Chapter 2

I bit my lip.

The scene dragged me back to my first life — the same morning, the same words. Then, I hadn't hesitated. I'd leapt onto a horse and pushed myself into a near-blur for over an hour, racing up that trail to drag Ethan bodily out of the crowd at the ridge.

I had saved them.

And he had repaid me by killing me and my pup.

"Elder," I said slowly, "it isn't that I'm unwilling to go."

Norman lifted his eyes to mine.

"I'm afraid that even if I go, Ethan won't come back."

The moment the words landed, every sound in the room died. Even the pups' cries seemed to catch in someone's throat, stuttering to a halt.

The stares — from every direction — fell on me like needles.

I felt the weight of them. Confusion. Disbelief. And beneath that, quickly suppressed, a quiet, resigned understanding.

They all knew.

Since Lucy had found her way back after years of absence, Ethan had become a different man. The eyes that once looked at me now followed her everywhere she went. Everyone in the pack whispered that the bond between the Alpha and his Luna had curdled beyond repair — they fought over Lucy constantly, and no one had missed it.

I wasn't saying this to accuse Ethan. I wasn't asking for sympathy.

I was simply stating a fact: if I was the one to go, that mountain trail would be a waste of steps.

Just as the weight of all those stares was nearly burning through my skin, someone stepped in.

"I'll go."

Sophia — Ethan's sister.

She stepped forward. "I know that trail too. Besides, the Luna is pregnant. We shouldn't risk the pup over this."

Norman nodded.

Sophia shifted without a second's hesitation. Her hind legs drove into the earth, and she was gone, swallowed by the green shadows of the back-mountain path.

The rest of us followed Norman into the underground cavern.

It was dark. Only a thin thread of light leaked through the entrance. The pups gradually quieted, curling against their mothers. The she-wolves sat along the damp stone walls, tilting their heads every few minutes to listen for sounds outside.

Explosions came in waves, each one closer than the last.

No one spoke.

An hour and a half later, footsteps approached the cavern entrance.

One of the she-wolves heard them first, murmuring softly: "She's back."

A low, restrained cheer moved through the crowd. A pup shrieked with delight. Everyone assumed the guards were filing in behind Sophia, striding home.

Then Sophia appeared in the entrance.

Alone.

Her face was white — the kind of white that looks like something has rinsed all the color out. Even her lips were nearly bloodless.

"They—" She stopped. "They won't come back."

Silence in the cavern.

Then Sophia's tears fell.

She said Ethan had jabbed his finger in her face and called her a liar. He said she was performing a staged deception with me, fabricating a crisis to slander an innocent woman.

She had gone down on her knees and begged him. Begged the guards. They called her shameless. Called her ungrateful. Called her a pawn who didn't know she was being played.

She had knelt, and they still hadn't stopped.

I stood motionless. I had thought Ethan would at least believe his own sister.

Instead, he had placed all the blame on me.

But if Ethan and the guards wouldn't come back — what were we supposed to do? We were the weakest members of this pack.

Some of the she-wolves began to cry. Some cursed Lucy. Some cursed Ethan. Some just held their children and wept without a word.

Before the curses had fully faded, a dull, heavy blast rolled in from outside.

This time, the stone wall shuddered harder.

Norman poked his head out of the tunnel entrance, then returned. His expression was iron.

"The vampires brought more explosives. The wall won't hold much longer."