Mag-log inCassian found her the next morning sitting alone on the low stone wall that bordered the training yard, knees pulled up, watching pack members run drills in the pale early light like she could learn something about this world just by staring hard enough at it.He sat down beside her without asking, which she’d come to realize was very Cassian, he never asked for space he thought he already deserved, but he never took more than she gave him either.“I owe you something,” he said, watching the drills instead of her. “An actual answer. Not a half one.”She said nothing, waiting.“The bond matters for the bloodline,” he said. “That part was true. I won’t pretend it wasn’t, and I won’t insult you by acting like our family’s survival isn’t part of why all this started. If I said otherwise you’d be right not to believe me.”“That’s not exactly the reassurance you think it is.”“I know.” He finally looked at her, and for once the careful, guarded expression he usually wore had cracked into so
Nobody moved for a full three seconds.Then the compound exploded into motion, pack members pouring out of buildings half-dressed, weapons in hand, shifting mid-stride as they ran for the wall. Griffin was already gone from the window, voice booming through the compound in a way that carried authority Sloane hadn’t fully heard from him until now.“Perimeter positions! Nobody breaches that wall!”“Stay here.” Cassian grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her attention off the window and onto him. “Sloane. Look at me. Stay in this room, door locked, no matter what you hear.”“I’m not just going to sit here while…”“You are exactly what they came for,” he said, and the words landed harder than she expected, flat and true. “The safest thing you can do for every single person out there fighting right now is not become the reason they lose.”He didn’t wait for her to argue. He was gone before she could form a response, and Dax paused only long enough to grip her hand once, hard, mark flarin
She heard her own name through the wall before she meant to.Sloane had gone looking for water, nothing more, bare feet quiet on the stone floor past midnight, and she’d almost reached the kitchen when Griffin’s voice stopped her cold, low and rough in a way she hadn’t heard from him before.“We can’t keep pretending we’re all just going to share her like that’s a simple thing to ask of anyone.”“Nobody said simple.” Cassian, quieter, more careful. “But fighting each other over theories isn’t going to make it simpler.”“It’s not a theory that Dax looks at her like she’s already his. It’s not a theory that you’ve started tracking her whole day like it’s a project you’re managing. And it’s not a theory that I....” Griffin stopped himself hard enough that Sloane heard the silence land like a slap.“That you what,” Dax said, voice flat.“Nothing.”“Say it.”“Drop it, Dax.”“No. You started it, finish it. That you what.”A long pause. Sloane’s heart pounded so loud she was sure it would gi
Cassian didn’t sleep that night. Sloane knew because she woke twice, disoriented in the unfamiliar dark, and both times found him at the small desk in the corner, surrounded by books that looked older than the house itself, a lantern burning low beside him.By morning the desk had disappeared under paper.“You look like you didn’t rest at all,” she said, sitting up slowly, the ache from the mark’s triple flare still humming faint under her collarbone like an aftershock that hadn’t fully settled.“I didn’t.” He didn’t look up from the page in front of him, eyes tracking fast down lines of handwriting too cramped and old to be modern. “I couldn’t. Not after what happened.”“Found anything?”He was quiet long enough that she pushed the blanket back and crossed the room to look over his shoulder. The book was old, the pages brittle and yellowed, filled with a language she half recognized as some older version of the pack’s records, names and dates stretching back further than she could ea
“You’re moving me.”It wasn’t a question, but Griffin answered it like one anyway. “Further into the territory. Somewhere with more eyes on the perimeter, fewer ways in.”“And let me guess. All three of you are coming with me.”“That’s the plan, yes.”Sloane stood in the doorway of what used to be her guest room, watching Dax haul a duffel bag over one shoulder like this was a completely normal Tuesday and not the third life-altering thing that had happened to her in as many days. “I don’t remember agreeing to a plan.”“You don’t have to agree,” Cassian said, appearing behind her with an armful of blankets she hadn’t asked for. “You just have to survive it. Agreement is optional.”“That’s not comforting.”“Wasn’t trying to be comforting. Trying to be accurate.”The new room, when they reached it, was smaller than she expected, tucked into the heart of the compound where the stone walls felt thicker, older, like the whole structure had been built around keeping something in or somethin
"Absolutely not.”Griffin didn’t even look up from the map spread across the table, like the conversation was already over before Sloane finished making her request.“That wasn’t a question,” she said. “I’m going in there.”“You are not.”“He looked at me like he knew exactly who I was, Griffin. He said everyone would know soon enough. That means something, and I want to hear what he says when someone asks him directly instead of getting the version you decide to tell me after.”Griffin finally lifted his head, jaw tight, eyes doing that thing where they went flat and unreadable, the alpha mask sliding into place. “It’s not safe. He’s dangerous, and cornered men say worse things than the truth just to unsettle whoever’s in the room.”“Then let him unsettle me. I’ve had a rough week.”Somewhere behind her, Dax made a sound that might have been a laugh if the room weren’t so tense. Cassian didn’t laugh. He watched her with the same calculating focus he always did, like he was already th







