CHAPTER 17

JAYDEN

The wind outside howled through the cracks in the trees as I stood at the border of the RedMoon Pack, just beyond the gate.

My arms were crossed. My mind miles away.

Catriona hadn't called back yet. She texted. Said she's handling it. Said to trust her. And I did. With my life. But not with hers.

She was out there, trying to silence a leak that could set off a war, while I stood here still trying to shake off the stench of Gabriel.

His words echoed like claws scraping through my skull:

> "Whatever's happening to that little boy, Jayden... it's bigger than you or me."

No. Fuck that.

Nothing was bigger than my family. No prophecy. No spirit. No goddamn wolf.

I turned and headed back toward the main house. Each step heavy. The sun was beginning to go down.

I poured myself black coffee and stood at the window, jaw tight, watching the trees sway like they were whispering secrets I couldn’t hear.

Behind me, Jerome entered.

"Still no word from her?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"And the Vanguard pack?" he added.

"Too quiet. Which makes me think they want us to think they're harmless. But they're not. That Cassian bastard's aura still haunts me. Like I know him. Like something from before."

Jerome nodded solemnly.

"Maybe it’s time to prepare for contingencies. For when… whatever this is… starts to spill over."

"We already have," I said. "Tighter patrols. Coded messages. Reinforcements near the eastern ridge. No one gets in or out without my mark."

He hesitated, then added, "And what about Catriona's plan? About... dying to speak to the spirits?"

I turned slowly to face him.

"She won't do it. I won't let her."

But even as I said the words, doubt crawled in the back of my throat.

Because she’s Catriona.

She’ll do whatever it takes.

And if I don’t stop her in time—I might lose her.

Forever.

I drained the rest of the coffee, bitter and hot, but it couldn’t burn out the fear curling in my chest.

I wasn’t afraid of war. I wasn’t afraid of death.

But losing her?

Losing Catriona?

That scared the hell out of me.

I walked past Jerome, grabbed my phone again, and stared at her last message:

> “Trust me.”

I did. I just didn’t trust the world around her.

Before I could call, movement outside the window caught my eye. A small figure bounding toward the house.

I blinked.

Abriel.

I was down the stairs before I even realized I’d moved, heart pounding harder with each step.

He was running—arms outstretched, cheeks flushed, still in his little blue hoodie. Godmother trailing behind him, trying to catch up.

“Daddy!” he called out.

The sound of it stopped time.

I dropped to one knee, caught him as he jumped into my arms, and held him like I’d never let go. He smelled like soap and pancakes. Like home. Like everything worth fighting for.

Godmother reached the porch, panting, hands on her knees. “He wouldn’t wait. Said he wanted to be with you before the moon came.”

I kissed the top of Abriel’s head, then looked past her to the horizon.

The sky was streaked in crimson.

The moon was already rising.

Something about it made my skin itch.

“Come on,” I said quietly. “Let’s go inside.”

Inside, I sat with him curled against me on the couch. He rested his head on my chest like he’d done it a thousand times before—even though just a few days ago, he wouldn’t let me near him.

He was soft. Quiet.

Until he said, “Daddy?”

“Yeah, bud?”

He looked up at me, eyes wide. “Are you gonna protect Mummy?”

My heart caught again.

“Always,” I whispered.

He nodded once, like he needed to hear it just as much as I needed to say it.

Then he added something that made my breath stall—

“Because they’re watching her. The ones with no eyes.”

I went completely still.

I looked down at him, but his eyes were closing now, lashes fluttering.

“Abriel,” I said carefully, “who’s watching Mummy?”

But he was already asleep.

And the sun had gone down.

And I no longer had time to wait.

---

I carried Abriel up to his room.

He was heavier than before—not in weight, but in presence. Like something had settled inside him. Something too big for a five-year-old body.

The ones with no eyes.

That phrase spun in my head like a curse.

I tucked him in, brushed the hair from his forehead, and stared for too long. Looking for signs. For answers. For proof that he was just a boy.

But he wasn’t just a boy anymore.

He never had been.

I stepped out of his room and closed the door softly behind me.

Jerome was waiting at the top of the stairs. “I heard.”

I didn’t ask how. This house was made of secrets and wolf ears.

