Chapter 12

Nadia

Two weeks passed with no new incidents, though the quiet felt more like held breath than actual peace. Patrols doubled along every border. My guard detail grew from two warriors to four. Even Priya started noticing the shift in mood at school, though I kept the details vague.

"You're jumpier than usual," she said one afternoon, watching me scan the parking lot before we crossed it. "Bodyguard stuff getting worse?"

"Something like that."

"You know you can tell me more than 'something like that,' right? I'm not going to panic and run."

I glanced at her, weighing how much was fair to share. "There's someone out there who might want to hurt me. Or use me, more specifically, to get power he's not supposed to have. My father and Kade's father are handling it, but it's not exactly resolved yet."

Priya's easy expression sobered. "That's not 'something like that.' That's actually terrifying."

"Welcome to my life."

She bumped her shoulder against mine, gentler this time. "For what it's worth, terrifying looks good on you. Very main-character energy."

I managed a real laugh despite everything, grateful for a friend who could find humor even in the middle of danger.

The break in the case came from an unexpected direction. Elder Row contacted my father directly, requesting an urgent meeting, this time without Marcus present.

"One of my scouts identified a supply route," Row explained, spreading a hand-drawn map across my father's desk. "Small shipments, moving through unclaimed territory every few nights. Food, medical supplies, weapons. All heading toward the same location deep in the northern wilds."

"Draven's stronghold," Alpha Ashford said grimly.

"We believe so. My scout couldn't get close enough to confirm numbers, but based on shipment size, we estimate at least thirty wolves camped there. Possibly more."

My father studied the map carefully. "Thirty rogues, organized enough to maintain steady supply lines. That's not a desperate, scattered group anymore. That's a functioning force."

"Which means he's preparing for something," Kade said, standing near the window. "Not just scouting borders for information. Building toward an actual move."

Row nodded grimly. "My scouts will keep watching the route. But I wanted you both to know immediately. If he's this organized, waiting much longer to act ourselves might not be wise."

That night, after the meeting ended, my father called me into his study alone, something heavy sitting behind his tired eyes.

"I need to ask you something," he said, "and I need an honest answer, not the answer you think I want to hear."

"Okay."

"If it comes to it — if Draven forces a confrontation before we're fully ready — are you prepared to use your full strength? Not held back the way you've trained your whole life to hide it, but fully, as the Alpha you actually are?"

The question settled heavy in my chest. My whole life had been built around restraint, around making myself smaller and quieter than I really was. The idea of doing the opposite, of letting everything loose without holding back, felt almost as frightening as the threat itself.

"I don't know," I admitted honestly. "I've never had to. I don't even know what my full strength looks like."

My father nodded slowly, unsurprised by the answer. "Then we need to find out. Carefully, safely, before circumstances force you to find out in the middle of a fight where mistakes cost lives."

"You want me to train. Really train."

"I want you prepared," he said. "Whatever that requires."

Training began the next morning before school, my father and two senior pack warriors working with me in the private grounds behind our house. It was nothing like the careful, restrained sparring I'd done at school for a month straight, holding back every instinct that might reveal too much.

"Don't hold back," my father instructed, standing at a safe distance as one of the warriors squared off against me. "Let your wolf lead. We're past hiding what you are."

The first attempt ended badly, my control slipping too far, power surging out faster than I could manage, knocking the warrior back several feet before I even registered moving. I stood there, breathing hard, half-frightened by what I'd just done.

"That's it," my father said, though his voice carried caution alongside encouragement. "That's what eighteen years of hiding built up. We work with it from here, not against it."

Kade joined the training two days later, once his own morning schedule allowed it, watching from the sidelines before eventually stepping onto the grounds himself.

"Your dad wants me sparring with you now," he said. "Says I'm the only one who won't hold back out of fear of hurting the princess."

"Comforting."

"I'm serious, though." His expression sobered. "If Draven really does move on you, I want to know exactly what you're capable of. Not guess. Know."

We sparred carefully at first, then with increasing intensity as the days passed, my control growing steadier each time, the raw power that had always simmered under the surface finally finding shape instead of staying dangerously loose.

By the end of the second week, I could hold my own against two trained warriors at once, my Alpha strength no longer something to hide, but something I understood well enough to trust.

"You've changed," Kade said one evening, both of us catching our breath after a particularly hard session. "A month ago you were terrified of anyone seeing what you really were. Now look at you."

"I'm still terrified," I admitted. "Just less about being seen. More about what happens if Draven actually comes for us before we're fully ready."

Kade reached for my hand, steady despite the exhaustion in both our bodies. "Then we make sure we are ready. Whatever it takes."

Somewhere in the northern wilds, thirty rogue wolves and an Alpha with a decade-old grudge continued preparing for something none of us could fully predict. All we could do now was make certain that when it finally came, we wouldn't be the ones caught unprepared.