Chapter 5

Wren's pov

Grier found the tracks before sunrise, three sets leading north toward the border, gone cold by the time he got there. No scent trail worth following, which bothered him more than if there had been one.

"Someone masked it," he told Kade over breakfast, voice low enough that only the two of them and I could hear. "Nobody stumbles onto pack land by accident and knows how to hide their scent that well."

Kade did not look up from his coffee. "Blackthorn."

"Maybe." Grier glanced at me, then back at Kade. "Ronan was here last night. Uninvited. Now we have tracks at the border he was supposedly nowhere near."

"You think he sent someone."

"I think it is worth finding out."

I sat quiet through most of this, picking at food I had no appetite for, my mind still stuck on the barn, on Kade's forehead against mine, on the word I never said.

Vivian swept into the kitchen before either of them could say more. "Wren, the guest rooms need turning over. Half the visiting elders are staying another night."

"Yes, Beta Vivian."

She did not wait for a response, already moving toward the hall calling for Celeste, who trailed in a moment later looking radiant despite the late night, hair loose, wrapped in a silk robe like she had all the time in the world.

"Morning," she said brightly, then her eyes caught mine and something flickered behind them, quick and sharp. "You look tired, Wren."

"Long night."

"For all of us." She poured herself coffee, glancing between Kade and me like she was doing math in her head. "Kade, you left the celebration so early last night. Where did you go?" My stomach dropped straight through the floor while I waited for his answer.

"Needed air," Kade said, even and calm, though I caught the tightness in his jaw. "Big night. Lot to think about."

"Mm." Celeste sipped her coffee, eyes still moving between us. "I looked for you. Could not find you anywhere."

"I was around."

"Were you." She said it lightly, almost playful, but something underneath the words felt colder than the room.

Grier cleared his throat. "We should head out and check the border before the trail gets any colder than it already is."

Kade stood fast, clearly grateful for the excuse, and the two of them left together, Celeste watching the door long after it closed behind them.

Vivian bustled back in a moment later, already listing off the day's chores like nothing unusual had happened at all. "Wren, once you finish the guest rooms I need the hall swept again. Some of the elders tracked mud in this morning, and Elder Thane is particular about that sort of thing."

"Yes, Beta Vivian."

"And do not dawdle. We have three more elders arriving before noon, and I want everything spotless before they see this house." She was gone again before I could answer, her voice carrying down the hall toward the staff quarters.

Celeste waited until her mother's footsteps faded before speaking again.

"Something happened last night," she said, not looking at me.

"I do not know what you mean."

"I think you do." She finally turned, studying my face the way our mother always did, hunting for a crack. "Kade has never left one of my celebrations early. Not once. Not in six years of knowing him. And you disappeared around the same time, if I recall correctly."

"I went for a walk. That is all."

"A walk." She said the word like it tasted wrong in her mouth. "For how long, exactly?"

"I do not know, Celeste. I was not counting the minutes."

"Maybe he was tired."

"Maybe." She set her cup down carefully. "Or maybe you should remember what I told you yesterday. I did not wait twenty six years to lose everything to my own sister."

"Celeste, nothing happened."

"I hope not." Her voice dropped, quiet and hard in a way I had never heard from her before. "Because if it did, Wren, I promise you will regret it far more than I will."

She left the kitchen without waiting for a response, heels clicking sharp against the floor.

I spent the rest of the morning turning over guest rooms with my hands shaking, replaying every word. Vivian's suspicion. Priya's warning the night before. Celeste's threat. All of it pressing down at once, a weight I did not know how much longer I could carry alone.

By afternoon, exhausted and desperate for air, I slipped away toward the edge of the pack territory, the quiet stretch of forest near Grandma Odette's cabin, somewhere nobody ever bothered to look for me.

I found the old woman from last night sitting outside her cabin, like she had been waiting.

"You," I said, stopping short.

"Me," she agreed, patting the bench beside her. "Sit, Wren Ashby. We have much to discuss, and very little time before things start to move quickly around you."

"How do you know my name? Who are you?"

"I am Odette," she said simply. "And what I am about to tell you will change everything you think you know about yourself." I sat down slowly, my heart pounding, the bench creaking under me.

"Your family has lied to you your whole life," she said. "About who you are. About why you have no wolf. About what runs in your blood instead."

"That is not possible. My parents would have told me something like that."

"Would they." Odette's eyes sharpened. "Ask yourself honestly. Has your mother ever once explained why you were born without a wolf when your twin was born with one? Has your father ever given you a real answer, or only silence and shame?"

I opened my mouth to argue and found I had nothing to say.

"What are you talking about?"

Odette reached out and took my hand, her grip surprisingly strong for someone so frail. "You are not wolfless, child. You never were. You carry something older than any wolf in this pack, something your own family buried out of fear generations ago."

"Buried how? Why would anyone hide something like that?"

"Because the last time your bloodline showed itself, packs went to war over what it could do." Her voice dropped lower, heavier. "Your ancestors could feel danger coming before it struck. Hours ahead sometimes. Days, if the threat was large enough. Other Alphas feared what that kind of power could mean in the wrong hands, and so it was erased. Buried. Made to look like nothing more than a weakness passed down by accident."

My breath caught. "What is it? What am I?"

She looked at me for a long moment, something sad and heavy behind her eyes.

"You are Farsight," she said. "The last one alive. And that alone is enough to get you killed.”