جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 150

We checked on Darius before we went anywhere else.He was asleep.Not better.Not worse.The healer called that stable.Maren sat beside him with one hand wrapped around his, her chair pulled close enough that their arms touched.She looked up when we entered.Then at the blood and dirt still covering both of us.“Go wash. Eat something. Come back when he wakes.”Ezra’s gaze stayed on his father.“I can stay.”“I know.”

We were back in the infirmary within minutes.My hair was still damp.So was Ezra’s.Maren looked up when we entered.Her gaze moved over us once.Then stopped.Darius was awake.His eyes found Ezra first.Then me.Then the fresh mark at Ezra’s neck.His gaze shifted to my shoulder.Maren saw it too.Her thumb moved once over Darius’s hand.Darius looked between us

The first thing Ezra did as Alpha was sit back down beside his father.No announcement.No order.No attempt to stand differently because the pack bond had changed around him.He took Darius’s hand.“Dad.”Darius’s eyes were closed.For one horrible second, I thought the transfer had taken too much.Then his fingers moved weakly against Ezra’s.“I’m here.”Ezra bowed his head.Through our completed bond, his

Harwick had separated the prisoners before we arrived.Not by pack.By what they had done.The worst injured remained in the lower infirmary under guard. Wolves who had surrendered before reaching the inner grounds were being held separately from those captured during the fighting. Black Moon Ridge wolves accused of helping Victor from inside the territory had been moved into a third group.Nobody had been released.Nobody had been sentenced either.Harwick stood beside the entrance with a stack of notes in one hand.“We don’t have enough evidence yet.”Ezra glanced through the open doorway.“Then why did you call me down?”“Because three prisoners are claiming coercion.”“Claiming?”“Yes.”Harwick didn’t soften the word.“They may be telling the truth. They may also have realised Victor lost.”That was why I trusted Harwick.He cared about procedure enough to be irritating about it.“What kind of coercion?” I asked.He looked at me.“Depends which one you believe.”He led us inside.

By midday, the smoke over the western stores had thinned.It still smelled awful.Wet ash. Burned timber. Ruined food.I stepped around what remained of one wall and looked for Joren.His name had been on two different lists.Missing on one.Transferred on another.Neither said where.I had promised his mate I would find out.So I had come looking.Half the western building was blackened. Wolves carried crates through the open side where the wall had collapsed, separating what could still be used from what had been destroyed.Nobody needed to tell them to work.They were simply doing it.A guard spotted me.“Aurora.”“Do you know where the wounded from here were taken?”“Most went to the upper infirmary.”“Joren?”He frowned.“Joren who?”I gave him the family name from the list.Recognition came quickly.“He’s alive.”Relief loosened something in my chest.“Where?”The guard pointed beyond the damaged building.“Back there. He refused to leave until they found two others.”Of course