He stared for a long beat. Then he flicked his fingers at Lowell and Dane. “You heard her. Get the legs.” He knelt, took the shoulders of the nearest rogue, and dragged. The body slid with a wet scrape. Lowell swallowed and grabbed another. Dane hesitated, then bent too, jaw tight.
I grabbed the third rogue by the scruff and pulled. My shoulder screamed; I gritted my teeth and kept moving. Kael’s eyes pressed at my back from the darkness, like a hand between my shoulder blades that wasn’t touching at all. My wolf seethed, unhappy with the distance.
We made a grisly line of corpses near the doorway. Blood smeared across the threshold like a bad omen. Bran wiped his hands on his coat and lifted the lantern again, sweeping it along the bodies as if they might tell him a secret if he stared long enough.
“Look,” Lowell said, crouching. “What’s that?”
On the inside of one rogue’s hind leg, just above t
Caden cut him off with a look. He stepped around the desk and stood close enough that he could have counted my lashes. “You lie worse than you cook.” he said quietly. “Do not insult me at the same time.”My mouth went dry. The bond tugged hard, a panicked animal inside my ribs. “I’m not lying.”Mari breathed like a warning bell. Kade’s hand curled, the tendons in his wrist standing out.My father held my stare a beat longer, then looked away, his jaw working. He turned back to the desk and tapped the brand on Bran’s cloth with one blunt finger. “We found this same mark on a rogue carcass near Alder Creek last month. I kept it quiet to avoid panic. Tonight is too coincidental.”“Alder Creek is three days from here.” Kade said.“Yes.” Caden’s gaze flicked to the maps. “Someone is pushing rogue wolves toward our borders. I don’t think its Blackt
My father’s office felt colder than the hall.The stone walls raised high, making the room feel smaller than it was and unwelcoming. A scarred desk big enough to anchor a house, sat in the middle of the room and a single oil lamp threw hard light across maps and lists and knives scattered around. The room smelled like pine, ta, r and iron, with the weighing atmosphere of the quiet that comes before a storm.He didn’t sit. He stood behind the desk with his hands on the wood, shoulders squared, eyes on me like a hunter sighting a target.“Start talking.” Alpha Caden said. “I want the whole story.”Kade stepped to my side before I could open my mouth. “I sent Rhea to scout the old ridge line. This is all on me.”My father didn’t look at him. “I wasn’t speaking to you.”The words landed like a slap. Kade swallowed and stared at a knot in the desk wood.I kept my voice steady. “I took the ridge path. I found a rogue nest near the old chapel. I thought I could hide in there before they reali
My stomach dropped. Mari’s hands went still.Kade didn’t raise his voice. “I know you’re there.” he repeated, toward the pillar. “I don’t know which one. I don’t care.” His eyes cut to me. “Don’t make me drag you out.”Silence, thick as wool.Then Kael stepped from the pillar’s shadow.He didn’t growl, didn’t form a predatory stance. He simply stood there, tall and bloody and bright-eyed, and the chapel shifted around him, cold rolled through my veins. Heat followed so fast I almost swayed from the intensity of it.Kade didn’t move. He looked like a statue carved around a thunderstorm. His voice stayed very calm. “You.”Kael’s gaze skimmed him once and settled on me. It was everything, judgement and accusastions. “Thorn.”Kade’s jaw flexed. “You should be dead.”“So should your co
He stared for a long beat. Then he flicked his fingers at Lowell and Dane. “You heard her. Get the legs.” He knelt, took the shoulders of the nearest rogue, and dragged. The body slid with a wet scrape. Lowell swallowed and grabbed another. Dane hesitated, then bent too, jaw tight.I grabbed the third rogue by the scruff and pulled. My shoulder screamed; I gritted my teeth and kept moving. Kael’s eyes pressed at my back from the darkness, like a hand between my shoulder blades that wasn’t touching at all. My wolf seethed, unhappy with the distance.We made a grisly line of corpses near the doorway. Blood smeared across the threshold like a bad omen. Bran wiped his hands on his coat and lifted the lantern again, sweeping it along the bodies as if they might tell him a secret if he stared long enough.“Look,” Lowell said, crouching. “What’s that?”On the inside of one rogue’s hind leg, just above t
The steps outside were heavy. The steps sounded like boots not like the paws they had heard earlier.Kael’s head snapped toward the shattered window. He moved without a sound, one second beside me, the next swallowed by shadow behind a broken pillar. His eyes burned faint and gold from the dark, a warning that I understood to mean, not to give away his location.I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, tasting iron. The floor was a mess, blood pooled under the dead rogues, slicking the warped boards. Shards of glass glittered like frost. My shoulder throbbed where teeth had found their mark. My wolf paced impatiently back and forth, she was furious that there was distance between her us and Kael.The chapel door scraped across the floorboards.A lantern’s glow cut a slice across the shadowed aisle.“Thornridge business,” a voice called, smooth and thin. “If anyone’s inside, step out where I can see you.”It was Bran.Of course.He came in first, lifting the lantern, the shadows shif
The forest wasn’t silent anymore.The chapel walls vibrated with it: snarls carried on the wind, claws raking bark, the heavy thud of paws in snow. Terror hit me hard, it wasn’t just another one or two, there was a pack of rogues coming.Kael’s head turned toward the sound, golden eyes blazing. His wolf was right under his skin, ready to tear anything apart that got close. His voice was low and sharp. “We have to move. Now.”My pulse slammed against my ribs. “But they sound like thyre coming from every direction, we have to go through them?”“Unless you want to wait here and die, we need to go slow and careful.” he growled.I swallowed hard, glancing at the broken windows, at the shattered door. Shadows moved beyond them, feral shapes, restless, circling. Their growls bled through the dark like knives scraping stone.Kael’s gaze cut back to me. “Stay close.”