LOGINAria's POVRedwood territory was already in motion when we crossed back through the gates, Aldaine's distant horn still echoing behind us. Marcus moved fast, wolves taking defensive positions along every wall, but something else settled over the compound too. Purpose. The kind that comes when an ending is finally close enough to reach for."Aldaine's horn is a warning, not an attack," Bram said, striding beside us. "He knows Creek is caught. Nothing more, not yet.""Then we use the time it buys us," Marcus said. "We move on everything today."Victoria was already waiting in the main hall, sharp eyes moving over Creek where Garrett held him bound. "It is done.""It is done," Marcus confirmed. "Call the panel. All five judges. Now."Word spread fast. Within the hour, Victoria, Bram, and two additional regional Alphas, Alpha Renfield from the southern coast and Alpha Marsh from the eastern hills, sat at the long table in the main hall alongside Marcus, forming the full panel Aria's case
Aria's PovCreek stood in the clearing with the calm of a man who had rehearsed this moment a hundred times in his head."You could have run," Marcus said, stepping forward, his voice steady but sharp. "You did not.""Running was never going to work," Creek said, looking past Marcus to me. "Not against her. I understood that the moment I watched her walk half of Aldaine's coalition to a standstill with nothing but her own voice."The cabin door opened wider, and the guard stepped out behind him, a broad shouldered wolf with tired eyes who looked more nervous than dangerous. He raised his hands slowly, showing them empty."I am not here to fight," the guard said quickly. "I only agreed to keep watch. I did not know half of what he has done until last night."Elena kept her eyes on him anyway, careful, unwilling to trust so easily. "Name.""Denner," the guard said. "I served under him for three years. I am done.""Step away from the cabin," Marcus said, and Denner obeyed instantly, movi
Aria's POVThe quarry camp fell before sunrise.Marcus led the strike himself, forty wolves moving through the dark with a silence built from months of training none of us had wanted to need. I ran beside him as my white wolf, senses stretched wide, guiding every step toward the families Toby had described. Elena and Garrett flanked the perimeter. Bram brought Argent Circle wolves through the north tree line, cutting off any escape before the guards even knew they were surrounded.Eleven guards held the camp. Ordinary wolves, tired and afraid, not the loyal fanatics who once stood beside Creek by choice. When they saw how many of us there were, most simply dropped their weapons.Inside a row of small wooden huts, we found them. Families huddled together in the dark, thin and frightened, some children so young they had never known a life outside these walls. My chest ached looking at them, remembering my own years locked behind guarded doors.I shifted back to human form and knelt in f
Aria's POV"Lock every gate," Marcus ordered. "Nobody in or out until we know who else is inside these walls."Garrett moved fast, shouting orders down the corridor, wolves splitting off to seal doors, windows, every crack a wolf could squeeze through.I stayed where I was, Rowan's words still ringing in my head. The second target is already inside the walls. My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat."Aria." Elena grabbed my shoulders, steadying me. "You are the only one who can search this whole compound fast enough. Can you do it?""Yes," I said, even though my legs felt shaky. "Give me a moment."I closed my eyes and pushed my senses out slowly, careful and wide, the way Sera had taught me to do when panic wanted to make everything blur together. Wolf by wolf, room by room, I began sorting through everyone inside Redwood's walls.Marcus. Elena. Garrett. Mira with Rowan in the healing wing. Bram near the front hall. Familiar faces, familiar scents, nothing out of place.
Aria's POVMira worked without stopping, her hands steady even though her face was not. Minutes passed like hours before she finally sat back on her heels and let out a long breath."He is alive," she said. "Barely. But alive."The whole room seemed to breathe with her."Will he wake up?" Marcus asked, crouching beside them."I do not know yet," Mira admitted. "The wound is deep. Whoever did this knew exactly where to cut to do the most damage without finishing the job quickly. That takes training."I looked at the guard slumped against the wall, awake now but pale from blood loss. "What happened? Tell me everything."He winced as another healer pressed a cloth to his shoulder. "A wolf came through the vent shaft. I never heard it. One second I was standing watch, the next there was a blade at my throat and Rowan was screaming.""Did you see a face?" I asked."No," he said. "It moved too fast. But I got a piece of it. Bit down hard before it got away."Garrett knelt and carefully open
Aria's POV"Gone." I said the word out loud just to make it feel real. "She is actually gone."Mira wrung her hands together. "I should have noticed sooner.""This is not on you," I said, even though my heart was pounding hard enough to hurt.Marcus was already moving, calling for Garrett through the open door. "Get every gate wolf here now. I want to know the last time anyone saw her and which direction she was facing."Elena grabbed a cloak off the hook and threw it at me. "You are the only one who can track a scent before it goes cold. Ready?""I have been ready since the day I decided to stop being afraid," I said, pulling it on.Garrett arrived breathless with three wolves behind him. "Nobody at the main gate saw her leave. But the old drainage gap on the southern wall was open.""Moonridge training," Elena muttered. "Only someone taught to find every weakness in a wall would know that gap exists."I closed my eyes and reached out with my senses until I found her scent, faint and
The word hung in the air between us like a blade."But I have never even heard of Mortwert until right now.""I know that. But your studies with me over the years, your work learning about herbs for your Luna duties, it is all documented. Anyone looking at the records would see that you have extens
The pack gathering was in two days and I could not stop thinking about what I heard.Sienna's terrified voice. That slap. The mysterious herbs making her sick.I needed to talk to someone. Elena. Mira. Anyone who might know what was happening.But Kael had guards watching me more closely now. Not o
"Day 2,192 of being mated to Kael," I wrote. "Fourteen days until freedom. I can survive fourteen more days. I survived 2,192. What are fourteen more?"I was putting the journal back in its hiding spot inside a hollowed out book when I heard voices from outside my window.A man's voice. A woman lau
The strategy meeting had been dragging on forever. Three whole hours of me talking and Kael pretending I did not exist."So if we add patrols here," I pointed at the map, my finger landing on the eastern border where rogue sightings kept happening, "and then put a second group here, they overlap. S







