I woke to pain that wasn't mine.
It tore through my chest at dawn—a searing, wrongness that had no source in my body but felt like my ribs were cracking open from the inside. I gasped. Rolled out of bed. Hit the floor on my hands and knees.
The pain pulsed. Spread. It wasn't physical. It was deeper than that.
My father had described it once, years ago, when a pack member died in a hunting accident. He'd felt it through the Alpha bond—the pack's pain becoming his own, a pull in the blood that said something was breaking.
I screamed.
The door slammed open. Morgan stood in the doorway, his face blank.
"What's wrong with you?" he said.
I couldn't answer. The pain was everywhere now, a tide that drowned thought. I tried to stand. My legs wouldn't hold me.
"Something's wrong," I choked out. "Something's—"
"Stay in this room," Morgan said, and the Alpha tone crashed into me like a wall.
My body froze. Mid-breath. Mid-movement. Every muscle locked into place.
He walked out. The door shut. The lock clicked.
I stayed on the floor, paralyzed by his command, while the wrongness in my chest grew and grew until I thought it would split me open.
Then it stopped.
Just—stopped.
The silence after was worse.
I managed to crawl to the door. Pounded on it with both fists until my knuckles split and bled. "Let me out!" My voice cracked. "Something's wrong—let me OUT!"
No one came.
I slid down against the door. Pressed my forehead to the wood. Tried to breathe.
The Alpha tone's hold was still there, a weight on my chest that said *stay*. I couldn't leave even if the door opened. My body wouldn't let me.
So I sat. And waited. And bled onto the floor.
---
Carla arrived three hours later.
She opened the door slowly, her face arranged in perfect sympathy. She wore a dark gray dress. Mourning colors.
My stomach dropped.
"Luna," she said softly. "I'm so sorry."
I stood. My legs shook. "What happened."
"There was a raid this morning." She stepped inside, closing the door behind her. "Lycan Council enforcers. They had evidence—signed patrol logs—accusing your father of harboring rogues and unsanctioned border expansion."
My breath stopped.
"The charges are very serious," Carla continued. Her voice was gentle. Practiced. "The Council ordered Silverpine placed under stewardship pending investigation. The enforcers arrived at dawn."
"Where is my father."
"The shock—" She paused. Looked down. "Alpha Thaddeus suffered a stroke during the raid. He's alive, but—"
"Where is he."
"He's paralyzed, Luna. He can't speak. The healers are doing everything they can, but—"
I moved before I could think. Grabbed her by the front of her dress and shoved her against the wall.
"You did this," I said. My voice was flat. Dead. "You and Morgan. You fabricated those logs."
Carla didn't flinch. She just looked at me with those cold, patient eyes.
"Careful, dear," she said quietly. "You're mated to an Alpha now. Accusations like that could be considered treason."
I let her go. Stepped back.
My hands were shaking.
"I want to see him," I said.
Carla smoothed her dress. "Of course. We'll arrange a visit. Under guard, naturally. Council protocol."
She left.
I stood in the middle of the room, my father's stroke replaying in my mind—the pain I'd felt through the bloodline pull, the wrongness that had torn through me at dawn.
He'd collapsed while I was locked in this room, and I hadn't been able to do anything.
I walked to my bag. Pulled out the field journal. Opened it to a new page.
My hands were still shaking, but I wrote anyway.
*Lycan Council raid—dawn. Forged patrol logs. Thaddeus—stroke, paralyzed, unable to speak. Silverpine under stewardship.*
*They planned this. The timing. The shock. They wanted him gone.*
I closed the journal. Pressed it against my chest.
Then I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for them to let me see my father.
---
They came for me the next morning.
Two Ironmaw guards, silent and professional. They didn't speak. Just gestured for me to follow.
We drove to Silverpine in a black SUV with tinted windows. I sat in the back, my hands folded in my lap, and memorized everything.
The route. The checkpoints. The border markers between Ironmaw and Silverpine territory.
We passed three guard stations—two at the Ironmaw border, one at Silverpine's edge. The rotations looked standard. Six-hour shifts. Two guards per post.
The terrain was dense forest for the first ten miles, then opened into rolling hills. There was a creek crossing at mile marker fourteen. The bridge was narrow. Single lane.
I filed it all away.
My father had taught me to track on foot when I was twelve. He'd said it was compensation for my wolflessness—a way to stay useful. I'd learned to read a forest floor better than most shifted wolves.
Now I was reading roads. Guard posts. Terrain features.
Grief was converting into operational intelligence, and I let it.
Because if I stopped cataloging and started feeling, I would break.
---
They'd put him in the healer's cottage at the edge of Silverpine's main grounds.
Edith Crane met me at the door. She was old—maybe seventy—with silver hair and steady hands. She'd been Silverpine's healer for as long as I could remember.
"Ten minutes," one of the guards said.
Edith nodded. Looked at me. Her eyes were kind and furious at the same time.
She led me inside.
My father was in the back room, lying in a narrow bed. His eyes were open. His body was motionless.
I stopped in the doorway.
His Alpha aura—the one that used to fill a room just by his presence—was barely there. A flicker. A dying candle.
I crossed the room. Sat in the chair beside his bed. Took his hand.
It was warm. Alive. But it didn't move.
"Dad," I whispered.
His eyes shifted. Found mine.
I saw everything in them. Fury. Sorrow. A fierce, wordless faith that hit me harder than any spoken command.
He believed I could fix this.
Even now. Even like this.
"I will," I said quietly. "I promise. I will fix this."
His eyes held mine. Didn't blink.
I sat with him until the guards came back. Until they said time was up. Until I had to let go of his hand and walk out of the room.
Edith followed me to the door.
"The mark on your neck," she said, very low. "It's incomplete."
I stopped. Looked at her.
"His wolf was too weak to seal it," she continued. "A formal rejection vow could sever it. But you'd need the Lycan Council. Witnessed cause."
I nodded once.
She pressed something into my palm. A small card with an address.
"If you need me," she said.
I closed my hand around it. "Thank you."
The guards were waiting.
I walked back to the SUV. Climbed in. Sat in silence as we drove back to Ironmaw.
I didn't cry.
I counted checkpoints. Memorized rotations. Planned.
Because my father couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't fight.
But I could.
