로그인NEAH
The packhouse felt different tonight. Heavier. Like the walls themselves knew what was coming and were bracing for impact.
I found moments with each of them. Not planned. Not orchestrated. Just gravity pulling me toward the people who mattered before the world tried to take them away.
Shane found me first. I was in the training building sharpening my knife. The rhythmic scrape of blade against s
THEOI was right. Derek was the mole. The suspicion I carried for days was confirmed the moment Vanessa called with the news of his escape.I should have felt vindicated. Instead I felt cold. Precise. Furious in the controlled way that turned my brain into a weapon.He was gone. The USB drive was gone. And I had moved too slowly.Not too cautiously. There's a difference. Caution is strategic. Slowness is failure. I built my case methodically because accusing a pack member of treason without ironclad evidence causes fractures that take years to heal. I wanted certainty before I moved.I got certainty. Derek broke into the security office sometime between midnight and dawn. Disabled the lock with the kind of technical skill that suggested military training. Took the USB drive. Fought through the checkpoint guards when they tried to stop him. Three wolves injured. N
LIAMDawn came cold and gray. Two convoys assembled in the Iron Valley driveway. Engines rumbling. Warriors checking weapons. The controlled chaos of soldiers preparing for war.Caleb led the Iron Valley contingent. Forty wolves. Battle-ready. He stood at the head of his convoy with Vanessa beside him. The young Alpha had grown into his authority faster than I expected. Maybe desperation was a good teacher. Maybe love was.Jax commanded the Shadow Peak forces. Twelve wolves who escaped with him plus reinforcements from allied packs. Seasoned fighters. Men who had bled for Shadow Peak before and would do it again.I rode in a separate vehicle. The tunnel team. Neah, Theo, Shane, and me. We would approach from the east while the main forces hit the compound gates. Precision over power. Surgery over assault.The drive was three hours. I spent them briefing the team on Shadow Peak's internal structure. Guard rotations that Marcus might have changed but probably hadn't because Marcus was a
NEAHThe packhouse felt different tonight. Heavier. Like the walls themselves knew what was coming and were bracing for impact.I found moments with each of them. Not planned. Not orchestrated. Just gravity pulling me toward the people who mattered before the world tried to take them away.Shane found me first. I was in the training building sharpening my knife. The rhythmic scrape of blade against stone was the only meditation my brain accepted. He sat beside me. No jokes. No grin. Just Shane with the mask off."My mom died during a rogue attack when I was ten," he said. No preamble. No warning. Just the truth falling out of him like something he'd been carrying too long. "My dad raised me alone after that. Trained me to fight because laughing wasn't enough to keep you alive."I stopped sharpening. Looked at him."He taught me
LIAMThe plan was solid. I hated every inch of it.Not because it wouldn't work. Neah's tactical instincts were sharper than wolves who had been planning assaults for decades. The tunnel approach was the right call. The frontal distraction was the right call. The timing, the positioning, the extraction route. All right.The part where the woman my wolf had crossed three territories to find crawled alone through a collapsed drainage tunnel into enemy territory was the part that made Kain claw at the inside of my skull until my vision went red.I stood in the hallway after she walked away. Her scent lingered. Lavender and honey and sweat from the war room. My fingers still held the ghost of her skin. The trail down her forearm. Wrist to palm to fingertips. Each point of contact seared into my nerve endings like a brand.She said she'd try. Not a promi
NEAHI stared at the photo until my vision blurred. Then I turned around and walked back downstairs.Liam was still at the island. He looked up when I entered. Read my face. His body went rigid."What happened?"I put the phone on the counter between us. Screen up. The photo of Mara glowing in the dark kitchen like an accusation.He looked at it. His control fractured. Not the dramatic, explosive fracture of a man who wore his emotions on the surface. The deep, tectonic kind. The kind that happened underground. His jaw clenched so hard I heard the bones grind. His hands gripped the counter edge. The wood creaked."That's Mara," he said. His voice was barely a sound. "Ryan's mate.""I know who she is. You told me.""She's seven months pregnant.""I know that too."
NEAHI couldn't sleep. My brain wouldn't shut off. Guard rotations and tunnel dimensions and fifty-one hostages and a mole in our ranks spinning through my head like a machine with no off switch.I gave up at 1:47 AM. Pulled on a sweatshirt and padded downstairs for water. The packhouse was dark. Warriors sleeping in every available space. Bodies on floors and couches. The air heavy with the restless energy of people preparing for war.The kitchen light was off. I filled a glass by feel. Drank half of it standing at the sink. The cold water hit my empty stomach and reminded me I hadn't eaten since morning."There's leftover chicken in the fridge."I didn't jump. My body had already registered his presence before his voice confirmed it. That shift in the atmosphere. That pull. The way the air got heavier and warmer and charged with something that liv
NEAHThe room stopped. My lungs stopped. My heart stopped. Everything in the world just ceased to exist except the sound of breathing on the other end of this phone call."Neah, honey, I know this is a shock. I need you to breathe for me."I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. My b
NEAHI didn't sleep. I sat on my bed with my back against the wall and my knife on my lap and I stared at the door until the sun came up. Every creak in the house made my hand tighten on the grip. Every shadow that moved across the window made my heart jump.Theo stayed downstairs. I heard him paci
LIAMI watched her shut down. It happened in real time, right in front of me, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.One second she was standing there covered in blood with a knife in her hand looking like she could take on ten more wolves. The next second the color drained from her fac
NEAHGlass and wood exploded across the kitchen floor. Cold air rushed in and with it came a scent that made every hair on my body stand up. Wolf. Aggressive. Close.I grabbed my knife from where I had set it on the coffee table and moved in front of the couch without thinking. Liam tried to stand







