theirs,” he said slowly. “It wasn’t rogue… but it wasn’t pack either. It was something else.”

Tylon’s expression shifted into something unreadable. “I smelled it too,” he said. “And whatever it was… it was Alpha-level.”

I snapped toward him so fast my neck cracked. “What?”

Leo pushed away from the bench, face grim. “Whoever the scent belongs to is powerful and confident.” His jaw clenched. “Rogues don’t follow orders. Not unless someone stronger forces them.”

My hands curled into fists, blood boiling under my skin.

“So there’s a leader now.”

“Looks like it,” Tylon muttered.

Silence fell over the room, heavy and suffocating.

Rogues didn’t organize. Rogues didn’t plan.

Rogues didn’t stalk a single girl for weeks unless someone told them to. Her mystical story was starting to make sense now, and reality was getting scary.

Chapter 76

Because someone wanted Maya.

Someone wanted what she carried.

Someone knew who she was long before we did.

And that made my blood run cold.

I tightened the strap on my blade until the leather dug into my thigh

“This leader… could he know about Astrid?” I forced out. “Or be working for her, like Maya said?”

Leo hesitated-a rare, unsettling sight. “Given everything she found in those archives… yes. It’s possible.”

A curse slipped out of me before I could stop it. I had hoped-deep, stubborn, desperate-that her dreams. were just dreams. That this was all coincidence. That tonight we’d go to the grove and find nothing but trees and dirt and shadows.

But rogues showing up the same day we planned to move?

That wasn’t coincidence.

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