MasukChapter 494SHAWNI told him everything.Well. Not everything. I didn't tell him about the missing person, or the lady, or Mr. Lazarus and the grief with no grave. I didn't tell him about Chase's gran, or the text that said *it'll know*. That was Ollie's secret, and I still had some promise left in me.But I told him about the backpack. About finding Ollie two nights ago, packed and ready, sitting on the windowsill with one leg over the porch roof. About the folded note on his pillow. About talking him out of it.About not telling anyone.I said it all standing in the doorway. I couldn't make my feet go any further into the room. It came out fast and messy, like throwing up. I kept looking at the floor. There was a coffee stain on the rug near the desk shaped a bit like a rabbit. I looked at that instead of his face.Xenois didn't shout. That was worse. He just stood there, getting quieter and quieter, his eyes going more and more gold."Two nights ago," he said."Yes.""You found my
Chapter 493XENOISBy eight in the morning, the whole territory knew.By nine, they were saying it was an attack."Jerome," one of the elders said in the hallway outside my office, loud enough for me to hear. "It has to be Jerome. He's back, and he's started with the heir.""Or the witch-wolves," someone else said. "After that business at the café. They're angry about the registry.""Or Kingston. Same week as the inquiry. That's not a coincidence."I shut my door on all of them.Nobody was saying the true thing. My son climbed out of his own window in the middle of the night and walked into the woods alone. Nobody took him. He left. He left a note on his pillow that said *don't look for me*, because he believed nobody would.That was the true thing. And I couldn't say it out loud, because if I said it out loud I'd have to hear it.Thorne had search teams in the woods. Every warrior we had. Dogs, trackers, drones. The rain had washed everything. We were searching blind.He came into my
Chapter 492OLLIEIt was easier than I thought.Everyone was gone. The house was dark. I could hear the howls far away in the woods, the whole pack singing to the moon. Nobody was watching me. Nobody had watched me properly in two years. Tonight they weren't watching at all.Except Shawn.He sat with me on the back steps for a long time after everyone left. He didn't talk much. He just sat there with his hood up, sparking little blue lights off his fingers to make me laugh, and when I yawned he said, "Bed, buddy," and walked me up.At half past eleven, I heard him come to my door. I lay very still under the blanket with my shoes on and my backpack under the covers next to me, and I breathed slow and heavy, the way Lake does when he's asleep. Shawn stood in the doorway for a long time. Then he whispered, "Night, Ollie," and went back downstairs.I felt bad. I really did. I'd sort of promised him. Not a pinky promise. But sort of.But Shawn said I needed a where.Now I had one.The rive
Chapter 491SOPHIAI screamed.I don't remember deciding to. I just remember the sound, loud and terrible, coming out of me while I stood in my son's empty room holding a page from a spelling notebook.*Don't look for me.*Xenois got there first. He was still wet from the shower, a towel around his waist, his eyes already gold. Then Riley, toothbrush still in his mouth. Then Lake, rubbing his eyes, asking what's wrong, what's wrong, Mommy what's wrong.Xenois took the paper from my hand. He read it once. His face went completely blank."When did you last see him?" he asked. His voice was very calm. That was how I knew how scared he was."Last night. Before—" I stopped. "Before the run."We both realised it at the same time.The full moon. The whole house had emptied. The whole pack had been out in the woods. Xenois's wolf had run off alone. I had run with Riley and Lake. And Ollie…I saw him again in my head. Sitting on the back steps in his warm jacket, his knees pulled up, Captain t
Chapter 490SOPHIAI found out from the news. The pack bulletin, actually. Somebody posted it before breakfast.COALITION TO REVIEW DEATH OF BOULDER CREEK ALPHA HEIR. BLACKWOOD LUNA NAMED.There was a picture underneath. Not of me. Of Marcus. Young and smiling, with his arm around his little brother at some pack event, both of them squinting into the sun. I had never seen that picture before.Below it, forty-two comments already. I didn't read them. I didn't need to.I read the headline three times on my phone, standing in the kitchen in my robe. My coffee went cold in my hand.Xenois came in with grass on his feet and red eyes. He saw my face. He came straight to me and took the phone and put it face down on the counter."It's nothing," he said. "Kingston has hated us for years. He's grabbing at anything. It'll go nowhere.""He's saying I killed him.""He's saying he wants answers. He doesn't have any proof.""He has Lynn.""Lynn has a theory. That's all." He held my face in his hand
Chapter 489XENOISThe full moon came on Saturday.Usually, I ran with the pack. Usually, Sophia ran beside me, her grey wolf at my black one's shoulder, and our sons ran behind, Riley and Lake in their small clumsy wolf shapes, and Ollie a little behind them, always a little behind.Not this time.Ollie didn't come. He sat on the back steps in his jacket and said he didn't feel like shifting. Sophia crouched in front of him and asked if his heart felt funny, and he said no, and she asked if he wanted her to stay with him, and he said no to that too. Very fast.Shawn said he'd sit with him. Shawn doesn't run with the pack on full moons anyway. Werewitches feel the moon differently, he says. Like a headache instead of a song.So I left my son on the steps with my brother and walked to the edge of the trees with my wife and my other two boys, and the whole pack gathered behind us in the silver light, waiting for their alpha to lead.When I shifted, my wolf didn't wait. He didn't greet S
Chapter 357 XENOIS "I'm whatever I need to be in any given situation," she countered. "Right now I'm a gravely injured woman who needs painkillers and possibly ice cream. Can someone arrange that?" "I'll get the painkillers," Lynn said, already moving. "But I'm vetoing ice cream until we're sure
Chapter 341 LUMINA"Promise," I said firmly.Footsteps on the stairs announced Ollie and Shawn's return. Shawn looked transformed—clean, dressed in borrowed clothes that were slightly too short but infinitely better than what he'd been wearing. His hair was still damp from the shower, and some of
Chapter 331ZADEShawn looked at me with eyes that were far too old for his face, filled with guilt and pain that shouldn't belong to someone so young. "But I didn't fight. I just stood there while they took them away. I could have used my power, could have tried to stop them—""And you would have
Chapter 344ZADEToo soon, it was time.I stood, and everyone else immediately quieted, recognizing the shift. "Strike teams, gear up. We leave in fifteen minutes."The organized chaos of preparation filled the next quarter hour. Warriors checking weapons one final time, communication equipment bei







