LOGINChapter 20Priscilla sent the message anyway.Her hands trembled as she sealed the parchment in the darkness after Kane left their quarters. She told herself she had no choice. Five years of fear didn't disappear simply because her husband had finally spoken the truth aloud.She carried the letter to the boundary line and dropped it into the hollow post—the same place she had used to pass messages when she helped betray Elena five years ago.A silent courier collected it and disappeared into the darkness.Priscilla remained on the balcony long after he was gone, staring at her pale hands.For the first time in five years, she understood something she had spent too long refusing to face.Her handlers could not protect her anymore.Commander Nightfall was coming.Three weeks later, Elena's war column broke camp before first light.A core unit of veteran rogue fighters surrounded her, with Garrick and Sera riding close at her sides. At the center of the column rode her three five-year-ol
Chapter 19The council chamber erupted into relieved noise the moment the messenger's reply was read aloud.“Commander Nightfall accepts.”Halvard, the eldest council member, read the words twice, as though he still couldn't quite believe them. The gray-muzzled wolf had served three Alphas before Kane and had seen enough wars to know how rarely desperate negotiations ended this easily.“Five years we've thrown resources at these raids with nothing to show for it,” he said. “And she agrees in a single sentence.”“A single sentence and an unfamiliar seal,” another elder pointed out, taking the parchment from him. “No price. No timeline. Just a crescent moon and four words.”“She'll specify her terms when she arrives,” Halvard said. “A commander doesn't waste ink explaining herself to people she hasn't decided to trust.”Kane sat at the head of the table through the entire exchange, saying little.His mind kept circling the same possibility.Three years of chasing rumors. Two more years
Chapter 17The triplets turned five on a clear autumn morning, and Elena marked the day with a quiet pride she couldn't quite hide.Inside the strategy tent, Ronan reset his carved wooden board.He had just beaten a veteran rogue strategist nearly thirty years his senior in eleven moves.And judging by his expression, he wasn't satisfied."You beat him fair, sweetheart," Elena said, smoothing his hair as Rune leaned against her side. "You don't need to prove it twice.""I want to see if I can do it in nine."Ronan's eyes stayed fixed on the board.Elena smiled."Of course you do."Across the training yard, Kai was working through combat drills with boys twice his size.He was fast.Too fast, sometimes.He threw himself into every movement with the kind of instinct that made Sera keep a close eye on him, even when he was clearly ahead of his training partners."He's terrifyingly good," Sera said, leaning against the fence beside Elena.She watched Kai duck beneath a larger boy's swing
Chapter 17The triplets turned five on a clear autumn morning, and Elena marked the day with a quiet pride she couldn't quite hide.Inside the strategy tent, Ronan reset his carved wooden board.He had just beaten a veteran rogue strategist nearly thirty years his senior in eleven moves.And judging by his expression, he wasn't satisfied."You beat him fair, sweetheart," Elena said, smoothing his hair as Rune leaned against her side. "You don't need to prove it twice.""I want to see if I can do it in nine."Ronan's eyes stayed fixed on the board.Elena smiled."Of course you do."Across the training yard, Kai was working through combat drills with boys twice his size.He was fast.Too fast, sometimes.He threw himself into every movement with the kind of instinct that made Sera keep a close eye on him, even when he was clearly ahead of his training partners."He's terrifyingly good," Sera said, leaning against the fence beside Elena.She watched Kai duck beneath a larger boy's swing
Chapter 16Kane had become very good at pretending.To the pack council, he was the stoic Alpha holding Silvercrest together through border raids, shrinking resources, and growing unrest.To his pack, he was still the same ruler they had always known—the man who stood at the front when trouble came and never showed how badly it was wearing him down.Only Kane knew what life inside the pack house had become.Every night under the same roof as Priscilla meant watching her. Listening to what she said. Noticing where she went. Waiting for the mistake that would finally expose whoever was behind her.He had spent years doing it.And still, he had found nothing he could use.He had also spent years searching for Elena.Covert scouts had crossed rogue territory under false names. Kane had paid black-market informants for rumors that led nowhere. More than once, someone claimed to have seen a woman traveling with three silver-eyed children.Every trail ended in silence.Rogue territory was en
Chapter 15It took three grueling weeks to track down the mole.Elena had expected it to be a recent recruit, someone whose loyalty to the coalition hadn't been tested by years of life in rogue territory.She was wrong.When Garrick laid out the evidence inside his private tent, the betrayal came from someone who had been here long before Elena ever crossed the border.Perrin.A veteran scout.Someone Garrick had trusted for years."Eight months of leaked patrol schedules," Garrick said grimly, sliding a ledger across the war table. "Intercepted supply routes. Compromised borders. Every trail we followed eventually led back to him."Elena looked down at the pages.Names. Routes. Dates. Patrol rotations.Too much information.Too many opportunities for someone to get hurt."Bring him in," she said quietly. "No one else needs to know yet."They seized Perrin at dusk.He didn't resist.He simply lowered his head and allowed Garrick's guards to escort him into the interrogation tent, look







