(DARIUS' POV) The war room had become my second home. For three days, I had barely left it. Maps covered the long oak table, weighed down by stone markers representing patrol positions, trade routes, and the territories of the eastern packs. Reports were scattered between them, most carrying the same message: Trueblood was being blamed, and Ronan wasn't doing anything to stop it. I stood at the head of the table, staring down at the map of our eastern border. Matt's blood had been spilled somewhere beyond those trees and Farina had fallen into a thicket of blackthorn in the same place. I could still see it if I closed my eyes: her scream, the blood already soaking into the earth, the way my own legs had refused to move for one terrible heartbeat before instinct took over. Somehow, every road since then seemed to lead back to Ronan. I tightened my grip on the edge of the table. "He is making a mistake," I said quietly. The patrol guard standing across from me lowered his he
Last Updated : 2026-09-20
