Semua Bab The Alpha My Sister Wanted: Bab 91 - Bab 96

The trail held for almost a mile.Blood marked the first few trees, smears where a hand or shoulder had caught the bark. After that there was only disturbed fern and the occasional heel pressed into wet ground.The tracker led us between the pines. I stayed close enough to see what he pointed out and far enough back not to ruin it.Luca stayed near the front.He had not made a joke since the cart.The trail bent north-west, away from the eastern road. Vivian stopped beside a fallen cedar and looked through the trees."There used to be a watch post this way."Harwick turned towards her. "Used to be?""It was removed from the active patrol maps years ago. The building was never demolished. Victor said it cost more to clear the stone than to leave it.""How far?" Ezra asked."Less than half a mile."The tracker studied the ground. "This trail is heading towards it."We moved faster after that.The trees thickened until the lanterns caught more branches than path. Whenever the tracks thin

The eastern stores hall smelled of cold stone and flour dust.None of us had slept. Vivian had changed her coat since the infirmary, which made her look put together until you came close enough to see her eyes. Maren stood at the end of the ledger table, and Harwick had brought his own pen.The storekeeper opened the reserve book and turned it towards us."That is everything the hall holds. Not everything we can give."Vivian ran her finger down the column. "How much is already committed?""Two hundred weight to the infirmary through winter. Cassian's care draws against that. The rest is the reserve.""And if we replace the stolen shipment in full today?"The storekeeper rubbed flour from his thumb. "Then the reserve is gone by the first hard frost, and every household on the ridge stands where those three are standing now."I looked at the figures and understood almost none of it.At the first stores review I had demanded replacement before I knew what replacing it emptied, and Vivia

They caught the sixth wolf before dark.He had made it less than half a mile, down through the old drainage channel beneath the northern wall, before two trackers pulled him out of the mud. By the time they brought him into the lower council room his patrol coat was turned inside out, one side of his face was bleeding, and an oilskin packet had been strapped flat beneath his shirt.He looked at Darius once.Then at Vivian, and away again, fast.I had spent seven years in a house where I learned to read what people did with their eyes before they decided what to do with their mouths. That was not defiance. That was a man checking whether the person he was most afraid of had come into the room yet.Darius stood at the head of the table with Maren beside him. Harwick had come as council witness and taken the chair nearest the door, where he could see everyone and be seen doing it. Luca stayed standing. Ezra stood close enough beside me that our sleeves touched when either of us shifted,