LOGINChapter 57 Elowen Reed was buried three days later. Not under the Reed family crest. Not in the old noble cemetery where polished stones hid ugly histories under pretty names. Nia chose Red River Crossing. The pack cleared the ruined village by hand. No servants. No anonymous workers. Mara came with border wolves. Daniel came with Council guards. Alpha Rowan came without escort and carried stones until his hands bled. Even Alexander came, silent and pale, placing each rock where Maeve Rook told him to. Nia watched everything. She did not speak much. Words still came hard to her, especially when grief was too large for them. But when the grave was ready, she walked to the riverbank carrying Elowen’s wrapped body in her arms. No one tried to help. This was hers. Maeve stood beside me, leaning on a cane, her one good eye fixed on Nia. “She should have been allowed to bury her mother fifty years ago,” she said. “Yes.” “And now?” “Now we do it right.” Maeve gave a sharp nod.
Chapter 60 The new healing oath became Silver Moon law at the first summer moon. The courtyard was full again, but this time there was no trial, no accusation, no blood on the stones. Young healers stood in gray coats beneath the silver crest. Older healers wore restored service chains. Patients came too, some scarred, some limping, some carrying children who would grow up knowing care was not ownership. I stood before them with the oath book open. Daniel stood to my right. Not because I needed him there. Because I wanted him there. Mara stood beside Alpha Rowan, arms crossed, looking impatient with ceremony and secretly moved by all of it. Elias sat in the front row with Maeve Rook, both of them arguing under their breath about whether the chairs were uncomfortable or whether they were simply too old to enjoy sitting. Nia sat in the recovery garden beyond the courtyard wall, where the noise was softer. Through the open gate, I could see her face tilted toward the sun.
Chapter 58Voss was sentenced before the full pack.He stood in the center of the Council hall with no healer’s coat, no title, no war law to hide behind. His hands were bound in silver cuffs. His face had grown thinner since the vault, but his eyes still carried that feverish certainty, as if the world remained wrong for refusing to thank him.The tribunal read every charge.Illegal experimentation. Medical torture. False death records. Unlawful imprisonment. Creation of command-based wolf weapons. Collusion with Black Thorn. Abuse of wartime authority.Voss listened without flinching.When asked for final words, he looked directly at me.“You think mercy builds peace,” he said. “It does not. One day, your soft rules will fail, and this pack will beg for people like me.”I stood from my seat before Daniel could object.“My rules are not soft,” I said. “They are the reason your victims are alive to testify.”His mouth tightened.“You called them weapons because it was easier than admi
Chapter 56The Red River family records arrived at dusk.Not in a neat file, not with seals and signatures, but in three mud-stained boxes carried by two exhausted riders and one elderly woman who refused to let anyone touch the smallest bundle until she saw me.Her name was Maeve Rook. She was ninety-one, half-blind in one eye, and wrapped in a patched brown coat that smelled of rain, smoke, and dried lavender. The riders looked terrified of her. That told me she had survived long enough to become dangerous in the way only old women who remembered everything could be.I was still confined to bed, which made receiving witnesses awkward and Caleb unbearable.“She can speak for ten minutes,” he told Maeve before she entered. “If she looks pale, breathes wrong, or starts asking investigative questions, you stop.”Maeve looked him up and down. “Are you her mother?”Caleb blinked. “No.”“Then I will decide how long grief takes.”I liked her immediately.Caleb did not.Daniel helped me sit
Chapter 55This time, when I woke in the clinic, Caleb was waiting with a clipboard.That was never a good sign.He stood at the foot of my bed, hair tied back, expression severe, one finger already marking a line on the page. Daniel sat in the chair beside me, looking only slightly less wrecked than he had at Red River Crossing. Mara leaned against the wall with bandaged ribs. Anya stood near the door under guard, arms folded, eyes unreadable.Nia was not there.That was the first thing I noticed.“Where is she?” I asked.Caleb did not look up. “Interesting. No ‘How am I?’ No ‘Did I nearly bleed out again?’ No ‘Caleb, thank you for dragging my reckless body back from the edge of death twice in one week.’”“Where is Nia?”Daniel answered because he valued efficiency more than Caleb’s lecture. “Recovery garden. With her mother’s body. Elias is with her.”I exhaled.Pain answered immediately, sharp and punishing.Caleb finally looked at me. “Excellent. You have discovered your stitches.
Chapter 54The core did not break.The blade sank in, met something harder than bone, and stopped.Subject Zero’s hand tightened around my wrist until pain shot up my arm. Her skin was cold, but the command moving through her was not. It burned. Not like fire. Like order. Like a voice that had forgotten words and become force.Behind me, Daniel choked.Nia still had him by the throat.I could not turn. If I looked, I would lose the angle. If I lost the angle, the command would keep pouring through Subject Zero’s preserved body into the daughter Voss had built from her pattern.“Anya!” I shouted.“I see it!” she yelled from the machine. “The core is shielded. You need to sever the silver threads first.”Of course.There were always more systems underneath the wound.Subject Zero’s other hand rose toward my face, fingers bent like claws. Her red-black eyes held nothing I could reach. No memory. No plea. Not even pain. Whatever had been Nia’s mother was buried too deep beneath command ti
Chapter 21The rogue lunged before the smoke cleared.Alexander met him with the silver tray, not with claws, not with a shift, not with the reckless pride that had nearly killed him twice already. He used the tray like a shield, catching the torch arm and driving it sideways. Silver fire splashed
**Chapter 5**Victoria stopped screaming the moment the Council chamber doors closed behind her.That was the first thing I noticed.Through the glass-veined doors, I could still see her silhouette between the two guards. Her shoulders stopped shaking. Her head lifted. The fragile, terrified woman
**Chapter 4**Victoria’s scream came from the Council corridor before we even reached the final connection chamber.Alexander stopped.He did not turn fully, but I saw the shift in his shoulders. His wolf heard her panic and reacted before his mind could. Even now, with silver burns around his wris
**Chapter 3**Caleb called me from Moon Hall ten minutes later.I answered on speaker while tightening the bandage around my palm. In the background, I heard shouting, silver chains dragging across stone, and Alexander’s wolf growling so low that the sound vibrated through the bond.“Scarlett,” Cal







