Semua Bab Claimed by the Enemy Alpha: Bab 31 - Bab 40

They didn't speak much on the way back from the cave.The forest felt different now, like something was listening. Not a creature—worse. The land itself, maybe. The magic. The tension that hung between them like fog, thick and sticky and full of things unsaid.Kaela could still hear the Seer’s voice in her head.You’ll pay it too.Whatever it was, it felt like it was already collecting.Back at the cabin, Ronan didn’t go in.He stood outside, eyes on the treeline, jaw sharp enough to cut stone. His whole body was coiled like a bow drawn too tight.Kaela leaned against the doorframe, watching him.“Do you ever… stop?” she asked quietly.He didn’t look at her. “Stop what?”“Being the alpha. Carrying everything.”Silence.Then: “No.”She walked down the steps, boots crunching over frosty dirt. “You think if you drop it for one second, everything falls apart?”“Because it does.”Her chest hurt. Not in a metaphorical, oh-my-heart way—like it literally ached from how much of himself he neve

Kaela stood at the ridge, jaw clenched against the cold. The firelight flickered far off in the tree line like a pulse. Like the forest itself had caught its breath, waiting for something terrible.Behind her, wolves shifted and murmured—Shadowfang scouts, tense and ready to launch. The air smelled like pine, old snow, and something sharp beneath it.“Blackteeth don’t set fire unless they want us to see it,” Dax muttered. He’d appeared beside her, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. “They're not being subtle.”“They want a reaction,” Ronan said behind them. “A mistake.”Kaela turned to face him. “Are we giving them one?”He shook his head, jaw tight. “We hold the line. No one moves without my order.”The others nodded and began to scatter, melting into the trees like smoke.Ronan didn’t move.Neither did Kaela.“They’re forcing our hand,” she said after a beat. “They know we’re watching.”“They want me to rush in blind,” he muttered, voice low. “So they can crush everything behind me.”Kaela

They left before dawn.Kaela didn’t wake Ronan.Not because she didn’t want to. Not exactly. But because she knew how it would go—questions, objections, that tight-jawed way he tried not to tell her no. And she didn’t need that today.This wasn’t his mission.This was hers.She pulled on her jacket and slipped through the edge of camp like smoke, boots muffled on wet ground. The mist hung low, thick, and damp, curling around her legs like it didn’t want to let go.Lira was already waiting by the treeline, barely visible under her hood, her bow slung across her back like it belonged there more than her bones did. She didn’t say anything when Kaela approached. Just gave her a nod, turned, and started walking.They didn’t speak for a while. The silence between them wasn’t awkward—it just felt necessary. The trees around them stretched higher than they had yesterday, and the moss underfoot made each step too quiet.Kaela hated how loud her own breathing felt.“South again?” she asked fina

Ronan felt the shift before the smoke hit the sky.He stood at the edge of the northern ridge, boots on damp stone, jaw clenched tight. The air twitched. Something in his chest—old instinct, deep as marrow—tightened like a fist.He sniffed the wind. Smoke.But not campfire smoke. Not food or comfort. This was sharp, bitter. The kind that stuck in your throat. The kind that clung to skin and meant ruin.Dax climbed up beside him, panting a little. “You feel that?”“Smell it,” Ronan said.Southwest. Maybe three, four miles out.The trees down there were dense. No settlements. No border camps. Nothing that should be burning.Dax adjusted his grip on the axe slung across his back. “Could be raiders.”“Could be worse,” Ronan muttered.They moved fast.By the time they reached the hill above the smoke, the sun was crawling higher, but the fog hadn't lifted. It thickened instead, clung to the branches like it was scared to leave.And below?Destruction.Ronan stared down at the small clearin

It rained again.Not the kind of rain that washed things clean—but the kind that soaked everything and made the earth stink of rot and memory.Kaela’s boots sank half an inch into the mud as she walked. Lira was ahead, quiet and sharp as usual, eyes scanning the trees like she was expecting them to peel open.The rest of the unit was doing drills behind camp, somewhere just out of earshot. Dax had barked orders before dawn. Ronan hadn’t shown up for breakfast.Which was probably for the best, because Kaela was still trying to forget the heat of his breath near her jaw.Still trying—and failing.Lira crouched suddenly, holding up one hand. Kaela stilled. Her wolf did too.They were back near the ridge, a different edge of the forest this time. Something about this stretch of trees made Kaela’s skin crawl. The bark was darker here. Wetter. The kind of wet that didn’t dry. Like the trees were bleeding slow.Lira pointed. “There.”Kaela moved beside her and saw it—at the base of the talle