로그인Jacob POV "You remember when the first frost took the old berry bushes?" Jacob said. "It killed the bushes but not the roots," Faye answered. He smiled without turning. The dawn was thin and cold. The grass held beads of water. The trees made a dark line against the pale sky. The new territory spread out before them the way a place does when it has been earned: marked trails, a low stone cairn near the stream, the watch posts still smelling faintly of last night's fire. The network was a low, steady presence in his chest. It felt like part of him now, not something stuck to him. "Are you thinking about when we first came?" he asked. "Sometimes I dream about the stones," Faye said. "The three of them. I still see them if I close my eyes." They stood side by side at the edge of the land. The baby slept in the small tent under a blanket. Kian watched her there, awake and calm. Jacob felt the anchor of the pack move through him—Marcus's small complaint about a sore shoulder, Sarah'
Faye POV "You were small enough to curl into my hand and still surprise me," the baby said. "You're saying that like it's normal," I answered. She laughed, quick and pleased. "It is. I remember the river better than you." "You're not allowed to remember the river yet," I told her. She sighed. "Fine. I remember the river a little." We were sitting on the low bank where the grass bent into the stream. The sun was warm. The pack was close enough that voices and the network threaded through all of us like a familiar song. The baby reached for a blade of grass and missed, and I helped her find it. She held it between two small fingers and watched it tremble. "Did you teach her that?" someone called from the ridge where Marcus sat. "No," I said. "She found it." "She's saying full sentences now," Mira said as she came down the path. "Really? Already?" "Since morning," I said. "She told me she wanted more story and then complained about the way I did the ending." Mira laughed. "Cri
Jacob POV "You stood at the edge and waited," Miriam said, voice low. "You didn't rush me. That was the right thing." "You're the one who taught me to wait," I said. She looked at me for a long moment. Her hair was shorter. Her hands were cleaner. She moved like someone who had been making hard decisions and living with them. She did not bring a band of guardians with her. She had come alone. "Tell me what you did," I said. "I went where I said I would," she replied. "I tore the frameworks out. I argued. I lost people. I kept others. I put Varek in a place where he can't hurt anyone for a long time." "Is Varek gone?" Cael asked from where he stood near the boundary. "No," Miriam said. "He is alive. He will be alive for a long time. That's the difference." Silence stretched. The pack around us leaned in without moving their bodies. They listened like they were learning the shape of a new rule. "Why come here?" I asked. "Why now, and why alone?" Miriam's jaw tightened for a fr
Chapter 206 – Faye POV "Push the eastern boundary marker another forty feet," Kian called from somewhere through the trees. "The stream curves there. We want the water inside our line." "Already done," Mira called back. "Brennan moved it an hour ago." "Then why does my map say otherwise?" "Because your map is wrong." I heard Brennan laugh from somewhere further east. The new territory had been taking shape since early morning, and the strangest part was how fast it was going. Normally mapping territory took weeks. You walked it by foot, marked it by smell, and ran the boundary lines until your body knew them. It was slow, careful work that had to be done right because your pack's safety depended on it. With the network, we were doing it in hours. Twenty-three wolves feeling the same ground at the same time, each one moving through a different section, the impressions feeding back through the bond into something shared. When Darian found the ridge line on the northern edge
Jacob pov "Who wants to go first?" Silence for a moment. Then Darian raised his hand. "I'll go," he said. He stood up from the log he had been sitting on and turned to face the gathered wolves. Both packs together. Ashfen and ours, spread across the open ground between the trees, sitting or standing in loose groups. More than sixty wolves in total. I had not counted exactly. It felt like the wrong thing to count. Three stones had been set in the ground at the front of the gathering. One for Garrett. One for Soma. One for Bree. I had spent three days figuring out how to do this ceremony. In the, end I had stopped trying to design it and instead asked everyone who had known them to tell me one specific thing. Not something general. Not something that sounded like a speech. One real thing they remembered. Darian looked at Soma's stone. "Soma used to bring food to training that nobody asked for," he said. "Every single time. You would show up and there would just be food. If you a
Faye pov Three bodies. That was the first thing I counted when the clearing finally went still. Not wounded. Not down and recovering. Three wolves who had stood on the battle line with nothing except their own courage and who had not gotten back up. I went to them before anyone moved them. Nobody stopped me. I think they understood, or maybe they just saw my face and decided not to try. The first two I knew. Not well, but enough. Garrett, who had been with the pack for two years and always laughed too loud at his own jokes. Soma, who was older, who had three children, who had volunteered for the front line without being asked. The third one was Bree. I sat down in the dirt beside her. Nineteen years old. She had joined the pack six weeks before the awakening, transferred from a smaller group up north that had dissolved after a territory dispute. I remembered her face from the introduction meeting. I remembered thinking she looked young. I had not learned much else about her.
Faye pov The courtyard had gone completely still the moment the words left my mouth. No one moved. No one breathed loudly. Everyone stared at me while Jacob on one knee, bleeding and fading; Thorn standing tall with his cruel smile; the warriors frozen in their places; the elders with their shocke
Faye pov The dark road stretched long and empty under the moon. Trees stood tall on both sides. Their branches looked black against the sky as my feet pounded hard on the dirt. My breath came fast and sharp. Fear made my legs move quicker than I thought they could. The phone stayed tight in my ha
Faye POV The moonlight still covered the garden in soft silver light. And the old willow tree branches moved gently in the night breeze. The sounds of music and laughter from the great hall still carried across the grass, but they felt far away now as I could hear my heart beat fast and loud in my
Faye povThe upstairs corridor in the Miller's pack house felt long and quiet the next day. I tried to stay invisible. I walked with my head down, steps soft and slow, hoping no one would notice me. My body still ached from last night and my wrist had a red mark where Thorn had grabbed me hard. My







