บททั้งหมดของ Red Wolf's Guardian: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

CoralWhen I awoke, Duncan was not in the room. I hated that he was right, but the physical intimacy was what I needed. It helped to resent me and to help me focus. I took the edge off the emotions that I was having a hard time controlling. My wolf and I were now very, very focused on one task; protecting wolves. Because at the end of the day, that’s what this really was about. It was about the red wolves and their protection over all of wolves. If the vampires were able to somehow hurt the red wolves, then it would hurt all wolves. It was not going to let that happen. None of us were.Duncan alerted me that he was doing some additional planning, so I took it as an opportunity go outside. I walked around the compound, taking in everything I could to help center myself. I approach the edge and I notice the stone barrier. The stones marked the edge of the compound. At first, I thought they were just old boundary markers—weathered rocks half-buried along the perimeter, placed there bac

CoralThe meeting didn’t end all at once. It thinned out. Chairs scraped. Wolves stood, hesitated, then moved like they weren’t entirely sure where they were supposed to go next. No one argued. No one panicked. It was quieter than that. The kind of quiet that comes after something has shifted and everyone is pretending they don’t feel it yet.I stayed where I was. My hand rested on the back of a chair, fingers curled into the wood without realizing it. I could feel the worn grooves beneath my palm—years of use, steady and unchanged. It grounded me more than anything that had just been said. At this moment, I needed to feel grounded. Ivy was doing her best to help me, but this was a lot for anyone, but it was teetering on too much for a red wolf who was just learning the true meaning of emotional control. A few wolves glanced at me as they passed. Some nodded. Some didn’t. None of them stopped. They weren’t afraid of me. They were thinking. That was almost worse. I was afraid of wha

CoralI didn’t sleep much that night. Not because I was afraid, but because I was aware. I was listening to everything around me. Taking it all in. I was becoming much more aware of the small things around me, the subtle changes in the air. It was strange to think that these changes had been happening all the time, and I just never recognized them. It is so interesting, and so scary, to think about all the little things that we miss all around us on a daily basis. The boundary sat at the edge of me, steady but present. Not loud. Not demanding. Just… there. Like a second heartbeat that didn’t belong entirely to me. Ivy and I sat, thinking about it. We felt it out, trying to see if there was a way to better understand it. I lay beside Duncan, listening to his breathing even out after he finally drifted off. I could feel the weight of his arm over my waist. Even as he fell asleep, he was still holding me tight. The security I felt with him was something that I never knew that I n

CoralI hoped I would sleep after the breach, but I didn’t. It wasn’t fear that kept me awake. It was awareness. The kind that settles into your bones once something has shifted and you know it won’t shift back. It was anticipation, but not a good anticipation, like I remember when I was a kid.  It was more like an anticipation from before I took the potion to hide Ivy with Harley when we were trying to escape our alpha. I lay beside Duncan, listening to his breathing deepen as exhaustion finally pulled him under. His arm was still wrapped around me, even in sleep. Protective. Instinctive. As if some part of him refused to loosen his grip now that the boundary had been crossed. I should have felt comforted. Instead, I felt responsible.The anchor was still t

CoralThe clearing slowly began to empty after Duncan spoke, but the tension that had filled the air didn’t leave with the wolves who stepped away from the boundary. It lingered there, stretching across the compound like something unseen that none of us were willing to ignore.I stayed where I was. I felt as if I needed to be here, and even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. The others eventually moved back toward the main compound buildings, speaking quietly among themselves as they tried to process everything that had just happened. Patrols shifted positions. Guardians moved farther out along the perimeter. Everyone was adjusting, even if no one had given the order directly.Wolves had always been good at that - adapting when needed. It was an innate instinct that we all seemed to have. But even as they moved away, the boundary still held my attention. It sat at the edge of my awareness in a way that it never had before tonight, steady but altered, like something that had been dis