LOGINVantage's border patrol met us before we'd covered the last mile, wary at the sight of a wounded party, bound prisoners, and two Alphas whose packs had no business traveling together unless something had gone badly wrong."Alpha Cade. Alpha Voss." The lead scout's eyes moved over our group, cataloguing the damage. "You weren't expected.""We need Alpha Draven immediately," Roman said, no patience left for formality after two days of road and an ambush neither of us had fully recovered from. "This can't wait for a scheduled audience."The scout took one look at the restrained wolves trailing behind us and nodded, already turning to send word ahead.—Draven received us within the hour, his own expression darkening as he took in the wounded guard, the four bound prisoners, and the exhaustion written plainly across all our faces."Tell me everything," he said, without holdback anything, "starting with why four of my own people are standing here in restraints.""They attacked us two days
We made camp in a shallow hollow off the main road, defensible enough to risk a few hours' rest, the four captured wolves bound and watched in shifts while the wounded guard slept fitfully near the fire."I'll take first watch," Kane said, already moving toward the treeline before anyone could argue, his voice a little too even, a little too fast.I watched him go, something tightening in my chest that had nothing to do with the ambush."He's not alright," I said quietly, once he was out of earshot."No," Roman agreed. "I don't think he is."I found him twenty minutes later, sitting alone on a fallen log at the edge of camp, staring out at nothing in particular, his wounded side held carefully, exhaustion carved into every line of him."You didn't have to take first watch," I said, settling beside him. "You're still healing.""I took it because I wanted it." He didn't look at me. "Not because I needed a minute to feel sorry for myself, if that's what you're expecting.""I wasn't expec
We left Ashwood at first light, a small enough party to move quickly, large enough to defend ourselves if it came to that, Roman's most trusted guard flanking us on all sides as we crossed into unclaimed border territory."Two days, if the weather holds," Roman said, scanning the treeline out of old habit even in daylight. "Less if we push the horses harder than I'd like.""Push them," Kane said, still favoring his healing side but sitting his horse with more strength than I'd expected after everything. "Every hour Tarrow has to prepare is an hour that costs us."We rode hard through the first day, stopping only when the horses genuinely needed it, and I felt my wolf restless the entire way, alert to every shift in the wind, every snapped twig in the surrounding brush.Careful, she said, more than once. Something's wrong with this quiet. Too still for territory this exposed.I know, I told her. I feel it too.—The attack came at dusk on the second day, exactly when we'd let our guard
The nursery door was still bolted when we reached it, Ivy's own guard posted exactly where they should have been, and for one dizzying second relief nearly buckled my knees before Roman's hand steadied me."They're fine," Ivy said, appearing in the doorway before I could even ask, Elara asleep against her shoulder, Corwin fussing quietly in the cradle behind her. "Nothing's happened here. What's wrong?"I forced my breathing to slow, the fear still sharp in my chest even as the immediate danger proved false. "Bertrand escaped. We thought—I thought he might come for them.""He didn't. Hasn't come near this wing." Ivy's expression sharpened, understanding the weight of what I hadn't said. "But you're not wrong to think of it. If he's as desperate as you're describing, he might still try, later, when we're not braced for it."Roman was already speaking to the guard captain, low and urgent, doubling the watch, moving Elara and Corwin to an inner room with fewer points of entry, and I stoo
Bertrand moved the instant the first wolf stepped into the lamplight, faster than a man his age had any right to move, kicking the crate of documents into the nearest guard and bolting for the far wall where loose boards gave way to open dark beyond."He's got a way out—" Roman's shout cut off as he lunged, too late, Bertrand already through the gap and into the trees.Chaos broke loose inside the grain store, guards scrambling, Selene shrinking back against the wall with her hands raised, and I felt my wolf surge forward, sharp and furious, the command building behind my ribs before I'd fully decided to reach for it."Don't," Kane said, gripping my arm, his voice tight with pain from the sudden movement. "Not here. Not in a room full of our own people. You don't know what that kind of force does in close quarters."I forced the power back down, breathing hard, watching two of Roman's guards tear off after Bertrand into the dark, their howls already fading into the distance."He'll ou
The watch on Bertrand turned up nothing for the first four days, the old advisor's routine so unremarkable it started to feel like we'd chased a false lead entirely. Then, on the fifth night, Roman's tracker returned from his post with his expression tight enough that I knew before he spoke that the wait had finally paid off."Bertrand left the pack house after midnight," the tracker said. "Alone, on foot, avoiding the main paths. Met someone in the old grain store at the edge of the territory. I couldn't get close enough to hear everything, but I saw her face clearly when she lit the lamp.""Her," I repeated."Selene," Kane said, before the tracker could answer, his voice gone flat with something between disbelief and dawning understanding.The tracker nodded. "That's the name Bertrand used, Alpha. She's been gone from Ashwood since you two parted ways, hasn't she.""She has." Kane's jaw tightened. "Or I assumed she had. I never confirmed where she went. I didn't think I had the righ







