Semua Bab Marked in the Middle: Bab 11 - Bab 20

The forest had gone too quiet.No wind through the pines. No crickets. No distant night birds. Just the sound of our own footsteps crunching over frost-stiff leaves, and even that felt too loud. My fingers stayed tight around the hilt of my blade, the silver edge catching the faint spill of moonlight filtering through the branches.Roman was ahead of me, moving like a shadow, his frame tense but deliberate. Lira walked to my right, close enough that I could hear her breathing but far enough to keep her own line of sight clear. Milo brought up the rear, muttering under his breath about how stupid this was.We weren’t heading back to camp. We were following the trail.A blood trail.Faint but fresh, weaving through the undergrowth, stopping in odd places like the wounded had leaned against trees, then moving on again. It wasn’t just blood, though — the scent was wrong. Too sweet.“You smell that?” I whispered.Roman gave a

The night outside Roman’s safehouse was the kind of cold that made the air taste metallic. It seeped in through the walls, wrapping itself around me, but my chest burned hotter than it had in years. I paced the length of the narrow living room, my boots thudding against the hardwood with every turn.Roman and Kellen sat at opposite ends of the room — two wolves who trusted each other just enough to breathe the same air. They were letting me burn it off, waiting for me to either calm down or explode.I wasn’t calming down.“My uncle,” I said again, like saying the words out loud might make them make sense. “The same man who raised me after my parents died. The one who taught me how to shoot, who told me to keep my head down, who said he’d keep me safe —” I stopped pacing and turned on them. “— and you’re telling me he’s the reason my mother’s in the ground?”Roman didn’t flinch. He had that stillness in him — the kind that came from leading, from making ugly decisions and living with t

We left Viremont under the cover of darkness, headlights off, engine kept to a low growl as Roman guided the truck through the city’s cracked veins. The streets looked emptier than usual, but I didn’t trust the quiet. Quiet was just noise holding its breath.Kellen sat in the back, his injured shoulder bandaged with strips of one of Roman’s shirts. He looked pale, his head leaning against the cold glass, eyes tracking every shadow we passed.“You sure this thing will hold?” he asked without looking at me.“It’ll hold long enough,” I said. “If the poison doesn’t get worse.”Roman’s gaze flicked to the rearview mirror, locking on Kellen. “It won’t get worse. We flushed it out.”I didn’t point out the truth — that flushing silver out of a wolf’s blood was like trying to scrape smoke from the air. You could try all you wanted, but something always lingered.The farther we got from the city, the more my chest eased, but it wasn't a re

The wind had a bite to it that night, carrying the kind of cold that seeped through even the thickest jacket. The city looked different under moonlight — not the dull, static glow of street lamps, but the silver wash that made shadows stretch and move like living things.Roman and I walked side by side, our boots crunching on wet gravel as we made our way toward the eastern edge of Viremont. Kellen followed behind, silent but alert, his eyes flicking to every rooftop, every alley, every potential threat.We weren’t heading to just any place tonight. This was the first step into enemy territory — not a full-on confrontation with my uncle yet, but close enough to taste the danger. A Silver Ash Pack safehouse sat just beyond the old rail yard, a place Roman swore was used for moving contraband, laundering cash, and housing informants when things got messy.If the intel we had was right, there’d be a ledger inside — something with payments, names, maybe even t

The snow came down in thick, heavy flakes, turning the alley into a white tunnel. My breath clouded in front of me as I pushed forward, boots crunching in the fresh layer. Roman’s voice crackled in my earpiece, low but urgent.“Two blocks ahead. They’re moving fast. You need to cut them off before they reach the crossing.”“I see them,” I whispered, eyes locked on the dark figures darting through the snowstorm. My pulse pounded in my ears. These weren’t ordinary runners — they moved with the precision of trained wolves. Whoever they were, they weren’t supposed to be here.Behind me, Kellen’s footsteps crunched in rhythm with mine. “You’re pushing too hard,” he warned. “If they’re who we think they are, we’re walking into a trap.”“I know,” I shot back, tightening my grip on the dagger strapped to my thigh. “But if they get away, we lose the trail. And we can’t afford to lose anything right now.”Roman cut in again. “Nora—”But it