All Chapters of Reborn Before the Mark: I Married His Wolfless Uncle: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Two fresh wheel grooves led from the northern granary door. One groove cut deeper than the other, marking a loaded handcart with a damaged left wheel.The unconscious guard breathed beside the granary wall while a healer checked the swelling at the back of his skull.“No poison"” Lorelai asked.“Not that I can detect. He was struck.”“Did he wake at all"”“Long enough to say he heard one person inside the office and a cart outside.”Karl crouched beside the tracks. His shirt was still partly open beneath his hastily fastened coat. The dressing Lorelai had wrapped around his ribs showed no fresh blood, but the stiffness in his left side had returned.His gaze followed the wheel grooves toward the woodland gate.“They want us to pursue.”“Yes.”“Then we do not.”Lorelai stood.“We let the crate travel.”

A poisoned needle waited beneath the bed assigned to Karl. Lorelai kept everyone outside the collapsed tent.“No one steps closer,” she said. “Not even the Darsen officers.”The neutral commander stiffened. “This camp remains under our authority.”“Then your authority can explain how a spring-loaded needle entered High Council-assigned quarters.”Karl stood at Lorelai’s shoulder, every muscle braced. He shifted to the windward side of her without touching.Lorelai pulled on a second pair of gloves. She used the clean tongs to remove the needle from the wooden mechanism. The spring released with a soft metallic snap.The mechanism made almost no sound. The clear liquid clung to the point. Lorelai sealed the needle inside a glass evidence tube and lifted it toward the light.A bitter metallic odor reached her even through the open air. Her body reacted before thought.Cold sto

Arthur’s tool had cut the signal support. Lorelai sealed the splintered brace inside clean cloth and handed it to the Greyhaven runner.“Return through the healer road. Give this only to Edda or Tomas.”“The northern road is clear now.”“Then it is the road they expect you to use.”The rider nodded and left the Blackwater camp beneath cover of darkness.Across the river, crimson watchfires multiplied along the western bank.The Noctis delegation had not advanced.That did not make them still.Lorelai stood beside the open command table while Karl watched the tree line beyond the dismantled High Council tents. The poisoned bed, contaminated tack, and altered escort list had turned the neutral camp into exposed ground.Greyhaven fighters now held a rough crescent behind the stone rise, every person carrying only inspected equipment.Caesar was still missing.Arthur ha

Caesar’s confession carried farther than the weapon in his hands. Lorelai heard it. So did the Greyhaven fighters holding the gravel rise.Karl’s attention fixed on Caesar. The assassin stood balanced and ready, neither weakened nor surprised.The dark veins from the first poisoned cut had spread beneath his torn sleeve, but he never looked away from Caesar. Lorelai closed her hand around Karl’s forearm.“That is him.”Karl did not ask what she meant. Perhaps her certainty answered enough. Caesar raised the compact crossbow again.Lorelai pulled Karl below the edge of the rise as a dart struck the stone.“North team!” she shouted. “Close the reed path.”Two Greyhaven fighters broke from the clean line and moved toward the river.“Ridge team, take the western descent. Do not engage until the southern road is blocked.”The counterplan had assigned every rout

The wolf that rose from Karl’s torn clothing was too large for the space behind the embankment.Fur covered shoulders broader than Lorelai’s chest. His back nearly reached the top of the stone line even while he stood on four legs. Blood soaked the coat beneath one shoulder, but the black veins created by the poison had disappeared beneath the transformation.The nearest healer stumbled to a stop, and two Greyhaven fighters recoiled from the wolf.Karl had let every pack believe he was wolfless. Now the wolf stood over his torn clothes. When he looked at Lorelai, the eyes were no longer human, yet she knew them.Lorelai stayed on her knees beside the empty antidote vial. The wolf lowered his head.His muzzle moved along her shoulder, her throat, and the torn edge of her coat. He checked every place Karl had searched before the transformation.He was searching for wounds. Lorelai placed a hand against the side of his face. Heat bu