LOGIN"Your mother," I said."Yes," Selene answered.I just stood there in the street, trying to process everything, another shift, like all the adjustments I’d been making with Voss, with Aldric, with everyone around me whose reasons ran deeper than I’d ever bothered to see.“How?” I asked. “How did the network erase a Bloodmoon carrier so completely her own daughter never found out?”“Same way they erased Voss’s grandfather,” Selene said. “Same way they hid how Zevran’s father actually died. They’ve been doing it for four centuries. They’re experts.” She glanced at the bag on my shoulder. “But not perfect. Every so often, something survives. A page they missed redacting. A line no one noticed. A slip.” She stopped for a moment. “Three days ago, after I dumped your files on this road, after I finally sat with what I’d kept for myself, I found one.”“What did it say?”“That a wolf named Mira Vane carried the mark two generations back,” Selene said. “She was suppressed before it woke. The ne
I read it again. Third time. The name stuck out: "Selene," I said, not trying to keep it quiet.Calla’s head snapped up. "The cousin," she said. "The one we found in the records. She’s the one who left them on the road.""Yeah," I said.Rhydian drifted close, reading over my shoulder. His jaw flexed. "Seven packs," he said. "Did Aldric say which ones?"Instead of texting, I called Aldric.He picked up right away. "The southern border packs. The ones that used to be Greycliff territory, before everything fell apart. You know, the most conservative of the lot. The ones who never wanted to change anything.""And Selene found them," I said."Either she found them or they found her," Aldric said. "My contact’s been following her, two days now, all through that region. She’s not hiding, Kaelis. She wants to be seen. She’s telling them she can bring back order against what she’s calling…." He stopped."Calling what?" I pushed."The Vane uprising."I stood in the clearing, golden light rising
My fingers flew across the screen. “I’m two minutes out. Hold on.”We hit the boundary and the car barely stopped before I jumped out, running for the treeline. Wolves were everywhere, hundreds, standing in clusters, all eyes turned to the golden light rising out of the confluence point. Some of them were crying, just like Tomas said they would. None of them moved.Rhydian and Malek were right behind me, and I felt the bond between us stretch tight. We all aimed for the same spot.One wolf met me at the edge. It just turned around and ran ahead, leading the way. I followed. The rest of the wolves didn’t block us, they didn’t even seem to notice. Their focus stayed fixed on the light.The clearing opened up ahead. The gold columns were massive, taller than anything Tomas described. They climbed out of the earth slow and steady from a dozen spots. Right in the middle, at the exact place I stood that morning, Soren sat curled up, knees tight to his chest, fists over his ears, silver ligh
I tried calling again. Same thing, just endless ringing, no voicemail, nothing. The call faded away and I was left staring at Soren’s name on my screen, our last message sitting there like maybe everything was still normal. But nothing in me felt normal right now.“He always picks up," Malek said. He was next to me now, but his usual calm was gone. “Soren always answers."“I know,” I said.Rhydian barely waited; he was already dialing. “Tomas,” he said as soon as someone picked up. “Confluence clearing. What’s going on?” He listened, face getting harder. “When?” He listened more, shot me a look that said nothing good. “Anyone hurt?” Another pause. “Don’t engage. Hold your ground. We're coming.”He ended the call.“Well?” I asked.Rhydian scrubbed a hand over his face. “The eleven packs got there forty minutes ago. Too fast. Means they started out before Calla passed the message from Sera, so Sera didn’t know until they were already on the move.” He stopped. “They're not attacking. Jus
“What’s he saying to them?” I asked.Calla was already typing away. “I don’t have a direct line to him,” she said. “My contact at Elder hall just told me he walked in an hour ago, called himself the former future Alpha of Greycliff, and started talking.” She glanced up. “Nobody asked him to leave.”“He’s Greycliff,” Voss said from across the car. “Those packs have roots with Greycliff that go way back. Just his bloodline gets him a seat.”“So what’s he gonna tell them?” Rhydian asked. He looked at me, not Voss, like he wanted my take.“The truth,” I said. “That’s all Zevran’s got right now. His title’s gone, the pack bond is shattered, his mate….” I stopped. “He’s got his father’s memory, and forty minutes to talk to three packs who are scared out of their minds.” I turned to Calla. “Text your contact. I need to know what it feels like in that room.”She sent the message. We kept driving.Two minutes later, her phone buzzed. She read the reply. “Cautious but listening. One pack leader
“You knew,” I said. Voss looked at me, half surprise, half nothing, and didn’t answer. “The three packs,” I pressed. “You knew they’d go to Greycliff.” “I thought they might,” he said. “You thought they might,” I repeated, all the weariness in my voice. “While you sat on my root and told me you had nothing left.” He held my gaze. “I do have nothing left,” he said, steady. “That’s not a lie. The Elder seat is gone. The structure, gone. Fifteen years...” he stopped, looked away, “But having nothing left doesn’t mean everyone loyal to me vanished too. Some people don’t know what to do without orders. So they go back to the last place that felt solid.” “The Elder hall,” I said. He nodded. “Yes.” “And they’re asking for you.” My voice hitched with something like disbelief. “Which means someone told them you were here. Which means you told someone before you came.” I looked at him, not letting up. “You didn’t just stumble here because you ran out of options.” He sighed, let the act
“Here,” Isara said, her finger pressed tight against the paper like she needed to make sure it was real. “This is where the first Elder council met. Four hundred years ago. Before the hierarchy. Before the seeding. Before any of it.”Nobody said a word.“They picked this territory because of the co
“What did he say.”Malek was already at my shoulder before I finished. I handed him the phone without even bothering to look back. Heard him read, then heard nothing. That silence carried a weight.“Show me,” Rhydian said.I took the phone, held it out. He read it standing perfectly still, the kind
Gareth’s tone was dry. That deadpan way he used when he’d heard exactly what he thought he heard, but wanted one last chance for us to say something different.“You want to do what,” he said.“Burn it down,” I said. “The network. From the inside.”He took a breath. “The network that’s been working
“She was in Greycliff territory two hours ago.”Isara’s voice hit my ear before Rhydian had a chance to get a word out. She’d clearly taken the phone, I could tell by the shift in background noise, the fire, those low stone walls. The sound had its own signature.“How do you know?” I asked.“Becaus







