LOGINDuncan
The moment the vampires disappeared back through the breach, the entire clearing seemed to exhale, but it was not relief that settled over the compound. It was something heavier than that. It was the realization that what had just happened was not a threat or a warning, but a deliberate step forward in something that had already begun.
No one spoke for several seconds.
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DuncanThe room remained quiet after I spoke.Not because no one had anything to say, but because every wolf sitting around the table understood that the conversation had reached a turning point. We had spent years preparing for another attack from the vampires. Every patrol, every guardian rotation, every contingency plan had been built around one central belief—that eventually they would come for the red wolves again.They had.And despite everything they had prepared, despite the years they had spent studying us, they had still failed.That failure changed more than they realized. It changed us.Callan leaned forward, resting both forearms on the table as he studied the map spread between us. His injured leg remained stretched beneath the chair, though I noticed he had forgotten about it again. That usually happened when his mind was working through a problem."So we don't pursue them," Callan said. "I understand your reasoning, Duncan. We're injured, they're retreating into territ
DuncanBy late afternoon, the compound no longer looked like a battlefield from a distance.The worst of the blood had been washed from the central clearing. Broken fencing had been collected into organized piles, damaged doors had been removed from their hinges, and temporary posts now marked the sections of the boundary where the original stones had cracked beneath the force of the attack. Wolves moved steadily between the buildings with tools, food, medicine, and messages from the patrols. From the tree line, someone approaching for the first time might have believed the pack had already recovered.They would have been wrong. Damage was easier to hide when everyone remained busy. Grief was not.It appeared in the pauses between tasks, in the way a guardian stopped outside the old meeting hall before entering to help prepare Marcus and Daniel for burial. It lived in the lowered voices of wolves who had survived the southern line and in the empty place near the training grounds where
CoralDuncan found me again when the others beneath the oak had started to drift away. He stopped beside the tree and looked down at me. “Walk with me.”Raina glanced toward his shoulder. “Victor said—”“I am allowed to walk.” He repliedDuncan offered me his hand.I took it.We walked slowly toward the edge of the compound, following the line where the boundary moved through the trees. The damage grew worse as we approached the western markers. Broken branches covered the ground, and the scent of blood remained strongest where the fighting had been most concentrated.Several wolves worked nearby, but they gave us space as we passed.The boundary felt different. I sensed it before I deliberately reached for it.Its presence was quieter than it had been during the battle, no longer straining beneath the force of the anchor or surging through me in a desperate warning. It moved beneath the earth and through the trees with a steady awareness that felt almost peaceful.Duncan noticed the
CoralThe red wolves had gathered beneath the oak tree near the edge of the compound.Raina sat with her back against the trunk while Vivian leaned beside her beneath a blanket. Talia had stretched her legs across the grass and rested her head against Cammie’s shoulder, looking too tired to care that Cammie occasionally shifted and nearly knocked her off. Elizabeth and Stephanie sat close enough that their knees touched. Grace and Ariel had their hands clasped loosely between them, while Sophie watched the compound with the same quiet attentiveness she had carried through the connection during the battle.They looked exhausted.Raina’s gaze moved over me first as Duncan and I approached.“You look terrible.” She said, stating the obvious.“Thank you.”“You’re welcome.”Cammie gave a weak laugh. “At least she’s honest.”Duncan’s hand settled against my back. “She needs to sit.”“So do you,” Vivian replied.He looked toward her.Vivian lifted one shoulder beneath the blanket. “I can sti
CoralElijah remained near the edge of the clearing while everyone around us seemed to pause just long enough to understand what he had said.They would not return today.The words should have brought relief, but relief had become complicated. No one believed the vampires were gone forever, and after what had happened during the night, even a promise of a single day without another attack felt too fragile to trust completely.Duncan’s posture changed beside me. He did not move toward Elijah, but the part of him that had begun to yield to Victor’s insistence on treatment immediately sharpened again.“Why?” he asked. “Why are you so certain they will not return?”Elijah looked past us toward the compound, taking in the injured guardians being carried into the infirmary and the patrols moving through the damaged grounds. For a moment, his expression held something that looked almost like regret.“Because they have no one left capable of organizing another attack quickly enough,” he said.
CoralThe first light of morning filtered slowly through the trees while the compound was still trying to understand that the battle had ended.Dawn arrived quietly, almost apologetically, as though the sun itself hesitated to reveal what the darkness had hidden. Pale light slipped through the canopy in narrow ribbons, touching the highest branches before creeping down toward the scarred earth below. During the fighting, the clearing had been little more than movement and instinct, flashes of claws and teeth, the scent of blood, and the constant struggle to remain standing. Now every wound the battle had carved into the compound stood exposed beneath the growing light.Broken fence posts lay scattered across the training grounds. Great trenches had been gouged into the earth where wolves and vampires had collided with enough force to split the ground open. Several of the ancient trees near the western edge leaned at unnatural angles, their trunks cracked where bodies had slammed into
Duncan“Are they coming for me?” Coral asked the question that I already knew the answer to, but I knew had to be answered for everyone to hear. Luz had confirmed the answer to this question la
CoralSleep eluded me most of the night. I tossed and turned, my mind racing through most of the worst case scenarios. I hadn’t asked Duncan for more details because I knew that I needed to
Coral“Harley! Come talk with me!” I called out to my sister, who had been too busy learning about Luna duties over the past few weeks to spend enough time with me. I had missed my sister over the last year, and even though we had spent a lot of time together over the last month, I needed more time
Duncan“Not this again,” I mumbled to myself as I reviewed the most recent report that came across my desk. Rogues had been spotted out near our western border. While rogue attacks were not an uncommon occurrence, my wolf, Conan, and I were on edge. They were too close to the Red Wolf Compound. I







