CHAPTER 5: THE FIRST WARNING

The aftermath of the test was a silent scream.

I was taken back to my room. The luxurious space now felt like a crime scene. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I could still see Leo's eyes rolling back, hear his scream. "It hurts!" He hadn't been afraid of me. He'd been afraid of the nothingness I created.

I didn't eat the food they brought. I sat by the window, watching the forest. The silence in my head, my lifelong curse and recent relief, now felt like a loaded gun I didn't know how to holster.

A sharp knock. Not Marcus's heavy thud. This was lighter, impatient.

"Enter," I said, my voice hollow.

Selene opened the door. She didn't come in. She leaned against the frame, a sleek silhouette. "Congratulations. In one afternoon, you've graduated from fascinating oddity to certified pack threat. That's faster than most."

"I didn't do anything," I whispered.

"You existed in the same room as a vulnerable wolf. That, it seems, is enough." She examined her perfect nails. "Rhydian is in his war room with Thorne and Kellan. They're debating whether you're a scalpel or a bomb. I'm here to give you some context, so you understand the size of the crater you're standing in."

"I don't want your context."

"You don't have the luxury of what you want." Her blue eyes hardened. "That boy, Leo? He's stable. But his bond to his Beta mentor is… frayed. Like a rope chewed by acid. He may never feel it properly again. You didn't just break a glass, little silence. You broke a soul-tie. And news travels fast."

A cold dread pooled in my stomach. "What news?"

"The kind that brings visitors." She smiled without humor. "Kieran. The Red Wolf. Alpha of the Riverland Pack. He's taken a personal interest in the 'contagion' at Blackthorne Manor. He's at our gates. And he's not asking for a tour."

She pushed off the doorframe. "Rhydian will try to shield you. But Kieran doesn't answer to him. He answers to the same Council that gave you thirty days. And he's always thought my dear brother was too arrogant for his own good. You are the proof he's been waiting for."

With that, she left, leaving the scent of jasmine and warning in the air.

Minutes later, Marcus arrived. "The Alpha requires you in the main hall. Now."

"I'm not a dog to be summoned," I said, but I was already standing. The fear was a live wire in my veins.

"You are the subject of a formal inter-pack dispute. You will stand where the Alpha tells you to stand."

The great hall had transformed. The casual elegance was gone, replaced by a stark, formal tension. Rhydian sat in a high-backed chair at the head of the room, not on a throne, but it might as well have been. Kellan stood rigid at his right shoulder, a sentinel. Thorne was to the left, looking pale. Selene stood slightly apart, the picture of composed concern.

And facing them, flanked by four severe-looking men and women, was Kieran.

Up close, he was more intimidating than he'd been in the crowd. His red hair was like a flame against the stone. His amber eyes burned. He didn't look at Rhydian. He looked at me as I entered, and his lip curled.

"So, this is the void," he said, his voice a gravelly rumble. "She doesn't look like much."

"That's enough, Kieran," Rhydian said. His voice was calm, a flat sheet of ice over deep water. "You are here under guest-right. State your business and mind your tongue."

"My business," Kieran spat, finally turning to Rhydian, "is the health of the species. A sickness has been discovered in your house, Blackthorne. And instead of quarantining it, you've dressed it up and given it a room." He pointed a thick finger at me. "That thing severed a bond today. A low-level bond, but a bond nonetheless. The Elders felt the tremor. We all felt it. How many bonds must she break before you see the danger? Or do you enjoy playing with a weapon that can turn on you?"

Rhydian didn't move a muscle. "The nature of her ability is being studied. Its applications, if controlled, could be"

"Its applications?" Kieran roared, taking a step forward. Kellan shifted, a subtle movement that promised violence. "We are not talking about a new technology! This is a cancer! It doesn't have 'applications'! It has victims!" He pointed at Thorne. "Your own scientist reported the findings. The null-field is active and aggressive. It doesn't just block. It destroys."

Thorne flinched but said nothing.

Rhydian's gaze was lethal. "You have overstepped. My pack's internal research is not your concern."

"It is every pack's concern when the foundation of our world is at risk!" Kieran shot back. "I am not here to argue philosophy, Rhydian. I am here with a demand from the Coalition of Northern Alphas. We have convened. We have voted."

He drew a sealed scroll from his jacket and threw it at Rhydian's feet. The sound of the parchment hitting stone was horrifyingly loud.

"You will surrender the anomaly known as Nyxara Vale to a neutral, Council-appointed facility for containment and study. You have forty-eight hours to comply."

Forty-eight hours. The number hung in the air, smothering. It wasn't thirty days anymore. The clock had just accelerated violently.

"If I refuse?" Rhydian asked, his tone conversational, as if asking about the weather.

"Then the Coalition will recognize you as a host harboring a lethal contagion," Kieran said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "We will be forced to intervene. To cleanse the threat. Any pack that stands with you will be considered infected. Any wolf who defends you will be marked. This is not a challenge, Rhydian. This is a quarantine order."

The threat was clear. War. Not a skirmish, but a total war where Rhydian's allies would abandon him for their own survival.

The hall was utterly silent. All eyes were on Rhydian.

He looked at the scroll at his feet. Then he looked at me. I saw the calculations in his eyes, the cold weigh-up of empire against obsession. For a terrifying second, I thought I saw doubt.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and steepled his fingers. "Kellan," he said, not taking his eyes off Kieran.

"Yes, Alpha."

"Escort Alpha Kieran and his retinue to our borders. See that they cross them. They have delivered their… message. Their guest-right is now revoked."

Kieran's face darkened with fury. "You are making a fatal mistake!"

"No," Rhydian said, finally standing. He seemed to tower over everyone, not just in height, but in will. "You made the mistake. You came into my home and threatened what is mine. You think the Coalition's vote frightens me? Let them come. Let them see the price of setting foot on my land."

He took a single step toward Kieran, and the Red Wolf actually stepped back. "Tell your Coalition this: The anomaly stays with me. The next wolf who comes for her does not come as a guest. They come as an enemy. And I bury my enemies in unmarked graves. Now. Get. Out."

Kellan and the other guards moved forward, a wall of lethal intent.

Kieran, shaking with rage, backed toward the door. His eyes found mine one last time, blazing with a promise of vengeance. "This isn't over, Vale. You will be cut out. And he will bleed out for protecting you."

They were gone.

The tension in the hall didn't break; it shattered into a hundred sharp pieces. Rhydian turned to Thorne. "You have forty-eight hours, Doctor, not thirty days. Find me a way to make her seem like an asset, not a plague. Or we are all dead."

He then looked at me, his gaze inscrutable. "You see now? This is the world. You are the spark. I have just poured oil on everything. Do not make me regret it."

He strode from the hall, leaving me alone with the echoing, terrifying truth.

The first shot had been fired. The war had begun.

And I was the reason.