“He’s seeing things,” I said.

“Or the veil’s thinning.”

“Either way,” I muttered, “Catriona can’t go through with her plan.”

“And if she already has?” Jerome asked, voice low.

I froze.

A sharp, cold stillness wrapped around my spine.

“She won’t do it,” I said tightly. “Not without my permission.”

Jerome didn’t move. “If you say so.”

The silence that followed was too loud. Like the house itself didn’t believe me.

I turned to Jerome. "I’m heading out. I need to take another look at the territory—see if I missed something. Those tracks from before... they’re still clawing at the back of my mind."

Jerome straightened. “You want backup?”

I shook my head. “No. Stay here. Keep an eye on the house. On Abriel. Make sure nothing and no one gets too close. I'd not want the last incident to happen again.”

He gave a firm nod. “You got it.”

I was already halfway down the hall by the time the door clicked shut behind me.

Outside, the air was a bit cooler now, shadows bleeding longer as the sun disappeared beyond the ridge. I pulled off my shirt, then the rest, bones shifting before they hit the ground. My wolf burst out—a massive black blur that tore into the trees without hesitation.

The woods swallowed me.

Branches slapped past my face. Mud splashed under my paws. My lungs expanded with the scent of pine.

Every perimeter. Every blind spot. I hit them all again.

But nothing. No scent. No trail.

Not even the residue of the massive prints we’d seen before. Whatever had been here was gone—or hiding too well.

Still, my instincts were in full howl. Something wasn’t right. Something had never been right since that night at the Vanguard Pack.

Cassian.

The name burned in my thoughts like acid.

His aura—the coldness, the familiarity.

I knew him. Or I had known something like him.

I pushed deeper into the forest, back toward the eastern rise. That’s when it hit me.

The memory wasn’t mine. It belonged to my wolf.

A long-forgotten night. A mission gone wrong. A rogue Alpha who’d once walked with us in peace... before he disappeared without a trace. Years ago. Swallowed up by something darker. Something unnatural.

Cassian had been declared dead.

But the energy around him... it matched.

“Shit,” I muttered aloud, paws slowing, heart slamming.

Cassian wasn’t just a threat. He was a ghost in the flesh.

And he didn’t come to Vanguard by accident.

I shifted back to human, kneeling in the dirt, chest heaving.

If he had anything to do with what was happening to those printsl…

I stood, staring into the blackened forest, fists clenched.

Then we had more than spirits to worry about.

The moon was well above the trees when I turned back toward the house, my bones sore from the run but my mind was even heavier. My patrol yielded nothing new. The woods were quiet—too quiet. Like the calm before a hurricane.

But then, something strange stirred in the pit of my chest. A pull. Like my spirit had suddenly found a thread of energy in the air—an unfamiliar current humming low and deep beneath the forest floor. Not toward the packhouse. The opposite direction.

My wolf tensed inside me, and before I even registered the decision, I shifted and sprinted, each paw slamming into the forest floor like I was being summoned by something ancient and furious.

It wasn't long before I stopped cold.

There, in the soft earth between two twisted roots, was another one.

A footprint. Fresh.

"What the hell..." I growled through the bond of thought.

This one was clearer than any of the others. Bigger. Heavier. Like it had just been made.

I stepped forward, cautiously, lowering my snout to sniff. The scent was muddled. Faintly... familiar. But warped. Like someone I once knew had been stripped of their soul and stitched back together wrong.

I braced, stepped directly into the print—

And something snapped.

A wave of force slammed into my chest like a wrecking ball. My body flew backwards, crashing into the thick trunk of an oak. My vision whited out with pain as my bones cracked and shifted, forcing my wolf back into human form against my will.

I lay there gasping, the air stolen from my lungs. Bark bit into my bare back. Blood filled my mouth.

Then I heard it.

A voice. Cold and sharp, like shattered ice sliding down a blade.

"I don't have time here. But tell Catriona to find me."

I blinked, fighting the darkness clawing at my vision.

"Who... who the hell are you?"

But the air had gone still again. No scent. No sound. No trace.

Just the faintest echo of something powerful fading between the trees.

And that voice lingering in my ears like a curse.

> Tell Catriona to find me.