FAZER LOGINDraven appeared at the infirmary door at midday and Alira knew immediately from the look on his face that he was not there to collect a dressing or ask about a patient. Draven had the expression of someone who had been sent to do something he had not been given enough information about. “Draven,” Wren greeted cheerfully. “Wren,”. Draven replied not-so-cheerfully and then turned to Alira, “Vael,” “Draven, to what do we owe this exciting visit?” Alira chimed, without thinking much about the look on his face. "The Alpha wants to see you," he said. Alira blinked once and then twice, and to her horror he was indeed looking straight at her. She set down the jar she was holding carefully, because setting it down the way she actually wanted to would have made a sound she could not explain. “Why are you looking at me?” Alira asked, brows drawing together in confusion. “Because I am talking to you.” Draven replied, eye narrowing a little bit. “Alpha Lucien wants to see me?” Alira as
The tea helped, marginally.Alira sat at the infirmary bench and worked through the morning with her hands while her mind did whatever it wanted, which was not ideal but was better than pretending she could control it. Wren moved around her without asking questions. Maren complained about the food from his bed. She told him the food was fine and he told her she had clearly never tasted it and she almost smiled.By midmorning she had almost convinced herself that the chair by her window had been empty all night.Almost.She went to check on the border wolves in the east recovery room and found Cade's bed empty. Blanket folded back. Water cup still sitting where she had left it.She checked the light through the window. Too early. His leg was three days into healing and she had been clear about rest.She asked Wren.Wren had not seen him leave.She went looking.~*~*~*~*~*She found him by accident.She had taken the back corridor toward the lower east wing because it was the fastest ro
She was in the middle of a dream about nothing in particular when something pulled her out of it.She did not know what. There was no sound, no movement, nothing she could point to. She just went from asleep to awake in the space of one breath, the way she sometimes did in the healing tents when something had changed in the room before she could name what.She opened her eyes.He was sitting on the chair by the window.She looked at the man sitting in a chair in the corner of her room with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his knees like he was waiting for tea.You have got to be joking," she said."Good morning," he said."It is the middle of the night," she said."Early morning then," he said pleasantly.She pressed her fingers against her eyes and breathed slowly and reminded herself that losing her composure at whatever this was would not improve the situation."How did you get into my room?" she said."The same way I get into most places," he said."That is not an answer,
Alira had not planned to go to his office today.She had planned to finish her inventory, return to the infirmary, check on her patients, eat something at some point, and spend the evening alone in her room with a piece of paper she was not yet ready to open. That had been the plan.She knocked on Lucien's office door once and opened it without waiting, because what she had to say was not the kind of thing that improved with waiting.He was at his desk, not reading this time, just sitting with his hands clasped on the surface in front of him and his eyes on the window. He looked like a man who had been thinking for a long time and had not yet arrived anywhere useful.He looked at her when she came in."Vael," he said, one of his brows slightly twitching. “What happened to your manners"“I will not take long," she said, because she knew he valued that. She crossed to the desk, stood in front of it and kept her hands at her sides. "The infirmary needs restocking. Several of the compound
Lucien was at his desk when Brix knocked and let himself in.He looked up this time, which meant whatever he had been reading was either finished or not important enough to finish. He leaned back in his chair and looked at Brix the way he looked at most things, waiting to see what it was before deciding what to do about it.Brix settled into the chair across from him and rested his walking stick against his knee."You look like you have not slept," Brix said."You look like you have not slept," Brix said."I sleep fine," Lucien said."You look like you sleep fine and then lie awake thinking for several hours afterward," Brix said. "Which is not the same thing."Lucien looked at him with the expression of a man who was not going to dignify that with a response. "Are you here to inquire about my sleep routine or perhaps, discuss something important?” "I did," Brix said. "It is about Soren." "Go ahead," Lucien said, not even one muscle twitching."I think you are looking at him too har
Something was missing from the third shelf.Alira had counted it twice and arrived at the same number both times, which meant either her list was wrong or someone had been in this storage room without recording what they took. She made a note on her paper and moved to the fourth shelf and told herself it was probably nothing, but did not entirely believe it.The storage room was cold and quiet. The lamp she had brought threw a circle of yellow light across the shelves and left everything beyond it in shadow. She did not mind the dark. She minded the missing compound, which was specific enough to be intentional and common enough to be excused if anyone asked.She was making a second note when she felt it.She could not have described it accurately. It was not a sound or a drop in temperature, though the room was already cold enough. It was the awareness of a space that had been empty a moment ago and was no longer empty, the way a room changed when someone walked into it, except she ha
The soldier winced when the needle went in."Hold still," said Alira. "You're making it worse."He obeyed. They always did, in the end. Not because they respected her, but because she was the only one in Oakshade Pack territory who could stitch a wound without leaving half of it infected. That was
The graves had no flowers.Lucien had never put flowers on them. Flowers were for people who still believed in soft things, and six years ago, every soft thing he had was buried right here in Ironmoor's ruins alongside his pack.He stood at the edge of the row, arms at his sides, jaw tight. Twenty-
Nobody came to show her to breakfast.Alira had been awake since before the sun came up, which meant she had not really slept. She had lain in the unfamiliar bed and listened to the sounds of a new territory settling into morning. Distant voices. The creak of a gate. Somewhere, a mut barking once a
Nobody spoke on the ride back to Ashveil.Lucien rode at the front. Alira was somewhere behind him, between two of his wolves, with her travel case strapped to the side of the second horse. He did not look back. He had made that decision at Greymist Ridge, and he was keeping it.The forest road wa







