All Chapters of War against all packs : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I woke up early before the sun was even up. I just lay there staring at the ceiling and listening to the other Omegas breathing in the room. I did not move for a while. I just felt the weight of the day slowly coming down on me. Today was my birthday. I was twenty-three years old now. I told myself it was another day, nothing special.. Deep down, I felt something restless, something that made me think about what this day could mean. Twenty-three. That is old for a wolf not have found their mate yet. Most wolves find theirs when they are younger, like eighteen or even earlier. I had been waiting for a time, pretending I did not care. When others found theirs, I would say congratulations then go back to my corner and tell myself to be patient.I got out of bed and got dressed quietly. I did not want to draw attention to myself. I never do. When people notice me it usually means trouble. The air was cold. The Omega quarters were not comfortable. We were supposed to be tough not happy.

I have seen many wolves beg for their lives. I have seen warriors cry. I have seen traitors swear loyalty when a blade touched their throat. You know what fear smells like? It is sharp. It is bitter. It is easy to read.The Omega lying on my land did not smell like fear. He smelled tired. Not just his body,. His soul.I mind-linked the warriors who were approaching. They went back to wherever they were coming from.“Austin Gray,” I said quietly, repeating his name as he lay on the ground before me.His chest was going up and down unevenly. Blood stained his shirt. His eyes were open. They looked empty like he had already accepted that he was going to die.“You think you are already dead “ I told him.“Yes,” he whispered.There was no drama in his voice. No anger. Just the truth.That unsettled me.I had planned to hand him back. That would have been the choice. My brother’s mess did not need to become mine. The law of the Blood Kingdom was clear about bonds like this. The elders were

Adrian did not say anything at first.He just stood there. A few feet away. Close enough that I could smell him, cedarwood and smoke, the same as before. The same scent that had once made my wolf lean forward with longing.Now it made my stomach tighten.I did not move. I did not speak. I just watched him the way you watch something you are not sure is dangerous yet.The sun had almost finished setting. The sky behind him was dark red and deep orange. The courtyard was quiet now. Most people had gone inside after the confrontation. The ones still outside were pretending not to watch us.I knew they were watching.Adrian looked different up close. Not the way I remembered him. He had always carried himself like someone who knew exactly where he stood in the world. Shoulders back. Chin up. Certain.That certainty was gone.He looked like a man carrying something heavy he did not know how to put down.I waited."You should not be out here alone," he said finally.His voice was quiet. Not

I did not sleep well.That was not surprising. What was surprising was that I slept at all.I woke up before the sun came through the window. The room was grey and quiet. For one small moment before my mind caught up, I forgot where I was. I reached for the familiar sounds of the Omega quarters. The breathing of four other wolves in the same room. The creak of the old wooden floor. The smell of cold stone and shared blankets.None of it was there.Instead there was silence. Space. A ceiling higher than any I had ever woken under.Then I remembered.I sat up slowly. My body ached. Not from anything physical. Just from the weight of the last few days sitting in my muscles like something that had not finished settling yet.I got up. I washed my face in the basin near the window. The water was cold. It helped.Outside the window the back gardens were still dark. I could see the shape of the hedges and the stone path that wound between them. A single torch burned at the far gate. One guard

I had not slept.That was not unusual. I had gone long stretches without sleep before. After Nora died I had gone four days on nothing but cold water and the kind of anger that keeps a man upright when grief would put him on the floor. Sleep had felt like a betrayal back then. Like something I did not deserve.This was different.This was not grief. This was the document sitting open on my desk and the words written in old ink in the margin and the feeling of a puzzle assembling itself in my mind whether I wanted it to or not.Bloodline suspended by Elder Council decree. Status suppressed. Record sealed.I had read it twenty times.It meant the same thing every time.I left the war room before the sun came up. Walked the outer wall of the palace alone. The guards on night rotation nodded as I passed. None of them spoke. They knew better than to speak when I walked like that — head down, hands clasped behind my back, the particular silence of a man thinking through something he cannot