CHAPTER 5 - FOR AND AGAINST THE LEECHES

“The leeches are coming,” my father announced, his voice echoing off the timber beams.

A low growl of agreement rippled through the gathered wolf warriors.

He pointed to a map carved into the central table. “The Sunken Bridge. Our young scout,” he said as he clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder, “has sharp eyes. They want this place as a fortress, not just a crossing path.”

He laid out the plan. Archers in the high rocks. A decoy force on the bridge itself. The main strength of our warriors hidden in the tree line, ready to flank and crush any who made it across. It was a good plan. A deadly one.

“We take no prisoners,” my father finished, his eyes glowing with a fierce, amber light. “We will be sending a message they will feel in their cold bones for a generation. This ends their ambition on our eastern border.”

A cheer went up. My stomach turned. Some of them are just soldiers following orders. Like you. Lyra’s voice, a desperate whisper in my memory.

I saw the battle not as a victory, but as a massacre. I saw Lyra’s face among the enemy, her violet eyes wide with betrayal. The image was a knife to the heart.

After the council, my father held me back. “You will lead the decoy force on the bridge, Kaelen.”

Ice water flooded my veins. The decoy force was the bait. The most dangerous position. “Me, Alpha?”

“You sounded the alarm. You will stand in the breach.” His gaze was unwavering, a test. “It is an honor. Show them the strength of your blood. Show me.”

There was no refusing. To hesitate would be a sign of weakness. To question would be treason. I bowed my head. “Yes, Father.”

The honor felt like a death sentence.

That night, sleep was impossible. I stared at the thatched roof of my cabin, listening to the pack settle into a restless quiet. In two nights, I would be standing on that bridge, waiting for Lyra’s people to come. I would have to fight. I would have to kill.

The thought made me physically ill.

A soft tap at my window made me bolt upright. It was too soft for a wolf. My heart hammered against my ribs. I slid to the floor and crept to the wall beside the shuttered opening.

Another tap. Scritch-scratch.

It was the signal. A jay’s call, repeated. Our signal. The one we’d never used.

Lyra.

Panic and wild hope warred in me. It was impossibly dangerous. She was a vampire, deep in wolf territory, right outside my window. If she was caught, she was dead. If I was caught with her, I was dead.

I eased the shutter open a crack.

She was there, a patch of deeper darkness in the night, her eyes reflecting the faint starlight. She looked terrified.

“What are you doing?” I hissed, my voice a strangled whisper.

“I had to come,” she breathed. “The plans have changed.”

My blood went cold. “Changed how?”

“My Sire… he knows. He knows the bridge is fortified. The attack is off.”

Relief, so profound it made my knees weak, washed over me. “Then it’s over. There’s no battle.”

“No.” Her voice was grim. “It’s worse. He’s not calling it off. He’s changing the target.” She glanced over her shoulder, a nervous, bird-like motion. “He believes the spy is real now. He thinks the information about the bridge was a deliberate plant to make him look away from the real target.”

“What real target?” Dread was a cold hand squeezing my heart.

“The Den.”

The word hung in the frozen air. The Den. Not a border post. Not a bridge. The heart of our territory. Where the families were. The children. The elders. It was where my mother slept.

“When?” The word was a rasp.

“The same night. In three nights. A small, fast strike team. They’re not coming to take territory. They’re coming to send a message of their own. To burn our home.”

Rage, white-hot and blinding, exploded behind my eyes. This was not a soldier’s war. This was butchery. This was the very evil my father had always warned me about. For a second, I hated her. I hated everything about her kind.

She must have seen it in my face. She flinched back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Kaelen.”

“Why?” I snarled, the sound too loud. I forced my voice back to a whisper. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s angry. And he’s scared. And he thinks you have a spy, so he wants to show you that your tricks can’t protect what matters most.” A tear traced a silver line down her cheek. “He wants to break your pack’s spirit.”

The rage dissolved, leaving a cold, clear clarity. This changed everything. The bridge was a feint. My father’s entire army would be in the wrong place. The Den would be lightly defended.

I had to tell him. I had to warn him.

But if I did, how would I explain knowing this? A changed attack plan, deep behind our lines? My father was no fool. The bridge intelligence could be explained away as sharp scouting. This could not. This was the work of a spy. His suspicion would have a target: me.

Lyra was watching me, waiting. She had risked everything to bring me this. She had chosen a side, and it was mine.

“You have to go,” I said, my mind racing. “Now. If you’re seen…”

“What will you do?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” It was the honest truth. “But I can’t let that happen. I won’t.”

She nodded, understanding the impossible position she’d put me in. She started to fade back into the shadows.

“Lyra.”

She paused.

“Thank you.”

It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough for what she’d just done. But it was all I had.

She gave me one last, long look, a look that held a universe of fear and hope, and then she was gone.

I closed the shutter and slid down the wall to the floor, my head in my hands.

The fuse wasn’t just lit anymore. It had splintered into two, racing toward two different explosions. One at the bridge where my father expected glory. One at the Den, where my world could end.

And I was the only one who knew about both.

I had until tomorrow night to figure out how to stop an attack without revealing the traitor in my own heart. The weight was crushing. The secret was no longer just between us. It was a ticking bomb, and I was holding it over everything I loved.