LOGINJaxon’s POVThe sound of the door slamming open echoed through the office.“Eli!”My jaw throbbed where he’d hit me, pain radiating sharp and hot down my neck, but I barely felt it. Adrenaline drowned everything out as I pushed myself off the floor and sprinted after him.He was fast.Too fast. His bare feet slapped against the desert sand as he tore down the compound, his small frame moving with a speed that made my stomach twist. “Eli, stop!” I shouted.He didn’t even look back.Nina’s voice rang out behind me. “Jaxon, don’t let him shift fully! If he loses control...”“I know!” I yelled back.I rounded the corner just in time to see him burst through the side doors leading out into the inner courtyard, the cold night air slammed into me as I followed, the moon hanging low and heavy in the sky.He stumbled once, catching himself on the stone railing, then screamed again.The sound was wrong. Not just pain or fear. Raw, animal terror.“Eli!” I slowed just enough to soften my voice.
Jaxon’s POVI released a yawn as i rubbed my eyes. I needed a something to burn my chest. First I had to get out of this office. I stacked the last of the reports into a messy pile on the corner of my desk. My office was dim except for a single lamp that shined a warm glow across the papers, the books, and the maps of pack borders I had spent the entire day analyzing. My neck ached, my temples throbbed, and honestly, I was two minutes from shifting just so I wouldn’t have to think anymore.Everyone else had gone to bed hours ago. The main packhouse hallways were quiet enough that I could hear the low hum of the generators outside.I pushed back from my desk, exhaled, and reached for the doorknob, ready to finally call it a night when I suddenly heard a knock.It was a soft knock. But it took me by surprise because I wasn't expecting anyone.I froze.For a moment, I wondered if I’d imagined it. Maybe a trick from my tired mind but then it came again, a little firmer this time.Knock.
Kara’s POVThe wind had finally died down by the time the sun began its slow climb across the sky. The rogue camp still looked like a vast community with hundreds, maybe thousands, of tents stretching into the desert like a plague. The sight of it still made my stomach tighten whenever I allowed myself to look too long.But I didn’t look at it now.I had spent the last hours crouched behind a dune, scratching patterns into the sand with the tip of a stick. Not because the patterns mattered. They didn’t. The act just helped me think. Helped me breathe.Because I needed a plan. A real one.Blaze sat a few feet away from me, sharpening his dagger with soft, rhythmic strokes. Sheila and Caleb were lying flat on their stomachs just below the dune’s curve, whispering about how much they hated the desert and how much worse they hated rogue territories.I ignored them.I needed silence long enough to pull the pieces together.Every community, no matter how large or hidden... fed on something.
Jaxon’s POVI stood by the window longer than I should have, watching. The sun hung bright in the air as the day started. Pack members going about their business. My hands rested behind my back, my fingers curled loosely around one another, but my attention was fixed on one single spot in the courtyard. Or someone.Liam.He bent low, picking trash from the walkways. It was evident to anyone who paid attention that he didn't want to do it. He kicked the desert sand with annoyance when he bent for too long, picking.It was also evident that he did not belong.His shoulders were a little too stiff for someone only grateful to be alive. His eyes, whenever he thought no one was watching, were too alert. No man who had been beaten and starved for weeks should look that awake. Something about him felt wrong. It wasn’t something you could point at.He straightened with a sack slung over his shoulder, wiping dirt from his palms onto his trousers. Then he glanced up.Our eyes met.I didn’t mo
Reese’s POVI picked up three pebbles from my the ground and three it at a spot in the cave.It helped with sound. It could get quote silent and to help my mental health, I had to find ways to solve that problem. It didn't help with not knowing what time was too. Everything seemed to bleed into one.I sat on the cold rock with my knees pulled to my chest, my back pressed into a wall that leached the warmth from my bones. My fingers were numb. Or maybe they had been numb for so long I’d forgotten what warmth felt like.The Bishop hadn’t come yet and that was never comforting.When he came too often, it meant he wanted something. When he didn’t come at all, it meant he was planning something.I rested my forehead against my knees and closed my eyes. Kara’s face filled my thoughts before I could stop it. I wondered where she was now.I wondered if the desert had swallowed her whole the way this cave had swallowed me. The Bishop had said she and the others had been searching for me.My ch
Kara’s POVI coughed back to life, choking on desert sand. Sand was in my mouth, in my nose and pressed against my eyelids. I tried to breathe and swallowed a mouthful of dust instead.Panic exploded in my chest but I forced myself still before I wasted what little oxygen I had left. My lungs burned. My throat ached. My heart hammered so violently I thought it might shatter my ribs from the inside.Think.Move slow.I wiggled my fingers upward, searching for anything that felt like open space.Nothing.Only more sand.Oh gods.I nudged my right arm higher. Then my left. I twisted my shoulders, inch by inch till my face broke through the surface.I sucked in air like a drowning woman.I coughed hard, violent, desperate. Sand poured out of my mouth and onto my chest as I spat and retched and dragged myself upright.My entire body shook.I pushed loose hair back from my eyes, blinking through tears as the world swam into focus.“Kara!” someone croaked nearby.I whipped my head to the sid







