The tree bark bit into my spine. I'd stopped moving three hours ago—not by choice, but because my legs had simply quit. The rejection bond wasn't a clean wound. It was a slow leak. Every step drained something I didn't have a name for.
I pressed my palm against the cold scar on my neck. The skin was smooth. Empty. Like the bond had never existed at all.
Beneath my ribs, Seraphine stirred. Not the furious slamming I'd felt at the safe house. Something quieter. Deliberate.
*"Stop fighting me."*
I closed my eyes. "I'm not fighting you."
*"Yes, you are. You're holding yourself together like you're still performing for him. Let me help you move."*
The offer landed wrong. Help. From the wolf I'd caged for six years. The wolf who had every right to leave me here.
"Why would you help me?"
Seraphine's presence shifted. Closer. Warmer. *"Because we're the same body. If you collapse, I collapse. And I'm done being caged."*
It wasn't forgiveness. It was pragmatism. But it was also the first time she'd offered anything that wasn't accusation.
I exhaled. Let go of the control I'd been white-knuckling since the border. Let her warmth—faint, residual, barely there—shore up the muscles in my legs.
I stood. My body felt steadier. Not strong. Just functional.
"Thank you," I whispered.
Seraphine didn't answer. But the warmth stayed.
I kept walking.
---
The neutral-ground summit was larger than I'd expected. Tents and pavilions stretched across a wide clearing, each one marked with pack sigils. Alphas and their delegations moved between them—formal greetings, careful posturing, the choreography of wolves pretending they weren't constantly measuring each other.
I didn't belong here. That much was obvious. I had no delegation. No pack colors. Just the leather jacket I'd pulled from the back of my closet and the intelligence I'd spent three days cataloguing in my head.
Silverfang's border patrol rotations. The eastern defensive gap near the old lumber road. The wolfsbane supply chain that ran through our healer's connections to three neighboring packs. The locations of Colson's unregistered safe houses.
I wasn't selling my former pack out of spite. I was leveraging the only currency I had.
I scanned the clearing. Found the Blackmoor delegation near the center—a cluster of wolves whose posture read differently than the others. Calmer. Less performed. At the center stood a man I recognized from intelligence briefings: Evander Jacobs. Lycan Prince of Blackmoor.
He was taller than most of the Alphas around him. Broad-shouldered. Dark-haired. His presence didn't announce itself—it simply was. The wolves near him deferred without making a show of it.
I didn't wait for an intermediary. Didn't approach through proper channels. I just walked straight toward him and stopped three feet away.
His Beta—a lean man with sharp eyes—stepped forward. "You need to—"
"I have intelligence on Silverfang Pack's border vulnerabilities," I said. My voice came out steady. "In exchange, I want sanctuary at Blackmoor and access to combat training."
The Beta blinked. Evander's gaze shifted to me. He didn't look surprised. Just attentive.
"You're offering to sell out your own pack," the Beta said.
"Former pack," I corrected. "And I'm not selling anything. I'm negotiating."
Evander raised one hand. The Beta stepped back. The Prince studied me for a long moment. His expression was unreadable.
Then something shifted. His posture changed—just slightly, a tension entering his shoulders that hadn't been there before. His eyes narrowed. Not in suspicion. In focus.
I realized, too late, that the wind had shifted. Carrying my scent directly toward him.
Wild honeysuckle. Frost. The natural scent I'd spent six years suppressing with wolfsbane. It was still faint—residual wolfsbane lingered in my system—but it was there.
Evander went very still.
Behind my ribs, Seraphine's presence sharpened. Alert.
*"He knows."*
But Evander said nothing about the scent. He just kept his gaze on mine and spoke in a voice that carried no more weight than it needed to.
"What kind of training?"
"Combat. Strategy. Whatever your warriors learn." I paused. "I don't want protection. I want capability."
His mouth almost curved. Almost. "And the intelligence you're offering?"
"Border patrol schedules. Defensive gaps. Supply chain structure. Alliance dependencies." I held his gaze. "Enough to make Silverfang vulnerable if you wanted to press an advantage."
"And if I don't want to press an advantage?"
"Then you'll have intelligence on a pack that borders your southern territory. Either way, it's valuable."
Evander considered this. The silence stretched. Around us, the summit continued—wolves negotiating, alliances forming, the careful dance of pack politics. None of it touched the space between us.
Finally, he nodded. "Blackmoor accepts your terms. Sanctuary and training in exchange for the intelligence you've described." He paused. "You'll be housed in the guest wing. Training begins tomorrow at dawn."
"Thank you," I said.
He inclined his head. A dismissal. I turned to go.
"One more thing," he said.
I stopped. Looked back.
His gaze was steady. Unreadable. "What's your name?"
"Freya Silva."
Something flickered in his expression. Too fast to name. Then it was gone.
"Welcome to Blackmoor, Freya Silva."
---
I arrived at Blackmoor's training grounds before dawn. The sky was still dark, stars fading at the edges. The grounds were empty except for a single Delta setting up equipment near the sparring ring.
I stood at the edge and waited.
The Delta glanced at me. His gaze swept over me once—wolfless, visibly thin from rejection's toll, cold scar on my neck—and dismissed me. He said nothing. Just went back to his setup.
Fifteen minutes later, warriors began arriving. They moved in clusters, easy and familiar with each other. A few looked at me. Most didn't.
The Delta who'd been setting up stepped into the center of the ring. "Standard drill," he called. "Four laps. Sparring rotation. No breaks."
No one acknowledged me. No one asked if I needed modifications. The drill just started.
I ran.
My legs burned after the first lap. My lungs screamed after the second. The rejection bond's drain was a constant weight, pulling at muscles that hadn't been pushed like this in years.
But my body remembered. Beneath the six years of pastel dresses and wolfsbane tea, beneath the performance of softness, my body remembered what it felt like to move.
I finished the fourth lap ten seconds behind the main group. Not fast. But complete.
The Delta glanced at me. Said nothing. Called the sparring rotation.
I stepped into the ring.
