LOGIN101 Jacob didn’t sleep. He stood outside Varric’s cell long after the last torch burned low, long after the guards rotated twice, long after the rest of Silver Claw settled into uneasy quiet. Inside the cell, Varric sat slumped against the stone, wrists chained, face swollen and bloodied from hours of questioning. Talking. He had talked. Too much. And not enough. Jacob’s jaw tightened as the last of it replayed in his head. Ellis. Varric. Meetings at the trade road. Messages routed through neutral channels. Strikes carried out under Jacob’s name. Pressure placed on Dark Mountain’s Luna. And the plan, gods, the plan. To pull her away from Decker. To leave him exposed. To provoke him into a mistake that would fracture alliances and justify removing him. Jacob’s hands curled into fists. They had used him. Used his name. His reputation. His temper. All of it turned into a weapon he hadn’t even realized he was swinging. Varric shifted inside the cell, wincing as he tried to sit up s
100 The letters reached both Alphas before sunset. Not through servants. Not through council hands. Not through convenient channels where messages could be delayed, copied, or quietly buried. Directly. That was Decker’s order. And that was how the first crack became public enough that no one could pretend not to hear it. Alpha Morgan received his letter in his private study. He had been standing near the window when the runner arrived, watching the last of the evening light fall across his territory. Megan sat nearby, silent for once, her expression sharper than usual as she watched her father break the seal. Morgan read the first line. Then went still. Megan noticed immediately. “What is it?” Morgan did not answer. He read the letter once. Then again. Only then did he lower it. “Ellis.” Megan’s eyes narrowed. “What about him?” Morgan’s face gave away very little.But his silence did. Megan stood slowly. “Father.” Morgan handed her the letter. She read quickly, her expression sh
99 Tomas found Ellis because Ellis was arrogant enough to keep doing the thing that made him useful. He picked up messages himself.Not every time. Not carelessly. But often enough. Often enough to prove he didn’t fully trust runners. Often enough to make him believe that if he controlled the final handoff, he controlled the risk. That was his mistake. And Decker was done waiting for mistakes to become opportunities. The plan was set before dawn. Tomas stayed hidden near the old trading post between Morgan’s territory, Silver Claw’s routes, and the outer edges of Dark Mountain influence. It had once been a neutral stop for merchants, healers, and border traders. Now it was something else. A mouth. Messages went in. Secrets came out. Decker stood in the strategy room while Tomas’s report came through the pack link. “He’ll come himself.” Tony’s brows lifted as Decker relayed it aloud. “Ellis?” Decker nodded. “Tomas is certain.” Jared folded his arms. “Why?” “Because the message c
98 Adam did not let the prisoner rest long. The wolf was dragged into Edgewater’s holding room still bleeding from the fight, his broken leg splinted only enough to keep him from passing out. Matthew stood behind him, arms crossed, eyes flat and furious. Adam sat across from him. Bandaged shoulder. Fresh stitches. Blood still staining the edge of his shirt. Alive. Angry. The prisoner tried not to look at him. That was smart. Adam leaned forward. “You came for me.” The prisoner said nothing. Matthew stepped closer. “Wrong time to be brave.” The wolf swallowed, eyes flicking toward the door. Adam noticed. “You’re not leaving this room until I know who sent you.” Still silence. Matthew grabbed the back of the chair and jerked it hard enough to make the prisoner gasp as pain shot through his injured leg. Adam’s voice stayed calm. “You weren’t sent to win. You were sent to wound me. Just enough to pull my sister home.” The prisoner’s face changed. Barely. But enough. Matthew saw
97 Edgewater Falls did not look fortified. That was the point. From the outside, the pack moved as usual. Patrols crossed familiar routes. Border posts stayed manned but not doubled in any obvious way. The packhouse lights burned at their normal hours. The hospital ran its shifts. Warriors trained in the open yard like they had not been warned that something was coming. But beneath the surface, Adam had tightened everything. Quietly. Efficiently. Matthew’s scouts were positioned farther out than usual, hidden beyond the known patrol routes. Warriors slept in shifts with boots beside their beds. The western and eastern ridges had been marked with silent signals only Edgewater wolves would notice. The hospital had two extra trauma teams on standby, officially for “training readiness.” Adam had listened to Decker’s warning. He just hadn’t made a show of it. That was why, when the first breach came just after midnight, Edgewater Falls did not panic. It answered. The alarm hit through
96 The rumors didn’t just spread. They moved. Fast. Clean. Deliberate. By the next morning, Dark Mountain wasn’t the only pack talking about Lotty. Silver Claw had already carried the story outward quietly, through the same channels they used for trade, for alliances, for whispers that shaped decisions before anyone realized they had been made. Morgan’s territory heard it. The smaller eastern packs heard it. And somewhere in the space between all of them, Ellis listened. The story was simple. Too simple. The Luna was strong but not stable. The pack link strained her. She avoided crowds. She faltered under pressure. Her strength showed in controlled environments but broke when pushed unexpectedly. Not weak. But cracked. And cracks could be widened. The conclusion didn’t take long. It never did with wolves who thought like strategists instead of warriors. Don’t remove her. Move her. Attack Edgewater Falls. Not to destroy it. Not even to win. Just enough to pull her back. She would
36 The meeting room in the packhouse had once been a formal dining hall. Now it has become something else entirely. The long wooden table at the center held maps instead of plates, territory markers instead of candles. Old scars carved into the wood hinted at past arguments, past decisions that ha
26 The packhouse finally grew quiet. The kind of quiet that only came after a long day of tension, arguments, interrogations, and planning. Warriors rotated through night watch, the low murmur of voices fading as patrols settled into their posts around the property. Inside Lotty’s room, the light
17 The message went out before dawn. Clean. Controlled. Deliberate. No mention of Edgewater Falls. No mention of location. No hint of weakness. Only what was necessary. Alpha Decker of Dark Mountain is alive. An accident occurred en route. He is recovering and will send word soon. The truce stand
15 Cole didn’t knock. He didn’t have to. He’d been stationed outside that ICU room for three days, listening to the sounds inside the way warriors listened to the forest, reading shifts in breathing, tension in silence, the subtle changes that meant a situation had turned. When he heard the low m







