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Chapter 13: The Night Of Ash

last update publish date: 2026-02-06 11:54:12
Five Years Ago

The champagne tasted like victory.

Xander stood in the center of the Pack House dining hall, the familiar long oak table where the inner circle always gathered. Pack members crowded around him, raising glasses and offering slaps on the back that rattled his bones. Handshakes lingered too long, fingers gripping like they wanted to hold onto some of his new power. Everyone wanted a piece of the new Alpha. He was twenty-three, the youngest in generations, and the Pack was alive with
Sloane Sterling

We’re going back to the night that changed everything. For five years, we've seen the rejection through Elena's eyes... but what was Xander thinking? Prepare for some heartbreak, everyone. Did he really have a choice, or was he just a coward? Let me know if this changes how you feel about him! — Sloane Sterling

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    Xander made it as far as the lower residential corridor before he stopped pretending he was going to his quarters first.The gear was bad. He could smell it on himself — diesel from the open plain, sulfur from the ravine, the specific combination that didn't wash out of fabric easily and that he'd be finding in the seams of this jacket for weeks. His hands were a mess. He hadn't looked at them closely yet, which was its own kind of decision.He went to the central chamber instead.Elena was at the table.She looked up when he came in, and there wasn't anything performative in the look — no relief theater, no held breath released for effect. Just the specific quiet registering of someone confirming what the frequency had already told her: he was here, he was upright, the day's accounting was closed."Sit," she said."I need to give you the field report—""Sit," she said again, "and then give me the field report."He sat.She didn't call for Aris.She got the damp cloth from his kit her

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