LOGINCLARISSA’S POVAdrian’s room smelled like the cheap soap the pack house stocked in every bathroom and whatever he’d been drinking the night before. The combination sat heavy in the air. I stood near the window while Bianca sat on the edge of the unmade bed and listened to him talk through his father’s latest ideas. He liked the sound of his own plans. Most of them were half-formed and full of assumptions, but he delivered them as if they’d already been approved by people who mattered.“My father wants the first real strike to hit their southern posts,” he said. He was pacing in the small clear space between the bed and the door. “They’re thinner there according to the last reports. If we take those or even force them to reinforce, the rest of their line has to stretch. That’s when the others push.”“And if Blood Fang expects exactly that?” I asked. I kept my tone mild. Curiosity, not challenge.He waved a hand like the question was a minor obstacle. “Then we adjust. That’s what the ot
CAMILLE’S POVThe afternoon training block was supposed to be light. Conditioning and form work, nothing that would leave anyone too worn out for the evening shift if they had one. The instructors had other ideas once we were all on the field. By the second hour we were running circuits through the trees with packs on our backs, and the complaints had mostly died down into hard breathing and the occasional curse when someone caught a root.I kept pace near the middle of the group. Sarah was a few places ahead, steady as always, not wasting energy on anything extra. Jordan was further back. He hadn’t said much since morning, and I wasn’t about to push him for conversation. Some people needed space after they’d been dragged into the Alpha’s office and made to account for every message on their phone.We stopped at the top of a low rise for water and a short break. From there you could see a good stretch of the eastern boundary if you knew where to look. Extra patrols moved along the tre
SARAH’S POVJordan was waiting near the back of the dining hall when I finished breakfast. He had a cup of coffee in front of him that looked like he’d been staring at it more than drinking it. The surface had gone still and a little cloudy. I sat down across from him without asking if the seat was free.“You look like you slept,” I said.“Some.” He turned the cup in his hands, watching the liquid move. “Alpha’s people are still watching me. Not obvious about it, but I can tell. Same two faces showing up in the same places.”“Can you blame them?”He shook his head. “No. I answered the questions. I told them what Bianca said and when she said it. Doesn’t mean they trust me. I wouldn’t either.”I watched a group of younger wolves carry trays past us toward the far tables. The hall was loud in the usual way—chairs scraping on the floor, people talking over each other, the kitchen staff calling out when something was ready. Normal noise. It made the quiet at our table stand out more than
LILLIANA’S POVGrace had the lights on early. The lab always smelled the same in the morning—cleaner, solvent, and that faint metallic edge that never quite went away no matter how many times they wiped the tables down. I got there before most of the others and found her already bent over a set of slides, pen tucked behind one ear.“You’re early,” she said without looking up.“Couldn’t sleep.” I set my bag down on the usual chair and pulled on a pair of gloves from the box by the sink. The powder inside them always left a dry feeling on my skin. “Anything new?”“One of the transfer logs finally matched a storage code from the old west-wing freezer. It’s been offline for years, but the inventory list is still in the system.” She slid a printout toward me across the table. The paper was slightly warm from the printer. “If the samples are still there, they might be more intact than what we pulled from Eliza.”I read the sheet. The dates went back further than I expected. Some of the entr
KILLIAN’S POVThe map on my desk showed the eastern border in greater detail than most of the pack would ever need to see. Red marks indicated the sites of the two messages and the ruined storage building where the charge had gone off. Blue marks showed the expanded patrol routes Clarke had ordered after we returned. None of it felt like enough. The lines and symbols looked neat on paper. Reality was messier.Clarke stood on the other side of the desk, arms folded, the same posture he used when he was waiting for me to finish thinking out loud. “Grace confirmed the symbol matches the one in the old outbreak files. She’s pulling every related record she can find from the archives. It’s slow work. A lot of those boxes haven’t been opened in years.”“And Lilliana?”“Still with her. They’ve been at it most of the day. Grace says she’s useful. Stubborn, but useful.”I nodded and looked back at the map. The explosion on the eastern road had been a message as much as a trap. Whoever left it
CLARISSA'S POV The old smell of the infirmary clung to the air, thick with dust and the occasional sour note of forgotten paper. I stood in the small room that had once been the records room, shelves leaning inward under the weight of the untouched boxes that had been stored there since the last war. The floorboards groaned beneath my boots in a few places. Bianca waited by the door, her head cocked as she listened to the sound of footsteps on the path outside. Adrian's people still took an interest in me at irregular intervals, but they were getting sloppy. Routine had dulled even the sharpest wolves' suspicion if they had enough quiet nights to spare. I plucked another folder free from the middle shelf and let the flashlight beam fall over the contents. Mostly useless inventory reports, a dozen or so years' worth of old supply orders for bandages and simple medicines, and notes on common illnesses that half-trained healers would have managed without writing down. Near the back of
I was running through the woods. The sun was shining, everything felt warm and happy, then I heard footsteps next to me, “I'm gonna get you!” The person yelled after me. I turned around, not in fright but in joyous panic, it was Matt. He was running after me. It was at this moment that I realized
KILLIAN’S POVI had felt her before I saw her when I entered. Her presence was like a calm river but now it was feeling turbulent. There was chaos in her gaze, and pain and rage. I didn't know what put those feelings in her eyes but I wanted them gone. I wanted to reach out to her but why? Why was
KILLIAN’S POVAnother day, another fucking country. I was beginning to get tired of all this travelling I was doing. I missed my pack, plus there was also the fact that I was starting to feel uneasy. Trouble was brewing back there and it disturbed me that I didn't know what it was and that I was no
LILLIANA'S POVMy mouth was open in shock. That was a lot to process. My eyes darted to Camille; she almost died, and I almost didn't meet her. Such a thought was insane to comprehend. OK, now that's just crazy.” I said, “Did no one do anything to her? Like at all?” “Well, Sarah did try to report







