Mag-log inQUEENETH’S POVWhat Restraint CostsDawn should feel softer than night.It doesn’t.It comes in wrong.Too quiet. No birds. No wind moving through the broken trees. Even the fire has died down to something small and stubborn, like it is holding on out of habit instead of warmth.I wake before my eyes open.That feeling again.Pressure.Not around me.Through me.Amy is already awake, pacing hard against my ribs.“Up,” she says.I am already moving.By the time I push myself to my feet, something in the air has shifted completely. The others feel it too. I see it in the way shoulders tense, in how hands move without being told.No one speaks.We don’t get the chance to.The first scream cuts through the morning before the light fully settles.Not close.Too close.I turn toward it and everything happens too fast after that.A body hits the ground somewhere behind the tree line.A second sound follows.Not a scream.A choke that ends too quickly.My chest tightens.No.No no no.“Move!”
QUEENETH’S POVThe Almost YesFor a second, it feels easy.That is the part that scares me the most.Not the circle around me. Not the way seven wolves breathe like one body. Not even the quiet certainty in their eyes.It is the silence inside my own chest.The absence of resistance.They stand there waiting, and something in me leans forward before I even realize it has moved.Not my feet.Something deeper.Something that has been tired for longer than I want to admit.Tired of weighing every life like I am supposed to know which ones matter more.Tired of being the space where impossible choices come to die.Tired of holding back.The thought slips in quietly.You could end it.Not the war.Everything.No more councils whispering behind closed doors.No more wolves born into roles they never chose.No more watching people look at me like I am either salvation or something they need to destroy before I breathe too loud.Just… silence.Clean.Final.The kind of silence that does not c
QUEENETH’S POVWhat They Think I AmNight does not fall gently here.It drops.One moment the sky is dim, the next it feels like something closed its hand over the land and squeezed the light out. The fire we build burns brighter than it should, like it is trying to make up for something missing.No one relaxes.Not even the survivors.They stay close to the edges of our camp, watching us the same way they watch the dark. Not trusting either one fully. I do not blame them.I sit with my back against a broken piece of stone, the markings from earlier still etched into it. I did not choose this spot by accident. I want to feel it. The mistake. The echo. The reminder.Amy is restless again.Not afraid.Alert in a way that feels like waiting for something she already knows is coming.“They’re near,” she says.I nod slightly.I can feel it too now.Not footsteps. Not scent.Attention.Something out there is aware of me. Not curious. Not cautious.Certain.The fire flickers.Once.Twice.Th
QUEENETH’S POVWhat They See When They Look at MeWe find them near what used to be a water source.The stream is still there, cutting through the land like it always has, but even the water looks wrong. It moves too slowly, like it forgot where it was supposed to go. The banks are disturbed, footprints layered over each other, some fresh, some older, all restless.Amy senses them before I do.“Not hiding well,” she murmurs.Not because they are careless.Because they are tired.I raise my hand slightly, signaling the others to slow. No sudden movements. No weapons drawn unless needed. We approach like we would wounded animals. Careful. Quiet. Ready to be bitten anyway.The first one steps out from behind a cluster of rocks.A boy.Too young to carry the look in his eyes.He freezes when he sees us. Not curious. Not hopeful. His body goes rigid, breath catching like he has already decided running will not save him.Then more of them emerge.A woman with a torn sleeve and dried blood o
QUEENETH’S POVWhere Something Has Been TakenWe feel it before we see it.The land changes without announcing it. No clear border. No broken trees or scorched earth to warn us we are stepping into something wrong. It just… shifts.The air loses weight.Not lighter. Just thinner. Like something important has been taken out of it and the space has not decided how to fill itself again.I slow without meaning to.The others notice immediately. Feet adjusting. Breathing quieting. No one asks why. They feel it too, even if they cannot name it.Amy presses forward inside me, alert, tense in a way that makes my skin tighten.“This place is empty,” she says.Not quiet.Empty.We step fully into eastern pack land.And I understand.It is not corrupted.Not twisted or infected the way I expected. There is no rot creeping through the roots. No dark pulse moving beneath the soil.It feels hollowed.Like something came through and scooped the center out of everything that mattered, then left the r
QUEENETH’S POVThe Silence That StaysTravel with Collins is different now.I feel it before I understand it.The first morning we leave, the air between us does not tighten the way it used to. There is no invisible thread pulling at my ribs every time he moves too far ahead. No sharp awareness of his breathing, his heartbeat, the exact distance between us measured without effort.The bond is still there.It just does not reach for him anymore.That should feel like freedom.Instead, it feels like walking after an injury healed wrong. Nothing is broken, but nothing moves the way it used to either.We travel with the others spread out, not tightly packed. Everyone keeps enough distance to breathe. Enough distance to think. No one complains. No one questions the pace.They all feel it.Not the bond.The absence.Collins walks ahead most of the time. Not leading. Just… choosing a direction and trusting we will follow. His shoulders stay straight. His steps steady. If he is in pain, it do







